The Meaning of "Consciousness-Only, No External Objects" (vijñapti-mātratā)

The meaning of "consciousness-only, no objects" is that all dharmas are only consciousness, all are consciousness; there are no objective realms and no appearances of objective realms. This belongs to the content of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only (唯识种智), and its meaning is the same as that of the One True Dharma Realm; it is only that the principle is very profound, not easy to understand, and even harder to contemplate. Those who lack the wisdom of the varieties of paths can at most have a coarse and shallow understanding of it.

The consciousness in "consciousness-only, no objects" is of course not the deluded mind of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses are themselves appearances of objective realms, arising and ceasing moment by moment and unable to govern themselves, so they cannot possibly dominate other appearances of objective realms. Only the eighth consciousness can dominate all appearances of objective realms. From the perspective of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, all dharmas are conjured up and upheld by the eighth consciousness; all are generated by the eighth consciousness using the seven intrinsically existing great seeds, and it constantly transforms these great seeds so as to keep all dharmas in correspondence with karmic seeds and in correspondence with karmic retribution.

What does "all dharmas are only consciousness" mean? All dharmas are like golden vessels: the essence of golden vessels is all gold; apart from gold there is nothing else, and seeing a golden vessel is seeing gold. So it is with all dharmas: all are generated and upheld by the eighth consciousness, and their essence is all the eighth consciousness. Seeing all dharmas, one should see the eighth consciousness; apart from this there is nothing else.

The "objects" in "consciousness-only, no objects" can also be called dharma-appearances. The scope of dharma-appearances is extremely vast: there are appearances of material form, appearances of mental dharmas, and appearances of dharmas that are neither form nor mind, as stated in the Heart Sutra: the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma; the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness; the Four Noble Truths; the twelve links of dependent origination; the bodhisattva's six perfections; the four marks; the Buddha's body; the path to buddhahood; the hundred dharmas of the bright gate, the thousand dharmas of the bright gate, the hundred million dharmas of the bright gate; ignorance and the cessation of ignorance, and so forth. All these dharma-appearances are the empty appearances of the tathāgatagarbha, the eighth consciousness; there is no substantial dharma-appearance or appearance of an objective realm.

The dharma-appearances and appearances of objective realms upon all dharmas are appearances generated by the eighth consciousness; therefore there are no objective realms—all is the eighth consciousness. This contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom is quite profound and sharp; only the samādhi and prajñā possessed after the sixth and seventh consciousnesses have been transformed into wisdom can observe it directly as it is. Otherwise, with heavy obscuration by ignorance and shallow meditative power, there is no wisdom of observation; the essence of all dharmas cannot be observed through direct perception, and one will fall into appearances of objective realms, failing to see the true gold.

If samādhi and prajñā are insufficient—without the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna and without the transformation of consciousness into wisdom—all observation will fall into imagination and inference.

The deeper and more subtle one's samādhi and prajñā, the fewer and shallower the appearances of objective realms one sees when seeing all dharmas. The wisdom of direct observation becomes deeper and more ultimate as one ascends to higher bhūmis, and what is seen becomes truer, until at the buddha stage one completely sees the One True Dharma Realm, with no other dharma left to be seen. For everyone, as long as there are appearances of objective realms seen before the eyes, that is ignorance; the more appearances of objective realms one sees, the heavier the ignorance. Conversely, the fewer appearances of objective realms one sees, the deeper and sharper the wisdom.