眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

24 Sep 2020    Thursday     1st Teach Total 2640

Which consciousness do concepts and experiences arise from?

Concepts exist only within the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness corresponds with concepts; the five sense consciousnesses, the manas, and the eighth consciousness have no concept of dharmas, because the mind consciousness corresponds with the characteristics of dharmas and possesses the ability to think, analyze, generalize, and summarize—abilities that the other consciousnesses do not have.

Experience is the wisdom and cognition accumulated through the process of encountering corresponding dharmas. The five sense consciousnesses have experience of the five sense objects, and the mind consciousness has experience of mental sense objects. The experience of the six consciousnesses lasts only a single lifetime and is subject to forgetting. The manas, however, accumulates experience from lifetime after lifetime; it does not perish, and at critical moments it can be swiftly activated to protect one's own safety and interests. As for the eighth consciousness, although it does not perish lifetime after lifetime, it has no memory, and there is no such thing as experience for it, because its wisdom is fixed and naturally so—neither increasing nor decreasing. Therefore it has no experience and needs no experience, yet it can still operate all dharmas in an orderly and normal manner.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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