Mentally fabricating and imagining the eighth consciousness is not the same as personally realizing it

There are some people who previously claimed to have realized the eighth consciousness, but now they have changed their tune, saying that enlightenment is the realization of true suchness (tathatā), not the realization of the eighth consciousness. Everyone, tell me: what was going on with these people's original so-called awakening? Whether or not one understands the relationship between the eighth consciousness and true suchness is one thing; the most important thing is that they never even figured out what actually happened to themselves in the first place, and then all along they regarded themselves as sages and even taught others to realize the eighth consciousness. Is this not utterly foolish and laughable behavior? This shows that their original so-called realization of the eighth consciousness was purely imagined and fabricated in their minds, not realized through actual practice. A dharma that has been truly realized, no matter what conditions one encounters, can never later be denied, or left ambiguous and vague—neither daring to affirm it nor daring to deny it, agonizing in torment. Things fabricated through imagination and inference, at the slightest disturbance, will make one paranoid and suspicious, not daring to hold to one's own view; and even those who can hold to their views may not have arrived at them by anything other than inference. 

Nowadays, the discourse on the eighth consciousness is in utter chaos—no matter how it is explained, it cannot be made clear. A pond of water is murky from the bottom all the way to the surface; previously, the bottom was murky but the surface was still clear, but now it is not—everything from the bottom to the surface is murky. Why is this? Because of eagerness for quick success and instant benefit, unwilling to pay the corresponding price, yet urgently craving great empty fame, with vanity swelling, unable to distinguish true from false, caring only to build castles in the air. Therefore, if one does not cultivate diligently from the foundations, does not practice step by solid step, then in the end one will disdain to cultivate the foundational dharmas while being unable to realize the higher dharmas—succeeding at neither the low nor the high. What will be the outcome when one approaches the end of life? The most extreme case of fabricating enlightenment in the mind is the claim that a dwelling-stage bodhisattva who has just awakened can observe what only bodhisattvas at several bhūmis can observe—that all dharmas are the seed-functions of the eighth consciousness. The scale of this mental fabrication is astonishing; no one can reach such a height, and even the returning of the patriarchs and great masters would be helpless against it.

Those who stir up the pond water have great merit: they have churned up the monster hidden at the bottom of the pond and brought it to the surface, so that everyone can clearly see what kind of demon has been lurking at the bottom, secretly harming the visitors. If we had to wait until future generations to recognize the monster, it would be too late—let alone that future generations may not necessarily have the opportunity to recognize it. The sooner the monster shows its form and is cleared away, the sooner the poison is recognized, the sooner people awaken, and the less they will be harmed.