How Do the Various Consciousnesses Function in Harmony?

When the six faculties contact the six sense objects, the eighth consciousness produces the six consciousnesses, and then the six consciousnesses discern the six sense objects. First there are the six faculties, then the six sense objects, and finally the six consciousnesses. That is to say, when the six faculties confront the six sense objects, one does not immediately know the six sense objects—there is a time gap in between. For example, when the eyes confront a form object, at first one does not know what it is; only after looking for a while does one know what it is.

In this process, the seeds of eye consciousness stream out one by one. The first eye-consciousness seed confronts the form, ceases, and returns to the eighth consciousness, but cannot see clearly what it is; the second eye-consciousness seed again confronts the form, ceases, and returns to the eighth consciousness, still unable to see clearly what it is; the third eye-consciousness seed confronts the form, ceases, and returns to the eighth consciousness, seeing a little more clearly; the fourth eye-consciousness seed confronts the form, ceases, and returns to the tathāgatagarbha, and now one sees clearly what the form object is—we have thus discriminated this form. If a person has vision problems, it may take even longer to see.

When the eye sees form, it is not that the eye faculty and eye consciousness alone are functioning; at the same time, the manas and mind consciousness are also functioning. When the eye faculty contacts the form object, the manas simultaneously contacts the mental objects (dharma-objects) upon the form object, and the eighth consciousness produces the eye consciousness and mind consciousness to jointly discriminate the form object. The eye consciousness discriminates the coarse aspects of the form object, namely the manifest forms (sanidarśana-rūpa), including the colors of blue, yellow, red, and white, light and darkness, morning mist in space, and so forth; the mind consciousness discriminates the subtle forms, such as expressive forms (vijñapti-rūpa), non-expressive forms (avijñapti-rūpa), shapes (saṃsthāna-rūpa), and so on. The eye consciousness alone cannot discriminate; it must discriminate simultaneously with the mind consciousness in order to know what the form object is.

Thus, when the eye sees form, three consciousnesses participate: the eye consciousness, the mind consciousness, and the manas; the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, must also participate. Each has its own function, and none can substitute for another. Therefore, when we do something, all eight consciousnesses function together—it is not a single consciousness, and one cannot say that only one mind is doing the work. For example, when eating, the eye consciousness looks at the food and other things, the ear consciousness hears the sounds of eating and other sounds, the nose consciousness smells the aroma of the food and other scents, the tongue consciousness tastes the flavor of the food, the body consciousness feels fullness, hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and so forth, while the mind consciousness simultaneously discriminates all of these, participating in all five sense objects.

The manas directs at every moment what to do next: whether to keep eating or not, what to eat, how much to eat, how to deal with other matters, and so on. As for the last one, the eighth consciousness, we will not discuss it here. If, when doing each thing, you can identify each individual consciousness, your mind becomes very subtle and meticulous; you will know how the various minds operate in combination, and wisdom will arise. After a long time, you will be able to find the eighth consciousness and know how He operates—that is seeing the mind (enlightenment).