When Resting Ceases, That Is Bodhi

The meaning of "resting is itself bodhi" is that the mind that rests, the mind at rest, is an unconditioned mind, not attached to the worldly dharmas of the three realms, having no mind toward any dharma, without the mental activity of intending and fabricating, constantly abiding in a state of quiescent cessation, without the mental activity of the three realms' world—this is also called "the cessation of the sphere of mental activity" (citta-cārita-nirodha). This mind is the eighth consciousness. In fact, the eighth consciousness is still conditioned: it constantly accords with the manas to create all the dharmas of the three realms' world, yet it does not crave or cling to its own creations, nor does it crave or cling to any dharma—within the conditioned, it is at all times and in all places unconditioned.

The unconditioned nature of the eighth consciousness is manifested in its acting in accord with conditions spontaneously and effortlessly: it enters birth and death in accord with conditions, yet itself has no birth or death; it does not grasp at any dharma, does not seize upon any dharma, and does not discriminate among any dharmas. Such a mind-nature is called the resting mind. The resting mind is the inherent nature of the eighth consciousness—He is originally at rest, having no mind toward affairs and no affairs in His mind, doing nothing at all, utterly without obstruction. It is not a resting mind that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, through cultivation, later transform into—the kind of unconditioned dharma that is the eighth consciousness. No matter what, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are within the eighth consciousness; they are all manifested by the eighth consciousness and belong to the eighth consciousness, so the question of whether they "return to" the eighth consciousness does not even arise. That is to say, among all dharmas there are true dharmas and false dharmas: the true dharmas are true from the very beginning, and the false dharmas are false from the very beginning; no matter what, the false dharmas can never become true dharmas.