Who Determines the Arising of the Five Consciousnesses Upon Contact Between the Five Sense Faculties and the Five Sense Objects?

The contact between the five faculties and the five dusts is determined by what? The five faculties are fixed and unmoving; the Tathagatagarbha projects the five dusts respectively onto the five faculties, and thus the five faculties naturally come into contact with the five dusts. However, while contact occurs, whether discernment takes place is determined by the mental faculty. Since whether the contact between the five faculties and the five dusts gives rise to the five consciousnesses to discern the five dusts is determined by the mental faculty, then the mental faculty must have a general awareness of whether the five dusts are important or of interest to it. Otherwise, how could the mental faculty determine to discern the five dusts, leading to the arising of the six consciousnesses for discernment? The Buddha, in the Shurangama Sutra, explained that the six faculties can function interchangeably, and the mental faculty can substitute for the other five faculties. He provided examples, such as Jiafanbodi (Revata) perceiving taste with an extraordinary tongue, and Shunnuoduoshen (Sunetra) perceiving touch without a physical body.

Why could Jiafanbodi know the nature of the taste dust without using the tongue faculty? Generally, the taste dust is transmitted via the external tongue faculty nerves in the mouth to the internal tongue faculty within the subtle sense organs (sheng yi gen). When the faculty and dust make contact, and the mental faculty determines to discern, then the tongue consciousness and mental consciousness arise to perform the discernment. If the mental faculty does not determine to discern, being occupied with more important matters, the tongue consciousness and mental consciousness do not arise, and the taste of the food or drink remains unknown. Without the external tongue faculty, the taste dust cannot be transmitted to the internal tongue faculty within the subtle sense organs, and thus the tongue consciousness and mental consciousness do not arise.

However, even though the taste dust cannot be transmitted into the subtle sense organs, after the Tathagatagarbha contacts the fundamental state (ben zhi jing) of the taste dust within the food or drink, the Tathagatagarbha manifests the taste dust, identical to the fundamental state, like an image appearing in a mirror. At this point, the mental faculty, along with the Tathagatagarbha, can perceive this external taste dust. It can continue to contact and roughly apprehend this external taste dust up until the moment the Tathagatagarbha transmits it to the external tongue faculty.

This is the capability of the mental faculty in ordinary people, lacking cultivation and realization; it can only function this way. However, Arhats and Bodhisattvas on the stages (bhumis), possessing great wisdom and profound samadhi, can discern the five dusts and the mental dust (fa chen) more subtly with their mental faculty. Because the five dusts are connected to the mental dust, the mental faculty can contact and discern all six external dusts. Therefore, the mental faculty of great practitioners can know the state of the six dusts, discerning them similarly to how the six consciousnesses do, and sometimes even more subtly and thoroughly than the mental consciousness of ordinary people. Similarly, Shunnuoduoshen perceiving touch without a physical body operates on the same principle: the mental faculty substitutes for the body faculty to contact the touch dust, discerns the touch dust, and takes the place of the body consciousness and mental consciousness.

During the process where the Tathagatagarbha transmits the five dusts, the mental faculty discerns them first. Due to its proximity advantage, the mental faculty apprehends them before the Tathagatagarbha transmits the five dusts to the external five faculties. If the five dusts plus the mental dust are critically important or urgent, the mental faculty immediately decides and initiates an appropriate response. The six consciousnesses then arise swiftly to obey the mental faculty's command and react, and only afterwards does the mental consciousness understand what happened. If the mental faculty did not discern the six dusts (five dusts plus mental dust) first, how could it take emergency measures extremely quickly when encountering major dangers? During such instinctive reactions, the mental consciousness is not even aware of what is happening. This shows that the mental faculty is not simple; we must not underestimate it.