Taking the Thief as One's Father: A Yogācāra Explanation

Taking the thief as one's father—this is the manas taking the thief as father. Which one is the thief? The functions and activities of the six consciousnesses are the thief. Which one is the father? The self and what belongs to the self are the father. The manas has not understood the arising, ceasing, impermanence, and mutability of the six consciousnesses, and thus takes the functions of the six consciousnesses as its own functions and activities, clinging to them without letting go, greedily grasping without end. What should be done? First, acknowledge that there is an unborn and unceasing true mind within the body that does not perish; then contemplate the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature of the six consciousnesses and the five aggregates, their arising, ceasing, and mutability, and their unattainability; then contemplate the impermanent, non-self nature of the six sense bases and six sense objects, characterized by arising and ceasing. Only then can the thief be eliminated. When there is no thief in the mind, and the grasping and greedy attachment to the thief are severed, liberation is attained.