Six Kinds of Defiled Mind, and Why the Water Never Ceases
Part 5 turns from what the ālayavijñāna is to how it actually operates. The treatise names five successive functions of "will," proves that the three realms are mind alone, distinguishes will from the coarser discriminating consciousness that ordinary people mistake for a self, sorts defilement into six kinds mapped onto specific stages of the bodhisattva path, and closes with an image that will recur throughout the rest of the treatise: mind's continuity and mind's cessation, resolved through the difference between water and the wind that merely moves across it.
The Five Names of Will
復次，生滅因緣者，所謂眾生依心，意、意識轉故。此義云何？以依阿梨耶識說有無明不覺而起，能見、能現、能取境界，起念相續，故說為意。此意復有五種名。云何為五？一者、名為業識，謂無明力不覺心動故。二者、名為轉識，依於動心能見相故。三者、名為現識，所謂能現一切境界，猶如明鏡現於色像；現識亦爾，隨其五塵對至，即現無有前後，以一切時任運而起常在前故。四者、名為智識，謂分別染淨法故。五者、名為相續識，以念相應不斷故，住持過去無量世等善惡之業令不失故，復能成熟現在未來苦樂等報無差違故，能令現在已經之事忽然而念，未來之事不覺妄慮。
是故三界虛偽唯心所作，離心則無六塵境界。此義云何？以一切法皆從心起妄念而生，一切分別即分別自心，心不見心無相可得。當知世間一切境界，皆依眾生無明妄心而得住持，是故一切法，如鏡中像無體可得，唯心虛妄。以心生則種種法生，心滅則種種法滅故。
Furthermore, as for the causes and conditions of arising-and-ceasing: it is that sentient beings, in dependence on mind, undergo the turning of will and of the discriminating consciousness. What does this mean? It is that, in dependence on the ālayavijñāna, one speaks of ignorance and non-enlightenment stirring into being, able to perceive, able to manifest, able to grasp an object-realm, giving rise to thought in unbroken succession — and this is what is called will. This will has, in turn, five names. What are the five? First, it is named the karmic consciousness, because, through the power of ignorance, unenlightened mind stirs. Second, it is named the perceiving-turned consciousness, because, in dependence on stirred mind, there is the mark of perceiving. Third, it is named the manifesting consciousness — that is, it is able to manifest every object-realm, just as a bright mirror manifests forms and images. The manifesting consciousness is just the same: whatever the five sense-objects confront it with, it manifests them at once, with no sequence of before and after, since it arises spontaneously at every moment and is forever present in advance. Fourth, it is named the discerning consciousness, because it discriminates between defiled and pure dharmas. Fifth, it is named the continuing consciousness, because thought corresponds to it without break — sustaining the wholesome and unwholesome karma of immeasurable past ages so that none of it is lost, and further ripening the corresponding painful and pleasant retributions of present and future without discrepancy, so that it can suddenly call to mind something already past in the present, and, unaware, spins out false deliberation over what is yet to come in the future.
Therefore the three realms are false and empty, made by mind alone; apart from mind, there is no object-realm of the six sense-objects at all. What does this mean? Because all dharmas arise from mind giving rise to false thought; all discrimination is nothing but mind discriminating itself; and mind cannot see mind, so there is no mark to be apprehended at all. One should understand that all worldly object-realms are sustained entirely in dependence on the false, ignorant mind of sentient beings. Therefore all dharmas are like images in a mirror, having no essence that can be apprehended — they are mind alone, and false. When mind arises, then all the various dharmas arise; when mind ceases, then all the various dharmas cease.
Fazang glosses each of the five names by what it newly contributes, not merely by repeating the source text. The karmic consciousness is the bare fact of movement itself, prior to any subject-object split. The perceiving-turned consciousness he distinguishes carefully from a superficially similar transformation in the coarser discriminating consciousness discussed later — this one arises 就無明所動 (from being moved by ignorance itself, within the fundamental consciousness), not from being moved by an external object. The manifesting consciousness he connects to the *Yogācārabhūmi*'s fuller account, where the same function also manifests sense-faculty seeds and the receptacle world; this treatise narrows its own description to the five sense-objects specifically 以此約牽起分別事識義故 — because it is being set up here to explain how the coarser discriminating consciousness gets pulled into being, and nothing more. The discerning consciousness and the continuing consciousness he identifies as already belonging to the finer layer of the coarser event-consciousness discussed further down this page — meaning the five names are not five separate entities in sequence so much as five functions of one and the same evolving process, named where each function first becomes distinguishable. On why "will" is the umbrella term for all five, he cites the Mahāyānasaṃgraha directly: 意以能生依止為義也 — will is so called because it means "that which serves as the generative support" for what comes after it, namely the discriminating consciousness this same page goes on to describe.
