The nature of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the eighth consciousness is extremely extraordinary.

Some people say that the eighth consciousness is something established by sentient beings: if we posit Him, He exists; if we do not posit Him, He does not exist. But in reality, the eighth consciousness does not need us to posit Him at all—He inherently exists, and no one can overturn Him no matter how hard they try. He never perishes; no one, with any force whatsoever, can erase Him. Regardless of whether sentient beings acknowledge Him or not, He has always been working quietly and unassumingly, offering all dharmas to sentient beings, bowing His head like an ox willing to serve the young—He only attends to plowing and never asks for harvest.

The eighth consciousness is the most upright eye in the world: it can see all dharmas yet sees nothing; it can know all dharmas yet knows nothing; it can hear all dharmas yet hears nothing; it can be aware of all dharmas yet is aware of nothing. It neither sees nor fails to see, neither knows nor fails to know, neither hears nor fails to hear, neither is aware nor fails to be aware. The eighth consciousness's "not knowing" is because the eighth consciousness does not engage with the objects of the six sense objects, does not discriminate the objects of the six sense objects, does not make specific discernments of any dharma, and moreover has no initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra), no verbal designations and concepts, no knowledge and views, no opinions, stances, or viewpoints.

However, the eighth consciousness also knows everything, sees everything, hears everything, and is aware of everything. Why is this? Because the eighth consciousness can discern karmic seeds. When the eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds, it thereby discerns all dharmas; at the same time, the Buddha-nature that operates depending on the eighth consciousness can operate upon all dharmas, and has the seeing-nature with respect to all dharmas; therefore it can be aware of all dharmas and contemplate all dharmas. This kind of initial application and sustained examination is utterly different from that of the seven consciousnesses, and its seeing-nature is also utterly different from the seeing-nature of the seven consciousnesses—sentient beings often find it very difficult to distinguish them.

After the eighth consciousness discerns the karmic seeds, it must, in accordance with those karmic seeds, transform and create all dharmas. If it did not know all dharmas, it would be unable to transform and create them, or it would create them in a chaotic and erroneous manner; then phenomena such as cause and effect not matching, effects arising without causes, or causes without effects would appear. Yet the cause and effect of sentient beings has never been the least bit disordered, which shows that the eighth consciousness can truly and accurately discern karmic seeds, and truly gives rise to all dharmas in accordance with karmic seeds, realizing the law of cause and effect. In fact, it is precisely because the eighth consciousness can know all dharmas that it can transform and create all dharmas. Its way of knowing is, first, knowing the karmic seeds, and second, knowing the causes and conditions; on the other hand, it has the functional operation of the seeing-nature, and being able to see all dharmas, it can accord with the arising and transformation of all dharmas. Overall, the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing nature of the eighth consciousness is extremely excellent and also very special, distinct from the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing nature of the seven consciousnesses, and it is difficult for us to comprehend.