Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 45-minute commentary on Purchok Rinpoche’s Lorik — a condensed epistemology text from Sera Je monastery’s curriculum — by establishing how the six types of consciousness each depend on a corresponding subtle sense power. He details these powers organ by organ, including a scriptural description of the tongue’s sense power as crescent-moon shaped, and explains the three conditions — object, sense power, and consciousness — that must converge for any awareness to arise. He then surveys competing Buddhist views on the number of consciousnesses: the Vaibhāṣika one-consciousness model (a monkey peering through different windows), the Mind Only school’s eight, and the Prāsaṇgika six this text accepts. The session closes with the fifty-one mental factors — catalogued as retinue to the main mind — and the five ways they must align with it: support, focus, aspect, duration, and substance.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 MC 2001 09 25.mp3
UUID: 121c36bb-4e63-4727-9fe2-fcd296458c67
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Mind and Cognition (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2001-09-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.3 minutes
Words: ~3,330
So here, tonight, we’re continuing with this text on Lorik, text called Lorik. And this particular text was composed by Purchok Rinpoche, who was in fact the the tutor of the thirteenth Dalai Lama and Takphu Rinpoche. And in fact, this is a very important work, and it forms part of the the faith manuals of Sera Je monastery. And in fact, also beyond Sera Je, it’s also studied by Jangste College at Ganden Monastery as well. And also the other colleges from the three great Gelugpa monasteries also study it extensively because it condenses the meaning in a very convenient and easy to comprehend way.
So it’s an important text. This one. Oh, yeah. So here, in fact, up until now, the subject prior to minds and mental factors have been covered. So in fact, here we’re dealing with minds and mental factors, that section from within Lorik.
So then again, from the beginning of that section, beginning on page with page thirty six, that here again classifies the nature of awareness into two here as mind and mental factors, or main mind and mental factors. So then initially, in terms of main mind, the definition is given. The main cognition apprehended by means of holding the nature of its object is the definition of the main mind. This is the definition, and it’s also the identity of main mind. And then beyond that main mind, mind, mentality, and consciousness, there are these four terms that are used interchangeably in the text.
These are all equivalent to main mind. Mhmm. And where they come come up in the text, then they should be understood to be equivalent to main mind and mean the same as main mind So here, in terms of the the number of types of mind or main mind that there are, initially, we can say there’s a classification of main minds into six, and that is from eye consciousness to ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mental consciousness. So that makes up initially six types of consciousness. So, in fact, all of these types of consciousness So, in fact, all of these six types of consciousness, the five sense consciousnesses and mental consciousness making six, they all conform to that definition.
That is, they all conform to being main cognition apprehended by means of holding the nature of their object. So initially, we have eye consciousness. And eye consciousness is just this type of consciousness that is related to the eye itself. So that type of consciousness is eye consciousness in brief. So in fact, then with eye consciousness and so forth, they all conform to that definition.
And in the definition, we have the nature of its object. Its object occurs at the end of the definition there. So the object there that is referred to or the objects referred to are six types that correspond to the six types of consciousness. So in fact those objects there are six in number as well and they are form, form and sound and aroma, flavor, tactile, tactility and also dharmas. There are six types of object that are taken by the six types of consciousness.
So, in fact, if we then divide up the different types of consciousness, then eye consciousness is holding form, which is color and shape. Then ear consciousness is holding sound, Nose consciousness is holding aroma. Tongue consciousness is holding flavor. Body consciousness is holding tactility. And mental consciousness is holding dharmas.
And also, for each of those types of consciousness, there are different empowering conditions for each of those six. So, in fact, the empowering conditions that are distinct for each of those six types of consciousness can be listed as firstly for eye consciousness it’s the eye sense power and for ear consciousness it’s the ear sense power and so on. For mental consciousness it’s the mental sense power. So, in fact, are six types of cause or condition which give rise to those six types of consciousness. So in fact, for these six types of consciousness, in order to comprehend their object, they need to be conditioned by the six sense powers in order for consciousness to arise.
So then when we look at what the different sense powers in fact refer to, then initially we have the eye sense power. And the eye sense power is not the gross eye that we’re aware of, but it’s something much subtler. It’s a subtle type of form within the eye itself, which is the eye sense power. Now, the subtle form within the eye, some assert to be, say, the retina itself, so the black part of the eye. Others say that it’s not actually that, it’s something even subtler again that we cannot see.
So there is some debate then about, for instance, what the eye sense power is. Then, for the remainder of the sense powers, they are also different types of subtle form that exist within the actual sense power themselves. For instance, then we have the ear sense power and it’s a type of very subtle form that exists within the inner ear. And then the nose sense power similarly is a type of very subtle form that allows nose awareness to arise within the actual nose itself, a very subtle type of form. Within the tongue, also there is a subtle form which acts as the sense power, the tongue sense power.
And this also is described within the texts, and some texts refer to the actual sense power as having a particular shape and so on. In the case of the tongue, it’s regarded as having like the shape of a moon that’s newly, like a few days, three days after the new moon, when the moon is just on the wax again, it’s described in some texts as having that type of shape. Similarly, also the body sense power exists within the body. It’s a subtle form within the body that actually pervades the body. And then we have the mental sense power.
