The Harmonious Operation of Eye Consciousness and Mind Consciousness (III)

If there were no material sense-objects (rūpa-viṣaya), the arising of consciousness would lack an important condition, and the eighth consciousness would be unable to give rise to the six consciousnesses; of course, the six consciousnesses would then not exist. When the material sense-object disappears, the eye consciousness and mind consciousness that were originally discerning that material sense-object immediately cease along with it; once consciousness has ceased, it can no longer discern the material sense-object, and there is no object to discern either. Therefore, from beginningless kalpas until now, the eighth consciousness has never had a moment of leisure, has never rested, and has never stopped; it is in this way, untiring and unceasing, that He operates constantly, serving us selflessly.

If someone says that he can see form by means of the eye consciousness alone, is this possible? It is not possible. A form-appearance has visible form (sanidarśana-rūpa), shape (saṃsthāna-rūpa), expressive form (vijñapti-rūpa), and non-expressive form (avijñapti-rūpa). Visible form means colors—the colors of blue, yellow, red, and white. The eye consciousness can only discriminate visible form; it cannot discriminate shape, expressive form, or non-expressive form. When a person looks at form, he cannot merely look at the visible form of the material sense-object; he must also look at the shape of the form and the content of the form—shape, expressive form, and non-expressive form all must be discerned. What is the essence of the form? What are the names and characteristics of the form? All must be known before the discrimination is complete. Therefore, the participation and discernment of the mind consciousness is absolutely required in order to clearly know the material sense-object. Apart from colors, the remaining forms all belong to form included in the realm of dharmas (dharma-āyatana-parigṛhīta-rūpa), which is discerned by the mind consciousness; only colors such as blue, yellow, red, and white are discerned by the eye consciousness. Only when the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness jointly and harmoniously discern together can we know what the material sense-object actually is.

Therefore, to see a form, to see a form clearly, and to analyze and judge what the material sense-object one sees actually is, the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness must operate jointly and harmoniously; only when the two discriminate together can we know what the object before us is. Before us is a book, before us are tables and chairs, before us is a cup—these objects not only have colors, but also shapes such as long, short, square, and round, as well as content such as material and texture; there is a great deal of content that needs to be discriminated. The eye consciousness alone could never discriminate it very clearly; the mind consciousness must simultaneously discriminate together with the eye consciousness. Only when the two operate in harmonious conjunction can we see clearly these material forms (rūpa-dharma).