The Heedlessness of the Seventh Consciousness

Modern people are too attached to worldly things, which is why they feel that everything in the world is good. Anyone whose mind does not grow weary of the world is like this; they cannot see the suffering and dark side of the world precisely because their craving and attachment are heavy. Whether a person's mind inclines toward the worldly or away from it will inevitably show in their speech, yet they themselves are unaware of it. Because sentient beings all crave the worldly, their six faculties and six consciousnesses are all given to dissipation. The dissipation of the eye consciousness is looking at forms at will; the dissipation of the ear consciousness is listening to sounds at will; the dissipation of the nose consciousness is delighting in fragrances and loathing odors; the dissipation of the tongue consciousness is craving delicious food; the dissipation of the body consciousness is seeking comfort and ease; the dissipation of the mind consciousness is distraction, torpor, and restlessness; the dissipation of the manas is constantly grasping and clinging everywhere. The six faculties of the arhats are never dissipated: they absolutely do not look, listen, smell, taste, or touch here and there, and their mind consciousness does not think indiscriminately.

Some people are always fond of food and drink, fond of delicious flavors—that is the joint dissipation of the tongue consciousness and the mind consciousness. Some people are always fond of smelling fragrances—that is the joint dissipation of the nose consciousness and the mind consciousness. Some people are always fond of wearing fine clothes, sleeping on fine beds, and wanting everything to be comfortable—that is the joint dissipation of the body consciousness and the mind consciousness. Some people are always fond of recalling the past and grasping at the future—that is the dissipation of the mind consciousness. Some people are always fond of grasping at everything—that is the dissipation of the manas. Learn from our eighth consciousness: it has no preferences, its mind is always in meditative concentration (samādhi); there is no time when it is greedy, no time when it is angry, no time when it is deluded; it has no self-view, and it does not act as the master—it passes its days according to conditions, yet there is no day to be passed.