In Buddhism, mind is a faculty (6th consciousness) in which
gives attentions to mind objects. Whenever a thought is attended,
objectified, 'thinking' happens and consciousness arises. The very
nature of this consciousness is pure awareness, although due to
dualistic discrimination, consciousness arises.
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the momentary mind
The sixth consciousness, the mental faculty, has for its object any
knowable thing. This is known as the momentary mind, whose subtle
sensory faculty is mental in nature. It is called the momentary
mind because it occurs each moment mental cognition begins or
ceases. This moment allows mental perception to occur; it is the
space between consciousness and its object. This is like a space
between one's face and a mirror, without which it would be
impossible to see oneself. The momentary mind is the gap that
separates consciousness and its object, the distance between them.
However, it is not a vacuum, but something mental in nature.
Through meditation it is possible for the mind to know its own
sensory faculty.
The six sensory faculties, the six fragmentary consciousnesses
belonging to them, and the six objects which stimulate them, all
emerge from the fundamental consciousness and dissolve back into it
like waves rising up and sinking into the ocean. All these eighteen
different factors are mind's projections, including the so-called
sensory objects, which have no material reality. In addition, these
different factors exist only in relation to each other, and not
independently in their own right.
How does this interdependent relationship of the sensory processes
occur? Since beginningless time, out habitual behavior, derived
from ignorance, has left traces that are stored in the fundamental
consciousness. The fundamental consciousness fails to recognize its
own true nature and takes itself and the five psycho-physical
constituents (skandhas in Sanskrit) to be a 'self'. This mistaken
belief causes the emotional afflictions to emerge, which then
govern behavior. The self's actions are subject to the law of cause
and effect, leaving traces or propensities that are stored in the
fundamental consciousness until they ripen, producing the realm of
perception that corresponds to that particular propensity. For
example, if the potential for becoming a human being is stored in
the fundamental consciousness, when this ripens, there will emerge
the six sensory faculties, their six objects, and the six
fragmentary consciousnesses proper to human existence.
The basis for perception of the world is the fragmentary
consciousness of the mental faculty, or the momentary mind, because
it is this which conceptualizes the objects received by the other
five sensory faculties, retaining them, distinguishing one from the
other, and then inclining towards or away from them. This is one
kind of attachment. Another kind is that formed by the emotionally
afflicted mind. The nature of the emotional mind is the same as
that of the momentary mind, although the ensuing attachment happens
in a slightly different way.
