Visualization Requires the Solitary Consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) to Possess Powerful Meditative Concentration

The mental objects discerned by the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) are form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana; they exist together with the five sense objects and cannot be separated from them. Only when the mental objects are combined with the five sense objects can a complete set of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch be constituted; otherwise, the five sense objects could not manifest, the five sense consciousnesses could not arise, and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses could not discern the mental objects.

When the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses discerns form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana, the solitary mental consciousness may be discerning other contents on its own, or may be introspecting upon the contents and state of the discernment performed by the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses.

The five sense objects and the mental objects arise simultaneously; the mental objects are not produced and transformed afterward. For example, the reflection and image within the eye are mental objects that already exist before being transmitted to the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda) at the back of the brain. Therefore, on the external five sense objects there are external mental objects, which cannot be separated from the external five sense objects even for an instant.

The five sense consciousnesses cannot operate alone to perform discernment; they must operate together with the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses in order to discern. It is only that the seeds of the five sense consciousnesses arise first, and less than an instant later, the seeds of the mind consciousness arise—almost synchronously—and then the five sense consciousnesses and the mind consciousness operate together to discern the six sense objects. Therefore, the five universal mental factors (caittas) of the five sense consciousnesses cannot operate apart from the mind consciousness; when the five universal mental factors of the mind consciousness operate, the five universal mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses operate simultaneously as well.

Form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana belongs to material form (rūpa), and all material forms are real objects; they do not change according to the minds of consciousness. For example, a person's appearance does not undergo any change at all, no matter what the other person's consciousness may be. Skin color belongs to visible color, which is the content discerned by the eye consciousness and does not change according to variations in the other person's eye consciousness; the same is true of shape—tall or short, fat or thin—and of expressive form and unexpressed form (avijñapti-rūpa). Tallness, shortness, fatness, and thinness are shapes, which are form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana and are the content discerned by the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses; they too are real objects and do not change according to the mind consciousness's misinterpretations.

For a person with strong meditative concentration (samādhi), when the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses discerns form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana, the solitary mental consciousness can engage in other thoughts and alter that form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana.

Contemplative visualization requires very strong meditative concentration, relying mainly on the discerning functions of erroneous cognition and inference of the solitary mental consciousness; the meditative concentration of the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses is not good enough. Meditative concentration here mainly refers to the powerful force of the solitary mental consciousness, which can create something out of nothing and turn something into nothing. When one contemplates the sun in the mind, the setting sun appears before one, and the sun contemplation is accomplished. When one contemplates a white skeleton in the mind, the white skeleton appears, and the white-skeleton contemplation is accomplished.