Seeing Through The Illusion: Part Two

So today I want to carry on talking about the eight consciousness.

So you may think that this is just theory,

It's not important.

I would say it is hugely important to understand these eight consciousnesses.

Because if you can understand them,

You can work on letting go of your suffering.

If you don't fully understand them,

And particularly fully understand the seventh and eighth,

It is really difficult for us to change and to stop our suffering.

So let's just have a recap.

So the first five consciousnesses are like the physical consciousness.

So it's the sight,

Smell,

Taste,

Hearing and touch consciousness.

So these are simple for us to understand.

The sixth consciousness is our mental consciousness,

Our mind.

Without this sixth consciousness there is nothing.

If we don't have the sixth consciousness,

Then it means that we can't see,

We can't hear,

We can't taste,

We can't touch.

There is nothing.

So it is so important that we have this mental consciousness.

So the five physical and the mental,

Those first six consciousnesses,

Are active in our daily lives.

So they're forever present.

The seventh consciousness creates this illusion of a permanent self,

Permanent I.

And today that's the one I want to talk about,

The seventh consciousness.

Next week we'll talk about the eighth consciousness.

So the eighth consciousness is a storehouse or the liar consciousness.

This is where everything is stored.

So all of our karmic imprints are stored in the eighth consciousness.

So I'll explain this more clearly next week.

But when I talk about karma here,

I'm talking about the process of our past actions,

Our intentions,

Not past in another life,

But past in this life.

So karma in this respect means the process of our past actions and intentions in this life that are going to influence what we experience now in the present moment.

It's really important to understand that when I'm talking about those karmic imprints,

I'm talking about this life.

Because if you think that karma is coming from another life,

You would have to believe that this eighth consciousness is permanent and it isn't.

But we'll get more into the eighth consciousness next week.

So the seventh consciousness,

Or sometimes we call it the defiled consciousness or the corrupt consciousness,

Is a big aspect of the Yogacara Buddhism.

So Yogacara is a school of Buddhism,

Sometimes called mind-only or consciousness-only school of Buddhism.

So it is called corrupted or defiled because it is the root.

The seventh consciousness is called corrupted or defiled because it is the root of our ego clinging.

It's the root of our self-centered thinking.

It is the root of this illusion of an I.

So we all have this illusion that,

You know,

I,

Self,

This is me.

And this stems from this seventh consciousness.

So the key features of this consciousness,

One is that self-attachment,

That ego clinging,

Clinging to a sense of self.

So because this seventh consciousness has this sense of self,

It is constantly mistaking that eighth consciousness for a self.

And that's why I was saying to you,

Don't think that the eighth consciousness is permanent.

It isn't.

It's impermanent.

It's forever changing.

But our seventh consciousness always is always thinking that the eighth consciousness is this self.

So this consciousness creates this illusion of being separate,

That I am my body or I am my thoughts or I am my feelings,

My emotions.

So it is always thinking that I am here and everything is outside of me.

So this dualistic thinking.

So it's always trying to create this separate self.

So there are four main things that this consciousness distorts for us.

So one is a self-view.

So believing that this is me,

This is a fixed self.

They have a self-delusion.

So that ignorance about the true nature of ourselves.

So we are deluded.

That seventh consciousness causes that delusion.

It also causes self-pride.

So that arrogance,

That ego,

The arrogance of our ego is caused by that seventh consciousness,

That self-pride.

So here,

Whenever we're attacked,

Whenever somebody says something unkind to us,

That self-pride comes in,

That arrogance comes in.

And then we start defending ourselves because we have this sense that I am a permanent self.

So the seventh consciousness causes this self-pride.

It also causes this sense of self-love,

The attachment to ourself.

So it causes that self-view,

I am real.

It causes delusion,

The ignorance about the true nature of myself.

It doesn't see that your thoughts are ever changing,

Your body is changing,

Your emotions are changing.

It sees and unthinks that we have a true nature and this is myself.

So we have that delusion.

We have the self-pride that,

You know,

I have to protect myself.

And we have that self,

That sense of self-love,

The attachment.

All of that comes from this seventh consciousness.

So the ego.

And this is what causes us a huge amount of our suffering,

This seventh consciousness.

So unlike the sixth consciousness which thinks in concepts,

So it's conscious,

This seventh consciousness is coming from our subconscious mind.

So it is always reinforcing this sense of self,

This sense of who I am.

So the sixth consciousness,

The mental consciousness,

Is a conscious concept.

The seventh consciousness is stemming from our subconscious mind.

And this is where the problem comes in with the seventh and eighth consciousness.

The first five and the sixth,

The mental consciousness,

We can understand that.

Because we can see,

We can smell,

Hear and touch,

We can think.

So all of those make sense to us.

The seventh and eighth consciousness come from our subconscious mind.

And of course we cannot directly see that subconscious mind.

So then it becomes a bit of a problem for us.

So then we believe.

Because we can't check,

We can't see what is in our alaya consciousness,

We can't see that ego directly.

We can only sense where the ego is taking us.

