Lectures on the Mahāyāna Treatise of the Hundred Dharma Gates — Talk 7

Now, the sixth consciousness. What is it exactly? It's the function of discerning mental objects, and it depends on the faculty of manas. Note: the root the sixth consciousness relies on is the seventh consciousness, manas. Take this eraser—what an eraser this is~~ already worn out, isn't it~~ and yet you keep on using it like this~~ hurry up and buy a new one! Woven through these thoughts, my seeing this eraser is the function of eye-consciousness. "It's already ruined, can't be used any more, yet we keep on using it—hurry up and buy a new one." That kind of discriminating thought is the function of the sixth consciousness. A car passes by outside and honks—surely that horn must be broken, the sound is unbearable, not the least bit crisp. My ear hears the horn: that's ear-consciousness. The judgment that the sound is awful: that's the discriminating function of the sixth consciousness. …

Let's now turn to the kinds of cognition belonging to the sixth consciousness. There are three:

a. Direct perception (现量). We've already covered this.

b. Inference (比量). What's inference? It's when, through reasoning, you arrive at a correct conclusion—and the cognition at that moment is inference. In ancient times—how far back? The Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, say—the feudal lords were constantly warring with one another. When enemies invaded at the frontier, how was word sent back to the troops behind so they could come and reinforce? Riding a horse was too slow, so they built beacon towers. When enemies attacked at the border, they'd immediately light the beacons. Those towers burned wolf dung—which, as it happens, doesn't produce flames but only smoke. Isn't there an idiom, "smoke rising on all four sides" (狼烟四起)? That refers to the unceasing wars along the frontier. The troops in the rear, seeing the beacons flare up ahead, knew there were enemies attacking. For a raid of around a hundred, a single pyre; for a force of around five hundred, two pyres… the number of pyres varied with the size of the enemy, and those behind understood. My seeing smoke rising ahead and knowing enemies must be attacking—that's inference. Is my example absolutely correct? Actually, no. Back then, King You of Zhou, wanting to coax a smile from his consort Bao Si, actually lit the beacons, giving us the idiom "a smile worth a thousand gold." So this example isn't quite apt. The classical example from the old texts is "seeing smoke and knowing there's fire": I see black smoke curling up in the distance and infer there must be a fire—that's accurate inference. Seeing a beacon ablaze and inferring an enemy invasion, and the enemy really is invading—that's inference too. But the "thousand-gold smile" was a case of false inference, so it doesn't count.

c. Misperception (非量). Misperception is the kind of cognition you have when you're full of baseless suspicion. A famous story: host A invites guest B to drink at his home. A bow hangs on the wall of A's parlor. B picks up his cup and suddenly notices a small snake in his wine, but out of politeness forces himself to drink it down. He goes home, falls ill, and keeps feeling there's a little snake in his belly. A hears about this and invites B to drink again. This time, right in front of B, A takes the bow down from the wall and says, "Old friend, do you see a snake in your cup now?" B realizes at once that the so-called snake was merely the shadow of the bow—giving us the idiom "mistaking the reflection of a bow in the cup for a snake" (杯弓蛇影). The cognition of B, who suspected he'd swallowed a snake and couldn't settle his mind—that's misperception. Another story: a scholar going up to the capital for the imperial exams lodges in a temple. He's quite timid, and suddenly spots what looks like a hanged ghost dangling from the tree outside his window. The more frightened he gets, the less he can sleep. This alerts the old abbot, who goes out and looks beneath the tree—no hanged ghost, just a large robe that had been washed during the day and forgotten outside at night. The scholar's cognition when terrified by the robe was also misperception. The examples often cited in the Buddhist scriptures are "rope-snake" and "fire-wheel": at dusk you see a snake on the ground, but it's only a length of hemp rope; a single candle flame, spun quickly, becomes a ring of light.

