Black Box World (25)

When one has cultivated to the point of possessing the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only (wei-shi zhong-zhi), upon coming into contact with another person, one can perceive a portion of that person's karmic seeds, and thus will know the general circumstances of that person's past lives and can also judge the general circumstances of that person's future lives—often one's reading of people is quite accurate. Two tathāgatagarbhas can communicate with each other; for a person who possesses the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, his mind consciousness can perceive the general circumstances of the other person through his own tathāgatagarbha, whereas for one who lacks this wisdom, it is very difficult. Therefore, at times, sentient beings themselves do not yet know their own mental activities, while others have already come to know them, understanding them even better than they understand themselves. As soon as a person opens his mouth to speak, he himself may feel there is nothing to it, yet a great deal of his information has already leaked out, and he himself is unaware of it. Information about the other person can be perceived from many different angles; of course, face-to-face perception is somewhat more accurate—observing the other person's facial features, watching expressions and speech, observing the other person's expressed form (saṃsthāna-rūpa) and non-expressed form (avijñapti-rūpa), appearance, temperament, bearing, and so on—one's understanding will be more comprehensive and more accurate. All of these are the wisdom that the tathāgatagarbha bestows upon the mind consciousness.