Can the Eighth Consciousness Discriminate the Six Sense Objects?

When hearing sounds, there is the functional operation of the ear consciousness, the functional operation of the mind consciousness, the functional operation of the manas, and the functional operation of the eighth consciousness. Here we only discuss the functional operation of the mind consciousness. The functional operation of the eye consciousness is easy to understand; the functional operation of the manas is relatively deep and subtle and hard to comprehend; and the functional operation of the eighth consciousness absolutely must not be discussed.

If, apart from the eye consciousness, mind consciousness, and manas, the eighth consciousness could hear sounds, then let the eighth consciousness hear the sounds of the worlds in the ten directions. However, even if the eighth consciousness could hear all sounds, what would that have to do with the mind consciousness? The mind consciousness still could not know the content of the sounds. When an arhat enters Nirvāṇa without remainder, if his eighth consciousness could hear sounds and could do anything at all, would such a nirvāṇa still be tranquil? If the eighth consciousness could hear sounds, could it know whether a voice is male or female? Could it know whether a sound is pleasant? Could it know where a sound comes from? Could it understand what music it is? As for these written words, would the eighth consciousness know what their content is? Could the knowing of the eighth consciousness substitute for the knowing of the mind consciousness? If it could, then the five aggregates and the six consciousnesses could all be extinguished forever, and this would not affect seeing forms, hearing sounds, or listening to the Dharma, nor would it affect the activities of the five aggregates.

If the eighth consciousness additionally had the master-deciding functional operation of the manas, then the self-nature of the eighth consciousness would leap off the page, and it would no longer be the eighth consciousness devoid of self-nature. If this "self" were to create karma, it would be in no way weaker than the seven consciousnesses; then birth, death, and saṃsāra would be the eighth consciousness's own affair, having nothing to do with the seven consciousnesses and the five aggregates. This would completely overturn the existing theoretical system of the Buddha's teachings and establish a new system of Buddhadharma. Which system is correct and accords with truth and fact? Since the eighth consciousness could discern the realms of the six sense objects, then let the eighth consciousness do everything, and let the seven consciousnesses take a rest—even sleeping in a dead faint for a hundred years would be no problem.

There are also people who say that pushing out a fist, raising a palm, rubbing one's fists and palms together, and so on and so forth, is the eighth consciousness, and that knowing this is enlightenment. Fine then, henceforth whenever something needs to be done, let us have the eighth consciousness do it while the seven consciousnesses all go off to rest. After death there would be nothing to worry about either, because the eighth consciousness can do anything and can completely substitute for the body of the five aggregates. After falling asleep or passing out in a faint, just let the eighth consciousness see forms, hear sounds, smell scents, taste flavors, feel touches, and know dharmas. It would not matter at all if the six consciousnesses ceased, and it would be fine even without the manas.

If one cannot clearly distinguish the functional operations of the true and the false, then one should not talk about attaining the fruits or seeing the mind or anything of the sort. With enlightenment like this—seeing the mind in this way—even those who awaken to the "lucid awareness free of thought" can do it, and some of them do indeed awaken in this way. The awakenings of the various schools and lineages—many of them are also awakenings of this kind. But these awakenings are all quite bizarre: they take the false as the true and fail to distinguish the true from the false, no different from not having awakened to the esoteric meaning at all.