On the Contemplative Practice of Consciousness

The dharmas that the mind consciousness takes as its object include the mental sense-objects of subjectively imagined realms and the mental sense-objects that manifest simultaneously with the five sense-objects. What the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) takes as its object in recollection, deluded thoughts, fantasies, and so on, are all subjectively imagined realms, and it is relatively easy to observe and judge that these subjectively imagined realms are illusory shadows. However, when the eyes see forms, it is not so easy for the mind consciousness to clearly recognize that the mental sense-objects it observes are shadows.

The mind consciousness sees everything as seemingly illusory and unreal, so why does it still follow sense objects when encountering them, being swayed by them? It is because when the mind consciousness first begins contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), the depth and breadth of the contemplative practice are insufficient, the scope is relatively narrow, and the various dharmas cannot be connected together, so it cannot effectively perfume and motivate the manas. The mind consciousness's contemplative practice has not yet gained the manas's acceptance, has not penetrated deep into the manas's mind, and the manas's views have not changed, so that when making decisions upon encountering sense objects, the manas still takes the sense objects as real, and decides to have the mind consciousness treat the sense objects as real.