The objects the sixth consciousness cognizes also fall into three categories:

a. Reality-characteristic object (性境). Already covered.

b. Solely imagined object (独影境). I see a great garden appear in the sky—do you all see it? No? But I really saw it! Believe it or not. As far as this goes, none of you saw it, and indeed there was nothing there—the sky has never produced a garden—but I saw it, which means something's off with me. Medicine knows plenty of such cases—visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, all sorts. A garden in the sky is just a hallucination, and that's a solely imagined object. A mental patient hears someone speaking to him—that's hallucination too, still a solely imagined object. I tell you, "there's a rabbit with horns"—impossible, but a rabbit with horns is likewise a solely imagined object. Do you all know how Li Bai died? Sitting in his boat drinking wine, when thoroughly tipsy he looks down into the Yangtze—"Oh, there's a moon in the river, let me scoop it up!"—and leaps in. He didn't scoop up the moon, but he did lose his life. A great poet dying that way—truly a bit undignified. He took the moon's reflection for the real moon, which is still a solely imagined object. As for things concerning past or future, and purely illusory objects like turtle fur, rabbit horns, and flowers in the sky, we call these imageless solely imagined objects (无质独影境); while the moon in the water and the image in a mirror are solely imagined objects that nonetheless possess a real basis (有质独影境).

c. Object with real basis (带质境). For example, when manas cognizes the perceiving aspect of the eighth consciousness and grasps it as "I," that becomes the perceived aspect cognized by manas—that's an object with a real basis. It's nearly time for class to end; I've been standing so long, I'm tired. I think: "It would be so nice to have a chair to sit on." The mind thinking of a chair is also an object with a real basis—because what the sixth consciousness cognizes is only the image of a chair.

The sixth consciousness pervades the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the indeterminate (善、恶、无记). Its range of activity is the three realms and nine stages (三界九地), and the mental factors associated with it include all fifty-one. It's also the most powerful agent of karma. For the sixth consciousness to arise in active manifestation, it requires six conditions: the object, attention, the defiled-or-pure basis, the fundamental basis, and the seed.

When the sixth consciousness arises together with the first five, it's called five-accompanying consciousness (五俱意识). It has three functions:

A. It helps the first five consciousnesses to arise—only under its guidance can the senses function, like a teacher with students: although it's the students who learn, a teacher must lead the way.

B. It clearly and deeply grasps the aspects of the five sense-objects. The eye sees a table; the consciousness can make the recognition of that table clearer.

C. It draws forth a subsequent seeking consciousness for deliberation. The eye sees this table; without the consciousness, the next moment would have no idea what the previous moment saw.

The five-accompanying consciousness can be subdivided further into same-object consciousness (五同缘意识)—when it shares the same object as the first five—and different-object consciousness (不同缘意识), when it does not share the object of the first five but cognizes something else. For example, Einstein, while pushing his child's stroller on a walk, was thinking about relativity in his head and ended up forgetting where he'd left the child. There's also the everyday "looking without seeing, listening without hearing"—also instances of different-object consciousness.

If it's same-object consciousness, its kind of cognition must be direct perception. If it's different-object consciousness, the cognition may be inference or misperception, but it can never be direct perception. For instance, the eye sees a length of rope, and the sixth consciousness instantly distinguishes whether it's hemp rope or coir rope: at that moment both eye-consciousness and sixth consciousness cognize the rope, and the cognition is inference. If the eye sees a length of rope—eye-consciousness cognizing the rope's appearance—but the sixth consciousness mistakes it for a snake, then the sixth consciousness is cognizing a snake, and the cognition here is misperception.

When the sixth consciousness does not arise together with the first five, it's called non-accompanying consciousness (不俱意识). Among these there's solitary consciousness (独头意识), which arises alone, not together with the first five. For example, a practitioner deep in dhyāna, in any of the absorptions of the form or formless realms—the first five consciousnesses don't manifest; the consciousness cognizing the present object at such a moment can be called solitary consciousness in samadhi (定中独头意识). Note: anyone with solitary consciousness in samadhi has certainly not yet attained great freedom.

