Cultivation Is About Eliminating the Defiled Nature of the Seventh Consciousness

The name Ālayavijñāna is used by sentient beings before the eighth bhūmi; after the eighth bhūmi, the name is changed to vipākavijñāna (the consciousness of retribution). The name Ālayavijñāna indicates that within sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha there still remain the karmic seeds of the afflictions of the seven consciousnesses and the seeds of afflictive habitual tendencies. These seeds are all subject to arising, ceasing, and change; combined with the unborn-and-undying tathāgatagarbha, they constitute the Ālayavijñāna, which is neither arising nor ceasing. If the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the tathāgatagarbha are eliminated, and the seven consciousnesses have eradicated their afflictions as well as their afflictive habitual tendencies, then the Ālayavijñāna is renamed vipākavijñāna.

Cultivation means cultivating away the ignorance and defiled nature of the seven consciousnesses, extinguishing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion of the seven consciousnesses along with their afflictive habitual tendencies, and gradually transforming them into a pure consciousness-entity. In the process of cultivation, realizing the tathāgatagarbha is crucially important. Only by realizing the tathāgatagarbha can one know the true reality of the dharmadhātu, clearly recognize that all dharmas of the five-aggregate world are empty, and thereby eradicate the grasping on self and the grasping on dharmas, ultimately attaining buddhahood. By contemplating the purity of the tathāgatagarbha and its untainted-and-conditioned nature (anāsrava-saṃskṛta), the seven consciousnesses can be influenced and perfumed by it, and the mind can gradually become empty, no longer greedily clinging to the illusory worldly dharmas. As the mind-ground draws near to the purity of the tathāgatagarbha, the seven consciousnesses can attain liberation and accomplish the Buddha Way.