The Significance of Realizing the Eighth Consciousness

The eighth consciousness is also a consciousness; He also has the nature of consciousness, with the capacity of knowing—only He does not know the six sense objects, but He knows karmic seeds and knows the mental activities of the consciousness of the seven consciousnesses. He has many kinds of knowing that differ from those of the seven consciousnesses, and after enlightenment one can clarify these contents bit by bit. The eighth consciousness has both unconditioned and conditioned aspects. The conditioned aspect is storing karmic seeds, outputting karmic seeds, cooperating with the activities of the five aggregates, transmitting the seeds of the seven consciousnesses, and producing the myriad dharmas. All of these are the conditioned nature of the eighth consciousness. The conditioned nature of the eighth consciousness is the functional activity inherently possessed by Him.

Seeds are the objects recognized by the eighth consciousness, the objects processed and output by the eighth consciousness. Seeds themselves have no capacity of knowing, because seeds are not consciousness; only consciousness has the capacity of knowing. The mind-substance of the eighth consciousness has the capacity of knowing, and relying on the mental factors (caittas), He can exercise the nature of discernment. The functions of the seven consciousnesses also depend on the mental factors of the seven consciousnesses in order to operate, but the eighth consciousness must transmit the seeds of consciousness to the seven consciousnesses; only then can the seven consciousnesses operate in the form of mental factors, and only then can they discriminate and know the six sense objects and the myriad dharmas.

The eighth consciousness itself also has its own flow of consciousness seeds; in the nirvāṇa without remainder of an arhat, the eighth consciousness still has the flow of His own consciousness seeds. The Buddhas' cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas is precisely the cultivation of the deluded minds of the seven transforming consciousnesses, eliminating the ignorance of the deluded mind—if there is even one dharma not understood, that is ignorance. After ignorance is completely extinguished, there is not a single dharma in the mundane or supramundane realm that is not understood; everything is fully known, and omniscience/wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) is complete. And what all dharmas rely upon is precisely the eighth consciousness, so one must realize and awaken to the eighth consciousness, know the eighth consciousness—when all its contents are fully known, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is completely severed, and buddhahood is accomplished. Therefore, studying the principles of the eight consciousnesses is right cultivation, and it is extremely important.