眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

08 Jul 2020    Wednesday     2nd Teach Total 2455

Which consciousness do concepts and experiences arise from?

Concepts exist only within the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness corresponds with concepts, whereas the five sense consciousnesses, the manas, and the eighth consciousness all lack concepts of dharmas. This is because the mind consciousness corresponds with the characteristics of dharmas and possesses the ability to think, analyze, generalize, and summarize, while the other consciousnesses do not.

Experience is the wisdom and cognition accumulated in the process of encountering corresponding dharmas. The five sense consciousnesses have experience of the five sense objects, and the mind consciousness has experience of mental sense objects. The experience of the six consciousnesses lasts only a single lifetime and is subject to forgetting. The manas, however, accumulates experience from life after life; it does not perish, and at critical moments it can be swiftly activated to protect one's own safety and interests. As for the eighth consciousness, although it too persists life after life without perishing, it has no memory, and there is no such thing as experience for it, because its wisdom is fixed and naturally so—intrinsically so—neither increasing nor decreasing. Therefore it has no experience and needs no experience, yet it can still operate all dharmas in an orderly and normal manner.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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