On the "mind alone" demonstration, Fazang reads the passage as making two separate denials rather than one, matching them to the two halves of a verse from the *Madhyāntavibhāga*: 由依唯識故，境無體義成，以塵無有故，本識則不生 — "because one relies on consciousness-only, the meaning that objects have no essence is established; because dust [external objects] does not exist, the fundamental consciousness itself does not truly arise either." 一切分別即分別自心 ("all discrimination is nothing but mind discriminating itself") corresponds to the verse's first half, denying that any object exists apart from mind. 心不見心 ("mind cannot see mind") corresponds to the second half, denying even the subtler claim that mind, having no external object left to grasp, still somehow grasps itself as an object. Fazang is explicit that both denials matter for practice, not just theory, quoting the *Yogācārabhūmi*'s own question-and-answer on what a meditator sees at the moment this teaching is actually realized: 入圓成實性 (one enters the nature of perfect accomplishment) by first seeing that the imagined has no mark, then by further relinquishing even the dependent nature that remained. Seeing through the object is only the first half of the work; seeing through the seer is the second.
Six Kinds of Defiled Mind, Six Stages of Leaving Them Behind
復次，言意識者，即此相續識，依諸凡夫取著轉深計我我所，種種妄執隨事攀緣，分別六塵名為意識，亦名分離識。又復說名分別事識，此識依見愛煩惱增長義故。依無明熏習所起識者，非凡夫能知，亦非二乘智慧所覺。謂依菩薩，從初正信發心觀察，若證法身得少分知，乃至菩薩究竟地不能知盡，唯佛窮了。何以故？是心從本已來自性清淨而有無明，為無明所染，有其染心。雖有染心而常恒不變，是故此義唯佛能知。所謂心性常無念故名為不變，以不達一法界故心不相應，忽然念起名為無明。
染心者有六種。云何為六？一者、執相應染，依二乘解脫及信相應地遠離故。二者、不斷相應染，依信相應地修學方便漸漸能捨，得淨心地究竟離故。三者、分別智相應染，依具戒地漸離，乃至無相方便地究竟離故。四者、現色不相應染，依色自在地能離故。五者、能見心不相應染，依心自在地能離故。六者、根本業不相應染，依菩薩盡地得入如來地能離故。不了一法界義者，從信相應地觀察學斷，入淨心地隨分得離，乃至如來地能究竟離故。
言相應義者，謂心念法異，依染淨差別，而知相緣相同故。不相應義者，謂即心不覺常無別異，不同知相緣相故。又染心義者，名為煩惱礙，能障真如根本智故。無明義者，名為智礙，能障世間自然業智故。此義云何？以依染心能見、能現、妄取境界，違平等性故。以一切法常靜無有起相，無明不覺妄與法違故；不能得隨順世間一切境界種種智故。
Furthermore, as for the discriminating consciousness: this is precisely that same continuing consciousness which, in dependence on ordinary people's ever-deepening attachment, conceives of a self and what belongs to a self, and, through all manner of false grasping, clings to whatever it encounters. Its discrimination of the six sense-objects is what is called the discriminating consciousness; it is also named the consciousness of separation. It is further spoken of as the consciousness that discriminates objects, because this consciousness grows through the affliction of views and craving. As for the consciousness that arises through the habituating influence of ignorance: it is not something an ordinary person can know, nor something the wisdom of the two vehicles can awaken to. It is only that a bodhisattva, from the first arousing of true faith onward, observes it — and once he has realized the dharma-body, he knows a small portion of it — yet even at the very end of the bodhisattva grounds he is not able to know it exhaustively; only a buddha fathoms it completely. Why is this? This mind, pure in its own nature from the very outset, nonetheless has ignorance; defiled by ignorance, it has its defiled mind. And though it has a defiled mind, it is nevertheless constant, forever unchanging — and it is for this reason that only a buddha can know this truth. That is to say: the nature of mind is forever without thought, and for this reason it is called unchanging; and it is because mind does not penetrate to the single dharma-realm that it fails to correspond, and thought suddenly arises — which is called ignorance.
