Saṃyuktāgama (289), Part Two

(2) However, foolish worldlings with little learning or hearing cannot develop weariness and dispassion toward the consciousness-mind; they cannot abandon desire for it, nor turn away from and relinquish it. Where does this root lie? It is because sentient beings all delight in greedily clinging to the functions of consciousness. The functions of consciousness are rather vivid and attractive, so they constantly grasp at them and claim them as their own. All the functions of the physical body arise only because of consciousness. For example, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down cannot be carried out without body consciousness; walking, standing, sitting, and lying down are functions performed by body consciousness, and the activities of life cannot be separated from these undertakings of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, so sentient beings crave them. With body consciousness one can move; with eye consciousness one can see; with ear consciousness one can hear; with nose consciousness one can smell scents; with the conscious mind one can think and discriminate, analyze and judge, reason, and engage in discursive thoughts. Each consciousness cooperates to produce various functions; the conscious mind discriminates together with the first five consciousnesses, functioning together with them. These functions and operations feel utterly real and vividly alive—this is "I" and "what belongs to me"—and therefore beings cling to them without letting go.

It is not easy to realize that the consciousness-mind is not the self. One clearly feels that there is an "I" that can know all dharmas, and it seems very real: "I am indeed sitting here listening to the Dharma; my eyes can see forms—I can indeed see all the material forms I come into contact with; I can indeed hear sounds." One does not regard the functions of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body as illusory, and so one grips them tightly and will not release them. Even less can one accept that the various functions of the mind consciousness are illusory; one feels that the mind consciousness can indeed think, engage in discursive thoughts, reason, and make plans. Therefore sentient beings cannot regard the consciousness-mind as illusory. But unless this barrier is passed, neither the lesser nor the greater fruit can be realized.

Therefore the Buddha said: Foolish worldlings with little learning or hearing can develop weariness toward our physical body of the four great elements, can abandon desire for it, and can turn away from and relinquish it; but toward our own consciousness-mind we cannot abandon desire, cannot develop weariness, cannot turn away from and relinquish it. In everything we must go along with our own mind, in everything we must act according to our own mind. We cannot abandon desire for our own mind; we cherish our own mind, because this consciousness-mind truly does have these functions and operations.

Life after life, through the long night of birth and death, sentient beings preserve, cherish, and bind themselves to "me," always following their own inclinations, cherishing and protecting themselves, treasuring their own consciousness-mind. "What I obtain, what I want to possess, what I want to take for myself"—all of these are the wishes of this consciousness-mind, and so one takes the functions of this consciousness-mind as the self, as a truly existing, eternal, imperishable self. In fact, the consciousness-mind ceases under several conditions. For example, while you are listening to the Dharma, as you listen you fall asleep, and you no longer know what is being said afterward—at that time the consciousness-mind has ceased. When you are asleep without dreams, at that time the six consciousnesses have also ceased. When you wake up, these consciousnesses arise again. There is ceasing and arising; they can arise and can cease. The consciousness-mind is always changing in the process of arising and ceasing.

The functions and operations of our eighth consciousness always exist in that way, without change, without needing to rely on external conditions; their functions and operations never change. The eighth consciousness can always produce all dharmas and manifest all dharmas, and no one can obstruct Him—that is what is real. Whether you are in meditative concentration or asleep, no matter what the circumstances, He always exists, always has His functional essence and operations. The first six consciousnesses cannot do this; they are always arising, ceasing, and changing.