When the sixth consciousness doesn't arise with the first five but merely recalls the past or imagines the future, it's called scattered solitary consciousness (独散意识). Another example: dreaming—this is the function of consciousness, what we call dream-consciousness (梦中意识). Dream-consciousness is still a kind of scattered solitary consciousness. There's one more type of non-accompanying consciousness, called five-after consciousness (五后意识), which arises in a moment right after the first five. The cognition of solitary consciousness in samadhi is direct perception. Scattered solitary consciousness and dream-consciousness may be inference or misperception—they can never be direct perception. Five-after consciousness likewise can never be direct perception; it may be inference or misperception. For instance, the eye sees smoke in the distance, and the sixth consciousness instantly infers there must be a fire there—inference. But if you see the smoke and, like Sun Wukong, immediately suppose it must be a demon shaking those three bells—that's misperception.

When the first six consciousnesses arise in active manifestation, there's also a five-stage sequence called the five moments (五心). Note: not every consciousness has five moments.

A. The first-arising moment (率尔心). The first instant the first six consciousnesses engage an object (one instant).

B. The seeking moment (寻求心). Once that first instant has passed, owing to the influence of saṃskāra, although the bright flow has ceased, the dark flow continues. The perceiving aspect of consciousness, engaging this present object, investigates and seeks, wanting to know what kind of object it really is (may last several instants).

C. The decisive moment (决定心). After passing through the first-arising and seeking moments, with the dark flow of saṃskāra still ongoing, the perceiving aspect of consciousness now knows what kind of object it's dealing with (may last several instants).

D. The defiled-or-pure moment (染净心). Once the decisive moment has determined the object, discrimination arises (one instant).

E. The equal-flow moment (等流心). "Equal" means similar; "equal-flow" means "issuing from that, similar to it." Drawn on by the defiled-or-pure moment—and again because of the dark flow of saṃskāra—the flow, wholesome or unwholesome, rises up similar to what came before (may last several instants).

For example, I'm walking along the road and suddenly see a certain person up ahead. In that instant, eye-consciousness and sixth consciousness engage the object, and the first-arising moment is there. In an instant I think, "That person looks so familiar—who on earth is it?" That's the seeking moment. This moment may be one instant or several. While the sixth consciousness is in its seeking moment, the eye-consciousness—lacking strength and discriminating power—can't turn things around and just goes along: that's the eye-consciousness's seeking moment. After seeking and seeking, I finally recall: "Ah, a classmate from middle school, and once when I was in danger swimming, he was the one who saved me." That's the sixth consciousness's decisive moment; the eye-consciousness still follows along. Once the decisive moment has passed, I'm immediately overcome with gratitude toward this person, and wholesome intention rises up—that's the defiled-or-pure moment. "For all these years, how could I have forgotten my benefactor? I should repay him." This is the wholesome intention from the defiled-or-pure moment continuing on—it's the equal-flow moment. The way these five moments link up in sequence can sometimes be quite complex and needs careful analysis.

This first six consciousnesses are what Consciousness-Only calls the third evolver. Next, let's look at the seventh consciousness. The seventh is called manas, written Manas. In Chinese, manas would be translated as "mind" (意). The sixth consciousness is called "mind-consciousness" (意识), while the seventh is called simply "mind" (意). What's the difference between the two? The "mind-consciousness" of the sixth is a dependent compound (依主释) in the six modes of compounding — a consciousness that depends on the mind-faculty. The "mind" of the seventh manas-consciousness, however, is an explanatory compound (持业释), meaning "the mind itself is consciousness." That's the distinction.

Q: What on earth are the six modes of compounding?

If a single dharma carries two or more meanings, we have six methods for distinguishing its meanings. These are the six modes of compounding:

A. Explanatory compound (持业释) — the dharma has two meanings but only one essence, as with "Mahāyāna" (Great Vehicle). B. Dependent compound (依主释) — the dharma is established as that which depends, based on that which it depends on, as with "mind-consciousness" and "eye-consciousness." C. Disjunctive compound (相违释) — the two meanings of the dharma are not the same thing; both are included, as with "doctrine-and-contemplation" (教观). The "doctrine" and the "contemplation" are two entirely different things. D. Adjacent compound (邻近释) — for example, the "four foundations of mindfulness" (四念处). The essence of the four foundations is actually "wisdom," but the "mindfulness" (念) associated with it is very strong. E. Numeral compound (带数释) — as with the "Four Noble Truths," the "Noble Eightfold Path," the "twelve links of dependent origination." F. Possessive compound (有财释). [Note: this last one was forgotten at the time; now supplied.]

