Mind Consciousness's Direct Perception and Discernment at the Time of Eradicating the View of Self and Seeing the Mind and Realizing One's Nature

When eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the mind consciousness can directly observe the arising-and-ceasing, illusory nature, the nature of suffering, and the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), and clearly knows in the mind that the five aggregates are not the self, are not different from self, and that the five aggregates and the eighth consciousness are not located within each other. This knowing is direct-perception knowing, because "the five aggregates are not the self" is a true principle, called the truth. The mind consciousness's cognition of this truth is real and actual, and at the same time it overturns all previous wrong views. Therefore, what the mind consciousness sees at this moment is a view in accordance with reality, a complete direct-perception discernment, which corrects the previous non-valid cognition; this is the direct-perception cognition of wisdom. Therefore, the true eradication of the view of self is a direct-perception state.

At the time of seeing the mind, the mind consciousness realizes the true self, the eighth consciousness, and can then directly observe the nature and functioning of the eighth consciousness, observing its purity, its tathatā nature, its unborn and undying nature, its unmoving and unshaking nature, and so on. Such observation by the mind consciousness is direct-perception discernment, a direct-perception state. The five statements of "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" spoken by the Sixth Patriarch at his enlightenment were precisely the direct-perception state of direct observation and personal realization. The combined functioning of the eighth consciousness together with the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses is an activity occurring right now, something actual and present; the mind consciousness's observation and discernment at this time is direct-perception discernment—that is, when the mind consciousness realizes the eighth consciousness, it is a direct-perception state of wisdom, without a trace of inference or non-valid cognition. If it were non-valid cognition, there would be no true seeing of the mind or enlightenment to speak of; such "enlightenment" would be an imagined enlightenment, not a real enlightenment, because there has been no personal realization.

At the time of seeing the Buddha-nature with the eyes, one realizes the illusory-like view of the entire body-mind world, able to directly and vividly experience the wondrous functioning of the Buddha-nature, and to directly and truly feel that one's own body-mind world is illusory and transformed. Therefore, the mind consciousness at this time is in direct-perception discernment, a direct-perception state of wisdom, not a state of inference or non-valid cognition; otherwise it would be an imagined seeing of the Buddha-nature, not a real seeing of the Buddha-nature, because there has been no personal realization. In the course of cultivation after seeing the mind and seeing the Buddha-nature, the realization of various contemplative practices (vipaśyanā-caryā) is all direct-perception discernment of the mind consciousness, all direct-perception states. The deeper the cultivation, the more the mind consciousness's direct-perception states increase, and the fewer the states of inference and non-valid cognition. Cultivating all the way to the buddha-bhūmi, the mind consciousness at the buddha-bhūmi is entirely a direct-perception state, with no state of inference, and even less any state of non-valid cognition.