The Impermanence of the Mind

01 The consciousnesses of sentient beings are arising and ceasing moment by moment. Take the visual consciousness for example, during the interaction between the visible form and the visual faculty in every moment, both the visible form and the visual faculty are changing, and the visual object generated by the perception is also changing. Therefore, visual objects are changing moment by moment, just like dreams. Hence, we know that our visual consciousness has never seen something that remains the same between two moments. 02 Due to ignorance and karma, the first five consciousnesses perceive the world with illusions. Since the items in a continuum share similar shapes, colors, and textures between consecutive moments, as ordinary beings, our first five consciousnesses can’t directly discern their momentary changes, but regard the different moments as one. Therefore, the illusion that this is permanent arises. First, since the consecutive moments are similar, we regard them as one. Secondly, since we regard the consecutive moments as one, we consider the continuum permanent. 03 Because ordinary beings cling to the significance of momentary things, the afflictions of pride, jealousy, competition, disappointment, etc. arise constantly, like a waterfall. Day by day, we are accumulating negative karma which leads to great suffering in the lower realms, but don’t seek liberation from the three types of suffering. If we learn from enlightened beings and rediscover everything, then after a long period of learning, contemplating, practicing, and realizing, we can realize the reality of things in the world and the truths they contain. Then the sixth consciousness can transform into discriminating wisdom, which can measure everything objectively and impartially, leading us to be away from confusion and head towards enlightenment. Regarding all conditioned things, the discriminating wisdom is constantly aware that they are momentary and meaningless. From then on, the mind reawakens. The wise no longer cling to conditioned things, but are fully devoted to being free from the three kinds of suffering and transcending samsara. In this way, all the turmoils in the world will come to an end. 04 When causes and conditions combine, things arise; when causes and conditions disappear, they cease. We can summarize it into two points: Causality can only be established on momentary things. If something is permanent, it can’t establish causality. Only momentary things can. Everything we perceive is dependent arising in nature, from the beginning to the end. When causes and conditions combine, we conceptualize it as a phenomenon. But in reality, it has never arisen or ceased. We just give it a label, a name, but actually it doesn’t exist. When the causes and conditions disappear, as it lacks inherent existence by nature, there is no disappearance of it.