The Knowing of the First Six Consciousnesses

The essential nature and function of the six consciousnesses is discernment and discrimination; this so-called discernment and discrimination is knowing. As long as there is knowing, the six consciousnesses exist. This knowing is sometimes felt very distinctly, so that we ourselves can perceive it, and sometimes the feeling is not very obvious, so that we do not even know that we are knowing. When we ourselves know that there is a knowing within the mind, that is the self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) of the mind consciousness. This knowing is sometimes the inner voice, language, and words, and sometimes there is no inner voice, no language, and no words.

This knowing sometimes has thoughts and sometimes has no thoughts; whether or not there are thoughts, it is all the knowing of the mind consciousness. Knowing without thoughts can only appear when there is some degree of meditative concentration (samādhi) power, or under other special circumstances, such as being frightened, or experiencing extreme mental joy, or sorrow, or entering meditative concentration—at such times the mind is not in a state of knowing nothing at all. As long as there is a knowing that knows one has no thoughts, that knows one's mind has become tranquil, this knowing is the mind consciousness's knowing of the inner mental sense-object (inner dharma-viṣaya).

If one can still clearly know the states of the five sense objects, then there is also the knowing of the five consciousnesses. Of course, this does not depart from the knowing of the eighth consciousness and the seventh consciousness. When the mind consciousness is able to introspect, and can observe that it has knowing, or knows what it has known, and knows the condition of its own mind, this is the self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) of the mind consciousness. When our wisdom is insufficient and our meditative concentration (samādhi) power is also insufficient, this power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) is very weak; we cannot fully and truly know our own mental state, nor can we detect our own afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion. Consequently, the afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa) cannot be actively subdued, and it becomes very difficult for one's practice to progress.