“All sentient beings are inherently endowed with the ālaya-consciousness [ālaya-vijñāna], which is perfect, clear, pure, and beyond this world, that which is tantamount to nirvana.”
Mahāyāna ghana vyūha sutra, Vol.2
《大乘密嚴經》卷2
Remarks:
According to the Buddha, every normal person possesses Bā shí xīn wáng (literally, eight consciousnesses
mind-kings; 八識心王), no more and no less. The first six consciousnesses enable one to
see, hear, smell, taste, feel, or perceive. They are of an other-dependent nature
and are dependent arising, without an intrinsic nature. Furthermore, the Buddha says that the seventh consciousness, which
is the driving force behind the manifestation of karmic seeds, is the mind with
an imputational nature (with pervasive attachment to erroneous discrimination).
It is named the forthcoming consciousness, mental faculty, or manas. It is also the committer
of karma, the source of transmigration within cyclic existence, and is hence
called the karmic consciousness.
The Buddha also stated that the eighth consciousness, tathāgatagarbha or the ālaya-consciousness, is the fundamental source of all phenomena, and that the form body, the first seven consciousnesses, and all other phenomena arise and cease from it. The emptiness-nature of tathāgatagarbha denotes not seeing, hearing, perceiving, or knowing. It does not know its own mind, make decisions, or attach to the five sense objects or the Buddha Dharma.
In addition, the Buddha stated that the nobles of the Two Vehicles could realize the remainderless nirvana and not fall into the nihilistic state because of the existence of the eighth consciousness, that the Mahayana bodhisattvas rely on the eighth consciousness to attain Buddhahood, that the eighth consciousness is essentially the emptiness-nature, the ultimate reality, the notion of nirvana, and consisting of all phenomena.
As aforesaid, the content of enlightenment in the Chan School is the eighth consciousness, tathāgatagarbha; any other realizations definitely take the deluded, false mind as the True Mind. It is only by personally realizing one’s eighth consciousness (tathāgatagarbha) mind and subsequently aligning one’s first seven deluded consciousnesses minds with it and subsuming them under it can one truly understand the principle that “the mind-kings consisting of the eight consciousnesses are subsumed as one mind: the ālaya-consciousness (阿賴耶識), retribution consciousness (異熟識; S: vipāka-vijñāna), or immaculate consciousness (無垢識; amalavijñāna).” Only such a person can be called a sage or noble.
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