And the mental sense power is a very subtle, extremely subtle type of awareness that we are normally not aware of. It’s something that’s hidden and extremely difficult to comprehend. So, in fact, here we have three different lists of six things in terms of the six types of object, the six types of sense power, and the six types of object consciousness that is able to hold those six objects. When we talk, for instance, about eye sense awareness, for instance, then we need the coming together of three things: the object, the external form, the sense power and then consciousness itself. By the three coming together, specifically by the object existing and by the sense power acting as a precondition, the subtle form within the eye as a precondition for the arising of consciousness or here, eye consciousness, then eye consciousness can arise.
And then eye consciousness having arisen, then the thought arises that I’ve seen that object, I’m aware of that object and so forth. And that type of awareness arises. You understand? Is this easy to understand? Is it okay?
Is this understandable? So, is it do you understand the the means by which eye consciousness comprehends its object or holds its object? Similarly then, with ear consciousness, then we have sounds that arise. These sounds actually contact or strike the subtle form which is the sense power, the ear sense power, and then in dependence on that, then the ear consciousness arises. Similarly, we have different types of aroma.
When we breathe in, we draw in breath. The breath on the breath, then we bring in different aromas. These strike or these contact the nose sense power. And then, in dependence on that, then nose consciousness aware or holding particular aromas or and so on. Similarly, with the tongue consciousness, there is the food or a flavor which is the object.
Then we have the tongue sense power itself. The particles of food need to actually contact, physically contact the tongue itself in order for the tongue to give rise to sense awareness or tongue awareness, tongue consciousness. And then in dependence on that, then the recognition of flavor occurs that this is sweet or this is not sweet and so on. So then also with the body consciousness as well, firstly there is the tactile object, the texture or whatever the object of tactile awareness first exists, then that contacts the body sense power and by contacting the body sense power then body consciousness arises. So, this process is quite easy to understand and probably it doesn’t require too much explanation.
Then the sixth type of consciousness is mental consciousness. And so the objects there are dharmas or all existent objects. Then the mental sense power here is awareness itself. And in dependence on the object, the existence of the object, awareness, then mental and awareness, then mental awareness itself will arise. An example of this is, for instance, what are called the external consciousnesses, which are the five sense consciousnesses, as distinct from mental consciousness, which is regarded as internal consciousness.
So for instance, we can have a sense awareness, a sense consciousness first arising such as eye awareness holding a particular object. And then in dependence on that consciousness arising, then the thought arises, oh I’ve seen blue or I’ve seen red, I’ve seen a physical object. That thought, I’ve seen that object, is mental consciousness here. It arises in dependence on the prior sense awareness, which is the mental sense power which precedes it and conditions the arising of the thought I have seen form. So is that okay?
Then we have these five types of sense awareness which comprehend the five types of object and so on. Is that okay? Consciousness, especially within the eighteen different sects of the Vaibhāṣika, or the Great Exposition School. This is a the Great Exposition School is a Buddhist school which holds different views on what the nature of consciousness actually is. Now, those schools, one particular school asserts that there is only one type of consciousness.
There’s not five or there’s not six types of consciousness. There’s only one type of consciousness. This particular school asserts that there is only one type of consciousness and they make an example to explain how this one type of consciousness would therefore work. And they give the example of like a house with say five different windows And in the house, there’s a monkey. And the monkey puts its head at one of the windows at any one particular time.
And for instance, if we have eye awareness, then it’s like the monkey looking out one window. And if we have ear awareness, then it’s like, say, a monkey going to another window and peering out another window. So similar to ourselves, it’s like we have one type of consciousness, mental consciousness, and it’s peering out of, say, five different doorways or windows. And by doing that, then it’s either designated as eye consciousness and so forth. In fact, we don’t accept that presentation but still it’s useful if we understand that presentation to help us more clearly understand the presentation that we do accept.
So then also with another Buddhist school, the mind only school, also asserts more than six types of consciousness. They assert eight types of consciousness. So, the mind only school, above the six that have already been discussed, they also assert what’s called a foundation consciousness as a seventh one. And the eighth one they assert is to be an awareness called afflictive mentality. So they have those six another two.
The reason why the mind only school asserts foundation consciousness is to explain how latencies and seeds and so forth, karmic seeds, are actually stored within the mental continuum of a being. From our point of view, since we assert only six types of consciousness, we assert that the karmic latencies and the seeds and so forth that we lay down through our positive and negative actions are actually imprinted on the mental consciousness. But the mind only school asserts that there is a neutral type of awareness called foundation consciousness which actually is imprinted by the karmic actions. Here, in fact, from our particular point of view, since we don’t accept the mind only presentation, then we accept that there is only six consciousnesses. And the sixth type of awareness, which is mental awareness, does accept the imprints and the latencies of karmic actions that have been committed from beginningless time.
