The discernment of sounds and mental dharma-objects by the mind consciousness before waking and before death

Question: In the place where I sleep, there has always been a player broadcasting the holy name of Amitābha Buddha. One day, while I was sleeping in a daze, I heard the sound. At that moment, my mind knew it was the sound of chanting the holy name of Amitābha Buddha. At the time I tried hard to listen, but I could not make out the sound. After a while, I became a bit more awake, and at that point I could again recognize that it was the sound of the broadcast of Amitābha Buddha's holy name.

May I ask how this should be understood? When I was in a drowsy sleep, I merely heard the sound, which shows that my ear consciousness received the sound object, but my mind consciousness was not awake enough to discern the mental sense-object (yet at that time I myself felt quite awake)?

Does this mean that when a person is near death, it is also like this—the mind consciousness is already rather unclear, making it difficult to discern what the recitation group is chanting, or perhaps one cannot even hear the sound of the recitation group at all?

Answer: When the mind consciousness has awakened only in part and the ear consciousness has not yet manifested, the sound heard is vague and indistinct. Furthermore, just before fully waking, the manas can also hear the sound of Buddha recitation, but the manas often cannot discern it clearly and may misapprehend and confuse what it cognizes. However, because it has often heard the sound of Buddha recitation, the manas is very familiar with it, so it will not misapprehend or confuse it, though its discernment is still not clear.

When the mind consciousness is awake, it is easy to locate the manas. The mental activity just before waking belongs to the manas, so the manas is also easy to locate then, but the mind consciousness needs to recall and reflect, and its capacity to know is relatively poor.

When a person is near death, because the four great elements are disintegrating and the physical body is breaking down, there is intense suffering; therefore the mind consciousness has little mental energy and vigor to discern the mental sense-objects of the sounds that appear, and the mental objects it knows are vague. Moreover, due to the disintegration of the four great elements of the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda), the inner six sense-objects transmitted into the supreme faculty from the outer six sense-objects become fewer and fewer, increasingly blurred and indistinct; what the mind consciousness perceives becomes weaker and weaker, less and less clear.

However, if one's ordinary cultivation is effective, with deep roots of goodness and profound merit, one will receive the Buddha's blessing and empowerment; the mind will not be confused, and one will be able to attain rebirth [in the Pure Land], or be reborn in a good destination.