What Exactly Is the Thought-Free Spiritual Knowing Mind?

The eighth consciousness pervades all times, all levels of meditation, all places, all realms, and all dharmas. "Pervading all times" means that the eighth consciousness exists moment by moment, never departing from sentient beings, never departing from the seventh consciousness, the manas, and never departing from the five aggregates. "Pervading all levels of meditation" means that sentient beings in the nine levels of the three realms all have the existence of the eighth consciousness; every sentient being has the eighth consciousness, and every sentient being existing in the nine levels of the three realms has the eighth consciousness. Even after transcending the three realms and entering Nirvāṇa without remainder, the eighth consciousness still exists—only there is no longer any sentient being oneself.

"Pervading all places" means that the eighth consciousness pervades the six sense faculties and also pervades the six sense objects; whenever a sentient being's six faculties contact the six sense objects, the eighth consciousness is present and manifest. "Pervading all realms" means that the eighth consciousness is present in the six sense faculties, present in the six sense objects, and also present in the six consciousnesses. "Pervading all dharmas" means that as long as a dharma exists, whether or not it can be cognized, the eighth consciousness sustains it; whether it is material form or mind, the eighth consciousness holds and maintains it; whether it is a conditioned dharma or an unconditioned dharma, the eighth consciousness sustains it. As long as there are existing dharmas—all human affairs, events, principles, and phenomena—the eighth consciousness sustains them.

Many people do not understand whether the thought-free knowing mind is the sixth consciousness or the eighth consciousness. Now let us analyze this thought-free knowing mind. "Thought-free" means that at this moment there happen to be no thoughts or wandering ideas; "knowing" means vividly and clearly aware—aware that one is free of thoughts, aware that one has no thoughts, aware that one temporarily has no wandering ideas or thinking, and in this thought-free state one can even cognize other states of realm. So how many consciousnesses are there in this thought-free state? Since the eighth consciousness pervades all times, the eighth consciousness must certainly be present at this time; otherwise there would be no existence of the five aggregates, no existence of the seven consciousnesses, and no existence of the thought-free state at all.

Is the seventh consciousness present at this time? Of course it is. If there were no seventh consciousness, the sentient being would have entered Nirvāṇa without remainder, and the state of thought-free knowing could not possibly occur. Is the sixth consciousness present here? Of course it is also present. Except in five situations where the sixth consciousness ceases—namely, when asleep without dreaming, when unconscious, at the time of death, in the meditative absorption of no-perception, and in the meditative absorption of cessation—and since thought-free knowing does not belong to these five situations, this shows that the sixth consciousness mind is also present. Moreover, one can still cognize the mental sense-object state of being without thoughts, which shows that the knowing mind present during thought-free knowing is precisely the sixth consciousness. As for whether the first five consciousnesses are present during thought-free knowing, as long as one can cognize the existence of the five sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, that is the cognition of the five consciousnesses.

Since during thought-free knowing there are at least these three consciousnesses—the eighth, the seventh, and the sixth—if someone claims to have become enlightened at this time, which consciousness was realized? Here there is a great difference: if one realizes correctly, one realizes the eighth consciousness; if one realizes wrongly, one realizes the sixth consciousness. The seventh consciousness is generally not easy to realize, and the eighth consciousness is also not easy to realize; this requires special conditions. These special conditions are the conditions of the bodhisattva's six perfections taught by the Buddha. If the conditions of the six perfections are not complete, it is impossible to realize the eighth consciousness, impossible to see the mind and become a bodhisattva of true meaning, impossible to leave the stage of an ordinary being, and thereby one will never in the future fall into the three evil destinies.

If this person's practice is deficient in merit, without keeping precepts, with a character not yet good enough, insufficient in forbearance, not diligent in the study and practice of generosity, precepts, forbearance, meditative concentration, and prajñā, without even attaining preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) in meditative concentration, without complete knowledge and view of the Buddha-dharma, and without understanding the nature of the eighth consciousness—then it is obvious that this person, no matter what, cannot realize the eighth consciousness. If someone believes they became enlightened at this time, they should carefully examine which consciousness they actually realized. Only after thoroughly learning and understanding the natures of all eight consciousnesses, and then judging one's own and others' realizations, will one know what was realized.