The Important Role of the Mind Consciousness in Deliberation and Contemplation

From the phenomena of the mystery of the intervening birth (隔阴之谜), drunkenness, sleepwalking, and hypnosis, how great is the role of the mind consciousness, after all? When discussing the manas, everything is attributed to the manas while the mind consciousness is overlooked. Now contemplating the role of the mind consciousness is the most crucial link in eliminating the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi).

The line of thought for this question should be as follows: contemplate and analyze the various phenomena of the mystery of the intervening birth, identify what those phenomena are, and then observe from these phenomena what the functions of the mind consciousness are, what characteristics it has, and how important it is. This is called the mind consciousness's power of introspection, and is also called self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga).

Next, contemplate and analyze in turn what phenomena occur after drunkenness, and from these phenomena observe the functions, characteristics, and importance of the mind consciousness; contemplate and analyze what phenomena occur in sleepwalking and after waking up, and from these phenomena observe the characteristics of the mind consciousness's functions and its importance for apprehending the six sense objects; contemplate and analyze what phenomena occur during hypnosis and after hypnosis, and observe the characteristics of the mind consciousness's functions in these phenomena, as well as the importance of the mind consciousness in discriminating the six sense objects.

The above approach is teaching a person to fish, rather than simply giving a person a fish. Once one has grasped the essentials of fishing and knows how to fish, one can thereafter be self-reliant.

One must learn to observe, to find and analyze phenomena. The power of observation is extremely important; this relies primarily on the wisdom of the mind consciousness, though the wisdom of the manas is also present within it. Only when the wisdom of the mind consciousness is first perfected can the manas elevate its wisdom and perfect its wisdom. The wisdom of the mind consciousness comes first, and the wisdom of the manas comes after. When the manas has perfected its wisdom, then in subsequent lives the wisdom of the manas comes first, and the wisdom of the mind consciousness comes after. Then, by analogy, the mind consciousness in turn gives rise to other wisdoms, and further leads the manas so that the manas also perfects those other wisdoms. Life after life, it is in this way, step by step and bit by bit, that the seventh and sixth consciousnesses are transformed, until finally the consciousnesses are transformed into wisdom (转识成智).

Many people do not even have the wisdom of the mind consciousness. When facts and truths are laid out before them, they turn a blind eye, without awareness or knowledge, extremely foolish. Even phenomena that are obvious and clear they cannot see through or make sense of; even after being told over and over again, they still do not know what is being said. If one does not even have the mind consciousness's power of deliberation (manana), nor the ability to observe and analyze, then there is no question of perfecting wisdom, let alone of influencing and leading the manas to likewise perfect wisdom. If foolishness and ignorance (avidyā) are not broken, there is not the slightest hope of liberation.