When Hearing Sounds, One Should Recognize and Take Hold of the True Mind, the Eighth Consciousness

When we hear sounds, the ear consciousness participates, the mind consciousness participates, and at the same time the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness also participate; all four of these consciousnesses are formless and without marks. If one wishes to awaken to the Way while hearing sounds, one must clearly distinguish which is the eighth consciousness, which is the seventh consciousness, which is the mind consciousness, and which is the ear consciousness. Amid the combined functioning of these consciousnesses, one must clearly distinguish the true mind from the deluded mind; after distinguishing them, one recognizes and takes up that true mind—this is seeing one’s true mind/awakening to the true mind (enlightenment).

If merit, meditative concentration (samādhi), and the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) are all insufficient, one will often mistake the deluded for the true, wrongly taking the mind consciousness to be the true mind, the eighth consciousness, and "awakening" to it. When one "awakens" to the mind consciousness, there is also a kind of empty feeling-experience; the mind can become a bit tranquil, one can see some people, affairs, things, and principles as empty, can understand a tiny bit of the Buddhist sutras, and can even apply the principle of emptiness onto things. But one simply does not know how the eighth consciousness concretely gives rise to the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), the seven consciousnesses, and the myriad dharmas. Those who have awakened wrongly will absolutely never know this. This is the dividing line between true awakening and mistaken awakening—truly, an error of a hair’s breadth leads one astray by a thousand li.

Both the mind consciousness and the eighth consciousness are formless and without marks, and they share certain similarities. Ordinary people simply make the mind consciousness a little tranquil—free of scattered thoughts and delusive imaginings, free of the rise and fall of mental states—so that it can clearly and lucidly perceive all the state-objects within and outside body and mind; then they take this mind consciousness in its state of lucid clarity to be the originally thought-free, non-cognizing, pure eighth consciousness, and thus they mistake the wrong "master of the house." No matter how lucid the mind consciousness is, no matter how non-cognizing it seems, so long as the mind consciousness exists, there is the knowing that knows the objects of the six sense-objects; or if the mind consciousness has attained concentration, there is also the knowing that knows the concentrated state. Therefore it is not the eighth consciousness, and it is not genuine enlightenment. It is only that one’s own mind consciousness is rather foolish and dull, and it is very difficult for it to introspectively observe the state it is in at that moment; so one takes this to be the non-knowing of the eighth consciousness, and thereby concludes that one has realized the eighth consciousness. What a tremendous misunderstanding this is.

In fact, when the mind consciousness becomes very subtle, its power of introspection also becomes very weak; and since Buddhist practitioners do not understand the nature of the mind consciousness, the phenomenon of mistaking the mind consciousness for the true mind, the eighth consciousness, is extremely widespread. Nowadays people who consider themselves enlightened are everywhere, but after many years, their wisdom remains at its original level, still marking time in place, with no advancement; they still cannot understand the Chan koans, and still cannot understand the scriptures.

Therefore I urge those Buddhist practitioners who believe they have already attained enlightenment: for the sake of the great matter of your own birth and death, quickly turn back and examine what exactly your awakening is. Check it against the scriptures, carefully analyze and determine once more the nature of the mind consciousness and the nature of the eighth consciousness, strictly distinguish the various differences between the true mind and the deluded mind, and then strive to perfectly fulfill the conditions required to be a bodhisattva. When all the conditions required for being a bodhisattva are complete, then come back to investigate Chan anew, in order to truly enter the gate of Buddhism and become a bodhisattva in the true sense.