What Does "When the Six Consciousnesses Transform, It Is Called the Basis of Defilement and Purity" Mean?

The dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), volitional formations condition consciousness, and so on. The "formations" here refer to bodily formations, verbal formations, and mental formations, while "consciousness" refers to the six consciousnesses. Therefore, ignorance must refer to the ignorance of the manas, because the ignorance of the manas drives the continual arising and operation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, so that the six consciousnesses have no choice but to engage in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and thus cannot cease.

What does the ignorance here include? It must include all forms of ignorance: the six fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), as well as the twenty secondary afflictions. Because of these afflictions of ignorance, the manas continually drives the arising and manifestation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, causing the six consciousnesses to engage in ceaseless activity. The six consciousnesses then cannot settle into purity, cannot attain non-action, cannot cease, and the seeds of their activity are necessarily retained, giving rise to future existence.

"The six turning consciousnesses call it the basis of defilement and purity"—this also means the same thing. The manas is the supporting consciousness upon which the six consciousnesses rely for their purity or defilement; it is only by relying on the purity or defilement of the manas that the six consciousnesses can have their own purity or defilement. When the manas is pure, the six consciousnesses are pure; when the manas is defiled, the six consciousnesses are defiled. Therefore, the afflictions of the six consciousnesses originate from the manas, and the purity of the six consciousnesses also originates from the manas. Thus, resolving the problem of the manas resolves the problem of the six consciousnesses, and thereby resolves all problems. When the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, along with all other afflictions, of the manas are eliminated, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, along with all other afflictions, of the six consciousnesses are also eliminated. When the manas has no afflictions, the six consciousnesses likewise have no afflictions; when the ignorance of the manas is eliminated, the ignorance of the six consciousnesses is also eliminated. Therefore, the afflicted mental factors of the manas are absolutely no fewer than the afflicted mental factors of the mind consciousness, and the afflicted mental factors of the mind consciousness can absolutely not be more numerous than those of the manas; the wholesome mental factors of the manas are no fewer than the wholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness, and the wholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness can absolutely not be more numerous than those of the manas. Otherwise, the manas would not be the basis of defilement and purity for the six consciousnesses.

All dharmas arise and operate entirely because of the manas—there are no exceptions and no special cases. The manas is the driving force and fundamental cause for the arising of all dharmas in the threefold world. Once the ignorance of the manas is completely extinguished and there is no power of vows, the world of the five aggregates immediately ceases. When the manas has no afflictions of ignorance, the six consciousnesses have no reason to engage in the karma of ignorance and affliction, because they lack self-mastery and cannot be the sovereign.

All dharmas are interconnected; there is no dharma that exists independently or that contradicts other dharmas. It is only a matter of whether one, in one's own practice, has thoroughly penetrated these dharmas. Without such penetration, this dharma is just this dharma and that dharma is just that dharma, each independent of the other. With penetration, all dharmas are perfectly harmonious, complementing and assisting one another, all closely linked together. When the Buddha-dharma is thoroughly penetrated, from any single aspect one can verify this dharma and also verify that dharma, and can discover more facts and truths, with wisdom perfectly harmonious and unobstructed.