Knowing is bodhi, for it comprehends the mental activities of sentient beings.

“Knowing is bodhi” indicates that the eighth consciousness, as bodhi, possesses the nature of knowing. Since it has the nature of knowing, it has the capacity for discernment and discrimination—otherwise, how could it know?

“Comprehending the mental activities of sentient beings” means being able to discern and comprehend the mental activities of sentient beings. This shows that the eighth consciousness has the capacity for discernment, knowing the mental activities and thoughts of sentient beings. Here, “sentient beings” refers, first, to the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses that the eighth consciousness personally upholds and maintains—the directly perceived object condition (ālambana-pratyaya), the seven consciousnesses and five aggregates that it personally transforms, generates, and personally cognizes; and second, to the seven consciousnesses and five aggregates of sentient beings that the eighth consciousness does not personally transform and generate and does not personally cognize—the indirectly perceived object condition.

The eighth consciousness can cognize all dharmas—engaging with all dharmas through mental engagement (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā), and knowing all dharmas. Regardless of whether they are directly perceived object conditions or indirectly perceived object conditions, including other eighth consciousnesses—meaning that eighth consciousnesses can cognize one another and communicate with each other. If there were something the eighth consciousness did not know, then the eighth consciousness would have ignorance (avidyā), and it would be neither liberated nor a Buddha.

Therefore, when we seven consciousnesses do things, not only does one's own eighth consciousness know and store the karmic seeds, but the eighth consciousnesses of other sentient beings also know and store the karmic seeds.

For example, if you beat an animal to death, your own eighth consciousness witnesses the entire process, records it, and stores the karmic seeds; the animal's eighth consciousness also witnesses it and stores the seeds. The eighth consciousnesses of other animals that saw this incident also witness the entire process and likewise store the seeds. But in the future, when the karmic seeds ripen through conditions, it is your own eighth consciousness that manifests your retribution; the animal's eighth consciousness also outputs the stored seeds, and only then can the retribution take form—the animal, in turn, beats you to death or harms you. Or, in later lives, even if you never encounter that animal, when this karmic condition ripens, you still undergo the retribution; instead of meeting that animal with your five faculties, you simply experience illness and suffering. “Deities watch from three feet above one's head”—in fact, the deities are right above the scalp and within half a foot beneath the skin, extremely close to oneself, never separated from one.