The Important Role of Conscious Thinking and Observation

From the phenomena of the mystery of the intermediate state (the veil between lives), drunkenness, sleepwalking, and hypnosis, just how significant is the function of the mind consciousness? When discussing the manas, everything is attributed to the manas while the mind consciousness is overlooked. Now we should contemplate the function of the mind consciousness, which is the most crucial link in eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi).

The line of thought for this question should be as follows: contemplate and analyze the various phenomena of the mystery of the intermediate state, identify what those phenomena are, and then observe from these phenomena what the functions of the mind consciousness are, what characteristics they have, and how important they are. This is called the introspection of the mind consciousness, also known as self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana).

Next, contemplate and analyze in sequence 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 during sleepwalking and after waking up, and from these phenomena observe the characteristics of the mind consciousness's functions and its importance for perceiving 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 mastered the essentials of fishing and knows how to use them, one can become self-reliant in the future.

One must learn to observe, to find and analyze phenomena. The power of observation is extremely important. This is led primarily by the wisdom of the mind consciousness, though the wisdom of the manas is also involved 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. Once 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 drives 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 (āśraya-parāvṛtti).

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 when told over and over again, they still do not know what is being said. If one does not even have the deliberative power of the mind consciousness, nor the ability to observe and analyze, then there is no question of perfecting wisdom, let alone influencing and driving the manas to likewise perfect wisdom. If foolishness and ignorance are not broken through, there is not the slightest hope of liberation.