All Kinds of States of Consciousness Are Non-Self

To contemplate the non-self of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, one mainly contemplates the non-self of the mind consciousness. The states of the mind consciousness are numerous—some coarse, some subtle, some tranquil (praśama), some not tranquil, some empty, some not empty. To contemplate the mind consciousness, one must experience the arising and ceasing, impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self of the various states of the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness has various state-marks, such as various marks of affliction, various marks of purity, various marks of emptiness, various marks of knowing, various marks of discernment, marks with language and words, marks without language and words, marks with sound, no sound, the mark of silence, the mark of clamor, and so on. All these marks and states are conditioned phenomena of arising, ceasing, and impermanence; none of them is the self; all are empty.

This includes when the mind settles down and not a single thought arises—that is the mark of silence of the mind consciousness. Seeing through its illusory nature and not taking it as real, as self, as the Dharmakāya, or as the Tathāgata, one eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) of the mind consciousness at that moment. But there are still views of self of the mind consciousness at other times: in the gap between the previous thought not arising and the next thought not yet arriving, it seems tranquil (praśama), but in essence it is still a state of the mind consciousness. Only by seeing through it can one eradicate the view of self of the mind consciousness.