This time we won't analyze them in depth, just give a brief introduction. In other words, we'll only explain how the seventh and eighth consciousnesses are, without going into why they are so. Time won't allow it.

Let's return to the seventh manas-consciousness. The "mind" (意) of manas means "to deliberate, to weigh." Every consciousness carries a sense of "deliberation," but the deliberation of manas has two distinctive features:

A. Continuous without interruption, grasping onto the ālaya-consciousness. What does continuous without interruption mean? Thought following thought in unbroken succession — moment after moment, just so. The previous six consciousnesses lack this feature of constancy. Take the eye-consciousness: the moment the eyes close, the eye-consciousness ceases to function. The same applies to ear-, tongue-, body-, and mind-consciousness.

B. Examination. What is examination? It is to calculate and to discriminate.

Because of these two features, only the seventh manas is called "mind" or "deliberation." This "constancy" and "examination" of manas is no small matter — it becomes the root of our birth-and-death. Why can't we attain liberation? Precisely because of this manas. As the Verses on the Standards of the Eight Consciousnesses says, "Sentient beings, day and night, are forever stupefied."

The object that the seventh manas-consciousness cognizes is a doubly-conditioned object (带质境). It always takes the perceiving aspect (见分) of the eighth ālaya-consciousness as the underlying substance, and transforms it into a perceived aspect (相分) to grasp. Since this is mind cognizing mind, it is naturally a true doubly-conditioned object. The "cognizing" here has three meanings: A. observing; B. discriminating; C. fixed apprehension.

The nature of the seventh manas-consciousness is indeterminate (无记).

The valid cognition of the seventh manas-consciousness is nonvalid (非量). This is mainly because the perceiving aspect of the ālaya flows on continuously, possessing characteristics of seeming permanence and oneness, which deceives the manas-consciousness into always grasping it as "self."

The mental factors associated with the seventh manas-consciousness are these — the eight major secondary afflictions: distrust, laziness, lack of restraint, drowsiness, agitation, loss of mindfulness, incorrect knowledge, and scatteredness; the five omnipresent mental factors: contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition; the variable mental factor of wisdom; and among the fundamental afflictions, greed, ignorance, arrogance, and views. That makes eighteen in all.

Why is it not associated with other mental factors? Its consciousness-nature is indeterminate, so the unwholesome middle secondary afflictions naturally don't correspond. The activity of manas is subtle, while the ten minor secondary afflictions have coarse activity, and so they don't correspond either. Manas only cognizes the present, so naturally it lacks "desire" and "memory." It firmly grasps the perceiving aspect of the ālaya as self, so naturally it lacks "resolve." Manas is too scattered, so it has no "concentration." Manas is defiled, so naturally it has no wholesome mental factors corresponding to it. It cognizes objects spontaneously, so naturally there is no "remorse" or "regret." It does not rely on external conditions, and body and mind are not heavily dulled, so it has no "sleep." Nor does it cognize the verbal-object realm, so it lacks "investigation" and "analysis."

What does the manas-consciousness depend upon? When discussing the eye-consciousness I introduced that each consciousness has three supports — the causal-condition support (因缘依), the concurrent support (俱有依), and the leading support (开导依). For the seventh manas-consciousness, its causal-condition support is its own seeds; the causal-condition support also has another name, the seed-support (种子依).

The concurrent support of manas is the ālaya-consciousness. The concurrent support has another name as well, the predominant-condition support (增上缘依). The concurrent support should refer to the faculty of each consciousness — just as the eye-consciousness has the eye-faculty as its concurrent support, and the ear-consciousness has the ear-faculty as its concurrent support. This is because the faculty depended upon and the consciousness exist simultaneously. Why also call it the predominant-condition support? Because the faculty exerts an assisting power upon the consciousness. The concurrent support must meet three conditions:

A. It must have very strong assisting power upon the consciousness — in short, "powerful." B. It must directly affect the consciousness — in short, "intimate." Like the eye-faculty and the eye-consciousness: the moment I close my eyes, the eye-consciousness immediately ceases to function. C. It must be within the body of sentient beings — in short, "internal."

