Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)
Section 2: How to Realize the Eighth Consciousness
1. The Mahāyāna Path of Practice Is to First Realize the Eighth Consciousness and Then Transform the Basis
Question: If one relies upon the eighth consciousness and transforms the basis as the eighth consciousness at every moment, will the manas come to accept it after a long time?
Answer: Only after realizing the eighth consciousness can one rely upon it and transform the basis as the eighth consciousness. Without having realized the eighth consciousness, one cannot truly rely upon it, cannot lean on it, and certainly cannot genuinely transform the basis. When one truly transforms the basis as the eighth consciousness, one has already cultivated to the level of a first-bhūmi bodhisattva. Moreover, relying upon and transforming the basis are not merely matters of the mind consciousness; they are primarily matters of the manas. If the manas can rely upon and transform the basis, then not only has it accepted the eighth consciousness, it has also realized the eighth consciousness, and the afflictions have been extinguished as well—only then can one speak of transforming the basis.
Such a statement turns the sequence of practice upside down. Nevertheless, this kind of similar understanding can still help in eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and the mind can become somewhat purer. But to bring forth genuine wisdom, one must personally engage in actual contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and investigation within meditative concentration, and achieve true realization—only then can the problem be solved. A painted cake cannot satisfy hunger.
Realizing the eighth consciousness is attained through the manas personally engaging in deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and investigation; this is called personal realization. Without meditative concentration, the mind consciousness's thinking cannot permeate and influence the manas, and the mind consciousness's superficial thoughts cannot make the manas truly accept them. After personal realization, one will gradually transform the basis toward the purity of the eighth consciousness. Transformation of the basis manifests as the bodily, verbal, and mental actions guided by the manas. If the manas has not realized it, transformation of the basis is impossible, and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions remain as before, unchanged.
2. The Correct Method for Realizing the Eighth Consciousness
Question: In my daily life I place the five aggregates and everything around me into the eighth consciousness. Will this gradually allow me to see the five aggregates as empty and find the eighth consciousness?
Answer: This statement is inverted. Without having realized the eighth consciousness, how can one put things into it? Moreover, the eighth consciousness is not an object—how could one artificially place things into it? To see the five aggregates as empty, one must engage in truthful contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the five aggregates within meditative concentration. To find the eighth consciousness, one must investigate the eighth consciousness within that searching. Apart from this, there is no way to place any dharma into the eighth consciousness. The five aggregates and everything around us have never been separate from the eighth consciousness in their existence; they do not exist outside the eighth consciousness, so there is no need to deliberately place them into the eighth consciousness—there is no such necessity. Furthermore, before one has found the eighth consciousness, how can one speak of placing things into it? An imagined eighth consciousness is of little benefit to practice. In learning Buddhism, one should try not to over-interpret the Dharma, as this creates great obstacles to actual realization.
The correct method of practice is to cultivate meditative concentration as quickly as possible, and within concentration to investigate and contemplate, engaging the manas—not merely using the mind consciousness's reasoning, analysis, and imagination. Within concentration, the mind consciousness deeply and subtly contemplates and observes that all these dharmas are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent and changing, and are neither self nor belonging to self, drawing the manas along to investigate together. Once realized, one can see the five aggregates as empty. Thereafter, through Chan investigation, one finds and realizes the eighth consciousness. After realizing the eighth consciousness, one then directly observes how the eighth consciousness gives birth to the five aggregates, and one will know that the five aggregates are indeed empty, subject to arising and ceasing, and without self, and one will see that the five aggregates all arise from the eighth consciousness. This is the truth spoken of in the Heart Sutra: "seeing that the five aggregates are all empty." To find the eighth consciousness, one must realize it through the method of investigating Chan within meditative concentration.
3. Only by Actively Using the Method of Chan Investigation Can One Realize the Eighth Consciousness
Question: To realize the eighth consciousness, should I first see the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, and eighteen elements as empty, negate them as not being me, and then wait for it to appear—is this acceptable?
Answer: The self of the eighth consciousness is not obtained by waiting; it is obtained through investigation. Practice is not passive waiting, but actively and proactively fulfilling the conditions for enlightenment, actively investigating Chan—only then can one become enlightened and see the mind. One must find the true self, the eighth consciousness, through the methods of investigating Chan, investigating the huatou, and investigating gong'an. It is not enough to merely contemplate through the five aggregates and eighteen elements, nor is it enough to merely eradicate the view of self. After eradicating the view of self, one must still investigate Chan; when one investigates it out, one can then see the mind and see the nature. In fact, the eighth consciousness appears at every moment without exception; it is only that we lack meditative concentration and wisdom to discover Him. When one has meditative concentration and wisdom, one must actively seek Him out—waiting will never bring Him.
