The Vijñaptimātratā Explanation of Mistaking a Thief for One’s Father

To regard the thief as one's father is a misconception of the manas. What is the thief? The functions and activities of the six consciousnesses are the thief. What is the father? The self and what belongs to the self are the father. The manas fails to comprehend the impermanent, changing nature of the arising and ceasing of the six consciousnesses, mistakenly taking their functions as its own, thereby clinging to them relentlessly and craving them incessantly. What should be done? First, acknowledge that within the body exists an intrinsically pure, unborn and undying true mind. Then, observe the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and selflessness of the five aggregates and the six consciousnesses—their nature of arising and ceasing, their mutability, and their ungraspable essence. Next, observe the impermanent and selfless nature of the six sense faculties and their corresponding objects, which are subject to arising and ceasing. Only then can the thief be eliminated. When there are no thieves in the mind, and attachment and craving for the thief are severed, liberation is attained.