Thầy speaks about the four layers of consciousness and how they interrelate. He notes that brain and body are two aspects of the same thing. Consciousness involves the brain but originates from deeper awareness. Store consciousness (Bhavaṅga) is continuously present and always storing seeds (bija) of information, whereas mind consciousness is often interrupted; for example, when we have dreamless sleep or when experiencing samadhi.

When organ, object, and background consciousness come together, a mental formation results. There are fifty-one mental formations, of which touch is the first. Store consciousness operates independently, shaping decisions and preferences, and it’s influenced by the store consciousness of others and the collective consciousness. Surrounding oneself with compassionate communities positively impacts consciousness. We must practice not only with mind consciousness but with store consciousness.

The concept of a separate self is deeply seated in store consciousness. Store consciousness operates without discrimination and is always neutral in terms of feeling. There’s no need for a thinker, a self to do the thinking. Thinking is enough. Mind consciousness is the screen on which the fifty-one mental formations are displayed.

This is the second talk in a series of fourteen given during The Feet of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2004. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.