'That the Five Aggregates Are Not the Eighth Consciousness' Is Not a Conclusion of Hīnayāna Contemplative Practice

Since sentient beings, throughout beginningless kalpas, have not known that there is an unborn and unceasing eighth consciousness dwelling permanently within the five-aggregate body, sentient beings do not have the view of self that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness. When contemplating the five aggregates to eradicate the view of self, there is no need to compare the five aggregates with the eighth consciousness, saying that the five aggregates are impermanent while the eighth consciousness is permanent, that the five aggregates arise and cease while the eighth consciousness neither arises nor ceases, and thereby inferring that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, and thus eradicating through this inference the view of self that the five aggregates are the self of the eighth consciousness. Such comparison and inference are entirely unnecessary; without the premise, there is no subsequent conclusion.

Even if there were such a premise—that sentient beings all take the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness—this would not be the view of self; on the contrary, it would be precisely the absence of the view of self, a cognition of selflessness. When Mahāyāna practitioners of Chan investigation realize the eighth consciousness, the bodhisattvas engaged in Chan investigation then know that the five aggregates are generated by the eighth consciousness, are a part of the eighth consciousness, and are precisely the eighth consciousness. Moreover, after bodhisattvas attain the first bhūmi, they gradually observe that all dharmas are the true suchness of the eighth consciousness—the so-called one true dharma realm—so the five aggregates are all the more the eighth consciousness, with the premise being the true suchness of the eighth consciousness, which is a part of the dharmas within the one true dharma realm. If sentient beings, throughout beginningless kalpas, had the view of self, taking the five aggregates to be the self of the eighth consciousness, then sentient beings would have been bhūmi-level bodhisattvas all along since beginningless kalpas, possessing the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, and it would be impossible for them to undergo birth and death and transmigration through the six realms.

Furthermore, when the Buddha taught the Āgama sūtras, He first told His disciples that within the five-aggregate body there is a permanent dharma, unborn and unceasing, upon which the five aggregates of sentient beings depend. After the disciples heard the Buddha say this, they believed and accepted what the Buddha taught, knowing that there is a permanent eighth consciousness that does not perish, while the five aggregates arise and cease and are impermanent, and that the five aggregates are not at all the permanent eighth consciousness. That is why it was necessary to cultivate meditative concentration and engage in contemplative practice, contemplating the impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness of the five aggregates, confirming that the five aggregates are subject to destruction, that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are subject to destruction, and that there is no self and no possessions of self. Therefore, the conclusion of the contemplative practice that eradicates 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 ruin, and suffering—they are neither the self nor possessions of the self.