calls the "unconscious" but Jung differs from Buddhism in considering
the unconscious a basic reality. Another aspect of the storehouse
consciousness, which comes out after it has been clarified, is its function
of "mirror-like awareness." This is a basic experience of Buddhist
transformation of consciousness, but it is not final. In dealing with both
aspects of the eighth consciousness, Buddhist practice aims at "smashing
through" it and removing fixation even on these levels of experience.
Chan and Zen Buddhist literature suggest that Jung was most definitely
not alone in getting bogged down in the eighth consciousness. Unlike the
Chan and Zen Buddhists, however, Jung was not fortunate enough to
have authentic technical literature sufficient to diagnose the problem.
11. Sometimes the exercise of turning the light around is described as
looking to see where thought comes from, but this is not the same as the
psychoanalytic exercise of looking to see the unconscious roots of
conscious manifestations. In Chan practice, psychoanalysis comes after
"seeing essence," because it is only from the central standpoint of
essence that the contents of consciousness can be witnessed objectively.
12, "Flow and revolve" is a Buddhist expression for routine mental habit.
The final passages of this section return to the critical distinction
between the "flowing and revolving" consciousness and the
transcendental essence. This paragraph makes it clear that even
"emptiness," when experienced as an item of the conscious inventory, is
still just an object, not the open essence of mind. Mistaking a feeling or
