The Realm of the First Bhūmi Bodhisattva

The mind that can know all things is called the knowing faculty. Without the ālaya-vijñāna, this knowing faculty would fundamentally not exist. The known—the myriad phenomena of the six dusts that we perceive—could not manifest without the ālaya-vijñāna, and thus we would be unable to perceive the realms of the six dusts. The knowing faculty is the mind of the seventh consciousness, while the known is the perceived realm of the six dusts. Both are born from the ālaya-vijñāna. Therefore, the ālaya-vijñāna is called the basis of the known. Relying on the ālaya-vijñāna, we possess both the knowing faculty and the known, and thus the vivid and lively existence of the five aggregates in the mundane world arises.

The six sense faculties are born from the ālaya-vijñāna; the six dusts are transformed by the ālaya-vijñāna; the six consciousnesses are also born from the ālaya-vijñāna. The entire illusory self of sentient beings—comprising the five aggregates and eighteen elements—is transformed, sustained, and upheld by the ālaya-vijñāna. The five aggregates themselves have no independent agency. It is solely the ālaya-vijñāna itself that orchestrates everything, like a magician performing illusions, manifesting one illusion after another. To fully realize this through contemplation, to perceive this truth profoundly and meticulously in direct insight, is to reach the first ground of bodhisattvahood. Thereafter, when any sentient being appears before you, all that is seen are illusions—there are no substantial beings. When parents stand before you, there are no true parents; when relatives stand before you, there are no true relatives. There is no self, no person, no sentient being, no life span—none of these phenomena possess inherent substance.

The three realms of existence are silent and empty. Everything is merely manipulated by the ālaya-vijñāna, this great magician. It is the ālaya-vijñāna, this master painter, who wields the brush, splashing ink to depict the multicolored world of the five aggregates.

Welcome to join the Liberation Prajñā Vijñapti-mātra Group 7: 238324425.