The Principle of the First Five Consciousnesses and the Mind Consciousness Discerning Sense Objects

As long as one has meditative concentration (samādhi), when observing material sense-objects (rūpa-viṣaya), one will discover that the eye consciousness must first see the colors—whether blue, yellow, red, or white, or black, or dim and dark, or empty void and chaos. In the second moment, one sees blurry shapes, and then forms appear, whereupon more information about the material sense-object manifests. Thus the content discerned by the mind consciousness is both abundant and detailed. When one has meditative concentration and observes outwardly, the eye consciousness sees first, and the mind consciousness sees and discerns afterward. That is, the manifest color (rūpa-saṃsthāna) appears first, then the eye consciousness arises; in the second moment, shape (saṃsthāna-rūpa), expressive gesture (vijñapti-rūpa), and non-expressive form (avijñapti-rūpa) arise, and then the mind consciousness is born. The fact that the mind consciousness is born afterward shows that this shape, expressive gesture, and non-expressive form are dharmas that manifest later than the manifest color.

In the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain, there are many regions. One region is the supreme faculty of the eye, where manifest colors are transformed and manifested; one region is the supreme faculty of the ear, where the coarse forms of sounds are manifested; one region is the supreme faculty of the nose, where coarse scent-objects are manifested. These coarse five sense-objects are all formed from the particles of the four great elements. In addition, there is the place where the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) upon the five sense-objects are born—the place where the "form included in the dharma base" (dharma-āyatana-saṃgṛhīta-rūpa) is produced. Whether this place is located in the same region as the places of the previous five supreme faculties has not yet been observed, and there is no theoretical or scientific basis to prove it. This position at the back of the brain is especially complex, divided into many regions; we cannot see them, but scientists can observe them in detail with highly sophisticated instruments. The forms, sounds, scents, tastes, and tangibles transformed by the tathāgatagarbha are produced in different regions, and the mental sense-objects produced on the basis of these forms, sounds, scents, tastes, and tangibles—the mental sense-objects upon the five sense-objects—may possibly arise in another region.