The Consciousness-Based Verification of Attainments Is Utterly Unreliable

Question: Some say that after attaining awakening, one may forget the content of that awakening. If one forgets the awakening, does that mean they no longer belong to the awakened? How can awakening be forgotten?

Answer: Recollection and forgetting are functions of consciousness. Consciousness, being dependently arisen, is subject to birth, cessation, and change. When conditions are insufficient, consciousness weakens and disappears. For instance, if the brain suffers from disease, experiences trauma, undergoes mental shock, or atrophies with age, the functions of consciousness weaken and fail to operate normally. This results in an inability to recall many past events, people, objects, or principles, which is called forgetting.

Moreover, when consciousness vanishes entirely, no past events or experiences can be recalled. For example, during sleep, coma, death, or after rebirth, consciousness disappears, and past experiences are temporarily or permanently eradicated. In the bardo state, there exists a faint consciousness, but its functions are limited and controlled by karma, leaving no room for autonomous action.

If awakening merely means the consciousness comprehending certain principles, this is highly unreliable. Consciousness arises dependent on causes and conditions, changes extremely rapidly, and can transform in an instant under certain influences—it can change in an instant, turn on a dime, or forget things suddenly, leaving the mind blank in a mere moment of drowsiness. Therefore, without undergoing the arduous process of meditation, attempting to leap directly to a general result without tempering the seventh consciousness (manas) means this result can vanish as easily as it appeared, yielding no substantial merit or benefit.

Without progressing through concrete stages of spiritual practice or engaging in diligent meditation, the seventh consciousness remains untempered. One can only rely on the reasoning, imagination, speculation, and conjecture of the sixth consciousness, lacking any direct perception (pratyakṣa). All such mental activity is indirect inference (anumāna) or erroneous cognition (non-perception). Content grasped through conjecture can naturally be forgotten at any time, becoming ineffective. It cannot guide physical, verbal, or mental actions, nor can it manifest as an uninterrupted, continuous state of mind. It may not even last a few minutes, and its eventual cessation is inevitable.

However, through the diligent process of meditation and investigation, the seventh consciousness becomes involved. Upon realizing the true nature of mind—the state of direct perception and wisdom—samadhi arises. Physical, verbal, and mental actions become pure, leading to uninterrupted realization. In this case, the sixth consciousness cannot forget or lose this realization, nor can it regress. This is governed by the seventh consciousness. Once the seventh consciousness awakens, the sixth consciousness must follow and obey it, being directed and controlled by it. Even if forgotten, it cannot help but be recalled. In truth, it does not depend on whether the sixth consciousness remembers or not. Even if the sixth consciousness ceases, it does not matter—the seventh consciousness, having awakened, remains awakened forever. Whether asleep, comatose, deceased, or in the bardo state, one remains awakened.

Relying solely on the sixth consciousness in Buddhist practice leads to great loss. Depending on the impermanent, ever-changing, and unreliable sixth consciousness to resolve the great matter of birth and death shows a fundamental misunderstanding of spiritual practice. Just as one must eat to be full oneself, perpetual reliance on external conditions is futile—conditions will eventually cease. One cannot depend on them for countless eons. Thus, the wise do not place their trust in the constantly arising, ceasing, and changing, unreliable sixth consciousness. This principle applies to all matters, worldly and transcendental. To reiterate: the fruits attained through the sixth consciousness are like paper fruit—easily perishable.