The defiled mind is of six kinds. What are the six? First, the defilement of grasping and correspondence, left behind in dependence on the liberation of the two vehicles and on the ground where faith corresponds. Second, the defilement of uninterrupted correspondence, gradually abandoned through the cultivation of skillful means on the ground where faith corresponds, and left behind completely upon reaching the ground of the pure mind. Third, the defilement of discerning-wisdom correspondence, gradually left behind from the ground complete in precepts onward, and left behind completely by the ground of signless skillful means. Fourth, the defilement of manifesting form without correspondence, able to be left behind on the ground of mastery over form. Fifth, the defilement of the perceiving mind without correspondence, able to be left behind on the ground of mastery over mind. Sixth, the defilement of fundamental karma without correspondence, able to be left behind when a bodhisattva, at the very end of the bodhisattva grounds, enters the ground of the Tathāgata. As for not penetrating the meaning of the single dharma-realm: from the ground where faith corresponds, one observes and learns to cut it off; upon entering the ground of the pure mind, one leaves it behind in part; and it is only at the ground of the Tathāgata that one is able to leave it behind completely.
By "correspondence" is meant that mind and its mental factors are distinct, and that, though they depend on the distinction between defilement and purity, their aspect of knowing and their aspect of taking an object are identical. By "without correspondence" is meant that mind's very non-enlightenment is forever without any such distinction, and does not share this same aspect of knowing and taking an object. Further, the defiled mind is named the hindrance of affliction, because it is able to obstruct the fundamental wisdom of suchness. Ignorance is named the hindrance to knowledge, because it is able to obstruct the spontaneous, worldly wisdom of activity. What does this mean? Because, in dependence on the defiled mind, one perceives, manifests, and falsely grasps at an object-realm, contrary to the nature of equality. Because all dharmas are forever still, without any mark of arising, while ignorance's non-enlightenment falsely runs contrary to the dharma — it is therefore unable to attain the manifold wisdom that accords with every object-realm of the world.
This passage is the point at which every classification scheme the treatise has introduced so far turns out to be describing the same underlying process, and Fazang lays the correspondences out explicitly rather than leaving readers to notice them alone. The defilement of grasping and correspondence is the same thing Part 4 called the coarse marks of grasping and conceptualizing names, and the same thing this page's discriminating consciousness names as growing through views and craving. The defilement of uninterrupted correspondence is the continuing consciousness among the five names of will, and the mark of continuity among the six coarse marks. The defilement of discerning-wisdom correspondence is the discerning consciousness among the five names, and the mark of discernment among the six coarse marks. And the three subtlest defilements map directly onto the three subtle marks and the last three of the five names: manifesting form without correspondence is the manifesting consciousness and the mark of the perceived realm; the perceiving mind without correspondence is the perceiving-turned consciousness and the mark of the perceiving subject; fundamental karma without correspondence is the karmic consciousness and the karmic mark of ignorance itself. Four separate vocabularies — five names of will, three subtle and six coarse marks, six kinds of defiled mind, and the bodhisattva grounds at which each is left behind — turn out, on this reading, to be four passes over one and the same ninefold structure, each pass adding a detail the others omit.
On the two hindrances named at the close of this passage, Fazang flags a trap for readers who already know the more familiar two-hindrances scheme from mature Yogācāra sources, where the hindrance of affliction and the hindrance to knowledge are distinguished by whether the underlying grasping is at a self or at dharmas. That is explicitly not the distinction being made here: 但依本末相依門，以所起染心為煩惱礙，能起染心之無明為智礙，不約人法二執以明二礙 — this passage sorts the two hindrances only by which one gives rise to which, treating the resulting defiled mind itself as the hindrance of affliction and the ignorance that produces that defiled mind as the hindrance to knowledge; it does not classify them by grasping at persons versus grasping at dharmas at all. Reading the treatise's own six-fold defilement scheme through that other, more familiar framework would misdescribe what this particular passage is actually doing.
