Better know a dharma: Mind dharmas (100 Dharmas, Part II) March 9, 2010

In honor of Steven Colbert, I’ve decided to name this series “Better know a dharma.” So, in this post I’m going to look at the first of the five classes of dharmas mentioned in the previous post – mind dharmas.  These are, in Yogacara theory, the dharmas that constitute the totality of “mind” in terms of the function of cognition; unsurprisingly, perhaps, they are none other than the eight consciousnesses.  According to Kuiji, there are six senses in which we refer to these as “mind dharmas”:

As for “mind dharmas,” altogether this has six senses.  First, “mind” designates [the functions of] collecting and arising [or, perhaps, giving rise].  [In this sense], it only refers to the 8th consciousness, in which are collected all the various seeds, and which gives rise to their manifestations.  Second, “mind” designates [the functions of] accumulating and collecting.  This refers to the first seven transforming consciousnesses’ capability to perfume, [in which capacity] they accumulate and collect all the seeds of various dharmas.  Or, “collecting and arising” can be said to refer to the collection of manifest phenomena produced by the transformations of the first 7 consciousnesses, whose perfuming gives rise to seeds.  Or, “accumulating and collecting” can refer to the storehouse aspect of the 8th consciousness, which accumulates and collects the seeds of various dharmas.  Third, “mind” designates [the function of] taking thoughts as objects, because all [8 consciousnesses] can generate thoughts as they each perceive their associated objects.  Fourth, ["mind"] may be referred to as “consciousness,” because it discerns and discriminates.  Fifth, ["mind"] may be referred to as “mental activity,” because it operates continually without any gaps.  Sixth, the 8th consciousness may be referred to as “mind,” the 7th as “mental activity,” and the first 6 as “consciousness”; these are all the divisions of “mind.”

(CBETA, T44, no. 1836, p. 47, a11-18)

So, what are these eight consciousnesses?  They are the eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, thought-consciousness, manas-consciousness, and alaya-consciousness.  Kuiji’s further explanation of these makes use of some rather complicated Sanskrit grammatical notions to explain how their names are derived, and I’m still a bit unclear as to what he’s getting at, so I’m going to leave it for now; I’ll just try to give a brief explanation on my own.  The first five are named after their corresponding sense-organs (also known as ayatanas); they arise when there is contact between the sense-organ and its corresponding object.  The sixth consciousness aggregates the data received by the first five sense-consciousnesses and performs the function of “sensation” (vedana, the 2nd skandha), evaluating things in terms of positive, negative, or neutral feelings.  The seventh consciousness, also known as the defiled consciousness, is where conceptual thinking takes place; it is this consciousness that produces the illusion of continuity (in Yogacara, mental activity is seen as a succession of rising and falling moments of consciousness, but the seventh perceives this rising and falling as a constant stream of thought) and it is this consciousness that, on the basis of the 8th, creates the notion of a “self.”  The 8th consciousness, known as the “storehouse” or “container” consciousness, is the repository for all the various karmic “seeds” of experience, which the 7th consciousness perceives as constituting a permanent, unchanging “self.”  There is a dynamic relationship between the 7th and 8th consciousnesses, described metaphorically in Buddhist texts as “perfuming,” in which they mutually reinforce each other.  A simple explanation of “perfuming” (which is all that I have the resources to offer at this point) is that the more we do something, the more we are likely to continue doing that thing in the future.  In terms of the production of defiled states of mind in the 7th consciousness, this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, and thus Yogacara identifies the origin and locus of suffering in this complex of habitual tendencies.  More on that to come!