Cultivation Means Eliminating the Defiled Nature of the Seventh Consciousness

The name ālayavijñāna is used by sentient beings before the eighth bhūmi; after the eighth bhūmi, the name is changed to vipākavijñāna (the consciousness of retribution). The name ālayavijñāna indicates that within sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha there still remain the karmic seeds of affliction belonging to the seven consciousnesses, as well as seeds of afflictive habits. These seeds are all subject to arising, ceasing, and change; combined with the unborn-and-undying tathāgatagarbha, they constitute the ālayavijñāna, which is neither arising nor ceasing. When the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the tathāgatagarbha are eliminated, and the seven consciousnesses have severed afflictions as well as afflictive habits, the ālayavijñāna is renamed vipākavijñāna.

Cultivation means cultivating away the ignorance and defiled nature of the seven consciousnesses, extinguishing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion of the seven consciousnesses along with their afflictive habits, and gradually transforming them into a consciousness-body of pure nature. In the process of cultivation, realizing the tathāgatagarbha is extremely crucial: only by realizing the tathāgatagarbha can one know the true reality of the dharmadhātu, clearly recognize that all dharmas of the five-aggregate world are empty, and thereby sever the grasping of self and the grasping of dharmas, ultimately attaining buddhahood. By contemplating the purity of the tathāgatagarbha and its untainted-and-conditioned nature (anāsravāḥ saṃskārāḥ), the seven consciousnesses can be influenced and perfumed by it, and thus the mind can gradually become empty, no longer greedily clinging to the illusory worldly dharmas. As the mind-ground approaches the purity of the tathāgatagarbha, the seven consciousnesses can attain liberation and accomplish the Buddha Way.