Coarse and Subtle, and What Never Stops Flowing
復次，分別生滅相者，有二種。云何為二？一者、麁，與心相應故。二者、細，與心不相應故。又麁中之麁，凡夫境界；麁中之細及細中之麁，菩薩境界；細中之細，是佛境界。此二種生滅，依於無明熏習而有，所謂依因、依緣。依因者，不覺義故；依緣者，妄作境界義故。若因滅則緣滅，因滅故不相應心滅，緣滅故相應心滅。
問曰：「若心滅者，云何相續？若相續者，云何說究竟滅？」
答曰：「所言滅者，唯心相滅，非心體滅。如風依水而有動相。若水滅者，則風相斷絕無所依止。以水不滅，風相相續，唯風滅故動相隨滅，非是水滅。無明亦爾，依心體而動，若心體滅，則眾生斷絕無所依止。以體不滅，心得相續，唯癡滅故心相隨滅，非心智滅。」
Furthermore, as for distinguishing the marks of arising-and-ceasing, there are two kinds. What are the two? First, the coarse, which corresponds with mind. Second, the subtle, which does not correspond with mind. Further, the coarsest of the coarse is the domain of ordinary people; the subtle within the coarse and the coarse within the subtle are the domain of bodhisattvas; and the subtlest of the subtle is the domain of a buddha. These two kinds of arising-and-ceasing exist in dependence on the habituating influence of ignorance — that is, in dependence on a cause and in dependence on a condition. "In dependence on a cause" means the meaning of non-enlightenment; "in dependence on a condition" means the meaning of the false creation of an object-realm. If the cause ceases, then the condition ceases; because the cause ceases, the non-corresponding mind ceases; because the condition ceases, the corresponding mind ceases.
Question: "If mind ceases, how can there be continuity? And if there is continuity, how can one speak of its ultimate cessation?"
Answer: "By 'ceasing' is meant only that the mark of mind ceases, not that the essence of mind ceases. It is like the wind, which, in dependence on water, has the mark of motion. If the water itself ceased, the mark of the wind would be cut off, with nothing to depend on. But because the water does not cease, the mark of the wind continues; it is only when the wind itself ceases that the mark of motion ceases along with it — not that the water ceases. Ignorance is just the same: it moves in dependence on the essence of mind. If the essence of mind itself ceased, sentient beings would be cut off, with nothing to depend on. But because the essence does not cease, mind is able to continue; it is only when delusion itself ceases that the mark of mind ceases along with it — not that mind's own wisdom ceases."
On the two kinds of cause behind coarse and subtle arising-and-ceasing, Fazang supplements the treatise's own spare wording — "in dependence on a cause" and "in dependence on a condition" — with a fuller citation from the Laṅkāvatāra that names four factors rather than two: 不思議熏及不思議變，是現識因；取種種塵，及無始妄想熏，是分別事識因 — inconceivable habituation and inconceivable transformation are the causes of the manifesting consciousness; grasping at various kinds of dust, together with beginningless habituation by false thought, are the causes of the consciousness that discriminates objects. He glosses the first pair as a matched contradiction held together anyway: 不思議熏者，謂無明能熏真如，不可熏處而能熏 (inconceivable habituation: ignorance is able to habituate suchness, habituating a place that, by rights, cannot be habituated); 不思議變者，謂真如心受無明熏，不可變異而變異 (inconceivable transformation: the mind of suchness receives ignorance's habituation, changing in a way that, by rights, cannot change). Both are called inconceivable for the identical reason — each names something the treatise's own logic says should be impossible, and yet plainly happens.
On the water-and-wind answer, Fazang notes it resolves two separate questions with one image rather than one: the "how can there be continuity" half concerns the corresponding, coarse mind (mapped to the wind's own mark of motion), while the "how can it ultimately cease" half concerns the non-corresponding, subtle mind (mapped to the water's underlying continuity). He adds a caution against over-reading the image psychologically: 此依始終起盡道理，以明二種生滅之義，非約剎那生滅義也 — this passage explains the two kinds of arising-and-ceasing by the logic of a beginning and an ultimate ending across the whole path, not by the arising and ceasing of any single instant of thought. The wind that stops is delusion exhausted at the end of the path, not any one thought passing; the water that never stops is the underlying wisdom-nature no amount of delusion, however long it blows, was ever able to touch. This closes the treatise's account of arising-and-ceasing's mechanics — how mind, will, and consciousness relate — before Part 6 turns to how that whole structure is sustained moment to moment: the doctrine of habituation itself.
Part 5 Complete
This closes Part 5: the five names of will, the demonstration that the three realms are mind alone, the discriminating consciousness ordinary people mistake for a self, the six kinds of defiled mind mapped onto the bodhisattva grounds where each is left behind, and the water-and-wind image resolving how mind can both continue and, at the end of the path, cease. Part 6 turns to the mechanism that keeps this entire structure running: the doctrine of the four kinds of habituation, by which defilement and purity each perpetuate themselves without interruption.
Continue to Part 6 — The Four Kinds of Habituation →