Eliminating the Self-View That Takes the Mind Consciousness as Self (7)

There is also the mind consciousness that arises together with the body consciousness. The conditions for this mind consciousness to arise require that the body faculty be intact and undamaged—that is, that we are not paralyzed. The conditions for the mind consciousness to arise are: there must be a body faculty, a body consciousness, the manas, the eighth consciousness, the mind consciousness's own seeds, and also touch objects (sparśa-dharma). Touch objects include external touch objects and internal touch objects. External touch objects are emitted by external objects; they come into contact with our body and are then transformed by the eighth consciousness into internal representations of touch objects. Internal touch objects are touch objects produced within our physical body, such as: thirst, hunger, satiety, fatigue, comfort, and so on. Only with these conditions can our mind consciousness be manifested by the eighth consciousness, and only then can it discern the touch objects within the body—discerning whether I am hungry now, whether I am thirsty now, whether I am fatigued, where the pain is now, where it is comfortable now, where it feels pleasant now. This is the mind consciousness discerning the touch objects of the body.

The mind consciousness can also discern touch objects outside the body, such as how warm and mild the sunlight is when it shines on the body, how gentle the breeze is when it blows on the body, or how fierce the wind is when it lashes against my body, how painful it is when an object strikes my body—discerning and feeling all kinds of touch objects is the function of the mind consciousness. Of course, the body consciousness also operates together within this. The mind consciousness discerns what kind of touch object it is, whether it is good or bad, and what its effects and consequences are. Then various mental activities arise; these are all the mental activities of the mind consciousness. These mental activities are subject to certain conditions; without these conditions, the mental activities cannot arise. Therefore, the mind consciousness is subject to arising and ceasing, is produced by causes and conditions, and thus lacks self-mastery (avaśatā) and autonomy. So this mind consciousness that arises together with the body consciousness is not the self, and we must not take Him to be the self.