A CRITICAL TANTRISMaeon is nothing other than to overcome the layer of one hundred and
sixty minds of gross attachment; and this is called the first uncountable
aeon. To exceed the practice of the second aeon is to overcome the
layer of one hundred and sixty minds of minute attachment; this is
called the second uncountable aeon. When a practicer of mantras
exceeds (the practice of) one more aeon, he attains the first mind of the
wisdom of buddhas by overcoming the layer of one hundred and sixty
minds of extremely minute attachment. Therefore, the enlightenment is
said to be attained through three uncountable aeons. If he overcomes
these three kinds of attachment in his life, he can attain enlightenment
in his very life. Why do we have to call the duration of time to
account?"We also find in Subhakarasimha's commentary an example of the idea classi-
fying the vertical process of the promotion of mind into nine according to the
qualities of the defilement of the mind. Explaining the reason why the horizontal
minds, which he takes as the minds of defilements UJ\fllii,L' number one hundred
and sixty, he states:
tU?{~J:Jltll6'i:..'. '/!t{&.:::.?Jf'l't!J<Pli:t&. I!.Oflj:J4;giJi!L~~.::::.. $tJit.::::..P. il~~f$*H!
~z. ~;gm. Ji!<tm-t-f-it~<PR!t. :E'~J:<Pr.iL~~-7)3?:A;g(JI~. ~JIU1!ltlt .3o"Whenever one comes into contact with an object, one's mind of defile-
ment comes to have two different names as one always relies on the
two extremes but not on the middle way. The names and characteristics
(of the one hundred and sixty minds, the number of which can be
obtained by) dividing these two minds again and again, are fully men-
tioned in the (longer Vairocaniibhisarizbodhi-siitra of) 100,000 verses.
If we divide (each of these one hundred and sixty minds) into nine
classes according to their qualities of superior, medium and inferior, the
number of afflictions finally come to eighty thousand. If we divide
more minutely, they become innumerable."From these examples, we assume the original image of the human mind in
the Vairocaniibhisarizbodhi-siitra to be as follows:
The human mind is, at any moment, composed of one hundred and sixty
monadic or substantial minds, which were referred to in the title of the first
chapter of the siitr 'a as "various minds" or "distinctions of minds" (sems hyi
hhyad par, cittavise:ja? ~u~HiJ) in the Tibetan version, or as "continuation of
mind" or "minds as continuations" (sems hyi rgyud, ,c,,;j:§~) in the version used
by the commentator Buddhaguhya. These minds, which are enumerated, on a
basis yet to be known, number one hundred and sixty, and are seen as operations
or tendencies of mind, or the forms of operations of mind which were obtained
empirically and introspectively by the author of the siitra through the careful