Direct Perception and Discernment of the Six Consciousnesses (IV)

When the nose smells a fragrance, the odor is a directly present object of valid direct cognition, and both the nose consciousness and the mind consciousness can discern these directly present objects. In the first instant, the nose consciousness directly discerns the degree to which the odor stimulates the nasal mucosa; then, in the second instant, the mind consciousness discerns whether the odor is fragrant or foul. After that, the mind consciousness further discerns which kind of fragrance or which kind of foulness it is, to what degree the fragrance or foulness has reached, from what object it is emitted, and how far or how near it is from oneself, and so on. These mental sense-objects may be discerned by the mind consciousness through direct perception, but they may also be discerned through inference or erroneous cognition, because the mind consciousness's knowledge of odors is incomplete, and thus the discernment cannot be entirely direct perception. Only when wisdom reaches perfection will the discernment of all dharmas be direct perception—and perhaps only a Buddha can accomplish this.

If the Buddha still needed to discern by means of inference and erroneous cognition, then the Buddha would not be the possessor of the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā), which would indicate that the Buddha's wisdom still had imperfections, and that there would still be dharmas He could not know through direct perception. Then He could not be called the Buddha possessing the wisdom of all aspects; at most He would be a Wonderfully Awakened Bodhisattva. The Buddha can perfectly and directly know all dharmas in the world without comparison, imagination, or deliberation, because His wisdom and virtuous capabilities are perfectly and completely endowed.

When tasting food and drink, the tongue consciousness directly discerns the coarse taste sense-objects of the food and drink. The discernment in the first instant must be that of the tongue consciousness; the discernment in the second instant is that of the mind consciousness; and after the second instant, the two discern simultaneously. The mind consciousness discerns the subtle taste sense-objects of food and drink, discerning the specific flavors—sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, or bland—and their degrees. If the flavor is too strong and one cannot adapt to it, one will spit the food out; this is the result of the mind consciousness's direct perception. Of course, there is also discernment by inference and erroneous cognition involved: discernment based on memory is inference, while imagining the taste to be like some particular food or drink is erroneous cognition. If one's knowledge of taste sense-objects is limited, one must rely on discernment by inference and erroneous cognition, and the results are often mistaken. Even direct perception can sometimes be mistaken; it is not necessarily entirely correct. When the mind consciousness engages in discernment by inference and erroneous cognition, this is the solitary realm of the mind consciousness, in which the first five consciousnesses do not participate in such discernment.