Furthermore, manas-consciousness also has the leading support. The leading support is also called the equally-non-interval support (等无间依). The meaning of "leading" is like the role of a vanguard force — opening the way ahead, cutting through mountains when meeting mountains, bridging water when meeting water, and scouting the situation to keep the main force's progress unimpeded. "Equally-non-interval" means without distinction, equal, front and back level with one another. The leading support of manas-consciousness is the previous moment of manas. Buddhism says "arising is precisely ceasing." At the very moment the previous moment of manas arises, it immediately guides the next moment of manas to arise; the previous moment yields its place to the next, and so moment after moment arising, moment after moment ceasing, continuity is maintained.

The object of manas-consciousness is the perceiving aspect of the eighth ālaya-consciousness. Master Nandabhadra (难陀论师) holds that manas takes the perceiving aspect of the eighth ālaya as "self," and its mental factors as "belongings-of-self." Master Huobian (火辩论师) holds that manas takes the perceiving aspect of the eighth ālaya as "self," and the perceived aspect of the ālaya as "belongings-of-self." Master Sthiramati (安慧论师) holds that manas takes the functioning ālaya as self, and the seeds of the ālaya as belongings-of-self. The view we now adopt — that manas only grasps the perceiving aspect of the eighth ālaya as "self" — is the position of Master Dharmapāla (护法论师). Why do we adopt it? Because Dharmapāla was the teacher of Śīlabhadra (戒贤论师), who was the teacher of Master Xuanzang (玄奘法师). What we study today is the Consciousness-Only tradition that Master Xuanzang handed down. As for the views of the other masters, it's enough to know them, but we shouldn't pass rash judgments. Sthiramati's position is currently quite in vogue. The positions of the various masters all have their grounds; today we won't expand on this.

For each consciousness to become active, several conditions are needed. Manas is no exception. For manas to become active, only four conditions are needed: A. Object — namely, the perceiving aspect of the ālaya-consciousness; B. Attention; C. Fundamental support; D. Seeds — namely, the seeds of its own consciousness. Looking at these four conditions, we see they are always present, which determines that manas is uninterrupted in its activity. The activity of manas also pervades the three realms — desire realm, form realm, and formless realm all are possible.

Given that the seventh consciousness has such characteristics, how do we practice? Chan sevens, Buddha-recitation sevens, Avalokiteśvara sevens — all these dazzling varieties will do. They all serve to break the seventh consciousness. But in fact, speaking from the standpoint of principle, the seventh manas-consciousness is weak in power and unable to sever afflictions on its own. We can only rely on the sixth consciousness to cultivate methods of contemplation and gradually sever afflictions.

When our practice reaches the first Ground, the Ground of Joy, the seventh consciousness begins to transform — it transforms into the Wisdom of Equality. At this Joyous Ground, the two innate graspings are initially subdued. At this first Ground, the sixth consciousness also begins to transform, into the Wisdom of Wonderful Observation. Then with intensified practice, by the eighth Ground — the Immovable Ground — the innate self-grasping is severed; by the Vajra-like Path the innate dharma-grasping is severed, and the Wisdom of Equality manifests fully. For the Two Vehicles, when one attains the fruit of arhatship, both the seeds and the active functions of manas are entirely cut off.

Next is the ālaya. The ālaya has very many names. In the Treatise Establishing Consciousness-Only (《成唯识论》), seven are enumerated:

