The Sequence of Discernment of the First Five Consciousnesses and the Mental Consciousness Accompanying the Five Sense Consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna)

The birth of the first seed of the eye-accompanying mind consciousness must occur after the birth of the eye consciousness seed, and then the seeds of the two consciousnesses are born simultaneously, with no distinction of before or after. From the second onward, the birth of eye consciousness seeds is necessarily accompanied by the operation of the mind consciousness; otherwise, they could not be born either. We can blankly stare for a moment and experience it personally, to see whether, when looking at forms, the eye consciousness sees first or the mind consciousness sees first. If the mind consciousness saw first, then would the forms seen by the mind consciousness contain no color whatsoever—neither white and bright, nor black and dark, and certainly none of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet? Clearly not.

Furthermore, observe and experience this: when forms are no longer seen, does the mind consciousness cease first, does the eye consciousness cease first, or do they cease simultaneously? According to theory, the mind consciousness ceases first and the eye consciousness ceases afterward, because mental sense-objects can only manifest by relying on material sense-objects. For example, the length, shortness, squareness, and roundness of forms—if there were no colors of visible form, they could not set off the length, shortness, squareness, and roundness. If the material sense-object does not exist and has ceased, the mental sense-object certainly cannot exist; whereas if the mental sense-object has ceased, the material sense-object can still linger for a single instant—only a single instant, not a second instant—otherwise the eye consciousness could exist independently. It is impossible for the mental sense-object to still exist when the material sense-object is gone; this is absolutely impossible. Therefore, the eye consciousness cannot cease before the mind consciousness. Upon waking, it is the reverse: there must first be the mind consciousness and then the five sense consciousnesses, or the solitary mental consciousness transforms into the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna), and then the five sense consciousnesses arise.