True Perception and False Perception

The faculty of awareness is divided into true awareness and deluded awareness. Deluded awareness refers to the first seven consciousnesses, while true awareness is the eighth consciousness. For ordinary beings, the eighth consciousness has no function of introspecting upon itself, and thus it is said that He has no self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga). Self-validating cognition is the ability to verify one's own existence, to perceive one's own existence and operation. A mind capable of perceiving its own existence is a mind with the nature of self; it is a mind that acknowledges itself, a mind capable of self-verifying its own existence.

The mind consciousness can observe mental sense-objects, observe states of experience, observe the five sense consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness, and after awakening to the true mind, it can also observe the eighth consciousness. The mind consciousness can also observe itself, so it not only possesses self-cognition (svasaṃvitti) but also self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga); it can know that it is knowing the states of mental sense-objects, know its own mode of operation, and know its own mental activities. But true awareness, the eighth consciousness, has no nature of self; He is a mind without the nature of self, never considering Himself to be real, never perceiving His own existence, never acting as a master, and never observing the six sense-objects. Therefore, within the six sense-objects, the eighth consciousness has neither self-cognition nor self-validating cognition. Because He is not aware of the six sense-objects, He does not give rise to thoughts or mental activity regarding states of experience; He has no notions, no views and opinions, is pure and undefiled, has no afflictions or habitual tendencies, and has no ignorance.

After awakening to the true mind and realizing the Way, as wisdom grows, one will observe that the seventh and eighth consciousnesses also have self-validating cognition, yet they do not introspect upon themselves within the states of the six sense-objects. The general principle in studying the Mahāyāna Dharma is that the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, is not a worldly mind within the five aggregates and eighteen realms; it is a mind without the nature of self, which does not consider there to be a self or what belongs to a self. Whereas the seven consciousnesses all have the nature of self, always saying "how I am like this or that," always speaking of "me" and "mine"—all of them have self and what belongs to self.

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