And it’s this type of awareness itself which is purified and that type of awareness which eventually attains the state of a Buddha or attains the level of a Buddha. So in fact, we need a particular type of consciousness that is able to store all the karmic all the karmic states whether they’re positive or negative. And so in fact, we need a neutral type of mental consciousness that’s able to do that so that it can act as a basis for the maturation of positive seeds or negative seeds and so forth. It can act as a basis for the maturation of lower rebirths or higher rebirths and so on. So within our particular view, we assert that mental consciousness itself is able to act as such a basis.
Now for the mind only school, when they look at the six types of consciousness, they say that the sixth type of consciousness here, which is mental consciousness, is not really capable of acting as the basis for all the different types of karma that we’ve accumulated. There must be another type of consciousness, which is foundation consciousness, which exists within our mental continuum that’s able to actually support or act as a basis for all these different types of action. And also for the Mind Only school, they assert that there is another type of awareness which is this afflictive mentality which also interacts with the foundation consciousness for any particular individual. Anyway, the this presentation of eight consciousnesses that is asserted by the mind only school is not accepted by the higher schools such as Madhyamaka and especially the Prāsaṇgika who assert only six types of consciousness. And so here we follow the highest school, which is the Prāsaṇgika or the Consequence School.
So here we only assert six types of consciousness and we don’t follow the presentation of the mind only school. Now, we have six types of consciousness and these again can be reduced into two types. That is sense consciousness and mental consciousness. And these also can be referred to as external consciousness and internal consciousness. So, in fact, that in brief is the presentation of mind.
Now, in relation to mental factors Does everyone understand what mind is? The meaning the brief meaning of what mind is? It’s difficult, isn’t it? It’s not easy. So then, in fact, the definition given by Purchok Rinpoche of the mental factors is cognition holding an attribute of its object and occurring as retinue of any main mind concordant with it.
So, in fact, here, there are two. We have mind and mental factors. The mind is a little bit like the king or the queen. And the mental factors are a little bit like servants as retinue of the mind itself. So, in fact, without the mental factors, the mind itself would not be able to hold or comprehend its objects.
So, mind and mental factors coexist and they also coexist in a particular relationship. And in fact, they possess five aspects of concordance. They’re similar in five ways or they have five ways in which they concord with each other. So in fact, the five aspects of concordance that are possessed by minds and mental factors are firstly, they’re concordant in support, then in focus, then in aspect, then in duration or time, and in substance. So those five, they’re concordant to.
So firstly, the support. For instance, if we’re talking about eye consciousness, then whatever sense power eye consciousness arises in dependence on, in other words, since the eye consciousness arises in in dependence on the eye sense power as its support, then any mental factor which is concordant with that eye consciousness also arises supported by the eye sense power. So they’re concordant in support. Consciousness and mental factors, or mind and mental factors are concordant in support. So, there we have support and support here therefore refers to the sense powers.
So, whatever sense power the mind has generated in dependence on, the mental factor will also be generated in dependence on that sense power. Then we have focus. Here the focus refers to the object itself. So here we had initially form, sound, aroma, flavor, tactility, and dharma, those six. So whatever object the main mind is taking, the mental factor concordant with it will also take just that object, whether it’s form or sound and so on.
Then we have aspect, and here again, whatever aspect that is held by the main mind, that aspect is also possessed by the mental factor. So whether it’s form or an aspect of form that’s held by the main mind, then that aspect of form would also be held by the mental factor. Whatever aspect of sound is held by the main mind, the ear consciousness, that aspect is also held or possessed by the mental factor concordant with that main mind and so on, all the way down through these six types of consciousness. Then we have concordant duration. And so, here in terms of duration or time, however long the main mind occurs for or arises for, similarly the mental factor concordant with it will also arise for that period of time, will start at that time, subsist or endure for that length, and pass away in just the same manner as the main mind with it which it’s concordant with.
So they possess, in other words, the same duration. So then also we have substance. So here this refers to the main mind, the mental factor concordant with the main mind possess substance of the same type. So they have a similar type substance. And then also this then implies that for any main mind only one feeling, one type of feeling arises, one type of discrimination and so forth.
So this is also implied here by them. So, that deals with the five aspects of concordance between main minds and mental factors. Now, in terms of mental factors, if we ask how many there are, then there are fifty one mental factors that exist. So, what are those fifty one mental factors? Firstly, we have the five omnipresent mental factors.
Then the five object determining mental factors. Then the six root afflictive mental factors and the eleven virtuous. And the twenty proximate afflictive mental factors, and the four variable mental factors. So, if we add all those up, then there is fifty one. And these fifty one mental factors are acting as the servants of the main mind itself.
So, if we ask what are the five omnipresent mental factors, then they are firstly feeling, then discrimination, then intention and attention, and finally contact. So those five are the five omnipresent mental factors. So, in fact, these five omnipresent mental factors are in fact omnipresent because they exist for every mind. There’s no mind which does not possess all of these five omnipresent mental factors. And in fact, if one of these five were not or any one of these five are not present, then the mind itself, the main mind, would not be able to engage its object.
So for instance, if there were no feeling, then there would be no experience of suffering or bliss. The feeling of suffering or bliss, etcetera, would not occur, of course, if there was no feeling.