The Foundation for All Phenomena Is Store Consciousness

Thich Nhat Hanh — Winter Retreat 2013–2014 Stillwater Meditation Hall, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village · 15 December 2013 · talk 9 of 24

Illuminates: Verse 9 directly — store consciousness as the foundation from which the six paths and nirvana both manifest · the famous “beginningless element” verse · karma & its two-part retribution (body + environment) · subject/object as two faces of one reality · ālaya indeterminate → we can choose a path · ālaya transformed (not destroyed) into the Great Mirror Wisdom · ālaya as the powerful “background consciousness” that learns and acts.

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[Opening: contemplations and chant before the talk.]

Dear Sangha, today is the 15th of December, 2013. We are in the Stillwater Meditation Hall of the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, in the winter retreat.

Bringing the practice to schools — UNESCO

In 2006 I had the opportunity to give a talk at UNESCO in Paris, and I suggested that UNESCO organize retreats for teachers from various countries, so they could bring the practice of nonviolence into the classroom. The director then, Federico Mayor, supported the idea: a center where teachers from different countries could come to practice and then return to train other teachers and bring the teaching into the classroom, to reduce violence. According to statistics, in France in one year there were 88,000 violent acts in schools — among students, and between students and teachers. The energy of violence is there in young people and children, and parents and teachers often have no way to help them handle their anger.

Our practice, first of all, is to generate peace in body and mind, to generate joy and happiness, and to manage negative energy such as anger and violence — and we have much experience in how to do this. We want to bring this experience to students, because where there is too much violence, teachers are unhappy and teaching becomes very difficult; if teachers learn this practice, they can help their students. I promised UNESCO that Plum Village would provide documents on the practice; the Sangha put them together, and they became two books — Anger and Creating True Peace — using stories to make the teaching more interesting. Now in Plum Village we have the Wake Up movement and Wake Up Schools, and we send dharma teachers to organize retreats for teachers in many countries — Bhutan, India, Thailand, France, England. We promised to use language with no religious terms, so people of any religion can use it.

Earlier we worked a lot with UNESCO; some Nobel laureates worked with us to draft the Manifesto 2000, whose six points are equivalent to our Five Mindfulness Trainings. Millions signed it — even heads of state — but because there was no organized practice (like reciting the Five Trainings), the manifesto was forgotten. If we reconnect with UNESCO, we can again propose how to bring this practice to teachers, to help young people manage the violence in themselves.

Finishing the characteristics of a seed

The other day we spoke of the characteristics of a seed, and we suggested removing the old characteristic of “determinate nature” (the fixed wholesome/unwholesome/neutral). So:

7. Individual and collective manifestation (vijñapti — individual bīja and collective bīja).
8. Interbeing and interpenetration.
9. Neither new nor old (no increasing, no decreasing). In a Vietnamese concert one actor may play many roles — he goes backstage, changes, and comes out as a different character, because there aren’t enough people; it is the same old man. So with “neither old nor new”: we think a thing is new, but it is the old that has manifested as the new — as the rain is the cloud. We think the rain is new, but it is the cloud that turned into rain.
10. Neither inside nor outside. [The treatises] distinguish “seeds outside” (like the rice in the field) from “seeds inside” (like the suffering in our mind) — separating the seed in the mind from the seed in the environment as two things. But that is a dualistic view, double grasping.
11. Neither defiled nor immaculate (the Mahayana teaching — see below).

Subject and object are two faces of one reality

In the four establishments of mindfulness we look deeply into the body, the feelings, the mind, and the objects of mind (the phenomena). Note that the body, the feelings, and the mind are themselves among the phenomena.

We use this image: here is our cognition, and here is its foundation — and the foundation is the ālaya, store consciousness, the store of all the seeds. When something manifests, it manifests with two faces: one side is the subject (the mind, the darśana-bhāga — the seeing-part), the other is the object (the phenomenon, the nimitta-bhāga — the appearance-part). Seeing an elephant, the elephant is on the object side and our seeing on the subject side. As we say, we cannot be sad without being sad about something, nor angry without being angry at someone — every mental formation has an object. So as soon as a seed manifests, there are two aspects, subject and object, and they manifest together; neither comes before the other — as a sheet of paper has a left and a right, and one cannot be taken from the other. In the West, phenomenology says it likewise: consciousness is always consciousness of something.

So when the treatise speaks of “seeds inside” (in the mind) and “seeds outside” (the phenomena, like the sun or the moon), and we imagine the mind in here reaching out to grasp the world out there — that is double grasping. In truth the two are one reality. This is still an issue even for scientists, who tend to assume a subjective observer inside and a cosmos outside, the mind going out to grasp nature.