A. Mind-consciousness (心识); B. Known-support (所知依) — "what is known" includes all defiled and pure dharmas; this consciousness is their support; C. Seed-consciousness (种子识) — this consciousness can contain the seeds of all dharmas and can give rise to all dharmas; D. Ādāna-consciousness (阿陀那识) — this consciousness can grasp and uphold the seeds, can grasp and experience the body, and so on; E. Stainless consciousness (无垢识) — this consciousness contains defiled seeds and pure seeds; it can abandon the defiled and attain the pure; F. Matured-consciousness (异熟识) — this consciousness can bring forth matured karmic recompense. As we know, "matured" (vipāka) has three meanings: a. Different time. If I kill a person now, only after a month am I executed by firing squad. Or karma created in a former life yields its fruit in a later life. b. Different nature. The karma created has the distinction of wholesome and unwholesome, but the recompensed fruit has only the distinction of suffering and happiness, without unwholesome and wholesome. Take smoking opium — it's a bad thing, unwholesome, but after smoking I feel as if floating among the immortals. Is that wholesome or unwholesome? It's simply a pleasant state, indeterminate. When the craving kicks in and one can't smoke, foam comes from the mouth as in an epileptic fit — this is suffering, but also indeterminate. This is "different nature." c. Different transformation. The common saying "kill a pig, become a pig; kill a dog, become a dog" isn't rigorous. Because "human birth is hard to obtain," does that mean, since I fear losing my human birth in the next life, I should kill a person — because whatever you kill you become? So in the next life I could become a person? Where's such a principle?! When you kill a person now, in the next life you'll simply be killed by someone else! That's taking the non-cause as the cause. To obtain a human birth, one must rely on cultivating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds. Or suppose I kill an arhat now — does that mean I become an arhat in the next life? Wrong. The recompense for killing an arhat is falling into the unintermittent hell. This is "transformation-then-maturation." G. Ālaya-consciousness (阿赖耶识).

In the Secret Essentials of Consciousness-Only (《唯识秘要》), eighteen names are enumerated: non-perishing consciousness (无没识); root-consciousness (本识) — this consciousness is the fundamental of all dharmas; house-consciousness (宅识) — this consciousness is the dwelling of all dharmas; storehouse-consciousness (藏识); seed-consciousness (种子识); stainless consciousness (无垢识); grasping-and-upholding consciousness (执持识); condition-consciousness (缘识); manifesting consciousness (显识); appearing-consciousness (现识) — all dharmas appear from the root-consciousness; transforming consciousness (转识); mind-consciousness (心识); support-consciousness (依识); matured-consciousness (异熟识); fundamental consciousness (根本识); discriminating-dharma consciousness (分别事识); life-continuum (穷生死蕴); portion-consciousness (有分识), and so on.

As for the commonly mentioned name ālaya, it is Sanskrit, written "Ālaya," and means "non-perishing." The Chinese translated it as "storehouse-consciousness" (藏识). The "non-perishing" means that as soon as karma is created, it automatically stores away the karmic seeds. A computer still needs someone to input; the ālaya does not. The moment you create karma, it immediately stores the seeds. After it stores them, it preserves them extremely well — it will never be like the grain in our grain depots, which goes moldy if the humidity is too high; nor like the files on a computer, which can be lost if a virus slips in unawares. The ālaya has no such problems. The meaning of "storehouse" has three aspects: A. Storing-capacity (能藏) — it contains the seeds of all dharmas. B. Stored-capacity (所藏) — it receives the impressions of the active functions of the first seven consciousnesses. C. Grasped-store (执藏) — it is grasped by the seventh consciousness as permanent and unchanging.

Looking at the "nature" of the ālaya, it is contaminated nature (有漏性). This is because the nature-class follows along with the seeds: if the seeds are contaminated, the functions arising are naturally contaminated; the functions arising from uncontaminated seeds are naturally uncontaminated. Just as dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes to phoenixes, and the offspring of mice know how to dig holes — even if a young dragon is born with a deformity, the deformity is still that of a dragon! The ālaya, since it arises from contaminated seeds, is of contaminated nature.

Note: there's an issue here, regarding whether the seeds are wholesome or unwholesome. This is a provisional way of speaking. In fact, on the level of active functioning, we can clearly distinguish wholesome and unwholesome aspects, but on the level of seeds, it is extremely subtle — very hard to distinguish clearly whether they are wholesome or unwholesome. After the active functions of wholesome and unwholesome impressions form into seeds, these seeds should be said to be indeterminate. There's a true story about this: a field was to be planted with millet, but in the era of the production teams, everyone worked together and people had no initiative, so the millet seeds were mixed with many tare seeds. The millet seeds and tare seeds were both very small and looked very similar, hard to sort out. People simply planted the seeds into the field as they were. After the seedlings came up, the team leader told everyone to pull up the tare seedlings, but the millet seedlings and tare seedlings were hard to tell apart. An old man said that millet seedlings have round stalks while tare has flat stalks, and so one could tell them apart. So people pulled them according to this rule. Later when the plants bore fruit, people were stunned — everything growing in the field was tare. This shows how hard it is to distinguish on the level of seeds.

