The kind of contact between mental dharmas and material form that lacks material attributes

Question: If the conscious mind is not inside, outside, or in between the physical body, why is it still said that the six consciousnesses arise at the place where the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda) in the brain contacts the sense objects?

Answer: For sentient beings who possess a supreme faculty, the prerequisite and necessary condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses is the contact between faculty and sense object; only after this contact do the six consciousnesses arise. The contact between faculty and sense object includes: the outer five faculties contacting the outer five sense objects, the manas contacting the outer mental sense objects, as well as the inner five faculties contacting the inner five sense objects, and the manas contacting the inner mental sense objects. However, the outer five sense objects and mental sense objects cannot be contacted by the six consciousnesses, because at that point the six consciousnesses do not yet exist—only the seventh and eighth consciousnesses exist. Therefore, the contact between outer faculties and sense objects cannot give rise to the six consciousnesses. Only the contact between inner faculties and inner sense objects can give rise to the six consciousnesses, and what the six consciousnesses discern are the inner six sense objects within the supreme faculty in the brain.

Moreover, what the manas discerns includes not only inner sense objects but also outer ones. This outer sense object is not the original substance-object (essence-object) initially generated by the tathāgatagarbha, but rather the sense object transformed and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha after the substance-object, which the manas can discern. Only after this outer sense object enters the supreme faculty and becomes an inner sense object—if the manas wishes to discern it in detail, or wishes to engage in some activity—will the six consciousnesses arise to discern and process it. Otherwise, even though the inner six sense objects exist and contact the six faculties, the six consciousnesses will not arise and discern.

Although the six consciousnesses arise at the site of the supreme faculty in the brain, the six consciousnesses are formless and without characteristics; they are not material form with characteristics. Therefore, they cannot contact the supreme faculty, which is material form. Consequently, they are not inside, outside, or in between the supreme faculty. In this way, even if the arising of the six consciousnesses has a location, it is as good as having no location. Otherwise, if one sliced the brain's supreme faculty open piece by piece, one would be able to find the six consciousnesses; yet in reality, even if the brain were smashed to pieces, the six consciousnesses could not be seen. The same is true of the manas: formless and without characteristics, it contacts all sense objects and discerns both inner and outer sense objects, yet it is not upon the inner or outer sense objects. The contact between faculty and sense object is not contact in the physical sense, and the conscious mind is not matter either. We ordinary people are still unable to understand and imagine contact between matter and non-matter, or contact between non-matter and non-matter; we often mistake these two kinds of contact for the kind of contact that occurs between physical objects, but in fact it is not. Therefore, the conscious mind is not inside, outside, or in between the physical body.

If one can understand that kind of contact which is non-material in nature, then the contact between the tathāgatagarbha and all dharmas becomes easy to understand, and one will know that the tathāgatagarbha is both upon all dharmas and yet not inside, outside, or in between all dharmas. If one can set aside that kind of contact belonging to worldly phenomena, then understanding and realizing the eight consciousnesses will not be too difficult.