Does the Eighth Consciousness Take Immature Karmic Seeds as Its Object?

Can the eighth consciousness cognize karmic seeds that have not yet matured? Of course it can cognize them, and it can also discern them. The supernatural powers of an arhat liberated in both ways (ubhayato-bhāga-vimutta) can know events concerning sentient beings spanning eighty thousand great kalpas, before and after. Why can an arhat know things that will only occur after such a long span of time? Because the arhat's manas, relying on his own tathāgatagarbha, discerns the karmic seeds that will only mature in future lives, and the mind consciousness, relying on the manas, can then discern the state of activation of those future karmic seeds. What the bodhisattvas on the bhūmis with supernatural powers can know far surpasses that of the arhats, extending over an even greater range of time, and the Buddha's power of supernatural knowledge is supremely superior even to that of the bodhisattvas, able to know events one or two incalculable kalpas (asaṃkhyeya-kalpa) into the future. For example, the Buddha predicted for an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva that he would attain buddhahood at a certain time one incalculable kalpa later, and occasionally he also made predictions for first-bhūmi bodhisattvas.

How do the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and arhats discern events so far in the past or future? All of this is the result of the combination of meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom. Which conscious mind among the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and arhats knows events from countless kalpas past and countless kalpas future? It is the mind consciousness that knows; the mind consciousness knows it from the manas, the manas knows it from the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha knows it by discerning the karmic seeds within its own substance. However, what the tathāgatagarbha knows differs in content from what the sixth and seventh consciousnesses know.

If the Buddha observes sentient beings, He can observe their experiences from three incalculable kalpas ago, or even from countless incalculable kalpas ago—how does this happen? Events that occurred countless kalpas ago appear before Him as if present, just like watching something happening right before His eyes; this is observed through direct perception (pratyakṣa), a direct-perception object. This includes events that will occur countless kalpas in the future, appearing before Him as if present. As for events that occurred countless kalpas ago, that karma may long since have perished and vanished; as for events that will occur countless kalpas hence, the karmic seeds are far from mature—how does the Buddha know this, and which conscious mind knows it? Some karmic seeds have not yet even formed, and the karmic actions have not yet been committed—how does the Buddha know, how do the bodhisattvas know, how do the arhats know?

A non-Buddhist with supernatural powers can also know events that will occur one or two years, or several years, later; likewise, those karmic seeds have not matured. Which consciousness of his knows future events? A fortune-teller can also know what will happen before the end of one's life. Even a person without supernatural powers—the tathāgatagarbha can still cognize immature karmic seeds, and the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can realize the events that will occur in future lives; it is only that for a time one cannot come to know it from the manas.

Only eighth-bhūmi bodhisattvas can achieve the interfunctioning of the six faculties, as can the great arhats liberated in both ways. Ordinary supernatural powers are still far removed from the interfunctioning of the six faculties, yet they too can know events of future lives. This knowing is the knowing of the mind consciousness—so can the mind consciousness know immature karmic seeds of future lives? Clearly, the mind consciousness cannot know karmic seeds, whether those of the present, the past, or the future. But the manas, relying on the great element of seeing of the tathāgatagarbha, certainly knows, and the mind consciousness, relying on the manas, can then know events of future lives. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said that the manas silently encompasses all dharmas—"encompasses" means to contain and receive; "all dharmas" means the entirety of the dharmas seen by the tathāgatagarbha, all of which the manas can accordingly see.