This explains that the object of the seventh consciousness is the seeing-aspect of the eighth consciousness, which it takes as its core essence. This is “true perception with a substantial basis.” Although

The eighth consciousness is constant but does not discriminate. The first six consciousnesses discriminate but are not constant. The first five are neither constant nor discriminating. Only this seventh consciousness—the manas—is both constant and discriminating in its defiled state. It continuously thinks and measures, mistaking what is not self for the self. This deluded grasping at a self has followed us since beginningless time, never letting go for a single moment. That is why sentient beings remain lost and confused day

The seventh consciousness, the manas, has from beginningless time mistakenly adhered to a self and to phenomena. When a bodhisattva reaches the first ground, the Ground of Joy, the sixth consciousness enters the contemplation of the two emptinesses, completely cutting off the seeds of the discriminatory attachments to self and phenomena, and also suppressing the active manifestations of the innate attachments to self and phenomena. Only then does this seventh consciousness first begin to correspond with the wisdom of equality. However, because the innate attachment to self