Consciousness Is Neither Self Nor Belonging to Self

Question: Does the mind consciousness cease after cognizing a mental sense-object? During the day, mental sense-objects constantly change, arising and ceasing. When the mind consciousness is not asleep, is it merely that the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) and the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) keep shifting from one mental sense-object to another, and only cease during dreamless sleep?

Answer: When the mind consciousness cognizes a mental sense-object and finishes processing that content, it ceases on that mental sense-object. Under the direction of the manas, it arises to cognize and process another one or two mental sense-objects, then ceases again, and arises once more elsewhere. In this way, the mind consciousness constantly arises and ceases following the manas's grasping, without even a trace of autonomy. Therefore, the mind consciousness is far too illusory and unreal; it is fundamentally not the self nor anything belonging to the self. Do not again take such a mind consciousness as the self.