Mahāyāna Sūtra of Revealing Consciousness (52)

Original text: 贤护白佛言。唯愿开示。佛告贤护。梦中见者。名内眼所。是慧分别。非肉眼见。其内眼所。以念力故。盲者梦中。须臾而现。复以念力。觉而忆之。识之内色。亦复如是。

Explanation: Bhadrapāla addressed the Buddha, saying, "May the World-Honored One kindly expound this."

The Buddha told Bhadrapāla that the form seen in a dream is called what is seen by the inner eye; it is discerned by wisdom, not seen by the physical eye. Because of the power of mindfulness (smṛti-bala) of the manas, the mind consciousness of a blind person immediately arises and operates in a dream, and thus sees all the people and scenery in the dream; then, again through the power of mindfulness of the manas, the person wakes from the dream and recollects all the dream states. Dreaming occurs because of the manas's grasping and the operation of its power of mindfulness, which presents the dream scenery; it is driven forth by the manas's attention (manaskāra), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). After waking, the manas lets the mind consciousness recollect the dream, because the manas itself cannot recollect and cannot discern subtle details, so it has the mind consciousness help with the recollection. The inner material sense-object (inner rūpa-viṣaya) manifested by the Ālayavijñāna is also like this: it is manifested through the manas's grasping nature and power of mindfulness. The Ālayavijñāna itself has no form, yet it can manifest all forms, including the form of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha).

The inner eye refers to the mind consciousness; it is seen by the wisdom nature of the mind consciousness, not by the eye consciousness. In a dream there is only the mind consciousness, without the eye consciousness. The form seen in the dream is not seen by the eye consciousness either; it is seen by the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta), without the first five consciousnesses together discerning form.