Conjecturing and Imagining the Eighth Consciousness Does Not Equal Realizing the Eighth Consciousness

Some people previously claimed to have realized the eighth consciousness, but now they have changed their story, saying that enlightenment is the realization of true suchness (tathatā), not the realization of the eighth consciousness. Everyone, tell me—what was really going on with these people's original so-called enlightenment? Whether or not one understands the relationship between the eighth consciousness and true suchness is one thing; what matters most is that they never even figured out what had actually happened to themselves in the first place, and then all along they regarded themselves as sages and even taught others to realize the eighth consciousness—is this not utterly foolish and laughable behavior? This shows that their original so-called realization of the eighth consciousness was purely imagined and fabricated in their minds, not genuinely realized through practice. A dharma that has been truly realized, no matter what circumstances one encounters, can never later be denied, or left ambiguous and vague—neither daring to admit it nor daring to deny it, wracked with anguish and distress. Things fabricated through imagination and inference, at the slightest stir of wind or grass, will make one paranoid and suspicious, no longer daring to hold to one's own views; and even those who can hold to their views may not be free of inference and speculation either. 

Nowadays the talk about the eighth consciousness is simply a chaotic mess—no matter how it is explained, it cannot be made clear. A pond of water is murky from the bottom all the way to the surface; previously only the bottom was murky while the surface was still clear, but now it is not so—from the bottom to the surface, everything is murky. Why is this? Because people are eager for quick success and instant benefit, unwilling to pay the corresponding price, yet desperately craving great fame and empty renown. With vanity swelling, unable to distinguish true from false, they only care about building castles in the air. Therefore, if one does not cultivate diligently and solidly from the foundation, does not practice step by solid step, then in the end one will disdain to cultivate the foundational dharmas while being unable to realize the higher dharmas—succeeding at neither the low nor the high. What will the result be at the time of death? The most egregious case of fabricating enlightenment in their minds is the claim that a dwelling-stage bodhisattva who has just attained enlightenment can observe what only bodhisattvas of several bhūmis and above can observe—that all dharmas are the seed-functions and operations of the eighth consciousness. The scale of this fabrication is astonishing; no one can reach such a height, and even the returning great masters and eminent patriarchs would be helpless against it.

Those who stir up the pond water have great merit: they have churned up the monsters hidden at the bottom of the pond and brought them to the surface, so that everyone can clearly see what kind of demons have been lurking at the bottom secretly harming the visitors. If we had to wait until a later age to recognize these monsters, it would be too late—let alone the fact that in later ages there may not even be the karmic opportunity to recognize them. The sooner the monsters reveal their forms and are cleared away, the sooner the poison they spread is recognized, the sooner people awaken, and the less harm they suffer.