The ālaya is indeterminate. Since it serves as the common support of both wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, if it were of wholesome nature, it could not be the support of unwholesome dharmas; if it were of unwholesome nature, it could not be the support of wholesome dharmas. It is the place where all karmic seeds are imprinted; if it were either wholesome or unwholesome, it would be unable to receive imprints.

The mental factors associated with the ālaya are only the five omnipresent mental factors. Why? This is the characteristic of omnipresence. Take feeling, for example — the ālaya is not insensitive. It is incompatible with other mental factors.

What object does the ālaya-consciousness cognize? An intrinsically existent object (性境)! The ālaya cognizes intrinsically existent objects; the first five consciousnesses also cognize intrinsically existent objects. Is there a difference? Yes. Where the difference lies, we will pass over for now.

The valid cognition of the ālaya-consciousness is direct valid cognition (现量). Needless to say, it still differs from the first five consciousnesses; we will pass that over as well.

The feeling of the ālaya is neutral feeling (舍受). This is because it has only intrinsic discrimination; the Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only says, "Corresponding to it is neutral feeling."

The ālaya can move within the three realms and nine grounds, going wherever karmic force takes it. If the karma of being born in the heavens is created, it goes up to the heavens; if unwholesome karma is created, it goes to the three evil paths to receive recompense.

The supports of the ālaya also divide into three. The ālaya takes manas as its concurrent support, its own seeds as its causal-condition support, and the previous moment of its own consciousness as its leading support.

For the ālaya to give rise to manifest activity, four conditions are needed: an object, attention, a common basis, and a seed.

What does the ālaya-vijñāna actually do? The Verses on the Eight Consciousnesses says it has five functions.

A. Receiving the imprints (vāsanā) of the first seven consciousnesses. The active workings of the first seven consciousnesses produce countless seeds, which are stored within the ālaya. The karma of the first seven consciousnesses is also rooted there. Until a karma ripens, it does not get lost; but once it does ripen, even that ripening comes to an end. When one karmic retribution is exhausted, other karma-seeds ripen in turn, and so it goes, round and round.

Let me add a word here about vāsanā, since this is the very heart of how Buddhism explains cause and effect—and if you don't get this clear, you simply can't talk about karmic cause and effect at all. We often speak of cause and effect in everyday life, but what we say is actually quite wrong. Proper karma is cause-and-conditions-and-result: a cause, together with contributing conditions, gives rise to a result. But the "cause and effect" we usually talk about has lost the cause entirely and treats the condition as the cause—so what we ordinarily call cause and effect is really just condition-and-result. Even the kind of "cause and effect" I've been discussing here these past few days should really still be called condition-and-result. For example, to attain Buddhahood, the undefiled seeds that are inherently present from the start are the cause; everything you're doing now—chanting the Buddha's name, practicing Chan, studying the teachings—all of that is just the condition. Yet our teachers say, "If you chant the Buddha's name you'll certainly become a Buddha, and if you chant a ghost's name you'll certainly become a ghost." This directly contradicts the law of cause and effect. Of course, this is just the principle. In all of history, the only person who truly understood cause and effect was An Shigao. I'd like to recommend two books to you all: one is Aśvaghoṣa's Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, and the other is Asaṅga's Mahāyāna-saṃgraha. If you read them side by side, you'll notice their viewpoints aren't quite the same.

