The Profound Yogācāra Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (109)

Why is it said that the Tathāgata knows all the various minds of sentient beings? Here, "Tathāgata" refers to two things: one is the Tathāgata with a body of the five aggregates, including the Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya; the other is the Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha), the Tathāgata without a body of the five aggregates. The Nirmāṇakāya, having cultivated for three countless great kalpas, has accomplished the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā), with supernatural powers and abilities perfected and unobstructed. His wisdom can thoroughly see all the mental activities of the immeasurable, boundless sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions; He knows all sentient beings' thoughts all at once. Wherever sentient beings' karmic conditions have ripened, He will manifest there, proclaiming the Dharma teachings to liberate sentient beings. As for the other, the Dharmakāya Buddha Tathāgata, He can know the mental activities of sentient beings. During the manifest operation of the seven consciousnesses, the tathāgatagarbha knows their mental activities, and only then can it cooperate with the seven consciousnesses to arise and manifest, continuing to operate. Therefore, "the various minds of sentient beings" refers to the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, not to the vajra mind (Vajracitta), the tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha is only one kind, without any variety.

When the tathāgatagarbha knows the mental activities of sentient beings, it primarily knows the mental activities of the seventh consciousness, the manas. Whatever the six consciousnesses perceive and deliberate upon in perceiving the myriad dharmas of the six sense objects must all be transmitted to the manas. Based on this, the manas gives rise to mental factors such as mental engagement (manaskāra), and then performs its own deliberation and decision-making. The tathāgatagarbha will then discern the manas's mental engagement and its deliberation mental factor. All of the manas's decisions and intentions can be known by the tathāgatagarbha, which will then accord with the manas's decisions and give rise to the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Therefore, when the tathāgatagarbha knows the mental activities of the manas, it can make the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses manifest in accordance with the manas's decisions. The content of the manas's deliberation is precisely what the six consciousnesses have perceived; therefore, when the tathāgatagarbha discerns the mental activities of the manas, it is equivalent to knowing the mental activities of the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha also discerns sentient beings' karmic seeds; after discerning them, it outputs the karmic seeds, and thus knows what mental activities sentient beings will manifest.

As for these seven consciousnesses, in reality there are no seven consciousnesses. On the surface they appear to exist, but this existence is false existence; sentient beings deludedly see and deludedly know them. In actuality, they are all the tathāgatagarbha mind. The seven consciousnesses formed by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting seeds of consciousness are, in substance, still the tathāgatagarbha mind. Sentient beings deludedly perceive the existence of seven consciousnesses, but in substance it is the tathāgatagarbha. It is all the tathāgatagarbha itself playing about within the illusory realms it has manifested. Therefore, the Tathāgata said that all these minds are no-mind. Here, "no-mind" does not refer to the tathāgatagarbha; it refers to the seven consciousnesses, meaning that there is no truly real deluded mind of seven consciousnesses—all is the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, provisionally named "various minds" and provisionally named "seven consciousnesses."

Later, the text further mentions the three minds, consistent throughout, all referring to the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses. The deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses is unobtainable, because none of them is a real dharma; they are illusory, arising and ceasing, and that is why they are said to be unobtainable. The three minds of past, future, and present mainly refer to the six consciousnesses, the mind with the mind consciousness as the primary; the manas, however, has no division of past, future, and present. These minds cannot be grasped or retained; they arise and cease moment by moment, never pausing from thought to thought. That is why these minds are said to be unobtainable—and indeed they cannot be obtained.