Realizing the Fruits Through the Mind Consciousness Is Extremely Unreliable

Answer: Recollection and forgetting are functions of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is dependent arising (paratantra), subject to arising, ceasing, and change; when the conditions are not complete, the mind consciousness weakens and disappears. For example, if the brain has a pathological condition, or is subjected to shock, or the mind suffers trauma, or the brain atrophies with old age, the functions of the mind consciousness weaken and cannot operate normally, so one can no longer recall many people, events, principles, and things from the past—this is called forgetting.  

And when the mind consciousness has disappeared, one certainly cannot recall any people or events from the past. For instance, after falling asleep, falling into a coma, dying, or undergoing rebirth, the mind consciousness has ceased, and the people and events one experienced in the past are temporarily or permanently extinguished. In the antarā-bhava there is a faint mind consciousness, but its functions are limited, controlled by karmic force, and it can exercise no agency whatsoever.

If enlightenment is merely the mind consciousness awakening to and understanding certain principles, then it is far too insecure, because the mind consciousness arises from conditions and changes extremely rapidly; under some influence it changes at a moment's notice—turning hostile in an instant, forgetting something so it cannot be recalled, and with just a moment of dozing off the mind becomes a blank. Therefore, without going through the arduous process of investigating Chan, and instead vainly hoping to ascend to heaven in a single step by directly knowing the rough result, without conditioning the manas, this result can vanish in an instant and carries no merit or benefit.  

Without passing through the concrete stages of cultivating the path, and without painstakingly investigating Chan, the manas is not conditioned; one can only rely on the mind consciousness's inference, imagination, guessing, and conjecture, with not a bit of direct perception (pratyakṣa)—everything is erroneous cognition (non-valid cognition). The content of such conjecture, of course, may fail to be recalled at any time and cease to function; it cannot guide bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and cannot become an uninterrupted, continuous state of mind—it cannot even last a few minutes. Its demise is only a matter of time.

But through the arduous process of investigating and probing Chan, with the manas participating in it, awakening to the true mind and self-nature is a state of direct-perception wisdom; meditative concentration (samādhi) manifests, bodily, verbal, and mental actions are purified, and it becomes uninterrupted seeing of the path. In that case, even if the mind consciousness wants to forget, it cannot forget; even if it wants to lose it, it cannot lose it; even if it wants to regress, it cannot regress. This matter is decided by the manas: once the manas is awakened, the mind consciousness must accord with the manas and obey the manas's direction and command—even if it forgets, it cannot help but recall it. In fact, it does not depend at all on whether the mind consciousness wants to or not; even if the mind consciousness ceases, it does not matter: if the manas is awakened, it is awakened forever. Whether asleep, in a coma, or dead, or in the antarā-bhava, one is still awakened.  

In studying and practicing Buddhism, relying only on the mind consciousness will cost you dearly. To rely on the arising-ceasing, mutable, impermanent mind consciousness to resolve the great matter of birth and death shows one has absolutely not thought through what practice really is. When you eat, you yourself are filled; if you always rely on external conditions, those conditions will cease—you cannot keep leaning on them until immeasurable kalpas have passed. Therefore a person of wisdom must not place the weight on the constantly arising-ceasing and mutable mind consciousness, which offers no guarantee; the same is true of anything in the world or beyond the world. To summarize once again: any fruit realized by the mind consciousness is a fruit made of paper, and paper is the easiest thing to rot and decay.