Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (174)

The sixth and seventh consciousnesses are transformed on the causal ground; the fifth and eighth are perfected on the fruition ground

Among the five aggregates, the consciousnesses we use the most are the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The sixth consciousness consists of all kinds of thoughts, views, feelings, sensations, and discriminations. For example, the mind listening to the Dharma here is the sixth consciousness; the content of the teaching becomes a mental sense-object, and when the manas and the mental sense-object make contact, the ālayavijñāna gives birth to the sixth consciousness. He will think over and analyze what content is being heard, and then give rise to initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra), along with feelings of clarity or lack of clarity regarding the Dharma. When sentient beings live, it is mainly the sixth and seventh consciousnesses that are active; the first five consciousnesses are secondary, without so many and such complex mental activities—only simple, coarse seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, while the subtle discriminations, feelings, and thoughts belong mainly to the sixth consciousness. The manas is the consciousness that makes decisions; without the manas there would be no sixth consciousness. The activities of our five aggregates are dominated by these two consciousnesses, and cultivation mainly involves cultivating these two. When these two consciousnesses are thoroughly transformed, the first five consciousnesses will change, and only then can the functions of the eighth consciousness be brought into full play—and then we become Buddhas.

So in our cultivation, are we cultivating the true mind or the deluded mind? The true mind needs no cultivation. When the ignorance of the deluded mind is completely severed and the afflictions are completely severed, then the true mind is restored to its original face. When we clear the seeds of unwholesome karma out of the true mind, the true mind recovers its own original face, and we are a Buddha. We are not yet Buddhas now, because the ālayavijñāna still contains the ignorance and defiled karma of the seventh consciousness. Becoming a Buddha requires breaking through countless instances of ignorance: each time one realizes and attains a principle, one breaks through one instance of ignorance; when ignorance is completely broken through, the Buddha path is perfectly accomplished. Such is the path of cultivation.