Visualization Requires Strong Meditative Concentration of the Solitary Consciousness

The mental sense-objects discerned by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) are material form included in the dharma base (dharma-āyatana-rūpa); they are together with the five sense-objects and cannot be separated from the five sense-objects. Only when the mental sense-objects are conjoined with them can complete form, sound, smell, taste, and touch be constituted; otherwise, the five sense-objects could not manifest, the five consciousnesses could not arise, and the consciousness accompanied by the five senses could not discern the mental sense-objects.

When the consciousness accompanied by the five senses is discerning material form included in the dharma base, the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) may simultaneously be discerning other contents on its own, or may be introspecting upon the contents and state of the discernment of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses.

The five sense-objects and the mental sense-objects arise simultaneously; the mental sense-objects are not produced and transformed afterward. For example, the reflection and image within the eyes are mental sense-objects, and they already exist before being transmitted to the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain. Therefore it is said that upon the external five sense-objects there are external mental sense-objects, which for even a moment cannot be separated from the external five sense-objects.

The five consciousnesses cannot operate alone to perform discernment; they must operate together with the consciousness accompanied by the five senses to discern. It is only that the seeds of the five consciousnesses are born merely slightly earlier—less than an instant—before the seeds of the mind consciousness are born, almost synchronously, and then the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness operate together to discern the six sense-objects. Therefore it is said that the five universal mental factors (caittas) of the five consciousnesses cannot operate alone apart from the mind consciousness; when the five universal mental factors of the mind consciousness operate, the five universal mental factors of the five consciousnesses also operate simultaneously.

Material form included in the dharma base belongs to material form (rūpa-dharma), and all material form is objectively real realm (性境); it does not change according to the mind consciousness. For example, a person's appearance does not undergo any change at all regardless of the state of the other person's mind consciousness. Skin color belongs to manifest color (varṇa-rūpa), the content discerned by the eye consciousness, and does not change according to variations in the other person's eye consciousness; the same is true of tallness or shortness, fatness or thinness, and so forth—forms of posture (saṃsthāna-rūpa), expressive forms (vijñapti-rūpa), and non-expressive forms (avijñapti-rūpa). Tallness, shortness, fatness, and thinness are forms of posture, which are material form included in the dharma base, the content discerned by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses; they are also objectively real realm and do not change according to the mind consciousness's misapprehensions.

For a person with strong meditative concentration (samādhi), when the consciousness accompanied by the five senses is discerning material form included in the dharma base, the solitary consciousness can engage in other contemplations and alter the material form included in the dharma base.

Contemplative visualization requires very strong meditative concentration, relying mainly on the discerning function of non-valid cognition (非量) and inference (anumāna) of the solitary consciousness; the meditative concentration of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses is not sufficiently good. Meditative concentration mainly refers to the powerful force of the solitary consciousness, which can produce something from nothing and turn something into nothing. When one contemplates the sun in the mind, the setting sun appears before one, and the sun contemplation is accomplished. When one contemplates a white skeleton in the mind, the white skeleton appears before one, and the white skeleton contemplation is accomplished.