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The Interaction of the Eight Consciousnesses

The manner in which the play of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses liberates or enslaves appears even more clearly when we examine their connection with the eighth consciousness, or innermost consciousness. It is remarkable to see that, from the first centuries of the Common Era, these thinkers and philosophers had not only defined the unconscious (âlayavijñâna) but had also descended to an even subtler level of consciousness, which they call immaculate consciousness (amalavijñâna). It is this latter consciousness that the Lankavatara Sutra identifies with tathagatagharba—embryo or womb, one’s own or proper nature, or Buddha state—and that the Kashmiri Shaivists link to Parama Shiva, absolute consciousness or Self.

But the Ch’an and Tantric thinkers go farther still. In effect, dividing consciousness into eight categories would constitute a return to separation; this splitting can only be realized by the sixth consciousness, differentiation. It is important, therefore, to reunite what thought has divided into a constant striving toward the absolute, and this is the experience of the yogi and yogini. The masters of Yogacara, Ch’an, and Tantrism are thus saying what we read in the Lankavatara Sutra: “The Tathagatagharba known as Alayavijñana evolves together with the seven Vijñanas [consciousnesses].”²⁹ All experience, all sensorality, is hence reintegrated with the absolute, which forms out of or from them the underlying layer or core. There is, then, no longer any reason for the tantrika, the Ch’an adept, or the Yogacara school adept to flee the experience of the senses or that of reality in order to reach the absolute. On the contrary, each contact will reveal, to the yogi or yogini detached from the ego, absolute consciousness.

The Buddha said this clearly: “I teach Reality. . . . That is the inner realm truly taught by the Masters.” And in the same sutra:

The Gharba of the Tathagatas [pure Buddha nature] is indeed united with the seven Vijñânas; when this is adhered to, there arises duality, but when rightly understood, duality ceases.³⁰

Ma-tsu, the sublime Ch’an master of the eighth century, borrowing from the Lankavatara Sutra transmitted by Bodhidharma, declared: “There is not a trace of the absolute outside of reality.”³¹ And Utpaladevi, poet, philosopher and Tantric master of the tenth century, would go on to sing:

Having seen the world as consisting of your nature
And having realized the pleasure
Of your non-dual form,
Still may I never part
With the enjoyment of the spirit of devotion.

Whatever is not,
Let that be nothing to me.
Whatever is,
Let that be something to me.
In this way may it be
That you be found and worshipped by me
In all states.³²