Commentary on the Extensive Hundred Treatise

眼谓眼光，是眼用故，不离眼故，亦得眼名。若此眼光，行至色处，何故远色，见不淹迟。如何月轮，与诸近色，举目齐见，无迟速耶。未见世间，有行动物，一时俱至，远近二方。由是因缘，应立比量，照远色见，不至远色，照近色见，时无异故。

Explanation: The eye is the eye consciousness; it is what the eye faculty employs, and it does not depart from the eye faculty, so it is given the name "eye" (consciousness). If the eye consciousness could travel to the location of material sense-objects, then why is it that when seeing distant forms, the eye consciousness does not perceive them later than near forms? Why is it that the moon in the sky and the near forms before one's eyes are all seen simultaneously upon raising the eyes, with no difference in speed? Never has it been seen in the world that something capable of movement can arrive at two places, far and near, at the same moment. For this reason, an inference should be established: the seeing that illuminates distant forms does not reach the distant forms, and the seeing that illuminates near forms occurs at the same time — there is no temporal difference.

Why exactly does the eye consciousness see distant and near forms simultaneously? The eye does not go to forms, and forms do not come to the eye, yet seeing occurs; the ear does not go to sounds, and sounds do not come to the ear, yet the faculty of hearing exists — this is truly inconceivable. If explained by means of the supreme faculty (indriya), it is very easy to understand: what the six consciousnesses perceive are all the six sense-objects within the supreme faculty; the inner six sense-objects are all within the supreme faculty, so how could there be any notion of far and near? No matter how far or near a material sense-object is, once it is transmitted into the supreme faculty, there is no distinction of far or near — all are shadows/images. The conscious mind, in discerning, can simultaneously apprehend these images; it does not discern the substantial external material sense-objects. Only if it discerned external material sense-objects would there be any notion of far and near. The tathāgatagarbha can discern external material sense-objects, but for the tathāgatagarbha, external material sense-objects likewise involve no notion of far and near.