The Five Aggregates Are Not the Eighth Consciousness" Is Not the Conclusion of Hinayana Contemplative Practice

Since sentient beings have not known since beginningless kalpas that there exists an indestructible eighth consciousness abiding permanently within the five aggregates, they do not hold the view of self that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness. Therefore, when contemplating and practicing to sever the view of self by observing the five aggregates, there is no need to contrast the five aggregates with the eighth consciousness, saying the five aggregates are impermanent while the eighth consciousness is permanent, or that the five aggregates are subject to birth and death while the eighth consciousness is unborn and undying, thereby concluding that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness and thus severing the view of self that the five aggregates constitute the self of the eighth consciousness. Such contrast and inference are entirely unnecessary; without the premise, there can be no subsequent conclusion.

Even if there were such a premise, the notion that sentient beings regard the five aggregates as the eighth consciousness is not the view of self; on the contrary, it is the absence of the view of self—it is the cognition of non-self. When Mahayana practitioners engage in Chan contemplation to realize the eighth consciousness, the Chan-practicing bodhisattva comes to know that the five aggregates are produced by the eighth consciousness, are part of the eighth consciousness, and precisely are the eighth consciousness. Furthermore, after a bodhisattva enters the First Ground (Path of Seeing), they gradually observe that all dharmas are the True Suchness, the eighth consciousness—what is called the One True Dharma Realm. Then, the five aggregates are even more evidently the eighth consciousness; the premise itself, the True Suchness eighth consciousness, is part of the dharmas within the One True Dharma Realm. If sentient beings had held since beginningless kalpas the view of self, regarding the five aggregates as the self of the eighth consciousness, then sentient beings would have been ground-level bodhisattvas since beginningless kalpas, possessing the wisdom of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātratā-jñāna), and it would be impossible for them to experience the cycle of birth and death within the six realms.

Moreover, when the Buddha taught the Āgama sūtras, he first informed his disciples that within the five-aggregate body, there exists a permanent dharma, neither born nor perishing, upon which the sentient beings' five aggregates depend. After hearing the Buddha speak thus, the disciples accepted the Buddha's words in faith, knowing that there exists an indestructible, permanent eighth consciousness, while the five aggregates are impermanent and subject to birth and death. They understood that the five aggregates are fundamentally not the permanent eighth consciousness. It was precisely for this reason that they needed to cultivate concentration, contemplate, practice, and reflect on the impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self nature of the five aggregates, confirming that the five aggregates are destructible, that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are destructible, and that there is no "I" or "mine." Therefore, the conclusion of contemplation and practice for severing the view of self is not that "the five aggregates are not the self of the eighth consciousness," but rather that the five aggregates are impermanent, subject to decay, and characterized by suffering—they are neither the self nor what belongs to the self.