How to Correctly Understand the Aggregate of Consciousness (Part 3)

Original text of the Lokadharaparipṛcchā: 识阴虚妄不实。颠倒相应。因见闻觉知法起。此中无有实识者。若不能如是实观。或起善识。或起不善识。或起善不善识。是人常随识行。不知识所生处。不知识如实相。

Explanation: The aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna) is false and unreal, not an actually existent dharma; it is a dharma of deluded seeing, corresponding with the inverted mind that perceives existence where there is none. It arises dependent upon the dharmas of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. Within what is called seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, there is no real consciousness-mind that sees, hears, is aware, and knows. If one cannot contemplate the aggregate of consciousness in this way as it truly is, one will give rise to an aggregate of consciousness that creates wholesome dharmas, or an aggregate of consciousness that creates unwholesome dharmas, or an aggregate of consciousness that creates both wholesome and unwholesome dharmas. Such a person's mind constantly transmigrates along with the aggregate of consciousness, not knowing the place where the aggregate of consciousness is born, not knowing the true appearance of the aggregate of consciousness.

Original text: 持世。菩萨摩诃萨于此中。如是正观。知识阴从虚妄识起。所谓见闻觉知法中众因缘生。无法生法想故。贪着识阴。是诸菩萨如实观时。知识阴虚妄不实。从本已来常不生相。知非阴是识阴。想阴是识阴。幻阴是识阴。

Explanation: Lokadhara, bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, within seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, can rightly contemplate the aggregate of consciousness as it truly is, understanding that the aggregate of consciousness arises from false consciousness—that is, within the dharmas of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, the aggregate of consciousness is produced through numerous conditions; because a notion of dharma arises where there is no dharma, one greedily attaches to the aggregate of consciousness. When these bodhisattvas contemplate in this way as it truly is, they know that the aggregate of consciousness is false and unreal, that from the very beginning it has always had the mark of never having been born. They also know that the absence of any intrinsic appearance of an aggregate is what is called the aggregate of consciousness; they know that the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), in which mental thoughts and ideation flow, is also the aggregate of consciousness; and that the various illusory aggregates and entrances are what is called the aggregate of consciousness.

Original text: 譬如幻所化人识。不在内亦不在外。亦不在中间。识性亦如是。如幻性虚妄缘生。从忆想分别起。无有实事。如机关木人。识亦如是。从颠倒起。虚妄因缘和合故有。如是观时。知识皆无常苦。不净无我。知识相如幻。观识性如幻。

Explanation: For example, the consciousness-mind of a person conjured by illusion is not within, not without, and not in between the within and the without. The nature of the consciousness-mind is also like this: it is of an illusory nature, born from false and deluded conditions, arising from recollection, ideation, and discrimination, and has no real discriminating nature. Like a wooden puppet with mechanisms installed, the aggregate of consciousness is also like this: it arises from inverted mental activities, and the function of the aggregate of consciousness exists only through the conjunction of false and deluded conditions. When one contemplates the aggregate of consciousness in this correct way, one will know that the aggregate of consciousness is entirely impermanent, suffering, impure, and without self; one knows that the appearance of the aggregate of consciousness is illusory, and contemplates that the nature of the aggregate of consciousness is also illusory and unreal.