宗鏡錄 73.3

73.3

Answer: The first five consciousnesses grasp sense objects; the sixth consciousness serves as the cause; the seventh consciousness reckons a self and creates karma; the eighth consciousness serves as the support. By this means, the bitter fruit of birth and death is unceasing. A verse in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: / 'Just as when a great flow of water is exhausted, / Waves no longer arise, / So when the manovijñāna ceases, / The various consciousnesses do not arise.' / An explanation says: the five consciousnesses grasp sense objects and turn into the sixth consciousness; the sixth consciousness records dharmas as the cause; the seventh consciousness clings to the six consciousnesses, creating wholesome and unwholesome karma, resulting in future birth and death, which covers and obstructs the eighth consciousness so that it cannot be manifested. If the five consciousnesses do not grasp sense objects, then there is no sixth consciousness. Because the sixth consciousness is absent, the seventh consciousness does not arise. Because the seventh consciousness does not arise, there is no wholesome or unwholesome karma. Because there is no wholesome or unwholesome karma, there is no birth and death. Because there is no birth and death, the tathāgatagarbha citta is serene and constantly abiding. This is precisely the cessation of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, establishing the eighth consciousness. Furthermore, the eighth consciousness is what the fifth, sixth, and seventh consciousnesses rely upon. That which acts as the cause for the various consciousnesses is the citta of the sixth consciousness; the various consciousnesses rely upon it. Just as when water is exhausted there are no waves, when the sixth consciousness ceases, the seventh consciousness also does not arise. Therefore it is said: 'A wind of a single thought of ignorance stirs the ocean of tathatā.' When the wind of ignorance is exhausted and the waves of consciousness do not arise, then the ocean of enlightenment is pristine at its source, and the serene source of enlightenment is originally subtle.