Eradicating the View of Self That Takes Consciousness as Self (6)

Furthermore, there is the mind consciousness that arises together with the tongue consciousness. Under what conditions does He manifest? For His manifestation, there must be the tongue faculty, and the tongue faculty must be intact and undamaged; there must be the tongue consciousness, and there must also be the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness; there must also be the consciousness-seeds of the mind consciousness, and there must also be the taste objects in food and drink—only then can the mind consciousness manifest.

After the mind consciousness manifests, He can discern what taste this is—the specific degree of sourness, sweetness, bitterness, spiciness, saltiness, or blandness, what kind of substance it comes from, whether it is delicious or not, and whether eating it is beneficial or unbeneficial to oneself. Then there must also be other mental activities: discerning, knowing, reasoning, analyzing, judging, and planning—all kinds of thinking are activities carried out by the mind consciousness. The manifestation of the mind consciousness's thinking activities requires these causal conditions; if even one condition is missing, the mind consciousness's thinking activities cannot manifest. Since this is a dharma that can only manifest when the causes and conditions are complete, it is of course false and illusory—an impermanent dharma that arises and ceases, ceases and arises again—and is therefore not the self.