4. The Difference Between Reasoning and Imagination Versus Actual Realization Is Enormous
Question: If I am certain that the tathāgatagarbha and deluded thoughts are non-dual, that absolutely everything is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha and is all its wondrous function, being very sure and no longer doubting—does this count as seeing the mind and seeing the nature?
Answer: These contents are all pre-enlightenment reasoning, guessing, and imagination, without a shred of evidence—how could doubt be severed? Taking theories from Buddhist sutras or from others, and after thinking them through and understanding them, regarding them as one's own views and opinions—there is still a great distance between this and personal realization. Without any contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) or investigation, theory remains theory after all, and knowledge remains knowledge after all; it is ultimately not one's own genuine wisdom, and one is still very far from seeing the mind and seeing the nature. Nowadays many people just ponder things a bit on their own and think they have some high level of realization, when in fact they have not even understood correctly.
To see the mind and see the nature, one must specifically realize how deluded thoughts and the tathāgatagarbha are non-dual, and be able to directly observe how the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to wondrous functions amid its operation, how the tathāgatagarbha coordinates with the five aggregates in their functioning, and where He exerts His function—all of these can only be known through investigating Chan, and knowing them is seeing the mind. After seeing the mind, one can know which one is the tathāgatagarbha, and only afterward can one directly observe Him and understand more of His characteristics, thereby gaining more wisdom. Knowing that the tathāgatagarbha has functions in all dharmas does not count as seeing the mind and seeing the nature; this is theoretical knowledge, clearly written in books. We only come to know it after permeation and cultivation, and it does not count as realization.
5. Using Only the Method of Cultivating Meditative Concentration Cannot Lead to Enlightenment
Question: When we have one thought after another, these delusive thoughts are the seven consciousnesses at work. How can we sense the existence of the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha? The brief gap between thoughts is no-thought, and during no-thought it is the eighth consciousness. If one has not trained in meditative concentration, thoughts flow on unceasingly; through practicing meditative concentration, thoughts slow down, slower and slower until there is no thought, and only then can the eighth consciousness appear—is that right?
Answer: During no-thought, there is not only the eighth consciousness but also the seven consciousnesses—there are the sixth consciousness and the first five consciousnesses; not one of the eight consciousnesses is missing. Therefore no-thought is not a state of enlightenment; the method of cultivating no-thought is purely a method of cultivating meditative concentration. Because all dharmas are born and manifested by the eighth consciousness—this is so when one is having delusive thoughts, and it is also so in the state of no-thought when one is not having delusive thoughts: it is all born and manifested by the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness is present everywhere and at all times. The seventh consciousness is also present everywhere and at all times; otherwise there would be no aggregate of form, aggregate of feeling, aggregate of perception, aggregate of consciousness, or aggregate of volitional formations. Yet during no-thought, all five aggregates exist precisely, and therefore the manas, the seventh consciousness, exists. At the same time, the sixth consciousness also exists and is operating: there are feelings on the material body, there is the nature of discernment, there is the nature of knowing—knowing that one is without thought is the knowing function of the sixth consciousness. If one can still see forms, hear sounds, smell scents, and so forth—these functions and operations—then the five consciousnesses also exist and are operating, and all eight consciousnesses are present.
Therefore, it is not that the eighth consciousness appears only when there is no thought in the interval between thoughts; the eighth consciousness is present at all times and in all places. Nor can one say that cultivating to this state is the eighth consciousness, or that this is enlightenment. That state of no thought in between mainly refers to the mind of the mind consciousness—the mind consciousness free from thoughts; it belongs to the state in which the mind consciousness occasionally has no thoughts or delusions, which is a state of meditative concentration (dhyāna). One cannot say that the state of no-thought, that which is without thoughts, is the eighth consciousness. Here there are still eight consciousnesses, or at least three.
