The Mind Consciousness's Direct Perception and Discernment in the Elimination of Self-View and Awakening to the True Mind and Seeing Buddha-Nature

When eliminating the view of self, the mind consciousness can directly observe the arising-and-ceasing, illusory nature, the nature of suffering, and the emptiness of the five aggregates, and clearly know in the mind that the five aggregates are not self, are not different from self (na m’eso attâ ti), and that the five aggregates and the eighth consciousness do not dwell within one another. This knowing is a knowing of direct perception/valid direct cognition, because the fact that the five aggregates are not 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 time is a view in accordance with reality, a complete direct perception/valid direct cognition, which corrects the previous erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition; this is the direct-perception cognition of wisdom. Therefore, true elimination of the view of self is a state of direct perception/valid direct cognition.

At the time of seeing one's true mind/awakening to the true 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 suchness, its unborn and undying nature, its unmoving and unshaking nature, and so forth. Such observation by the mind consciousness is direct perception/valid direct cognition, a state of direct perception/valid direct cognition. The five declarations of "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" spoken by the Sixth Patriarch at his enlightenment were precisely a state of direct perception/valid direct cognition realized through direct observation. The harmonious functioning of the eighth consciousness together with the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses is an activity occurring right now, something actual; the mind consciousness's observation and discernment at this time is direct perception/valid direct cognition—that is, the mind consciousness's realization of the eighth consciousness is a wisdom state of direct perception/valid direct cognition, without the slightest inference or erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition. If it were discernment of erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition, there could be no true seeing of one's true mind or enlightenment to speak of; such an "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 illusion-like contemplation of the entire body-and-mind world, and can directly and vividly experience the wondrous functioning of the Buddha-nature, directly and truly experiencing the illusory and transformed nature of one's own body-and-mind world. Thus the mind consciousness at this time is in direct perception/valid direct cognition, a wisdom state of direct perception/valid direct cognition, not a state of inference or erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition; otherwise it would be an imagined seeing of the nature, not a real seeing of the nature, because there has been no personal realization. In the course of cultivation after seeing one's true mind and seeing the Buddha-nature, the realization of various contemplative practices (vipaśyanā-caryā) is all the mind consciousness's direct perception/valid direct cognition, all states of direct perception/valid direct cognition. The deeper the cultivation, the more the mind consciousness's states of direct perception/valid direct cognition increase, and the fewer the states of inference and erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition become. Cultivating all the way to the buddha stage, the mind consciousness at the buddha stage is entirely a state of direct perception/valid direct cognition, with no state of inference, and still less any state of erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition.