Vāsanā is a technical term in Dharmic Traditions, particularly Buddhist philosophy

Buddhist philosophy

Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology.Some scholars assert that early Buddhist philosophy did not engage in ontological or metaphysical speculation, but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs...

 and Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

 and developed in dialogue. The term is particularly involved with the philosophy of mind and the flow of awareness and consciousness, which in Buddhadharma in English has come to be known as the Mindstream

Mindstream

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment "continuum" of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may well be rendered "mindstream"...

 doctrine.

Nomenclature, orthography and etymology

'Vāsanā' (Devanagari: वासना): the impressions remaining in the mind, the present consciousness of past (life) perceptions, knowledge derived from memory should not be conflated with 'vasana' (Devanagari: वसन): cloth, clothes, dress, garment, apparel, attire, dwelling or abiding. The near homonym

Homonym

In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...

 though mutually inform and they are from the same Indo-European linguistic root and they share a common theme of 'dwelling' or 'abiding'.

Definitions

Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) may be non-technically rendered into English with the following semantic field

Semantic field

A semantic field is a technical term in the discipline of linguistics to describe a set of words grouped by meaning in a certain way. The term is also used in other academic disciplines, such as anthropology and computational semiotics.-Definition and usage:...

: past impressions, impressions formed; the impression of anything in the mind, the present consciousness formed from past perceptions, knowledge derived from memory; thinking of, longing for, expectation, desire, inclination.

The Dharma Dictionary (13 January 2006) provides the following semantic field for 'bag chags' only a selection have been provided:

Buddhism

Keown (2004) defines the term generally within Buddhism as follows:

"vāsanā (Skt.). Habitual tendencies or dispositions, a term, often used synonymously with bīja (‘seed’). It is found in Pāli and early Sanskrit sources but comes to prominence with the Yogācāra, for whom it denotes the latent energy resulting from actions which are thought to become ‘imprinted’ in the subject's storehouse-consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna). The accumulation of these habitual tendencies is believed to predispose one to particular patterns of behaviour in the future."

Sandvik (2007: unpaginated) states that:.

Cheng Weishi Lun

Lusthaus

Dan Lusthaus

Dan Lusthaus, a graduate of Temple University's Department of Religion, is a specialist in Yogācāra Buddhism. The author of several articles and books on the topic, Lusthaus has taught at UCLA, Florida State University, the University of Missouri, and in the Spring of 2005 he was a professor at...

 (2002 :472-473) identifies that the Cheng Weishi Lun

Cheng Weishi Lun

The Cheng Weishi Lun , or Discourse on the Perfection of Consciousness-only is a comprehensive discourse on the central teachings of Yogacara, framed around Vasubandhu's seminal Yogacara work Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā . It was written by the Chinese monk Xuanzang in the 7th century CE...

(Chinese: 成唯識論) which is a commentary on Vasubandhu

Vasubandhu

Vasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school. However, some scholars consider Vasubandhu to be two distinct people. Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism...

's Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā lists three types of vāsanā (which is identified as synonymous with 'bija' or 'seeds'):
Vāsanā of 'names and words' or 'terms and words (Chinese: ming-yen hsi-chi'i) which equates to 'latent linguistic conditioning' which are in turn of two forms:

(a) 'terms and words indicating a referent' (Chinese: piao-yi ming yen) through which a mindstream is able to express (Chinese: ch'uan) meanings (yi, artha, referent) by differentiation of vocal sounds (Chinese: yin-sheng ch'a-pieh); and

(b) 'Terms and words revealing perceptual-fields' (Chinese: hsien-ching ming wen), through which a mindstream discerns (Sanskrit: vijnapti, upalabdhi) perceptual-fields (Sanskrit: visaya) as ' phenomena of mind' (Sanskrit: citta dharma; caitta dharmas).

