What Is Relying on Wisdom Rather Than Consciousness?

When the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, He instructed His disciples that in studying and practicing the Buddha's teachings, they must strictly follow the four reliances and four non-reliances: rely on the Dharma, not on persons; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; rely on the meaning, not on the words; rely on the definitive teachings, not on the non-definitive teachings. Although there are only these four principles, they are extremely difficult to practice, and most people cannot accomplish them.

Among them, relying on wisdom rather than on consciousness is something that ordinary people and ordinary bodhisattvas cannot achieve. First of all, this wisdom is not something ordinary people can possess in full. This wisdom is transformed from the consciousness of ordinary beings and from the consciousness of bodhisattvas at the virtuous stages before the bhūmis who have seen the Path; it is the wisdom that arises after consciousness is transformed into wisdom — the wonderful observational wisdom (pratyavekṣaṇā-jñāna) of the mind consciousness and the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna) of the manas. It is the wisdom of the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-only, the profound great wisdom possessed by bodhisattvas at and above the bhūmis. The Buddha warned sentient beings that their minds are not to be believed — only after attaining the fruit of arhatship may one trust one's own mind. At the time of His approaching parinirvāṇa, He further instructed that one must rely on the Consciousness-only seed-wisdom of bodhisattvas at and above the bhūmis, relying on the wonderful observational wisdom and the wisdom of equality. Viewed this way, the World-Honored One's two instructions echo and correspond with each other, consistent from beginning to end, encompassing the entire study and practice of both the Great and Small Vehicles.

Why did the World-Honored One emphasize this so strongly and demand this so strictly of His disciples? Because a person who has attained the fruit of arhatship has eradicated all afflictions, eradicated the ignorance of one thought, and has the wisdom of liberation manifest; with no more obscuration of wisdom, only then are the views and concepts of the Small Vehicle's path of liberation free from errors and omissions, and only then can one rely upon that liberation-related insight. As for bodhisattvas at and above the bhūmis who have transformed consciousness into wisdom, they have also eliminated the obscuration of afflictions, with only very subtle grasping at self not yet fully eradicated; they possess the profound wonderful observational wisdom and wisdom of equality, and their wisdom of the Great and Small Vehicles is extremely deep and sharp, with penetrating insight — only their insight into all Buddha-dharmas can be relied upon. As for everyone else, the Buddha said: take utmost heed not to trust your own mind — because they have the obscuration of afflictions, deficient wisdom, and relatively serious errors and omissions.