Who Is the Busiest in the Worldly and Transcendental Realms

All dharmas, both mundane and supramundane, are manifested and upheld by the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness participates in all dharmas; it pervades all dharmas, pervades all aggregates, sense bases, and realms, and pervades all times and places. The busiest one in the mundane and supramundane worlds is, of course, the eighth consciousness. Yet He never feels busy, because His mode of operation is unconditioned, procedural, and naturally so (dharmatā); toward all dharmas He maintains an equanimous mind, feeling neither suffering nor pleasure, having no sensation toward any dharma, no feelings, completely without deliberate mentation. Therefore He never feels weary.

Among mundane dharmas, the next busiest is the seventh consciousness. The seventh consciousness, relying on the eighth consciousness, can cognize all the dharmas manifested by the eighth consciousness, silently encompassing all dharmas; thus the seventh consciousness operates upon all dharmas. Although the seventh consciousness can exhibit the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva) toward all dharmas, universally deliberating upon and grasping all dharmas, the seventh consciousness also has neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) and never feels busy or weary; otherwise He would rest. When He rests, the eighth consciousness cannot operate, and all dharmas would cease—such a situation has never occurred. The seventh consciousnesses of arhats and pratyekabuddhas are exceptions: their seventh consciousness has already grown weary of the mundane dharmas of the three realms, no longer cherishing or greedily grasping worldly dharmas, and therefore chooses to enter extinction; the five aggregates vanish, and all dharmas cease. Thus the seventh consciousness remains busy during sleep, death, coma, and meditative absorption. Comparing the seventh consciousness with the sixth consciousness, the seventh consciousness is still the busiest.

Although the seventh consciousness is very busy with mundane dharmas and never rests, there are many tasks in which the eighth consciousness is busy that the seventh consciousness cannot participate in. For example, the eighth consciousness participates in manifesting the mundane dharmas of the three realms, manifesting the universe and the material world (bhājana-loka); the seventh consciousness only plays a driving role. As for how exactly the seeds of the four great elements are transmitted, and how the faculties, vessels, and worlds are manifested, the seventh consciousness neither knows nor understands, and cannot participate in the manifestation. The eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds and transmits karmic seeds; the seventh consciousness also cannot participate in this. The eighth consciousness transmits the seeds of the seven great elements; the seventh consciousness has no awareness of this and cannot participate. Therefore the eighth consciousness is the busiest of all—only He is not tired, has no sensation, pays no price, and does not know how much He has contributed. In fact, the seventh consciousness also never knows that He is busy, nor does He feel weary; otherwise He would grasp fewer dharmas and choose to rest and cease. But the seventh consciousness can know the fatigue of the six consciousnesses and the fatigue of the body; taking the body and the six consciousnesses as Himself, He decides to let the body and the six consciousnesses rest.

The next busiest is the mind consciousness, but the sixth consciousness is extinguished rather often, and in the operation of many dharmas the sixth consciousness is absent. The sixth consciousness only operates upon the mental objects (dharma-objects) among the six sense objects. The solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) is not only busy by itself with the subjectively imagined realms of mental objects; the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) must also work together with the five sense consciousnesses, and is also responsible for transmitting intelligence to the seventh consciousness, serving as assistant and advisor. It is like in an army: the staff officers are busy gathering intelligence, analyzing the military situation and the posture of both sides, and finally submit all the gathered and analyzed intelligence to the commander, who decides whether to fight the battle and how to fight it. The staff officer corresponds to the mind consciousness, and the manas corresponds to the commander. Of course, the commander is also busy directing throughout the process, only in a different form of busyness. Those who specifically gather intelligence are the five sense consciousnesses; they correspond to orderlies and sentries, responsible for standing guard and conducting reconnaissance, while the sixth consciousness is responsible for analysis and synthesis, providing appropriate suggestions to the commander. Because the work done by the six consciousnesses is rather concrete, they can feel suffering, pleasure, and fatigue, and need to rest from time to time. But the eighth consciousness never rests; no matter what situation arises, even if the seventh consciousness chooses to abandon the mundane world of the three realms, the eighth consciousness does not cease along with it.