The Five Buddha Families & The Eight Consciousnesses

Thrangu Rinpoche has often taught the transformation of our confused mind, which is full of delusion and defilements, into an enlightened mind. Here he describes the confused mind in terms of the eight consciousnesses, which are the five sensory consciousnesses, the mental consciousness, the afflicted consciousness (which gives us our sense of “I” and “me”) and the alaya or storehouse consciousness. These are described and then Rinpoche describes how these are transformed into the five wisdoms of the five Buddha families. Included is a chart of the five Buddha families listing characteristics of each including their related skandha, klesha, chakra and colour.