"He Now Is Me; I Now Am Not Him"

The essence of the Seventh and Sixth Consciousnesses is the Eighth Consciousness, just as the essence of bread is flour ("He is precisely me now"). However, the Eighth Consciousness is not the Sixth or Seventh Consciousness, just as flour is not bread ("I am not him now"). The discernment performed by the Sixth and Seventh Consciousnesses essentially belongs to the discernment of the Eighth Consciousness, yet the discernment of the Eighth Consciousness is not the discernment of the Sixth and Seventh Consciousnesses, for their objects, content, and mental activities differ. The Eighth Consciousness first discerns the content, then projects an image of it; only then can the Seventh Consciousness perceive it. The content has undergone alteration and does not represent the same level of dharmas.