Lusthaus further qualifies that these seeds, planted in the 'root consciousness' (Sanskrit: alaya-vijnana) by 'terms and words' are the 'causes' (Sanskrit: hetu) and 'conditions' (Sanskrit: pratyaya) of each 'conditioned or caused element or phenomena' (Sanskrit: samskrita dharma). Vasanas of self-attachment (Sanskrit: atma-graha-vasana; Chinese: wo-chih hsi-ch'i) denoting the false attachment to the seeds of 'me' and 'mine'. Vasanas which link streams-of-being (Sanskrit: bhavanga

Bhavanga

Bhavanga is the most fundamental aspect of mind in Theravada Buddhism. It is an exclusively Theravada doctrine that differs from Sarvastivadin and Sautrantika theories of mind, and has been compared to the Mahayana concept of store-consciousness...

-vasana; Chinese: yu-chih hsi-ch'i) denoting the karmic seeds, 'differently maturing (Sanskrit: vipaka) that carry over (Chinese: chao) from one stream-of-being to another in the Three Worlds (Sanskrit: Triloka). The bhavanga (linkage from one stream-of-being to the next) is of two types:

(a) Contaminated yet advantageous (Sanskrit: sasrava-kusala; Chinese: yu-lou shan) that is actions (Sanskrit: karma) which produce desirable (Chinese: k'e-ai) fruits; and

(b) Disadvantageous, that is actions which produce undesirable fruits.

Bon

Bag chags are important in Bonpo soteriology and especially the view of the Bonpo Dzogchen

Dzogchen

According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...

pa where it is fundamentally related to the key doctrines of 'Primordial Purity' , the 'Ground' and its 'Essence' , the Eight Consciousnesses and the 'All Ground' as
Karmay

Samten Karmay

Samten Gyeltsen Karmay is a writer and researcher in the field of Tibetan Studies. His work is focused on the study of Tibetan myths, beliefs, Bon religion and religious history.-Life and work:...

 (1988, 2007: p. 183) relates in his English rendering of the Bonpo text 'Kunzi Zalshay Selwai Gronma' from the Tibetan:

     "Some people doubt that if kun gzhi is pure from the beginning, it cannot be accepted as the ground on which one accumulates one's impressions (bag chags), but if it is the ground for storing the bag chags, it cannot be pure from the beginning.

     The essence of kun gzhi at no time has ever experienced being defiled by the bag chags since it is absolutely pure from the beginning. In that case, one might think that it cannot be the 'ground' for storing the bag chags. However, the bag chags are stored there only through the 'co-ordination' of all the eight kinds of consciousness. Kun gzhi is therefore merely the ground for storing the bag chags. It is like a treasury.

     Although in the sphere of space, many a world came into existence and remains, the essence of space remains undefiled by the dirt of the world, even a particle of it."

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (5.11.5) (also known as the Bhagavata Purana), a principal text for the Vaishnava tradition of Sanatana Dharma employs the term 'vasana':

Devanagari	Roman Transcription
स वासनात्मा विषयोपरक्तो	sa vāsanātmā viṣayoparakto
गुणप्रवाहो विकृतः षोडशात्मा	guṇa-pravāho vikṛtaḥ ṣoḍaśātmā
बिभ्रत्पृथतङनामभि रूपभेदम्	bibhrat pṛthań-nāmabhi rūpa-bhedam
अन्तर्बहिष्ङवं च पुरैस्तनोति	antar-bahiṣṭvaṁ ca purais tanoti

A satisfactory English rendering has not yet been sourced but the import is that the 'imprinted-volitions-of-mind' (vāsanātmā) whether pious or impious are conditioned by the Gunas which propel the mind into different 'formations' (rūpa-bhedam). The 'mind' (atma

Atman

Atman means 'self' in Sanskrit and is a concept of importance in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Yoga and Jainism:* Ātman * Ātman * Atman Atman may also refer to:...

) is the master of the sixteen material elements (understood as the Five Great Elements, the Mahabhuta

Mahabhuta

Mahābhūta is Sanskrit and Pāli for "great element." In Buddhism, the "four great elements" are earth, water, fire and air...

, the ten senses or powers, that is the Ten Indriya

Indriya

Indriya, literally "belonging to or agreeable to Indra" is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the five senses more specifically....

, and the mind) and its 'refined or coarse quality' (antaḥ-bahiṣṭvam) determines the mind-formations of manifestation (tanoti).

Advaita Vedanta

Writing from an Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

perspective, Waite (2003) relates: