The Cognitive Activities of the Eight Consciousnesses

All eight consciousnesses are deliberative minds (缘虑心); all can deliberate and all possess the mental factor of volition (cetanā). The eye consciousness mind, conditioned upon form, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the ear consciousness mind, conditioned upon sounds, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the nose consciousness mind, conditioned upon scent objects, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the tongue consciousness mind, conditioned upon taste objects, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the body consciousness mind, conditioned upon tactile objects, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the mind consciousness, conditioned upon mental objects (dharma-objects), has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberative selection; the manas, conditioned upon the totality of the six sense-object realms and the perceiving-aspect of the eighth consciousness, has the nature of discrimination, cognition, and deliberation (manasikāra). The eighth consciousness, conditioned upon the faculties and body, the material world, karmic seeds, and the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, has the nature of discrimination and deliberative selection. Thereafter, all dharmas begin to move and turn—arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—and the five aggregates blaze fiercely.