Why Can One See in All Directions and Hear on All Sides

When the mind consciousness is in a waking state, it discerns the many mental sense-objects among the six sense-objects, and the streaming forth of the seeds of mind consciousness is relatively dispersed; yet there is still one dominant direction. To make it stream forth entirely upon a single dharma-object, one must undergo training—such as cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi) to develop the power of concentration. The deeper the power of concentration, the more focused the streaming can be. This is why the Buddha taught us to cultivate meditative concentration first and then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and investigate Chan; only in this way can there be effective results. But for ordinary people, it is also impossible to distribute the seeds of mind consciousness evenly across two or more mental sense-objects; there is always a primary and a secondary one. If one needs to discern several mental sense-objects simultaneously, the attention of the mind consciousness must keep jumping among the different mental sense-objects. For example, when we walk on a road crowded with vehicles and people, the mind consciousness must ceaselessly discern material form sense-objects, sound sense-objects, and tactile sense-objects; the seeds of consciousness must stream forth upon all three mental sense-objects simultaneously, but there is still a distinction between primary and secondary, and this primary-secondary relationship keeps switching as external conditions change.

The above description is correct for ordinary people—that is, for those who lack meditative concentration or have little of it, and who have not undergone special training. If one has undergone training and has good power of concentration, then even when discerning multiple objects simultaneously, one still possesses concentration and can discern them all clearly. This is what is meant by "the eyes observing six directions and the ears listening to eight quarters." A person with good power of concentration can do several things at the same time without any problem, doing them all well, with energy highly concentrated on several matters and handling them all excellently. When the conscious mind is well trained and both concentration and wisdom are very strong, this is exactly how it is.