Chapter 6-2 The Eight Consciousnesses in Human Body

How do humans perceive the world and the universe?

Buddhism posits that the entire world is manifested by "consciousness"（识）. According to Buddhist texts, "consciousness" refers to the ability to distinguish between different things and tastes. The term "consciousness", translated as "cognition" in English, is known in Buddhism as "discrimination". There are 8 types of consciousness: Visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Tactile, Mental, Manas（末那, from Sanskrit）, and Alaya（阿赖耶, from Sanskrit）. The first 6 types of consciousness correspond to the faculties of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind（眼耳鼻舌身意）, as mentioned in the "Heart Sutra",   associate with forms, sounds, odors, flavors, tactile objects, and mental objects（色声香味触法）. Manas and Alaya consciousnesses are innate, not acquired, and are beyond conscious control.

• Visual consciousness: This consciousness is based on the eye and discerns visual objects, hence it is called visual consciousness.
• Auditory consciousness: This consciousness is based on the ear and discerns sounds, hence it is called auditory consciousness.
• Olfactory consciousness: This consciousness is based on the nose and discerns odors, hence it is called olfactory consciousness.
• Gustatory consciousness: This consciousness is based on the tongue and discerns tastes, hence it is called gustatory consciousness.
• Tactile consciousness: This consciousness is based on the body and discerns tactile objects, hence it is called tactile consciousness.
• Mental consciousness: This consciousness is based on the mind and discerns mental objects, hence it is called mental consciousness.

The first 5 types of consciousness correspond to the 5 senses of the human body, with "base" referring to the sensory "receptors". In the Buddhist context, "discern" (了別) means cognition and differentiation, which is the initial perception of things.

Just like sound waves and light waves, which are so broad that human perception can only detect a limited frequency range, but the parts we cannot perceive still exist. Similarly, most people can clearly perceive the "6 consciousnesses" but may not necessarily "break through" this perception. Excessive focus and pursuit of the "6 consciousnesses" can become an "obstacle" to connecting with higher dimensions.

Here is a short story:

Once, the philosopher Schopenhauer and Goethe were discussing light. Schopenhauer said: "The solar system is our representation; if we do not see light, light does not exist." Goethe replied: "No, if the light does not shine upon you, you do not exist."

Because of light, we can see existence. The eye receives the color, and the Visual consciousness distinguishes (sees) the color; the ear receives the sound, and the Auditory consciousness distinguishes the sound; the nose receives the fragrance, and the Olfactory consciousness distinguishes the fragrance; the tongue receives the taste, and the Gustatory consciousness distinguishes the taste; the body receives the sensation, and the Tactile consciousness distinguishes the perception.

The 5th consciousness, Tactile consciousness, is spread throughout the body, collecting tactile information. It can perceive various external sensations such as pain, itchiness, cold, heat, softness, hardness, dryness, wetness, roughness, fineness, smoothness, and abrasiveness, as well as internal sensations like hunger and thirst.

Mental consciousness relies on the mind to distinguish mental objects. The mind differs from the first 5 bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body), which have a tangible physical presence, while the mind is from the brain that generate consciousness, which arise from the stimulation of 5 senses by external material objects. It can be understood as the brain's cognitive system to recall the past, and feel the present experiences. For example, some events, though long past, are still unforgettable for the person involved, which is the result of Mental consciousness.

The 7th consciousness is Manas, translated from Sanskrit as "defiled mind", we refer to it as "Heart consciousness". If Mental consciousness is responsible for the brain's cognitive system, then Heart consciousness can be understood as the "cognitive system of the heart". In the real world, the Heart consciousness of most people is not "activated"; they are accustomed to using the brain to gather information from 5 senses to generate "consciousness" (thought). Heart consciousness, however, is not influenced by external sensations because it exists at a deeper level than all other consciousness, akin to what is commonly referred to as the "subconscious" or "innate" inspiration.

Since the mechanisms of Mental consciousness and Heart consciousness are entirely different, they exist in a mutually exclusive manner: when Mental consciousness is strong, Heart consciousness is weak, and vice versa. When desires are strong, innate talents are subdued; when desires are weak, innate talents are strong. Therefore, it is not difficult to observe that most people with strong material desires have a strong Mental consciousness but subdued talents, leading to busy but unproductive lives. Conversely, highly talented individuals often have low desires, minimal demands from life, and are content with whatever comes their way. The few who reach the pinnacle in literature, art, and science typically exhibit these latter characteristics.

Western science has long been puzzled about whether the deeper consciousness of humans originates from the brain or from the heart. In Chinese culture, there has always been the saying: "the heart governs the mind". TCM has held for thousands of years that "a troubled heart leads to a hundred diseases, while a calm heart cures a myriad of ailments." "Huangdi Neijing"（《黄帝内经》）also states: "The heart is the master of the organs, the abode of the spirit... When the heart is damaged, the spirit departs; when the spirit departs, death ensues."

