The Black Box World (49)

The Buddha possesses the five eyes and six superknowledges. When the Buddha discerns the six sense objects, He can entirely discern the inner representations without relying on the six consciousnesses, and He need not rely on the supreme faculties. The Buddha's single undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) alone can completely substitute for the first seven consciousnesses in discerning all dharmas. Even the Buddha's first five consciousnesses can individually discern all dharmas. This is because all eight consciousnesses of the Buddha possess twenty-one mental factors: the five universal factors—volition (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volitional activity (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), remorse (apatrāpya), non-greed (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), non-delusion (amoha), diligence (vīrya), tranquility (praśrabdhi), non-negligence (apramāda), equanimity (upekṣā), and non-harm (ahiṃsā). Thus the Buddha's undefiled consciousness, like His wonderful discriminating wisdom, possesses desire, determination, mindfulness, meditative concentration, and wisdom, and can discern and observe the realms of the six sense objects; the same is true of the first five consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness. Therefore, 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 hostile eyes, squinting at people, or regarding people with contempt—these are all unwholesome mental factors of the eye consciousness. But at the stage of buddhahood, the Buddha's first five consciousnesses are all wholesome, and the first five consciousnesses also possess wisdom and can discern all dharmas. These states are beyond our capacity to imagine. Since the Buddha can directly discern the outer representations, the Buddha's outer representations must all be supreme and perfect; yet He can also, in accordance with the minds of sentient beings, discern the unsupreme and imperfect realms of sentient beings. From the Buddha's perspective, there is nothing imperfect at all. Therefore, for Śākyamuni Buddha, the Sahā world is an extremely supreme buddha-land, entirely different from the world as seen by sentient beings whose minds are defiled. This is why there is that passage in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.