When one's theoretical understanding is not yet thorough, one's meditative concentration is not yet deep, and one's practice of the six pāramitās still falls far short, do not constantly ponder where the tathāgatagarbha exerts what functions. Guessing, reasoning, and imagining all delay genuine practice, obstruct progress on the Path, and hinder the birth of wisdom. One should strictly follow the sequence of practice and gradually perfect the bodhisattva's six pāramitās: when one should keep precepts, keep precepts; when one should cultivate concentration, cultivate concentration; when one should perfect theory, perfect theory. When all conditions are more or less complete, then begin investigating Chan within concentration. When one lacks meditative concentration, do not ponder the final result.
6. Guessing About the Eighth Consciousness Is an Act of a Thieving Mind
Question: Through delusive thoughts, one can only know that the eighth consciousness is functioning. Can one clearly know how the eighth consciousness functions, and make it manifest?
Answer: To clearly know the functions of the eighth consciousness, one must cultivate all six pāramitās of the bodhisattva well; when all conditions are complete, use the method of investigating Chan to see the mind and realize the eighth consciousness—only then can one know how the eighth consciousness functions. In fact, the eighth consciousness has always been manifesting, never once interrupted, never once hidden; it is merely covered by ignorance and thus cannot be realized. What we should do now is diligently perfect the conditions for being a bodhisattva, accumulating more merit and meditative concentration and wisdom, and then we can realize the eighth consciousness. Do not constantly guess about the eighth consciousness and inquire about it everywhere; this is only harmful to practice and brings no benefit. Knowing is not as good as realizing; the more one knows, the harder it is to realize. If the thieving mind does not die, wisdom will not be born.
7. Investigating Chan Is Not Guessing
Question: Is that which drags the corpse around the wondrous luminous true mind, the tathāgatagarbha? Can the tathāgatagarbha only be realized and attained through one's own enlightenment?
Answer: "That which drags the corpse around is the wondrous luminous true mind, the tathāgatagarbha"—this is a final conclusion, and we need to investigate Chan to verify the correctness of this conclusion. Afterward, we come to know how the wondrous luminous true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, drags the corpse around, how it functions, how it gives birth to the five aggregates and the myriad dharmas, and how it coordinates with the seven consciousnesses in their operation—this must accord with the five verses of "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" spoken by the Sixth Patriarch at his enlightenment. Practice is precisely the process of verifying the correctness of these theories through actual realization; only then are we bodhisattvas of realized enlightenment who know both that it is so and why it is so.
Realizing the tathāgatagarbha is the result of one's own arduous investigation of Chan; one cannot directly seek ready-made answers from others, because knowing the answer brings no merit or benefit. The process of investigation and verification is the key to growing wisdom, and only then can there be a transformation of body, mind, and world. Therefore, one must not seek results from others; one must go through one's own painstaking investigation of Chan to harvest the fruit, investigating where the tathāgatagarbha is and what functions it performs—only then can great wisdom arise, with the merit and benefit of liberation. The cleverer the mind consciousness, the more it can understand, and the harder it is to realize; cleverness is betrayed by cleverness, and cleverness can never match wisdom.
8. Taking Shortcuts Is Not Genuine Practice
Question: After the view of self has been thoroughly eradicated, will the tathāgatagarbha spontaneously emerge?
Answer: This is the thinking of a thieving mind that will not die. The notion of taking shortcuts without wanting to put in effort and pay the price must never be entertained. Where one gains a bargain is where one loses a bargain. Without the bone-chilling cold of winter, how could the plum blossom's fragrance assail the nostrils?
The tathāgatagarbha has always been brightly present and operating; it is only because of the obscuration of ignorance that it cannot be realized. The most serious obscuration is taking the five aggregates and eighteen elements as the real self; this view of self hides and covers the true tathāgatagarbha. When the view of self is thoroughly eradicated, great questioning doubt easily arises, and one will wonder: since the self of the five aggregates is illusory, why are there still the functions of the five aggregates? Through investigation, one can find the master behind the five aggregates—the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha—and thereafter one will no longer mistake various states of the mind consciousness for the tathāgatagarbha in one's enlightenment.
Eradicating the view of self requires realizing the illusoriness of the five aggregates in the midst of daily activities—realizing the illusoriness of the six consciousnesses, realizing the illusoriness of the eighteen elements, realizing that the various selves within the illusory dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen elements, the various six consciousnesses, are all illusory and not the real self. It is best to be able to step outside body and mind to observe their illusoriness; this requires a high degree of inner alertness. The stronger one's power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), the easier it is to eradicate the view of self.
