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Transforming the Store Consciousness
Leaning on lower-grade perfuming, we can cultivate it into middle-grade perfuming; leaning on middle-grade perfuming, we can cultivate it into upper-grade perfuming, through the process of hearing (văn), reflecting (tư), and practicing (tu). These seeds of learning and perfuming belong to the Dharma body (Pháp thân); they counter the store consciousness (A-lại-da) and flow out from the pure, transcendent Dharma realm.
Because people in the past believed that pure seeds could not be contained in the defiled store consciousness (A-lại-da), they posited a ninth consciousness, the Amala consciousness. However, according to the insight of interbeing, the pure is in the impure; flowers are in the garbage. Transformation at the base (chuyển y) means changing the infrastructure, transforming the energy of afflictions into wisdom, and not cutting them off or annihilating them forever.
In general, regarding the characteristics of the store consciousness (A-lại-da), there are three kinds of perfuming: perfuming by names and words, perfuming by views of self, and perfuming by karmic formations. At the same time, this consciousness has four functional characteristics:
- Leading and manifesting.
- Maturation (result).
- Taking images as object.
- Manifesting appearances.
The store consciousness (A-lại-da) includes a common aspect (cộng) and an individual aspect (biệt). Nothing is entirely common or entirely individual, like the light of many candles intermingling, or like the example of the sun and our visual consciousness. All are dependently co-arisen (y tha khởi), a network of interdependent arising: in the individual there is the collective, and in the collective there is the individual.
