The Seventh Consciousness Is Also Without Attainment

The seventh consciousness seems to gain something—it seems to have obtained the five desires and six sense objects of the world—but in reality it gains nothing. Because of ignorance and delusion, it forcibly believes it has obtained something, when in fact it has obtained nothing at all, nor can it obtain anything. It toils and labors in vain, scheming in vain, exhausting all its cunning, only to end up having busied itself for nothing through one life after another, lifetime after lifetime.

These matters need to be quietly pondered in meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplated and verified over a long period, before one can know what it is that one cannot obtain. To study Buddhism and cultivate the path is precisely to break through ignorance, to recognize that one attains nothing, and then to seek nothing anymore and no longer wish to gain anything—thereby attaining liberation and becoming a Buddha.

Once the seventh consciousness knows that in the end there is nothing to be attained, its mind becomes empty and non-active (wu-wei); yet even in non-action it must still do things to benefit self and others. When doing things with an empty mind, there is nothing sought—no thought for personal gain, no personal aims or motives, no consideration of personal profit and loss, success or failure. In this way, although one has done many things, it is as if one had done nothing: one does not feel oneself to have merit, does not claim credit and grow arrogant, does not feel smugly pleased with oneself, and does not go about exchanging benefits with others or with groups. Being unselfish is far easier than being non-attached; only after achieving unselfishness and freedom from self-interest can one achieve non-attachment. Only by not considering one's own personal gain can one gradually attain the state of nothing attained and nothing sought.