Consciousness Is Neither Self nor Belonging to the Self

Question: Does consciousness cease after discerning a dharma-object? Since dharma-objects continuously change during the day, arising and ceasing constantly, does consciousness—when not asleep—merely involve the five-sensory consciousness and independent consciousness alternating according to the dharma-objects, ceasing only during dreamless sleep?

Answer: When consciousness discerns one dharma-object and completes its processing of that content, it ceases with regard to that specific dharma-object. Following the direction of the manas (mental faculty), it then arises to discern and operate upon another dharma-object, only to cease again and re-arise elsewhere. Consciousness thus perpetually arises and ceases in this manner, driven entirely by the manas’s grasping, without the slightest autonomy. Therefore, consciousness is utterly illusory and unreal—it is fundamentally not the self nor what belongs to the self. Cease to regard such consciousness as the self.