What conclusion should a Hīnayāna practitioner draw after contemplating in accordance with reality?

If, after contemplating that the five aggregates are illusory and without self, one arrives at the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, what does this show? It shows that all ordinary sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have always taken the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness, and then, upon encountering the Buddha's teaching and wishing to attain liberation, through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, they correct their former mistaken cognition, changing wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) into right view: the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness; the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, yet are not not the eighth consciousness. Is it so? Does the phrase "not not the eighth consciousness" include the implication that the five aggregates are also the eighth consciousness?

If it is so, then ordinary sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have always believed that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness—what is wrong with this? Is it a wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi)? There is nothing wrong with it! If ordinary sentient beings truly had always taken the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness since beginningless kalpas, then there would be no view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, no ignorance and afflictions, and the Buddha would not have needed to laboriously come to the Sahā world eight thousand times to rescue sentient beings. Recognizing the eighth consciousness as self, beings would not recognize the five aggregates as self, and would not create unwholesome karma. The most crucial point is: have ordinary sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, taken the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness?

If ordinary sentient beings have always taken the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness since beginningless kalpas—if it is truly so—then all ordinary sentient beings would be bhūmi bodhisattvas possessing the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only (wei-shi zhong-zhi). Because only bhūmi bodhisattvas, through the direct perception of consciousness-only seed-wisdom, can observe that the five aggregates in their entirety are the eighth consciousness—that the cloth doll in its entirety is cloth, the clay figure in its entirety is clay, and the gold ornament in its entirety is gold. Then all sentient beings since beginningless kalpas would have been bhūmi bodhisattvas, and in that case, would there still be any need to eradicate the view of self, to eradicate the view of the eighth consciousness as self, to eradicate the view of "my eighth consciousness"?

If ordinary sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have never known that there is a true self, the eighth consciousness, and have never believed the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness, then when ordinary sentient beings encounter the dharma of liberation and contemplate the Four Noble Truths—suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path—and contemplate suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, could they in the end arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the self of the eighth consciousness, not my eighth consciousness? Would this not be a sleight of hand, swapping concepts? If it is a swapping of concepts, then no one could truly eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and no Hīnayāna practitioners could attain purity of the dharma eye or attain liberation.

Those who genuinely cultivate the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment as they truly are, and genuinely engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), when eradicating the view of self and realizing the fruit, simply cannot arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness. Offering such a conclusion is mere intellectual speculation about actual practice, without having gone through a process of genuine deliberation and contemplative practice. Only after eradicating the view of self, and then from the perspective of Mahāyāna contemplative practice, can one arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness.

When the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths to his disciples, he first told them: within the five aggregates there is a true self, the eighth consciousness, which neither arises nor ceases; even if the five aggregates and eighteen realms are extinguished, the eighth consciousness does not perish. Thus the disciples all believed and accepted the Buddha's words, knowing there is something imperishable, that after Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa) there is not annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā) and nothingness, and that this true self has function. Upon hearing the Buddha's words, the disciples immediately knew that the five aggregates and eighteen realms can perish while the eighth consciousness does not perish, and knew that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness. But this knowing is the knowing of the mind consciousness; the manas has not realized it directly—direct realization of it would make one a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. Nor would they go searching for the eighth consciousness; they would only contemplate the nature of the five aggregates as suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self. They would not, after a round of arduous contemplative practice, arrive at the conclusion: the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness. If it were so, then he had not contemplated carefully and thoroughly. This conclusion should already have been known in his heart when the Buddha taught that there is a true self.

In the Āgama sūtras, the Buddha taught the Sūtra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness: contemplating the body as impure, contemplating feelings as suffering, contemplating the mind as impermanent, contemplating dharmas as non-self. If a person truly and genuinely engages in contemplative practice over several years, when eradicating the view of self, could he arrive at a conclusion: the body is not the eighth consciousness, feelings are not the eighth consciousness, the mind is not the eighth consciousness, dharmas are not the eighth consciousness? If he arrives at such a conclusion, may I ask: how did this person contemplate? Did he contemplate in accordance with what the World-Honored One taught?

This person draws conclusions based on imagination, without truly contemplating in accordance with the Dharma. If Hīnayāna practitioners had truly realized that the five aggregates are not different from the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, then they would not fear suffering and hasten to extinguish the five aggregates and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). Because they would have realized that the five aggregates are all illusory, transformed appearances manifested by the eighth consciousness, without any real substance, without any true suffering.