The Stages and Conditions of Contemplative Practice (Vipaśyanā-caryā)

As for contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), before realization it is called deliberation—deeply and subtly deliberating, investigating, probing, and searching with sustained examination; after realization it is called observation—one can observe directly and presently, observing the operation of the eighth consciousness within the body of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), observing the mysteries of the myriad dharmas, and within this there are also deeper and subtler activities of deliberation and investigation. Contemplative practice before realization and contemplative practice after realization must both be carried out within meditative concentration (samādhi); without meditative concentration, it is merely an intellectual activity of learning and understanding by the mind consciousness, and the deliberation is shallow. The contemplative practice of the Four Noble Truths, the contemplative practice of searching for the eighth consciousness, the contemplative practice of illusion-like contemplation, the contemplative practice of mirage contemplation, the contemplative practice of dream-like contemplation, the contemplative practice of mirror-like contemplation—these contemplative wisdoms progress layer by layer, and the wisdom of contemplative practice becomes ever deeper and subtler.

As for what is called enlightenment, it must be the personal realization of the eighth consciousness by the mind consciousness and the manas; merely understanding the principles of the eighth consciousness is not enlightenment. Those principles can be known through various channels, but to awaken to the eighth consciousness, one must personally realize it through investigating Chan. Enlightenment is not knowledge and principles learned from others, but what the manas personally realizes.