That means that we believe.

So it is really difficult for us to fully understand the seventh and eighth consciousness.

But what I would say to you is that really try to give it a lot of thought.

Think about it clearly.

So in a minute I'm going to talk about how we can work with this consciousness.

But first of all let's just look at how this consciousness works with the other consciousness.

So it depends on the eighth consciousness.

It needs that alaya,

That eighth consciousness,

For it to work.

So it misunderstands this storehouse,

This alaya consciousness,

As being permanent.

It thinks it is the permanent self.

So it doesn't necessarily think that your thoughts and your other five consciousnesses are permanent.

But it thinks that everything that is stored in our mind is permanent.

It never changes.

Of course it can't be like that because we're forever seeing different things,

Hearing different things,

Tasting,

Touching different things,

Thinking different things.

So everything that is coming in through those six consciousnesses is stored in the eighth.

And that eighth is ever-changing.

But the seventh misunderstands that.

And it thinks that that alaya,

That eighth consciousness,

Is permanent.

So this seventh consciousness influences your sixth consciousness,

Your mental state.

It colors,

Though,

Your ordinary thoughts with ego.

So whenever you think something,

That seventh consciousness is constantly telling the sixth consciousness,

This is mine.

This is who I am.

I am real.

So it really colors the way that we think.

It really influences that sixth consciousness.

So how can we purify this seventh consciousness?

So remember that we can't directly know this seventh consciousness because it is your subconscious mind.

But it is the root of your ego clinging.

So it is really important that we try to break free from the suffering that it causes us.

Because remember that when we have this sense of me,

I,

This is who I am,

That is going to cause us suffering.

Because we're constantly then trying to protect ourselves because we think we are a solid thing.

And when somebody says something nasty to us,

We get upset because we think that it's attacking us.

But there is no us.

There is no solid self.

So when we realize this sense of non-self,

Then that's the seventh consciousness becomes more clear.

So what I'm going to do over the next few weeks is once we finish looking at the eighth consciousness,

I'm going to look again.

We're going to talk again about the non-self,

And we'll talk about the five aggregates.

So the way that we experience the world.

But the problems we have now is this seventh consciousness.

So the way that the Yogacara and also the Mahayana schools of Buddhism tell us that we can purify is by having insight,

Doing meditation,

And changing our ethics.

So sila,

The way that we are ethical.

These are the three key areas that we can start to work on trying to understand and try to break free a little bit from this ego.

Remember that it's there,

That seventh consciousness is there.

We can't ever get rid of it,

But we can learn to work with it.

So during meditation,

So the first part I want to talk about meditation,

Just during meditation,

We can meditate on,

Who am I?

Ask ourselves that question during meditation,

Who am I?

So try to observe how the self is just a stream.

So this sense of self,

The sense of this is who I am,

Is just a flowing river.

It's just a stream of thoughts.

It's a stream of sensations.

It's a stream of past habits and behavior.

And it's a stream of emotions.

It's just changing.

It's just flowing.

So during meditation,

Ask yourself,

Who am I?

And see if you can find who you are.

To find who you are,

You need to find a solid,

Permanent you.

So ask yourself,

Am I my thoughts?

And break that down.

Look carefully.

Am I my thoughts?

Because if I am,

I have 60,

000 of them a day,

Which one is me then?

Am I my emotions?

So am I the emotion I have now?

Am I the emotion I had yesterday,

Or that I'm going to have later on today?

So again,

Look,

Am I my emotion?

And have a look at,

Am I my behavior,

My actions?

Am I the sensations I feel in my body?

For you to say,

Yes,

This is who I am.

They have to be permanent.

So look,

Ask yourself,

Really think carefully.

Am I the thoughts,

The emotions,

The sensations,

The behavior,

My habits?

Am I any of those?

Are they permanent?

Because by looking at that,

You can start to understand that this seventh consciousness is a mistaken thing.

There is no solid,

Permanent self.

So this is one way in meditation that we can start to break down that sense of a self.

Another way is to look at dependent origination,

So cause and effect,

And realize that the ego,

Even this ego,

Is dependent.

That ego is dependent on all your other consciousness,

Because it can't survive on its own.

And it's certainly dependent on the sixth consciousness,

Your mind,

Your mental consciousness.

So if that seventh consciousness was true,

And it is that we have a true self,

Then again,

It would have to be independent.

And it isn't independent.

It is dependent on all other of the seven other consciousnesses.

So again,

You can look at that.

So there's another meditation practice that you can do,

Which is mindful self-inquiry.

So again,

Turn those questions to who I am and who is aware.

So who am I?

I've just spoken about.

But who is aware then?

Because then this is another thing that we can look at.

If I'm aware,

If I'm experiencing something,

Who is experiencing?

And again,

It's the wrong question to be asking ourselves.

It is not who is experiencing the world.

It's how is the world experienced?

So I'll talk more about this when we look at the five aggregates.

So when you're looking in meditation,

Watch how any attempt to find a fixed self fades when you start looking at your thoughts,

Your emotions.

