宗鏡錄 53.4

53.4

Answer: The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra says: "Although it is not that there is no form, it is transformed by consciousness. That is, when consciousness arises, through the power of internal causes and conditions, it transforms and appears resembling the characteristics of the eyes and so forth and visible form and so forth. It then takes these characteristics as its support and condition. However, sense-faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception (pratyakṣa); because they are capable of producing consciousness, by inference (anumāna) one knows they exist. This is merely a functional capacity, not something produced externally. Since the principle of external, obstructive form is already unestablished, it must therefore merely be the transformation and appearance of internal consciousness."

The explanation states: Although the eyes and so forth have form that serves as their support and perceptual object, they are transformed and manifested by consciousness; it is not that outside of mind there exist separate atoms that form the faculties and their spheres. Rather, when the eight consciousnesses arise, through the force of internal causal seeds and so forth, the eighth consciousness transforms, resembling the five faculties and the five dusts. The five consciousnesses, such as the eye[-consciousness], rely upon the faculties transformed by it and take as objects the dust-spheres that are its original essences (benshi). Although they do not directly apprehend them, they necessarily rely on them to arise. In reality, upon the form-dust of the fundamental consciousness, they transform into the appearance of the five dusts; they thus take those five faculties as their basis of support and take both those and their own two kinds of five dusts as their objective conditions (ālambanapratyaya). If the five consciousnesses did not rely on what is transformed by the eighth consciousness, there would be no objective condition; for within the objective condition there are both direct (intimate) and indirect (distant) aspects.

As for "sense-faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception": the five dusts such as visible form are mutually perceived by the worldly and apprehended through direct perception; the five faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception. Except for being the objects of the eighth consciousness and the objects of the Tathāgatas and so forth—which are apprehended by direct perception—it is not commonly claimed in the world; within other scattered minds, there is no apprehension through direct perception. Since these merely possess the function of producing consciousness, from this one infers they exist. This is merely a functional capacity; it is not form produced by separate great elements outside the mind.

This word "functional capacity" refers precisely to the operation of producing the five consciousnesses. By observing the function, one knows the substance—just as by observing the sprouting of a shoot, one infers that the substance of the seed exists. Therefore, a verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says:
"Taking the eye, visible form, and so forth as conditions,
Consciousness is thereby able to arise.
Just as fire blazes on account of fuel,
So too is the arising of consciousness.
The sphere shifts, following the deluded mind,
Just as iron pursues a lodestone.
Like a city of the gandharvas or a mirage,
Apprehended by the foolish and thirsty:
Inside there is no producing entity;
They merely change and vary following the mind.
Again, like people in a city of the gandharvas,
Whose coming and going are all unreal,
So too are the bodies of sentient beings;
Their advancing and halting are entirely untrue.
They are also like what is seen in a dream:
Upon awakening, it no longer exists.
Falsely seeing dharmas such as the aggregates—
Once awakened, they are originally quiescent.
An accumulation of minute atoms of the four great elements,
Separated from mind, is ungraspable."

The Avataṃsakasūtra says: "The youth Prabhūtaratna said to Sudhana: 'Good son, I also thoroughly understand the eighteen crafts, various technical arts, the sixty-two auxiliary treatises on sciences, the inner science, and all methods for curing internal afflictions.' What are named the afflictions of the internal body? There are four causes and conditions: First, the eye-faculty apprehending visible objects; second, the habit-energy of clinging since beginningless time; third, the own-nature and fundamental nature of that consciousness; fourth, mental application and craving toward visible objects. Due to the power of these four causes and conditions, the storehouse consciousness transforms, and the waves of consciousness arise, just like a torrent flowing in uninterrupted succession.

'Good son, just as the eye-consciousness arises, so too do all the faculty-consciousnesses, fine atoms, and pores arise simultaneously. It is just like a clear mirror instantaneously reflecting many images; all consciousnesses are also like this, sometimes appearing instantaneously. Good son, it is like a fierce wind blowing across the great ocean, where the waves never cease: driven by the wind of objects blowing across the calm sea of the mind, the waves of consciousness arise in uninterrupted succession. Cause and condition interact with one another, never abandoning each other; they are neither one nor different, like water and waves. Because of the characteristics produced by karma, deep bondage arises, and one cannot understand the own-nature of form and so forth, and the collection of five consciousnesses turns. That ālayavijñāna never says of itself, "I produce the seven consciousnesses"; nor do the seven consciousnesses say, "We are produced from the ālayavijñāna." Rather, merely from one's own mind clinging to the characteristics of objects, they arise through conceptual discrimination. Such a profound ālayavijñāna has subtle and minute operational characteristics; its ultimate limits are penetrated only by the Tathāgatas and bodhisattvas residing in the stages. Śrāvakas foolish regarding the Dharma, pratyekabuddhas, ordinary persons, and non-Buddhists are all incapable of knowing it.'"