Black Box World (Forty-nine)

The Buddha possesses the five eyes and six superknowledges. When the Buddha cognizes the six sense objects, He can entirely do so without relying on the six consciousnesses to cognize the inner object-aspect, and He need not rely on the supreme faculty (indriya). The Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) alone can completely substitute for the first seven consciousnesses in cognizing all dharmas. Even the Buddha's first five consciousnesses can independently cognize all dharmas. This is because all eight consciousnesses of the Buddha possess twenty-one mental factors (caittas): the five universal factors — attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā); the five particular factors — desire (chanda), determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā); and the eleven wholesome factors — faith (śraddhā), shame (hrī), embarrassment (apatrāpya), non-greed (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), non-delusion (amoha), diligence (vīrya), tranquility (praśrabdhi), non-negligence (apramāda), equanimity (upekṣā), and non-harmfulness (ahiṃsā). Thus the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), like the wisdom of wonderful observation (pratyavekṣaṇā-jñāna), possesses desire, determination, mindfulness, meditative concentration, and wisdom, and can cognize and observe the realms of the six sense objects; the first five consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness are the same, so all eight consciousnesses of the Buddha are endowed with perfect and complete wisdom and virtuous capabilities.

Glaring at people with the eyes, looking at people with malicious eyes, squinting at people, or regarding people with contempt — these are all unwholesome mental factors of the eye consciousness. But at the buddha-bhūmi, the Buddha's first five consciousnesses are all wholesome, and the first five consciousnesses also possess wisdom and can cognize all dharmas — such states are beyond our imagination. Since the Buddha can directly cognize the external object-aspect, the Buddha's external object-aspect must all be sublime and perfect; yet He can also, in accordance with the minds of sentient beings, cognize the non-sublime and imperfect realms of sentient beings. From the Buddha's perspective, there is nothing imperfect at all. Therefore, the Sahā world, to Śākyamuni Buddha, is an extremely sublime buddha-land, entirely different from the world as seen by sentient beings whose minds are defiled — and that is why there is that passage in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.