From Eye-door to Mind-door

从眼门到意门

It is no easy matter to stop short at just seeing. A beginner will not be able to catch the thought moments that make up the process of seeing. Being unable to stay with the phenomenon instantaneously as it arises, he or she has to consider the object appearing in the mind’s eye as if really wanting to know it. Whatever passes through the mind-door usually needs to be identified, but the beginner finds it difficult to adjust eye-consciousness to the object seen in his efforts to identify it, so has to rely on mind-consciousness to do some thinking regarding the visible object. The thought process relating to mind-consciousness is as follows.

停于仅仅是见到，这并不是件容易的事情。初学者没有能力抓住构成看的过程的心识刹那。由于无法在现象生起的时刻即时地贴紧它，如果真的需要了解它的话，只能考虑出现在心的眼睛中的对象。凡是通过意门的现象通常需要被识别，但是初学者发现，努力调整眼识朝向所见对象去识别它，这是困难的，所以不得不依赖意识去做关于视觉对象的一些事情。意门心路过程在下面介绍。

First mind-door adverting arises, prompting seven thought moments of impulsion that report the findings to two moments of registering. Thus there are ten thought moments in this part of the process. However, if the sense-object creates only a weak impression, impulsion vibrates for less than seven moments, and mind consciousness may be cut off after only five or six impulsions. When eye-consciousness has done its job, mind-consciousness takes over, but it is still unable to distinguish the visible object as male or female. At this stage knowledge is still at the stage of ultimate realities(paramattha), as with the preceding eye-consciousness.

第一个意门转向生起，促生七个心识刹那的速行，速行把结果报告给两个心识刹那的彼所缘。因此(心路)过程的这部分共有十个心识刹那。然而，如果感官对象只造成微弱的印象，速行震荡就少于七个刹那，意识可能在只五个或六个刹那后就被切断了。眼识完成它的工作后，意识接管，但是它依然无法区别视觉对象是男性还是女性。在这个阶段，认知依然是处于究竟法(paramattha)的层面，如同前述的眼识。

However, note one difference here: whereas eye-consciousness cognises the visible object of the present moment, mind-consciousness cognises it as it recedes into the past. Mind-consciousness has to recall the past image as previously seen by eye-consciousness. Even so, the image is still an ultimate reality. It is, therefore, extremely difficult for the beginner to note the visible object as it passes to the first thought process of mind consciousness.

不过，注意这里的一个区别：尽管眼识认知当前刹那的视觉对象，意识认知后退到过去的对象。意识必须回忆先前由眼识看到的过去的映像。但即使如此，该映像依然是究竟层面的。因此，初学者要在视觉对象经过第一个意门心路过程时注意到它，依然非常困难。