The True Meaning of the Eighth Consciousness Giving Rise to All Dharmas

The eighth consciousness can give rise to all dharmas. This "all dharmas" refers to all dharmas that a sentient being's own seven consciousnesses can cognize, contact, and perceive. Dharmas that a sentient being's own seven consciousnesses cannot cognize or contact are not necessarily dharmas produced by one's own eighth consciousness. However, as for all dharmas that one's own seven consciousnesses can cognize, contact, and perceive, there is not one that is not a dharma personally produced and manifested by the sentient being's own eighth consciousness. If one's own eighth consciousness does not produce dharmas and does not manifest dharmas, then one's own seven consciousnesses cannot cognize or contact dharmas, much less perceive them, and thus could not know of their existence. 

Of all the dharmas that one's own seven consciousnesses can cognize, contact, and perceive, some are produced by one's own eighth consciousness using the seven intrinsically existing great seeds within its own mind, while some cannot be produced by one's own eighth consciousness using the seven great seeds. Rather, after another sentient being's eighth consciousness has produced dharmas using the seeds within that being's own eighth consciousness, one's own eighth consciousness cognizes them and then manifests them, and only then can one's own seven consciousnesses cognize, contact, and perceive them. For example, when the seven consciousnesses perceive another person's five aggregates, that other person's five aggregates are produced by that person's eighth consciousness using seeds; one's own eighth consciousness could not possibly produce them. But one's own eighth consciousness can cognize and contact them, and then manifest that other person's five aggregates, and thus one's own seven consciousnesses perceive the other person's five aggregates. 

All the dharmas that one's own seven consciousnesses can cognize, contact, and perceive include the five aggregates of other sentient beings who are distinct from oneself, as well as the inanimate world of the three realms; they include the tathatā nature of dharmas realized when one possesses the wisdom of the varieties of paths, the operational characteristics of the eighth consciousness, the operational characteristics of the seven consciousnesses, and the mental concomitants of the eight consciousnesses—and of course this also includes the mental concomitants of other sentient beings' eight consciousnesses, their various mental activities. Taken as a whole, all these dharmas include the direct object condition (ālambana-pratyaya) and the indirect object condition of the seven consciousnesses; they include the dharmas personally produced by the eighth consciousness using the seven great seeds, and the dharmas personally produced by other sentient beings' eighth consciousnesses which the eighth consciousness merely illuminates. That portion of dharmas personally produced by other sentient beings' eighth consciousnesses is not produced by one's own eighth consciousness using the seven great seeds within its own substance; rather, they are dharmas indirectly manifested and revealed. 

In summary, when the eighth consciousness gives rise to all dharmas, there is a precondition for these dharmas: they are dharmas connected with one's own eight consciousnesses. Dharmas with no such connection fall outside the scope of all dharmas produced by one's own eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness is not a dharma that is produced; therefore, one's own eighth consciousness cannot produce one's own eighth consciousness, nor can it produce another being's eighth consciousness, or the mental concomitants and operational characteristics of another being's eighth consciousness. Another being's eighth consciousness and its mental concomitants can only be dharmas manifested by one's own eighth consciousness; they can only be illuminated and revealed, not produced. The same is true of another being's five aggregates: they can only be illuminated and revealed, not produced. Only after one's own eighth consciousness has illuminated and revealed them can one's own seven consciousnesses cognize, contact, and perceive them—and what is perceived is not a dharma of substantial reality. Dharmas of substantial reality are those produced by one's own eighth consciousness using the seven great seeds or the five great seeds.