人天眼目 5.17

5.17

It is also named the purely clean consciousness. The Helun states: Lodging an explanation, it designates the ādāna consciousness (translated here as 'appropriating and maintaining') as the ninth purely clean consciousness. Just as the five, six, seven, and eight consciousnesses constantly depend on the ninth consciousness as their support, the ordinary and foolish do not understand and deludedly grasp it as a self. Just as a violent torrent of water does not separate from the substance of water, and all the waves rely on water, so the five, six, seven, and eight consciousnesses constantly take the pure consciousness as their support. Why is the ninth called the pure consciousness? Because people of the two vehicles have long harbored fear of the sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses as karmic seeds of saṃsāra, fearing that they would have difficulty believing, as an expedient means, outside the seeds of saṃsāra, a pure consciousness is separately posited, causing compassion and wisdom gradually to arise and leading them to penetrate consciousness to accomplish wisdom. A verse of the Sandhinirmocana Sūtra states: 'The ādāna consciousness is extremely subtle and fine, / All seeds are like a violent torrent; / I do not expound it to the ordinary and foolish, / Fearing they would discriminate and grasp it as a self.'