When we are suddenly extremely sad, we first feel pain in the heart rather than in the brain. When we are fearful, we first feel our heart race, followed by reactions in the brain. When we dream, sometimes the dream is convoluted and bizarre, vastly different from reality. Some experiences in the dream might be hard to recall, yet dreaming does not seem to affect the brain's vigor the next day. This suggests that Heart consciousness can exist outside the body, and it is not merely an activity of the brain.

Just as with the principles of a computer, where the brain serves as the CPU of the human body, functioning as a system for storing and accessing consciousness rather than generating it, the true controllers and commanders of the computer are the human instructions in front of the screen.

The 8th consciousness is Alaya, which we refer to in this book as "Divine consciousness". It is also called the "Tathagatagarbha", "immaculate consciousness", "true suchness", "true body", "true mind", "diamond mind", "self-nature" and other names. Everyone has Alaya consciousness from birth; not only do we have it, but we also constantly rely on it. However, most people remain unaware of it, do not recognize it, and cannot perceive it.

Alaya consciousness can be also understood as the "Primary Soul", though they are not entirely synonymous. It is the highest level of the 8 Consciousnesses, representing the capacity for cognition, that is, the ability of people to perceive the "Primary Soul" or be influenced by it.

Alaya consciousness is the direct source of the preceding consciousnesses, capable of manifesting the external perception of other consciousnesses, thus being the "origin" of a person. It's the repository of all seeds of consciousness, containing the karmic seeds of good and evil deeds accumulated by sentient beings since "time immemorial" (a concept where time has no beginning and no end). It stores and outputs the seeds of consciousness, providing the other consciousnesses with their ability to perceive. Since Alaya consciousness never interacts with the external sensory world, it has no sensations, no joys or sorrows, no seeing, hearing, or perceiving.

The most frequently recited and widely circulated Buddhist scripture is the "Heart Sutra", translated into Chinese by Master Xuan-zang. The 600 volumes of the "Mahāpraj āpāramitā-sūtra"（《大般若经》）are condensed into the "Diamond Sutra"（《金刚经》）, and further condensed into the 260-character "Heart Sutra". It discusses the general and specific wisdom of "Prajna"（般若）and the nature of the "Tathagatagarbha"（如来藏）and "diamond mind" , which refer to Alaya consciousness.

The famous line from the "Diamond Sutra": "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form", encourages people to cultivate a "diamond mind" that is free from attachment to forms, sounds, odors, flavors, tactile objects, and mental objects. The "Heart Sutra" says: "neither born nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing", refers to Alaya consciousness as well.

The first 7 consciousnesses all originate from Alaya consciousness, which experiences birth and death, while the 8th consciousness is "neither born nor extinguished". The stored karmic seeds in the 8th consciousness are described in the "Śūraṅgama Sūtra"（《楞严经》）: "Even if it takes a hundred kalpas, the karma created does not perish; when the conditions come together, the resultant retribution is still experienced." If the 8th consciousness did not store karmic seeds, or if it experienced interruption, the "Law of Causality" would be disrupted.

 All things are the union of yin and yang; where there is matter, there must be anti-matter. The celestial bodies in the universe are constantly being destroyed and reborn, matter is continuously annihilated and generated, and anti-matter always exists. The human body is matter, while Alaya consciousness can be likened to anti-matter. Matter exists (visible) because of the influence of anti-matter (invisible), which is the foundation and root of the existence of matter. It's precisely the action of anti-matter that creates the cyclical process of "from nothing to something" and "from something to nothing". This is remarkably similar to Buddha's teaching that all phenomena in the universe follow a cycle of "formation, existence, decay and emptiness".

Regarding "emptiness", it doesn't mean "nothing", but can be understood as "false existence" or "seemingly existing but actually not existing". The "emptiness" mentioned in Buddhism means that all phenomena in the world are born from causality, and they are born and destroyed in an instant. They have no qualitative determination and independent entity, and are false and unreal, which is called "emptiness".

The "Heart Sutra" begins with: "Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajnaparamita (perfection of wisdom), saw clearly that all five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness) are empty", and goes on to explain, "Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. The same applies all consciousness."

The Treatise on the "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā"《中论》states: "Phenomena arising from causality, this I declare as emptiness". The "Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana"《大乘起信论》says: "All sentient beings have false minds, which discriminate in every thought, and are not in accordance with each other, so they are said to be empty." They all tell people that the truth of the universe and life is: "Nothing exists, and nothing can be obtained."

Readers might recall the first section of Chapter 3, "The Secret of Quantum", where we discussed the "emptiness" of quantum particles, exploring how the tiny particles that make up everything in the world appear as an "empty" phenomenon, seemingly existing yet non-existent. The highest consciousness, Alaya consciousness, can also be understood as the "projection source" from the higher-dimensional world mentioned in Chapter 2: the lower dimensions are projections of the higher dimensions, with Alaya consciousness directing the karma accumulated over our lifetimes, though most people cannot perceive it.

Finally, Alaya consciousness is not confined to the heart, it might permeate every part, including every cell of the body, existing "holography", thus explaining why it is the fundamental source of the first 7 consciousnesses.

Some may ask, if the Alaya consciousness or the "Primary Soul" is "neither born nor destroyed", where does it go after death? We will elaborate on this in the 4th section of this chapter.