Within the Yogācāra perspective, enlightenment is understood as a radical purification and transformation of consciousness itself, rather than a movement from mind to some external, independent reality. Ordinary experience is shaped by beginningless karmic seeds stored in the ālaya-vijñāna, giving rise to the duality of subject and object and to the appearance of an external world. Enlightenment is the cessation of this misperception, the clear seeing that what appears as independently existing phenomena is in fact “representation-only” (vijñapti-mātra), a flow of dependently arisen mental events. When this transformation is complete, consciousness functions as “pure consciousness” (śuddha-vijñāna), no longer entangled in grasping or delusion.

This transformation is often described as a “turning of the basis” (āśraya-parāvṛtti), in which all eight consciousnesses are purified. The ālaya-vijñāna, previously burdened with karmic seeds, is transformed into Great Mirror Wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), reflecting phenomena clearly without distortion. The self-grasping manas is transformed into Equality Wisdom (samatā-jñāna), which sees all dharmas as equal in their emptiness of self. The mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) becomes Discriminating Wisdom (pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna), capable of precise discernment without clinging, and the five sense consciousnesses become All-Accomplishing Wisdom (kṛty-anuṣṭhāna-jñāna), functioning effectively yet free from delusion.

From this vantage point, enlightenment is also the full realization of the three natures (trisvabhāva). The imagined nature (parikalpita), which projects a rigid subject–object split, is recognized as unreal. The dependent nature (paratantra), the conditioned flow of consciousness and its projections, is seen clearly as empty of any fixed self. What then stands revealed is the perfected nature (pariniṣpanna), the non-dual suchness (tathatā) of experience, in which the apparent divide between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is understood as a matter of mistaken perception rather than two separate realities.

In this light, enlightenment is not the annihilation of experience but the unobstructed functioning of non-dual wisdom. A Buddha sees that all phenomena are mind-only and empty, yet this insight does not lead to withdrawal; it manifests as spontaneous, compassionate activity responsive to the needs of beings. Freed from the afflictive and cognitive obstructions that once clouded awareness, enlightened consciousness becomes mirror-like, reflecting the world as a play of mind without being deceived by it.