八識規矩補註 1.18

1.18

This says that the śrāvakas who are foolish regarding the Dharma in the Hīnayāna do not know that sense-base and consciousness each have their own seeds and actual states, and think that sense-base and consciousness mutually generate each other. The seeds and actual states of a sense-base can merely guide the seeds and actual states of consciousness; saying that the sense-base is a condition for generating consciousness is acceptable, but saying that it generates consciousness is not acceptable, because consciousness has its own seeds that are capable of generating it. Because they have not eliminated the cognitive hindrance and do not fully comprehend phenomena, their wisdom is shallow and their minds are coarse; consequently, they do not believe in the Mahāyāna teaching of vijñaptimātra. This note states that the seeds and actual states of sense-base and consciousness are distinct; fearing that beginners might still have doubts, let us try to explain it further. The sense-base is physical form, which is the nimittabhāga of the eighth [consciousness]; consciousness is mental phenomena, which is the darśanabhāga of the eighth [consciousness]; this is the difference between physical form and mind. Although the sense-base belongs to physical form, because it is the immediate nimittabhāga of the eighth, it uniquely possesses the two meanings of appropriating and experiencing of the eighth. 'Appropriating' again has the two meanings of gathering and holding: the eighth gathers it as its own substance (both being avyākṛta) and holds it so that it does not disperse. 'Experiencing' also has the two meanings of receiving and feeling: receiving it as an object and causing sensation and feeling to arise; it cannot be compared to the insentient objects of the external six dusts. Therefore, the eighth and the five sense-bases are equally avyākṛta in nature, whereas the mental phenomena of the five consciousnesses possess all three natures; this is the difference in nature between sense-base and consciousness. Moreover, the sense-base can illuminate an object, and consciousness can cognize an object; this is the difference in function between sense-base and consciousness. Generally, sense-bases lack discrimination; although the first five consciousnesses have recollection-discrimination, they lack deliberate discrimination, so they are often confused and difficult to distinguish. Therefore, for those foolish regarding the mind, the Buddha analyzed the mind and taught the aggregates; for those foolish regarding physical form, he analyzed physical form and taught the sense-fields; for those foolish regarding both, he analyzed both and taught the realms. From the *Avataṃsaka* to the *Śūraṅgama*, he expounded these three categories who knows how many hundreds of thousands of times, yet Ānanda still spoke of the mind knowing and the eye seeing. Therefore the Buddha interrogated him with whether a door can see or not, meaning that the mind sees by means of the sense-base, just as a person sees objects by means of a lamp. Speaking from this, one can know the difficulty of distinguishing consciousness from sense-base.