Is Knowing One Is Dreaming Within a Dream the Self-Validating Cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga) of the Mind Consciousness or the Self-Cognition (svasaṃvitti)?

Self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga) is the introspection of the consciousness-mind itself and its own mental factors; "its own" means the mind consciousness discerning the mind consciousness, the manas discerning the manas, and the five sense consciousnesses discerning the five sense consciousnesses—it does not mean mutual discernment. Self-cognition (svasaṃvitti) is the consciousness-mind's discernment of the object-aspect realm, and this object-aspect includes all dharmas, certainly including the eighth consciousness and its mental factors as well; it simply depends on how capable the discerning wisdom is. A dream refers to the dream-scape, which is the object-aspect; knowing is the perceiving-aspect of the consciousness-mind. When the consciousness-mind discerns sense objects, that is the perceiving-aspect discerning the object-aspect, which is self-cognition, not self-validating cognition; when the perceiving-aspect sees itself, that is self-validating cognition. Only when the perceiving-aspect and the object-aspect are combined do self-cognition and self-validating cognition arise. Self-validating cognition is actually one kind of self-cognition, except that the object-aspect has become the consciousness-mind itself, with the self and its mental factors serving as the object-aspect.

The perceiving-aspect that discerns the dream-scape object-aspect is the perceiving-aspect of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and the sixth consciousness here is the solitary mental consciousness. Seeing all realms is mainly the seeing of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; what sentient beings can feel and observe is only the seeing of the mind consciousness—the seeing of the seventh consciousness cannot be perceived. For now, let us speak of the seeing of the mind consciousness. When asleep and dreaming, why does the solitary mental consciousness not know that it is dreaming? Because in the dream the mind consciousness is dull and unclear; sleep itself is a hindrance, an obscuration that veils the wisdom-cognition of the mind consciousness.

If the sleep hindrance is removed so that there is no obscuration and the mind consciousness becomes clear and lucid, one will attain the first dhyāna; or, conversely, as meditative concentration grows ever deeper, sleep becomes less and shallower, and then in dreams the mind consciousness becomes increasingly lucid, to the point of clearly knowing that one is dreaming, refraining from creating unwholesome karma in the dream, and even being able to create wholesome karma. Therefore, knowing the dream within the dream shows that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses possess samādhi and wisdom, and that the hindrance of sleep is slight. Not knowing the dream within the dream means that the conscious nature of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses is veiled by sleep, and the mind is not clear and lucid.

The knowing and seeing within a dream belong to the perceiving-aspect of the solitary mental consciousness. The manas exerts a great influence upon the seeing of the mind consciousness, but we will not discuss the specific influence here. The solitary mental consciousness in a dream has limited discernment of realms, not as comprehensive and clear as the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna), which is aided by the five sense consciousnesses in discernment. Not knowing the dream within the dream is due to the insufficient function of the solitary mental consciousness's self-cognition and its weak power of wisdom, which is related to the physical body and the manas. The strength of all the discerning functions of the mind consciousness is related not only to its own samādhi and wisdom, but also to the samādhi and wisdom of the manas and to the physical body; one cannot discuss the functions of the mind consciousness apart from the physical body and the manas.

Why is it related to the physical body? Everyone knows the principle that the mind consciousness's knowing while awake is influenced by the physical body. During sleep, the manas does not wish to discern realms, so none of the six consciousnesses arise; in dreaming, the solitary mental consciousness is forced to arise and discern the dream-scape, but because the nervous system's activity is rather sluggish, the mind consciousness's thinking is suppressed, its cognitive wisdom is relatively low, and it cannot distinguish that the realm it faces is a dream, so it takes the dream as reality. This is the same as the situation when drunk—both are caused by a sluggish nervous system.

If in a dream the mind consciousness possesses self-validating cognition, that means the mind consciousness can know itself and its mental factors; this is the power of introspection, which requires even stronger samādhi and wisdom than the mind consciousness's knowing of sense objects, and is more difficult. If in a dream the mind consciousness's self-cognition function is insufficient, its self-validating cognition function is virtually nonexistent, and it will not validate itself; therefore it cannot introspect—unless one is a person of excellent meditative concentration and strong awakening capacity. For those who possess the four dhyānas and eight attainments, the power of introspection in dreams is even better; but those with deep meditative concentration hardly dream at all.

The strength of the various functions of the mind consciousness is not only a matter of its own samādhi and wisdom, but is even more related to the manas. Although from ancient times to the present almost no one has been able to recognize and observe this issue, the functions of the mind consciousness are indeed inseparable from the manas; the two complement each other. To discuss the mind consciousness apart from the manas is to abandon the root and chase the branches.