How Does One Truly Realize the Eighth Consciousness?

Realizing the eighth consciousness is like looking for a person; the two are not much different. Suppose we want to find a person, and after deliberation we finally determine that this person is in a certain room in a certain area, and we feel very certain about it, but we have not seen this person with our own eyes. Does this count as having found the person?

As long as you have not seen this person, have not truly come face to face with him, it does not count as having found him. Even if you are very certain that he is in that place, since you have not met him, it does not count as having found him. Because you do not know what this person looks like, what he is actually doing at this moment, how he is doing it, what his state of mind is, what his cultivation and character are like—you have no knowledge or understanding of this person, and you do not know whether the person in that place is the one you want to find, nor do you know whether that person is really there. What is not seen with the eyes cannot be taken as real.

No matter how certain you are in your heart that the person is in that area, in that room, and in fact that person really is in the room, as long as you have not seen him with your own eyes, it does not count as having found that person. And once you have found that person, you will see with your own eyes what he is doing and how he is doing it. This is called seeing with one's own eyes.

No matter how much you believe that the person is in the room, you still do not know what that person is specifically doing at this moment or how he is doing it, so no wisdom will arise. Guessing what the person in the room is specifically doing and how he is doing it—even if the guess is correct—cannot give rise to any wisdom.

Another example: a leader tells you to find a certain person, Person A, and see what he is doing. You roughly know that Person A is far away from you, that going to find him would be arduous, so after going out and making a round, you do not want to go there, but you still must complete the task the leader assigned. So you inquire everywhere, and finally you find out that Person A is on the eleventh floor of such-and-such a place, and you roughly guess that he might be sleeping. So you return and tell the leader that Person A is on the eleventh floor; as for what he is doing, it is probably the same things he does on ordinary days, nothing special. Does this count as having found Person A?

This belongs to speculation—guessing what Person A is doing. Even if the guess is correct, the inquiry is correct, and in fact Person A really is doing that thing, it is still not seeing with one's own eyes. Only by seeing Person A in person can you observe him face to face, can wisdom recognizing and discerning him continuously arise, and can you learn from him. What is imagined and guessed will never give rise to such wisdom. Many people have been enlightened for many years yet are still treading in place, with no increase in wisdom at all. Why? Because there was no personal realization—it was merely understood intellectually.

Quite a few people speculate about the realization realm of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, and some indeed guess correctly. But even if the speculation is as correct and accurate as can be, it is not personally realized, and they must still continue as ordinary beings. The Goldbach conjecture is applied too widely and too deeply in the Buddhadharma. Why is this so? Because the actual realization of the Buddhadharma is so very, very difficult, so this inferior expedient has to be used.

Then, after truly realizing the eighth consciousness, can one still regress? For example, if I tell you that Person A is in the room, you at that moment believe it very much, are very sure, very certain. But it is not what you have seen with your own eyes—what will happen afterward? You will surely become unsure and uncertain, and doubt will arise in your mind. But what you have personally verified through arduous effort, what you have seen with your own eyes, will not give rise to doubt or regression. Seeing is believing; hearing is unreliable. What others tell you, no matter how much you believe it, is not fact for yourself. If I have never seen an apple with my own eyes, never tasted an apple with my own mouth, then no matter how others describe it, no matter how I imagine and understand it, it is useless—I will forever remain ignorant of the true condition of the apple, and I cannot absorb the apple's nourishment.

So if I hold a convention of ten thousand people and expound the operation of the eighth consciousness, I can be extremely detailed, extremely meticulous, extremely specific, and eighty percent of the assembly can believe and understand it clearly. Then I issue certificates to these eighty percent of the people, certifying them as bodhisattvas who have seen the mind. These so-called bodhisattvas who have seen the mind have never seen with their own eyes the operation of the eighth consciousness; they have only listened to me, then speculated and matched things up. What will happen afterward? What will happen after death?

The claim that there can be regression after so-called seeing the mind and seeing the nature exists precisely because there was no true seeing of the mind and seeing of the nature, no process of personal investigation—it was only heard about and derived from speculation and analysis. Naturally, it is possible that one will no longer believe such speculation and analysis, and thus regress. Without going through a process of arduous cultivation, something obtained for free is like looking at flowers through the fog—seen unclearly—and it will be rejected. Conjecturing an eighth consciousness into existence, one also cannot truly achieve the transformation of the basis as the eighth consciousness, and no subsequent merits and benefits will arise.

I was just thirsty, so I peeled an apple and ate it. If any of you had found me and watched me face to face as to how I peel an apple and eat an apple, you would follow along and learn, and you would also know how to peel an apple and how to eat an apple. Then, after seeing me peel the apple and leave the peel for the mice to eat, you would know my compassionate mind, and follow along and learn, likewise coming to possess a compassionate disposition. Then, observing that during the process of eating the apple my mind gives rise to no greed, you would then also learn how to keep the mind free from the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and thus the mind becomes pure. This is the benefit of seeing me face to face—you can learn from me. Then, following me at all times, observing how I conduct myself with people and handle affairs, what my moral cultivation is like, and how I specifically handle various matters, you will learn a great deal, and your mental conduct, character, cultivation, and so forth will all undergo change. This is the benefit of finding me and following me, or what is called merits and benefits.

By personally realizing the eighth consciousness—not merely hearing about it, not through word of mouth—one can observe directly in the present how the eighth consciousness operates in the various dharmas, and one will learn many dharmas, and one's mental disposition will come ever closer to that of the eighth consciousness. But those who rely on speculation will forever lack such merits and benefits, because they cannot observe directly in the present.