The Connotation of Consciousness-Only and No External Objects

The meaning of "consciousness-only, no realm" is that all dharmas are only consciousness, that everything is consciousness, and that there are no realms and no marks of realms. This belongs to the content of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, and its meaning is the same as that of the one true dharma realm; only the principle is very profound, not easy to understand, and even harder to observe. Those who lack the wisdom of the varieties of paths can at most have a coarse, shallow understanding of it.

The consciousness in "consciousness-only, no realm" is of course not the deluded mind of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses are themselves marks of realms, arising and ceasing moment by moment and unable to act autonomously, so they cannot possibly govern the other marks of realms. Only the eighth consciousness can govern all marks of realms. From the perspective of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, all dharmas are conjured and upheld by the eighth consciousness; they are all generated by the eighth consciousness using the seeds of the seven great elements, and the eighth consciousness constantly alters the seeds of the seven great elements so as to keep all dharmas in correspondence with karmic seeds and in correspondence with karmic retribution.

What does "all dharmas are only consciousness" mean? All dharmas are like golden vessels: the essence of golden vessels is all gold, and apart from gold there is nothing else; seeing a golden vessel, one sees gold. It is the same with all dharmas: they are all generated and upheld by the eighth consciousness, and their essence is all the eighth consciousness. When seeing all dharmas, one should see the eighth consciousness; apart from this there is nothing else.

The "realm" in "consciousness-only, no realm" can also be called dharma-marks. The scope of dharma-marks is extremely vast: there are marks of material form, marks of mental dharmas, and marks of dharmas that are neither material nor mental, as stated in the Heart Sutra: the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousness; the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness; the Four Noble Truths; the twelve links of dependent origination; the bodhisattva's six perfections; the four marks; the Buddha's body; the path to buddhahood; the hundred dharma gates of clarity, the thousand dharma gates of clarity, the hundred million dharma gates of clarity; ignorance, the cessation of ignorance, and so forth. All these dharma-marks are the empty marks of the tathāgatagarbha, the eighth consciousness; there is no substantial dharma-mark or realm-mark.

The dharma-marks and realm-marks upon all dharmas are all marks generated by the eighth consciousness, so there are no realms—everything is the eighth consciousness. This contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom is quite profound and keen; only the meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom possessed after the sixth and seventh transforming consciousnesses have been transformed into wisdom can observe it directly as it is. Otherwise, with the obstruction of ignorance being heavy and the power of concentration shallow, there will be no observational wisdom, and the essence of all dharmas cannot be observed through direct perception; one will then fall into the marks of realms and fail to see the true gold.

If meditative concentration and wisdom are insufficient—concentration lacking the dhyāna of the first jhāna, and wisdom lacking the transformation of the consciousnesses into wisdom—then all observation will fall into imagination and inference.

The deeper and subtler one's meditative concentration and wisdom, the fewer and shallower the realm-marks one sees when seeing all dharmas. The wisdom of direct perception becomes deeper and more ultimate as one ascends to higher bhūmis, and what is seen becomes truer, until at the buddha-bhūmi one completely sees only the one true dharma realm, with no other dharma left to be seen. For everyone, as long as the eye sees realm-marks, that is ignorance; the more realm-marks one sees, the heavier the ignorance. Conversely, the fewer realm-marks one sees, the deeper and keener the wisdom.