What method can truly realize the eighth consciousness?

The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: 法不可见闻觉知，若行见闻觉知，是则见闻觉知，非求法也。What does this sentence mean? The original meaning is that the Dharma of the eighth consciousness cannot be seen or known by means of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing. If you use seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing to cognize Him, then it would only be the functioning of your own seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and you would not see the eighth consciousness. Using seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing to know the eighth consciousness is not the method of seeking the eighth consciousness; this is not the method of realizing the eighth consciousness.

The Dharma in the original text refers to the fundamental source of sentient beings, the eighth consciousness. This Dharma is essentially different from all other dharmas; this Dharma determines all dharmas. For beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have all been lost, so they constantly chase after false dharmas and branches and leaves, not knowing there is a fundamental source. Only after knowing there is a fundamental source does one know to seek it, to return to that source, and to return to simplicity and authenticity. 

How can one trace back to the fundamental source? Those who do not know how to seek it will use the functions of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing to search, and the vast majority of people do this. In the end, they may not even see a shadow of the eighth consciousness; and even if they see a shadow, it is useless—they still cannot return to that fundamental source. What is seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing? Seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing are the functions of the six consciousnesses: the eye sees, the ear hears, the nose smells, the tongue tastes, the body touches, and the mind knows. This is the way the six consciousnesses discern the objects of the six sense objects. Using the mode of discerning the six sense objects to seek and discern the eighth consciousness is mismatched, because the eighth consciousness differs from the six sense objects in very obvious and enormous ways. Seeing the eighth consciousness should not be the same as seeing the six sense objects. Therefore, the Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: 若行见闻觉知，是则见闻觉知，非求法。Savor this sentence carefully; it is especially important. If the method and means are wrong, the goal cannot be achieved and the objective cannot be realized. 

The meaning in the sūtra text clearly says: seeing the eighth consciousness is not the function of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing of the six consciousnesses. Then what function is it? Who sees the eighth consciousness? Here the functions of the mind consciousness are clearly negated—it is not seeing in the way the mind consciousness does. What functions does the mind consciousness have? Reasoning, thinking, analyzing, imagining, organizing, summarizing, concluding, comparing, and so on. That is to say, if you use these functions to see the eighth consciousness, you simply cannot see the substance of the eighth consciousness; if you truly believe you have seen it, what you have seen can only be a fake. If someone uses the mind consciousness to search out the eighth consciousness and believes they have seen the mind, become enlightened, and realized the Path, that is an enormous misunderstanding—the Great Master Vimalakīrti does not permit it. If it is something the Great Master does not permit, yet you insist on it anyway, then you bear the consequences yourself—as long as you can bear them. 

Therefore, in the final analysis, the enlightenment methods of the patriarchs are truly genuine and not false; they neither deceive themselves nor deceive others, and at the very least they do not disgrace Buddhism, and their conscience can be at ease. As the saying goes: if the master, the manas, does not realize enlightenment, what use can the actions of the mind consciousness, as an auxiliary tool, possibly be? If the master has not opened His mouth to speak, everything said is useless. Therefore, if you want to realize any dharma, including worldly dharmas, the master, the manas, must personally realize it; only what is seen with one's own eyes is called personal realization. Only then is there functional benefit, only then can all false dharmas be transformed, only then can it be thorough and ultimate, and only then is it real and not false.