Discriminative Nature of the Five Consciousnesses

The discriminative nature of the five consciousnesses depends on the sixth consciousness to manifest. Subsequently, they possess simple discrimination and discernment. For example, when the eye consciousness initially fails to see an object clearly, it must apply mental attention again, contact the form-dust, receive the form-dust, then distinguish the form-dust, and finally grasp the image of the form-dust—merely without verbal designation. Then the volitional mental factor (cetanā) arises, performing the function of decision-making, determining whether to accept and continue looking or to avoid looking. The eye consciousness can also perceive simple feelings of pleasure and pain, but without emotional coloring and lacking subtlety. The ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness are all the same. Because the eye consciousness has the capacity for discernment, when looking at an object, it needs to examine it repeatedly, to look carefully and meticulously, in order to make a final decision and judgment. Of course, this simultaneously involves the cooperative function of the conscious mind (mano-vijñāna). The five consciousnesses cannot independently discern the objects of the five sense-fields (pañca-viṣaya), because the five consciousnesses can only discern the coarse aspects within the five sense-fields. More detailed content requires the cooperative discernment of the sense-accompanying consciousness (pañca-vijñāna-sahaja-manas) to fully discern the complete five sense-fields.