Spiritual Cultivation Is Cleansing the Mind-Ground

The manifestation of the solitary shadow state occurs when the mental faculty clings to and attends to a dharmic object (dharma-dust), giving rise to a thought. The Tathāgatagarbha then generates the solitary consciousness to fulfill the mental faculty's instruction and realize its thought. Whatever dharmic object the mental faculty attends to, the solitary consciousness arises upon that very dharmic object and subsequently operates according to the mental faculty's intention. Only after a thought arises in consciousness does knowing occur. What is known is a dharmic object, which is like a piece of information, unrelated to the five sense objects (form, sound, smell, taste, touch). It might be an idea, a recollection, an aspiration for the future, or an analysis, judgment, and consideration of a problem. If the mental faculty wants to recall, the consciousness remembers past people and events. If the mental faculty wants to know the meaning of a certain statement, the consciousness contemplates and analyzes that statement. If the mental faculty needs to consider the next day's itinerary, the consciousness contemplates the arrangements for the next day's schedule.

The arising of thoughts in the solitary consciousness is led by the mental faculty; it arises, ceases, and moves according to the mental faculty's thoughts and ideas. For example, when the mental faculty thinks of a person, the eighth consciousness (ālayavijñāna) immediately presents the dharmas related to that person. After the mental faculty contacts and considers them, it makes the decision to deliberate further. Thereupon, the solitary consciousness appears, attending to the dharmas related to this person, contacting, feeling, perceiving, and thinking. Consequently, once the mental faculty knows, it will make a decision. Afterwards, the solitary consciousness may continue to operate more deeply, or it may vanish from this dharmic object and appear upon another dharmic object to which the mental faculty is clinging.

The mental faculty's various clingings give rise to the scattered thoughts of the solitary consciousness. At the very moment a thought first arises, no object (境, nimitta) is manifested. The first moment is knowing the thought has arisen; only then does the image of the object appear. There is a process between the arising of the thought and the manifestation of the object. The object was originally there, but without consciousness, it cannot be known. When consciousness appears, the first and second moments of discernment are incomplete and unclear. It is during the third and fourth moments of discernment that the dharmic object manifests relatively clearly, allowing a conclusion to be drawn and an outline of the dharma to emerge. Only after this does analytical thinking occur, clarifying the dharma.

Most of the scattered thoughts in the mind are experiences from the past, called previously encountered objects. It is evident that the mental faculty often clings to dharmas, whether intentionally or unintentionally, with strong habitual force. The mind is not empty; it cannot let go of all past experiences involving people, events, and principles. It holds onto all these dharmas, swirling them within the mind, unwilling to abandon them, like garbage piled up in the heart, filthy and impure, yet one never knows to clean and sweep it away. Spiritual practice is precisely about regularly cleaning and sweeping the hygiene within the heart, undertaking a great cleansing and purging, maintaining the purity of the mind-ground, so that the mind-chamber can become bright and clean. Cleaning is led and supervised by consciousness; the mental faculty agrees, but it is still consciousness that does the cleaning. Planning strategies and executing tasks are all done by consciousness; the mental faculty only needs to nod, issue orders, and make the final decision.