Which Is Born First: Eye Consciousness or Mind Consciousness?

Observe: when you look but do not see, do you know there is light before your eyes? If you know there is light before your eyes, then there is the discrimination of the eye consciousness, and the mind consciousness has an extremely slight discrimination. Because the mind consciousness must divert part of its attention—or most of its attention—to think about other important matters, its discrimination is extremely slight, and only then does the phenomenon of looking without seeing appear. When observing the seeing of forms, do you first know there is light, there are images, and only then know the fine details of objects? If so, this shows that the eye consciousness arises first and the mind consciousness afterward. Without direct perception through observation, with poor meditative concentration, plus mistaken theory, one can in no way arrive at a correct conclusion.

At the very beginning of discriminating a certain dharma, the question arises whether the five sense consciousnesses arise first or the mind consciousness arises first; after all have arisen, the question of which consciousness arises first no longer applies. When you close your eyes and then open them again, the question of whether the eye consciousness or the mind consciousness comes first is involved. Even with eyes closed, through the eyelids, you can still sense there is light—that means the eye consciousness has not ceased and can still discriminate manifest color (varna). The eye consciousness only discriminates manifest color, the colors on the form sense-object; the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume One, contains a description of this.

What the five sense consciousnesses discriminate is the relatively coarse part of material form—the four great element particles that the tathāgatagarbha, based on the external five sense-objects, extracts from the external five sense-objects and transmits into the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain, where they are transformed and manifested—approaching the essential realm of the external five sense-objects that the tathāgatagarbha contacts and discriminates. The eye consciousness only needs to reapply attention (manaskāra) at the very beginning of seeing form. For example, there are many things in a room; when the eye consciousness shifts from one place to another and the objects seen change, the eye consciousness must reapply attention, and the mind consciousness must also reapply attention. So whenever the form seen changes, the question of the arising of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness is involved. But in every case, the eye consciousness arises first, and a moment later the mind consciousness arises. In seeing form, the eye consciousness first sees hazy, indistinct colors—whether it is empty or whether there is an object—and the mind consciousness afterward sees the shape, size, length, squareness, roundness, content, and meaning, and so on. But when waking from sleep, it is necessarily the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) transforming into consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) that arises first, and then the five sense consciousnesses arise afterward—the order is reversed from that of the waking state.

Whatever is coarse, vague, hazy, and indistinct is the content discriminated first by the five sense consciousnesses; the fine content is discriminated afterward by the mind consciousness. The connection between the five sense consciousnesses and the mind consciousness is extremely fast; a person without meditative concentration (dhyāna) simply cannot discern it. Therefore, even if you tell many people about these contents, they still cannot carry out contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on them and cannot realize them personally; they can only recite the theories of others. Every time the six consciousnesses see a form, they must reapply attention; the manas must first reapply attention even more, constantly applying attention, in order to lead the six consciousnesses to apply attention and discriminate. These subtle dharmas simply cannot be brought forth in contemplative practice without meditative concentration.

Hearing sounds is the mind consciousness and ear consciousness hearing together; the ear consciousness alone cannot hear sounds. When sitting in meditation and suddenly hearing a sound, the ear consciousness arises first and discriminates, and the mind consciousness discriminates afterward; the ear faculty first senses the vibration, and only afterward does the mind consciousness know what the sound is. When the ear consciousness hears a sound, first there is a vibratory sound transmitted to the ear faculty, vibrating the eardrum—this is the coarse sound discriminated by the ear consciousness; afterward the mind consciousness discriminates the fine content such as the sound's pitch, distance, size, and meaning. This shows that the ear consciousness discriminates before the mind consciousness and arises before the mind consciousness.