The Diamond Sutra: The Profound Meaning of Vijñapti-mātratā (109)

Why is it said that the Tathāgata knows all the various minds of sentient beings? Here, the Tathāgata refers to two aspects: one is the Tathāgata with the five aggregates body, including the Saṃbhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha; the other is the Dharmakāya Buddha Tathāgata without the five aggregates body. The Nirmāṇakāya Buddha, having cultivated over three great immeasurable kalpas, attained omniscience, with perfect and unobstructed spiritual powers and abilities. His wisdom enables him to thoroughly perceive the mental activities of all sentient beings throughout the infinite and boundless worlds of the ten directions. He simultaneously knows all the thoughts of all sentient beings, and wherever the conditions of beings ripen, he manifests there to propagate the Dharma and liberate sentient beings. As for the other aspect, the Dharmakāya Buddha Tathāgata, He comprehends the mental activities of sentient beings; He knows the functioning processes of the seven consciousnesses in their current manifestation, and only then can He cooperate with the seven consciousnesses to give rise to current activities and continue their functioning. Therefore, the statement that sentient beings have various minds refers to the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses, not to the vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha is singular, not manifold.

The tathāgatagarbha comprehends the mental activities of sentient beings, primarily focusing on discerning the mental activities of the seventh consciousness, manas (the mental faculty). The content discerned and contemplated by the six consciousnesses in the process of perceiving the six dusts (objects of sense) must all be transmitted to manas. Based on this, manas gives rise to mental factors such as attention (manaskāra), then performs its own deliberation and decision-making. The tathāgatagarbha discerns manas's attention and the mental factor of deliberation (vitarka); all the decisions and intentions of manas are known to the tathāgatagarbha. Consequently, it accords with manas's decisions to give rise to the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Therefore, by comprehending the mental activities of manas, the tathāgatagarbha enables the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses to manifest according to manas's choices. The content deliberated by manas is precisely the content discerned by the six consciousnesses. Hence, the tathāgatagarbha's discernment of manas's mental activities equates to comprehending the mental activities of the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha also discerns the karmic seeds of sentient beings; after discerning them, it outputs these karmic seeds, thereby knowing what mental activities the sentient beings will manifest.

As for these seven consciousnesses, in reality, there are no seven consciousnesses. Superficially, they appear to exist, but this existence is illusory. Sentient beings perceive and know them falsely; in actuality, they are all the mind of the tathāgatagarbha. The seven consciousnesses formed by the tathāgatagarbha projecting consciousness-seeds are essentially still the tathāgatagarbha mind. Sentient beings falsely perceive the existence of seven consciousnesses, but their essence is the tathāgatagarbha. It is all the tathāgatagarbha itself playing within the illusory realm it manifests. Therefore, the Tathāgata says that all these minds are non-minds. Here, "non-mind" does not refer to the tathāgatagarbha; it refers to the seven consciousnesses, meaning that there are no truly real seven deluded consciousnesses—they are all the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, provisionally designated as "various minds" or "seven consciousnesses."

Later, it is further supplemented by mentioning the three minds, which consistently refer to the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses. The deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses are ungraspable because they are not real dharmas; they are illusory, arising and ceasing, hence they are said to be ungraspable. The three minds of past, future, and present mainly refer to the minds of the six consciousnesses, particularly the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) as primary. Manas (the seventh consciousness) has no distinction of past, future, or present. These minds cannot be grasped or retained; they arise and cease instantaneously, with thoughts flowing without pause. Therefore, it is said that these minds are ungraspable, and indeed, they cannot be obtained.