As for receiving imprints, the Yogācāra tradition lays down a rule: four conditions must all be present, otherwise it cannot accept imprints. The Saṃgraha sums them up in a verse:

Firm and neutral, fit to be imprinted, In accord with what imprints it; What is imprinted is no other than this— Such are the marks of vāsanā.

a. Stability of nature. Take wind, for instance: one moment it blows, the next it stops. That doesn't have stable nature. "Stable" means that from beginningless time it has always continued in similar fashion, never pausing even for an instant, and it resists any great disturbance. It's like what people say about accomplishing big things: the person doing it has to be steady. Young people are generally impatient and flighty, so they can't be relied upon—they don't put people at ease. There's a saying: "No hair on the chin yet, can't be trusted with real work."

b. Neutral (avyākṛta) nature. Why must it be neutral? If it were good, a bad seed coming along would be refused—just like pouring water on a fire. Won't that snuff the fire out? Fire and water can't coexist. Or take a computer: if things aren't compatible, how can it function? And with people—if your mind is narrow and you calculate every little thing, you'll never accomplish anything great.

c. Capable of being imprinted.

d. Able to harmonize with what imprints it. This "harmonizing" is the Saṃgraha's term sahabhāva—meaning "at the same time, in the same place, neither one nor different, not parting from each other." This is slightly different from the "correspondence" mentioned earlier under the mental factors non-corresponding to mind. Think of it this way: a person who is easy-going and agreeable, not a stubborn old man—that kind of person has good relationships with everyone. Good relationships mean you've secured the condition of "people" (in the old saying, "heaven, earth, and people," with "people" being the key), and it's much easier to succeed in your endeavors.

Speaking of what is imprinted, the corresponding side is what does the imprinting. The imprinting agent also has four characteristics:

a. It arises and ceases. Arising and ceasing means it's impermanent, because something absolutely unchanging cannot function. Why can human beings never be equal to God? Because God is eternally unchanging. What's imprinted is stable and steady; what imprints is lively and active. The two complement each other and together make up a perfect event.

b. It has dominant function. This mainly serves to exclude the vipāka mind and its mental factors, because those are too weak in influence. If what's imprinted is neutral and what imprints is also neutral, you're left with a bunch of nice guys with no backbone—and how would that work? When I was at the Buddhist Academy of Jiuhua Mountain, if a student did something out of line, the teachers would always have someone come out to play the "bad cop"—generally that role was played by the class advisor. He'd give the student a thorough scolding. Then another teacher would come out to play the "good cop"—usually the vice-principal played that part—and say a few kind words. That way, the matter got resolved and the student was helped to correct the mistake. If everyone plays "good cop" and just acts nice, the student never corrects the error. And if everyone plays "bad cop," the matter doesn't get resolved either.

c. It has increase and decrease. This is a bit like the Matthew effect: if you're poor, so poor your pockets are jingling with just two coins clinking together, I'll snatch those last two coins from you. If you're rich, rich enough for wealth to ooze from you, then I'll take those two coins from the poor person and hand them to you, the rich one—in other words, let what's fragrant grow more fragrant, and what's foul grow more foul. (A student asks: "Doesn't this harm God's universal love?") No, it doesn't harm it at all. Precisely because God is all-loving, he snatches away the poor person's last two coins, so as to drive that poor person utterly into a corner with no escape. We have an old Chinese saying: "Driven into a death ground, one then lives."

d. It harmonizes with the location of what is imprinted. In other words, it must be neither merged with nor separated from what is imprinted.

By this Yogācāra standard, only the ālaya is capable of being imprinted.

The Cheng Weishi Lun also adds, regarding the imprinting agent, the phrase "If a dharma is autonomous, its nature is neither solid nor dense." "If a dharma is autonomous" means the mind-king can be imprinted, but not the mental factors. Only the mind-king is "autonomous"—it's the leading class, so to speak. The mental factors associated with the ālaya are the five omnipresent mental factors, so while the ālaya can be imprinted, the five omnipresent mental factors cannot. "Its nature is neither solid nor dense" means that what can be imprinted must be the conditioned ālaya, and absolutely cannot be the unconditioned tathatā (suchness). The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna says the tathatā can be imprinted, but we'll set that aside.

B. Holding seeds. This means that the ālaya, right up until consciousness is turned into wisdom, has always continued in similar fashion without the slightest interruption. It grasps and upholds all seeds—worldly or supramundane, originally inherent or freshly imprinted—so that they don't become scattered or destroyed.