Eliminating the Self-View of Taking the Mind Consciousness as Self (Six)

Next is the mind consciousness that arises together with the tongue consciousness. Under what conditions does He manifest? For His arising there must be the tongue faculty, and the tongue faculty must be intact and undamaged; there must be the tongue consciousness, as well as the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness; there must also be the seeds of consciousness for the mind consciousness, and there must be the object of taste in food and drink—only then can the mind consciousness manifest.

Once the mind consciousness has manifested, it can discern what kind of taste this is—the specific degree of sourness, sweetness, bitterness, spiciness, saltiness, or blandness, what kind of object it belongs to, whether it is delicious or not, and whether eating it is beneficial or unbeneficial to oneself. Then there must also be other mental activities: discerning, knowing, reasoning, analyzing, judging, and planning—all kinds of thinking are activities carried out by the mind consciousness. For the mind consciousness's thinking activities to arise, these causal conditions are required; if even one condition is lacking, the mind consciousness's thinking activities cannot manifest. Since this is a dharma that can only arise when the causes and conditions are complete, it is of course illusory—a impermanent dharma that arises and ceases, ceases and arises again—and is not the self.