The Nature, Consciousness, Intent, and Mind

Q: What are the differences between the nature, the consciousness, the intent, and the mind?

A: Newborn babies are lively and vivacious. With no concept of self, others, living beings, or a life span, what they have is the ‘nature’. Once they start to nurse, their ‘consciousness’ increases. After learning to nurse, they learn to wear clothes. Without clothes, they feel cold and embarrassed. They become aware of hunger, thirst, cold, and heat. That is the ‘intent’. When they grow up, they start wanting this and that. That is the ‘mind’. Originally, these are the four kinds of minds, but they can be grouped as one since they are interrelated and inseparable. They belong to the same family. Although there are four names, their fundamental nature is the same. Their basic defiled cause is “karma.”

To expand on this, what is the “Buddha”? Our ‘nature’ is the Buddha. What is the ‘spirit’? ‘Consciousness’ is the spirit. ‘Intent’ is the discriminating mind. ‘Mind’ is what constantly engages in idle thinking. Furthermore, ‘nature’ is originally perfect and bright, with no concept of self or others, and not falling into a second or third level of truth. As soon as there is ‘consciousness’, one falls into a second or third level of truth, and discriminations arise. ‘Intent’ also has discriminations. It is also called the sixth consciousness, which is relatively turbid. The seventh and eighth consciousnesses are comparatively more pure. There are eight kinds of consciousness: the six consciousnesses consist of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and intent, the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness. Fundamentally, consciousness is not of eight kinds, although there are eight different names. We could say that there is one headquarter with eight stations. Although there are eight stations, they are controlled by one headquarter. The eight are one, and the one is eight. The eight doesn’t hinder the one, and the one doesn’t hinder the eight. The one can give rise to the eight; the eight can converge to the one. That is the consciousness.

‘Intent’ is the discriminating mind, the sixth type of consciousness. Not only does the ‘mind’ make discriminations, it is full of idle thoughts. The six consciousness can be said to be a perceptive nature. That is, from the six sense organs–eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and intent–the functions of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and knowing arises. When people commit offenses, they do it with the six sense organs. Likewise, cultivating the Way starts with the six sense organs. Unperturbed by external states is cultivating the Way. Effectuated by external states is the downfall.