Knowing Is Bodhi Because It Understands the Mind Activities of Sentient Beings

“Knowing is bodhi” shows that the eighth consciousness, as bodhi, has the nature of knowing. Since it has the nature of knowing, it has the nature of discernment and discrimination; otherwise, how could it know?

“Discerning the mental activities of sentient beings” means being able to discern the mental activities of sentient beings. This shows that the eighth consciousness has the nature of discernment, knowing the mental activities and thoughts of sentient beings. Here, "sentient beings" refers, first, to the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses that the eighth consciousness personally upholds and sustains—the direct object condition (ālambana-pratyaya), the seven consciousnesses and five aggregates that it personally transforms and generates and personally cognizes; and second, to the seven consciousnesses and five aggregates of sentient beings that the eighth consciousness does not personally transform and generate and does not personally cognize—the indirect object condition.

The eighth consciousness can cognize all dharmas—attention, contact, feeling, perception, volition, and all dharmas—it knows all dharmas. Whether direct object conditions or indirect object conditions, including the fact that other eighth consciousnesses are always eighth consciousnesses too, meaning that eighth consciousnesses can cognize one another and communicate with each other. If there were something the eighth consciousness did not know, the eighth consciousness would have ignorance, would not be liberated, and would not be a Buddha.

Therefore, when we act through our seven consciousnesses, not only does our own eighth consciousness know and store the seeds, but the eighth consciousnesses of other sentient beings also know and store the seeds.

For example, if you beat an animal to death, your own eighth consciousness witnesses the entire process, records it, and stores the seeds; that animal's eighth consciousness also witnesses it and also stores the seeds. The eighth consciousnesses of other animals nearby who see this event likewise witness the entire process and also store the seeds. But when the seeds ripen through conditions in the future, it is your own eighth consciousness that manifests your retribution, and that animal's eighth consciousness also outputs the stored seeds, so that the retribution can take form—that animal, in turn, beats you to death or harms you. Or in later lives, even if you do not encounter that animal, when this karmic condition ripens, you still undergo the retribution; because of the five faculties of that animal, illness and suffering simply appear. "Three feet above one's head there are deities"—in fact, deities are within half a foot above the scalp and within the skin, extremely close to oneself, never separating from oneself.