Karma and its two-part retribution

In Buddhism there is the teaching of karma and retribution: our actions bring retribution, and the retribution manifests in two parts. The first is the proper retribution (chánh báo) — the body with its six senses (whether beautiful or not). The second is the environmental retribution (y báo) — the environment, the locality in which the body lives. The ālaya maintains both: it preserves the body with its six organs and the environment. So our environment is also ourselves. We live in Plum Village — and Plum Village is also our “body,” a manifestation of our retribution, that we live here and not in a casino; the casino or the bar is someone else’s environment, their y báo, and the Upper Hamlet is ours right now. We think the environment is something outside us, but it is really our own retribution, manifested on store consciousness. We repeat this so often in order to form the habit of seeing that these two cannot be separated — and that is the best thing in the Manifestation-Only teaching: transcending the idea of new and old, of innate versus newly-planted seeds. More rice seeds may be produced, but they come from the old — the earth and everything; there is really nothing new nor old.

The foundation of all phenomena — and of nirvana

There is a very famous Mahayana verse. There is something that comes from beginningless time and is the foundation, the base, for all phenomena — and that is the ālaya, store consciousness. “Because there is this element (dhātu), the support of all dharmas — because it exists, there are all the destinies, and also the attainment of nirvana.” (This comes from a Mahayana sutra; even in the Theravada Abhidharma there is mention of something that comes from beginningless time, the basis of the five aggregates, the twelve sense-bases, the eighteen elements — the “domains of existence.” Āśraya means to depend on, the base.)

So all phenomena are in the ālaya — leaking or non-leaking, wholesome or unwholesome, pure or impure — all in store consciousness. And because of it there are the six paths, and there is also nirvana. There are paths of return: heaven is one path, the human realm another, the asura realm, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the hells — six paths of return — and which path we take is up to us. If we want to go to hell, there is a path that leads to hell; if to heaven, a path that leads to heaven. It is because of the ālaya, the foundation of all phenomena, that there are six paths — and also that there is nirvana to attain. Just as there are seeds of heaven, human, asura, hell, hungry ghost, and animal in store consciousness, so there is a seed of nirvana there too. So if we said the wholesome seed is “outside,” that would be wrong: when we say all phenomena are in store consciousness, the wholesome seeds are there too. The six pathways are wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral.

And nirvana, [the tradition says], is only wholesome — without the other two characters (unwholesome and neutral). Here is exactly where the school gets stuck: the dualistic view that nirvana is outside birth and death, so that if you took away the six pathways, nirvana would remain. But looking at the six pathways we can see nirvana in them — just as, looking at a lotus, we see the mud. The insight of enlightenment is itself affliction transformed. So characteristic 11 leads us to the Heart Sutra: no defilement, no immaculateness.

Ālaya is indeterminate — and that is why we can choose

The really interesting thing, known from the start, is that the ālaya’s nature is indeterminate (avyākṛta) — neither wholesome nor unwholesome, neither pure nor impure — and unobscured (anivṛta), not covered (whereas the seventh consciousness, manas, is covered). We can consider the ālaya as nature itself, whose nature is neither pure nor impure; it is our way of looking that sees it as pure or impure. This is something very good — because if the ālaya were not indeterminate, there would only be the six paths; how then could there be nirvana to realize? Precisely because it is indeterminate, we have a choice — we can choose one of the six paths, or we can choose nirvana. And in the end, nirvana can be found in the six paths.

Ālaya transformed — the Great Mirror Wisdom

Manifestation-Only says the eighth consciousness works only with the five universal mental formations — contact, attention, feeling, perception, volition. (In other [traditional] systems the universals are not five but seven or nine, including concentration (samādhi) — which Manifestation-Only counts instead among the particular formations — and vitality (jīvita), the life-energy that keeps the formations continuously present.) So the teachers say only five universals operate in store consciousness. But we have to look at this again.

Manifestation-Only says that when we practice and become enlightened — an arhat — the eighth consciousness “is no longer there.” More precisely, we transform the ālaya; we do not throw it away. We cannot give up a place that holds the seeds of all phenomena — if we let it go, what would we have left? So we do not let go of it; we transform it. At enlightenment the store consciousness becomes the Great Mirror Wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna) — also called the immaculate consciousness (amala-vijñāna), because it is completely wholesome. So the ālaya is still there when we are enlightened, but it has become a wisdom — a great mirror. And this Great Mirror Wisdom works not only with the five universals but with all the mental formations: the five universals, the five particulars, and the eleven wholesome formations (faith, self-respect, shame before others, non-craving, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, ease, carefulness, equanimity, non-harming).

So when we are not enlightened, the ālaya is indeterminate — neither wholesome nor unwholesome; when enlightened, it becomes wholesome, the Mirror of Great Wisdom. Here is the problem the school faces: when store consciousness becomes the Great Mirror Wisdom, where do the five particular formations come from, if in principle the ālaya did not work with them? This matters to us, because during our practice mindfulness, concentration, and insight [particular formations] are exactly the seeds we cultivate — they are there, and we help them grow until they are strong enough to become the mirror. So to say the ālaya does not work with the five particulars is not correct.

