Can the Eighth Consciousness Exist Apart from the Physical Body?

Answer: The eighth consciousness has five kinds of pervasiveness: it pervades all times, all levels of existence, all places, all realms, and all dharmas. Therefore, besides sustaining the physical body, the eighth consciousness also sustains form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; it sustains the material world (the inanimate vessel world) of the universe, and it sustains the eighteen realms. Beings in the formless realm have no physical body; the eighth consciousness sustains the existence of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. For ghost-form beings without physical bodies, the eighth consciousness likewise sustains their sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

One's own body is held and sustained by one's own eighth consciousness, but external objects are not something a single person's eighth consciousness can manage; they are jointly managed and sustained by the eighth consciousnesses of all sentient beings with karmic connections. If a person wishes to change the external living environment, that person's power is very weak—even for a bodhisattva it is very difficult.