Once you start to see that we are just a stream of thoughts,

Just a stream of emotions,

Just a stream of memories,

Then that sense of a fixed self starts to disappear.

When we have that insight about not understanding,

About seeing that we are just flowing,

When we get that insight,

Then it weakens that sense of the self.

It weakens that ego clinging.

So in meditation,

Ask yourself,

You know,

Who am I?

And who is being aware?

Because you break down those and then you start to break down that sense of ego.

And that's why I'm saying to you that these eight consciousnesses are so important to us.

Because by understanding them,

By meditating on them,

And understanding there is no solid permanent self,

Everything starts to change from that point.

Because whatever people say to us doesn't bother us.

Because it means that,

You know,

There is no solid me.

So then there's nothing,

Nobody to get upset about these things.

So a lot of our suffering will stop.

Another way to work on this seventh consciousness is by trying to cultivate bodhicitta or compassion.

And we can do that by meditating on compassion or metta meditation practices.

Because when we start to think more about other people,

When we start to meditate on compassion for other people,

And again,

It breaks down this ego clinging,

It breaks down this sense of self.

So when we look at the sense of self beyond the ego,

It weakens that self-centeredness.

So the more that we look at compassion for other people,

And try to,

You know,

Have empathy,

Compassion for other people,

It starts to break down that clinging that we have to this sense of self.

There are also two mantras that we use,

That one you know of,

The OM MA HUNG meditation.

So again,

When we're doing OM MA HUNG,

Then,

You know,

If you remember,

We purify our body,

Our speech,

And our mind.

Whenever you have these moments of me,

Me,

Me,

It's good to stop and just start chanting just mentally in your head for a moment.

It pulls yourself away from this clinging to a sense of self,

And you start to focus on the mantra.

So the OM MA HUNG is a good mantra to do.

But the one that,

You know,

Most of the Buddhist monks do,

Is the TAYATA OM GATTA GATTA PARA GATTA PARASAM GATTA BUDDHI SOHA,

Which is the Prajna Paramita or the Heart Sutra mantra.

So the TAYATA means Buddha,

OM,

You know,

OM.

So the GATTA,

GATTA means gone.

So GATTA,

GATTA,

So we say GATTA,

GATTA,

So it's gone,

Gone.

And PARA GATTA means it's gone beyond.

And PARASAM GATTA means gone altogether.

And the BUDDHI SOHA means awakened.

So what we're trying to do is that we're transcending here,

Our ordinary perception.

Our ordinary perception is gone,

It's gone.

And we're moving beyond this sense of self.

We're moving beyond our attachment and our limitations.

So we are gone.

So this mantra,

I'll put this mantra in the group.

But it is a great mantra to do.

And actually you can find it on YouTube.

There are many versions on YouTube that you can listen to and follow.

But when you're focusing on the GATTA,

GATTA,

PARA GATTA,

PARASAM GATTA,

BUDDHI SOHA,

Then when you're focusing on,

Think that I am now transcending this sense of self.

I'm letting go of my just ordinary perceptions and these attachments and limitations that I put on myself.

And I am freeing myself.

I am awakening.

It's a great mantra to do.

The other side is the ethical conduct.

So practicing generosity.

So like yesterday,

When a lot of you went to this children's school,

By doing these things,

We are thinking about other people.

The more generous we are,

The more we weaken this ego attachment.

So the more that we can think about other people,

The more that we can have generosity and kindness towards other people,

Have empathy to other people,

You are starting to break down that sense of ego.

Because you're not thinking of you,

You're thinking of other people.

And that's why when you do this generosity,

It is so important that you don't do it for praise.

You don't do it for self-glorification or self-gratification.

You do it for other people.

You will feel good about it.

Of course,

We will.

But it shouldn't be the purpose of it.

Because then it starts breaking down this sense of self.

Doing meditation and understanding,

Who am I looking at?

Who am I breaking it down and finding that there is no solid,

Permanent me?

I'm just flowing like a river.

When you meditate on how the world is experienced,

We'll talk about that more later on.

But these,

Again,

Break down that sense of self.

And when you do the mantras,

The om ah hung or the gata gata mantras,

Again,

Focus on that I'm breaking down this sense of a self.

There is no permanent me.

The more that you can focus on that,

The better it is for you.

So by purifying this seventh consciousness,

It's not going to be achieved by forcing something.

Because remember,

It's in our subconscious mind.

So we can't force something.

We just have to be gentle.

We have to be persistent.

We have to have insights.

We have to have compassion and generosity and do the meditation practice.

Because the more that you can do this,

The more that gradually you're going to understand that you're empty of a self.

There is no independent,

True nature of a self.

And this seventh consciousness,

This sense of a self,

This ego clinging is what's causing you suffering.

And to loosen that,

Loosen that ego clinging,

It's going to free you from suffering.

So it's going to transform you.

It's going to free you from any sense of a permanent self.

If you can do that and start to do that,

Start slowly,

Slowly breaking down this sense of self,

It is going to make a huge difference to your lives.