The school tried to explain that the ālaya does not work with the five particulars because it is “dull and weak” — not very intelligent. But using those two words for the ālaya is not correct. After it transforms into the mirror, the immaculate consciousness works with the five particulars, and there are reasons it does so: it has zeal/desire (it wants to know its object); determination (it resolves upon its object); mindfulness (it remembers clearly the experiences it has been through); concentration (the enlightened, like the Buddha, are always in concentration); and insight (it understands all phenomena). So in the unenlightened position the ālaya “cannot” work with the five particulars, but as a wisdom it can — and it is thanks to the practice with the five particulars that we become enlightened. So we must look again: the claim that the ālaya is “dull and weak” is not true.

Ālaya is powerful — the background consciousness

The ālaya does what no other consciousness can. First, it has the capacity to learn (perfuming, vāsanā): like learning to drive, to sing, to speak a new language, to play ping-pong — we learn, and it becomes a habit. When we study, we use the mind-consciousness to learn — to decide we should do this and not that — but all that learning is stored in the ālaya; and when it has become strong seeds in us, then it is really the ālaya that drives, not the mind-consciousness. We may be thinking of many other things, not concentrating on the driving, yet we drive perfectly well; and when danger comes, we turn or brake — that is the work of the ālaya, not the mind-consciousness. This learning becomes unconscious habit, patterns of behavior. (A non-practitioner may let the ālaya do all the work without participating with the mind-consciousness — biking while the mind is elsewhere, the ālaya taking over.) Neurologists call this background consciousness. When something happens and we avoid it very quickly, that is the work of the ālaya — because if the mind-consciousness had to decide, it would be too late. The mind-consciousness consumes much energy and is slow; the ālaya consumes very little, and is quick and efficient. We try to recall a name until we get a headache and still can’t — then we sleep, and the next morning while brushing our teeth the name simply surfaces: the work of the ālaya. So to call the ālaya “dull and weak” is not correct.

This is why a teacher gives us a koan — does a dog have Buddha-nature?, what is the sound of one hand clapping?, who are you? We use the mind-consciousness to embrace the koan and entrust it to the ālaya, the soil in which we plant the seed of enlightenment and water it every day. It is the ālaya that brings about enlightenment — in the mind there is much thinking, but it is the ālaya that ripens the fruit. We sow the seed in the soil of store consciousness; we walk and breathe; and one day someone shouts or something happens and we are enlightened — really the work of the ālaya, which provides the fruit of enlightenment. So to call enlightenment “dull and weak” is not correct.

Six paths and nirvana lean on each other

So we begin to see: the foundation for all phenomena is store consciousness. On one side are the six pathways; on the other, nirvana — and the eighth consciousness contains all phenomena, indeterminate. Both the six paths and nirvana manifest from the ālaya. Looking deeply, the six paths and nirvana lean on each other to manifest: if the six pathways are strong, nirvana is weak; if nirvana grows strong, the six pathways grow weak. Wholesome and unwholesome rely on one another — the wholesome is made of the unwholesome, and the unwholesome is in the wholesome.

Within the ālaya is the immaculate consciousness, the wisdom; with practice it grows larger while the six pathways grow smaller — but they are always there, because if one grows the other shrinks: more suffering, less happiness; more happiness, less suffering. So nirvana relies on birth and death, and birth and death rely on nirvana. When we become enlightened, the ālaya is no longer indeterminate — it is just nirvana, and it works with the five particulars. The wholesome cannot exist by itself; it relies on the unwholesome — as nirvana relies on birth and death.

So the ālaya is indeterminate, and thanks to its indeterminacy there are both the six paths and nirvana. Therefore to say nirvana “is happiness” or “is wholesome” is not correct. When we breathe in fresh air, the happiness is our happiness of breathing — it is not the fresh air itself that is “happiness.” Think of the wave and the water: the wave goes up and down, and if we follow the wave we get tired; but looking deeply, we see the wave is really the water — and then we have no fear of rising and falling. The water is the ālaya, nirvana; the wave is birth and death. If we let go of the wave we cannot find the water. Up here is birth and death — suffering and happiness, being and non-being; down here there is no birth, no death, no suffering, no happiness. When we touch nirvana we no longer suffer — we are happy — but it is not that nirvana “is happy”: nirvana is neither being nor non-being, neither suffering nor happiness, neither birth nor death. It is the person who touches nirvana who has happiness; nirvana itself has no self and no non-self, transcending all these notions. The thing we thought difficult is as simple as that: suffering and happiness are ours; nirvana is neither suffering nor happiness. And if we understand this, we can transform our suffering.

Time to end.