Without Discerning True and Deluded Consciousness, Awakening Is Impossible

The manas governs the six consciousnesses in their joint operation upon form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma; it can be said to be the combined functioning of the eight consciousnesses, in which both the true mind and the deluded mind are present—lacking any one of them, not a single dharma could arise or operate. Therefore, some people say they have awakened to a certain dharma, but in the operation of that dharma both the true consciousness and the deluded consciousnesses are present. Is what they awakened to the true mind, the deluded mind, or the coalescence of the real and the deluded? If this extremely crucial point is not clarified, then there is no difference between what is claimed to be awakening and non-awakening.

Some will say, "I know that the eighth consciousness exists in this dharma, so I have awakened." But the seven consciousnesses also exist in this dharma; if there were only the eighth consciousness without the seven consciousnesses, no dharma could exist at all—how could it continue to operate? To forcibly attribute the functions and roles of the seven consciousnesses to the eighth consciousness means that what was awakened to is nothing more than the combined body of the eight consciousnesses. What kind of awakening is that supposed to be?