Without the Eighth Consciousness, There Is No Seventh Consciousness

Without the eighth consciousness, there would be no seventh consciousness. The two consciousnesses must be bound together and operate jointly; only then can the seventh consciousness function, and only then can the eighth consciousness also function. As long as the seventh consciousness has not eliminated karma, when karmic seeds ripen, the seventh consciousness will inevitably follow the ripened karmic seeds into manifest activity and take rebirth to receive retribution. One cannot say that the eighth consciousness abandons the body at the end of life, because the eighth consciousness has no retributive results, since it does not create worldly bodily, verbal, and mental actions.

Cultivation first involves subduing the self, then suppressing the self, then eradicating the self, and finally removing attachment. It proceeds in stages and steps; if the earlier stages are not accomplished, the later ones cannot be accomplished.