The Principle of How Eye Consciousness and Mind Consciousness Discern Material Sense-Objects

When the gross physical sense organ of the eye comes into contact with external material sense-objects, it is actually not the eye faculty that captures the four great elements' subtle particles of the material sense-object, but the tathāgatagarbha. The eye faculty is like a video camera—merely a tool and a prop. The tathāgatagarbha, through the eye faculty as a tool, captures the four great elements' subtle particles from the external material sense-object. After the tathāgatagarbha captures these particles, they pass through the eye faculty, the eyeball, the vitreous body, and the visual transmission nerves, and then arrive at the supreme faculty of the eye faculty located in the back of the brain, where the image of the external material sense-object is directly formed. Among these, colors belong to the manifest form of the material sense-object; the mental sense-object is form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana, which includes shaped form, expressive form, and non-expressive form—the three together constitute the mental sense-object.

Because colors are relatively simple and uncomplicated, the eye consciousness can discern them rather quickly, whereas the mental sense-object is more complex, difficult to know and clearly recognize, and therefore takes relatively longer to discern. In the first instant, when manifest form makes contact with the eye faculty, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the eye consciousness; in the second instant, when the manas makes contact with the mental sense-object, the tathāgatagarbha then gives rise to the mind consciousness. This corresponds exactly to the relationship of the eye consciousness discerning in the first instant and the mind consciousness discerning in the second instant. Then the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness together discern the material sense-object, and what is thus discerned is the complete material sense-object (this is a matter occurring after the third instant).

Why must the eye consciousness necessarily arise first in the first instant to discern manifest form, and only afterward can the mind consciousness discern shaped form, expressive form, and non-expressive form? Because manifest form must first be formed and exist first; only then can shaped form, expressive form, and non-expressive form be manifested. These three kinds of material form are based on manifest form. For example, among shaped form—such as large and small, square and round, long and short—without the colors of manifest form as a setting, it would be impossible to represent large and small, square and round, long and short. Expressive form can only manifest by relying on manifest form and shaped form, taking manifest form and shaped form as its basis. Non-expressive form can only manifest by relying on manifest form, shaped form, and expressive form, taking manifest form, shaped form, and expressive form as its basis. Therefore, manifest form exists first, so the eye consciousness must arise first to discern manifest form, and the mind consciousness arises afterward to discern the mental sense-object.