Eradicating the View of a Self in the Consciousness (5)

There is also a consciousness mind associated with the nose consciousness, the consciousness that perceives odors together with the nose consciousness. It discerns the nature, source, category, intensity, potential harmfulness of the odor, its impact on oneself and the environment, and contemplates how to handle and respond to it. The manifestation of this consciousness requires numerous conditions: there must be external odor dust—whether fragrant, foul, or any scent—this odor dust must arise. Additionally, there must be the manas (mental faculty), the eighth consciousness, the seeds of consciousness itself, the nose faculty, and the nose consciousness. Only when these causal conditions are present can our consciousness mind manifest and perform its function of discrimination.

Once the consciousness mind manifests, it can discern what object emits this odor, what kind of odor it is, its specific variety, how fragrant or foul it is, and how far it is from us. Then it arises joy, arises disgust, arises various sensations, and engages in analysis, planning, judgment, contemplation, and reasoning regarding this odor dust. All these functions are the operations of the consciousness mind. The production of the consciousness mind takes the eighth consciousness as the cause, but also requires various conditions. Only when these causes and conditions gather together can the consciousness mind be born. After its birth, it can then generate a series of mental activities such as discrimination, reasoning, judgment, contemplation, and so forth. Therefore, this consciousness mind is subject to birth and cessation, is not autonomous, is not self-governing, is illusory and impermanent, and fundamentally not the self.