The Process of Discrimination of the Six Sense Objects by the Six Consciousnesses

There are six kinds of mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya): the mental sense-object within material sense-objects, the mental sense-object within sound, the mental sense-object within smell, the mental sense-object within taste, the mental sense-object within touch, and the subjectively imagined realm — six in all. The first five are discerned by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), while the last is discerned by the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta).

When meditative concentration (samādhi) is relatively good, observe material form — reading a book works, looking at a flower works, looking at a mountain works, anything works. Close your eyes and then open them again: the moment you first open your eyes, what you see is certainly a color. This is the manifest color (rūpa) discerned by the eye consciousness. In an instant afterward, the color takes on shape, revealing length, shortness, squareness, roundness, thickness, and thinness — this is the mental sense-object, discerned by the mind consciousness. After that, the features of the form become clear, and its connotations and characteristics are all revealed. These are all the expressive form (vijñapti-rūpa) and non-expressive form (avijñapti-rūpa) of material form — they are mental sense-objects, discerned by the mind consciousness. When the discernment reaches its end, names and designations appear.

The entire process of discernment is that the eye consciousness arises first, and the mind consciousness arises an instant later. The eye consciousness alone cannot discern the mental sense-object, and the mind consciousness alone cannot discern color; only when the two combine can both the coarse and the subtle material form before one's eyes be discerned clearly, and only then can the complete appearance of the material sense-object be presented. However, in this process, the color discerned by the eye consciousness appears first — color is the coarsest form, while the mental sense-object is a subtler form; the subtler the form, the later it manifests. The mental sense-object discerned by the mind consciousness appears afterward, and the time gap between them is extremely, extremely brief. The two consciousnesses depend on each other, and neither can be dispensed with. The relationship between each of the other four consciousnesses and the mind consciousness is the same.