The Beginningless Ignorance and Defiled Nature of the Seven Consciousnesses

The mind-substance of the first seven consciousnesses possesses both defilement and purity. Their defilement does not arise because the seven consciousnesses possess the nature of discrimination; rather, the seven consciousnesses themselves have harbored ignorance since beginningless kalpas, harboring the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and are inherently defiled. In the functioning of the myriad dharmas, and in the process of discriminating among them, the various defiling natures of the seven consciousnesses inevitably manifest. Because the seven consciousnesses themselves possess ignorance and do not know the true nature of the Dharma Realm, they continuously generate grasping mental activities toward the myriad dharmas of the Three Realms, causing the nature of greed-attachment to manifest actively.