How to Contemplate the Illusory Nature of the Vijñāna Skandha

The most fundamental teaching in the Hinayana path of the Dharma is to cultivate the principle of the Four Noble Truths—suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation—by observing the suffering inherent in the five aggregates, understanding the truth of the origin of the five aggregates' suffering, knowing the truth of the cessation of the five aggregates' suffering, and cultivating the truth of the path leading to the cessation of the five aggregates' suffering. Then, one contemplates one by one the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature of the five aggregates. When one genuinely recognizes this deep within, one severs the view of self and attains the first fruition (Sotāpanna), and the karma leading to the three evil destinies is eradicated from then on. Following the Buddha's teachings, one uses wisdom to engage in contemplative practice, which also necessarily involves the cultivation of precepts, the cultivation of meditative concentration (dhyāna), as well as merits, causes, and conditions.

During contemplative practice, the unreality of the consciousness aggregate (vijñāna-skandha) is particularly difficult to observe, especially because the mind-consciousness is extremely subtle and vast. It is challenging to fully identify all aspects of the mind-consciousness and then negate them one by one; recognizing the illusory nature of the functions of this consciousness is also very difficult. If one can deeply and meticulously understand the intrinsic nature of the mind-consciousness, identify all its functions, and then contemplate its arising, ceasing, and illusory nature, one can be confident in completely severing the view of self. The states of the mind-consciousness are very extensive. Generally, people easily recognize that scattered, distracted, or affliction-arousing states of consciousness are arising, ceasing, and illusory. However, they often fail to realize that even when consciousness enters meditative concentration (samādhi), becoming subtle, clear, pure, free from wandering thoughts, and without mental activity, this state is also arising, ceasing, and illusory. This is a meditative state of consciousness, not the unchanging realm of the true mind.

Since it is a state, it belongs to the realm of mental objects (dharma-dhātu). The realm of mental objects is what the mind-consciousness discriminates. Therefore, knowing that one has entered concentration, that one is experiencing a meditative state—this knowing itself is the mind-consciousness, which is an arising-and-ceasing dhamma, not the self, not real. Because after exiting concentration, the meditative state is gone, and thoughts arise again. Thus, anything subject to change, arising, and ceasing is an illusory dhamma, not a true, unchanging dhamma. The Sixth Patriarch (Huineng) said: "The Nāga (referring to a Buddha or great Bodhisattva) is constantly in samādhi, never out of samādhi." The true mind is perpetually in samādhi; there is neither entering nor exiting samādhi, nor any increase, decrease, or change.

The Buddha stated in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: "Internally guarding leisurely tranquility is still just a matter of discriminating shadows within the realm of mental objects." The Buddha was precisely referring to this state of entering concentration. The World-Honored One, foreseeing that sentient beings would find it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood, especially in the Dharma-Ending Age when sentient beings have scant merit and perverse views flourish, making them unable to recognize and discern authenticity, specifically highlighted this in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra to warn future practitioners.