Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

consciousness. The meditations based upon these four
are, in order of increasing subtlety:
1. The first step, "to get rid of the false and to keep the
real consciousness." This means that one should not
care for objects in one's surrounding
(form-consciousness); these should be renounced, while
inward concentration should be guarded and developed.
Think only of this view-consciousness and not of
anything else.
2. The second step is also a renunciation. One should
"renounce the perverted (view-consciousness) and take
only the pure consciousness." In the first meditation one
renounces the consciousness of outer objects, and here
one goes further, giving up inner reflection upon them.
3. "Reduce the branch to the root." By this we mean
including the branch (the form-and-viewconsciousnesses
renounced) in the root, that is, keeping
the king of consciousness. The former are the two parts
already mentioned and the latter is the self-witness
consciousness.
4. "Hiding the family and manifesting the master." The
"family" here means all the dharmas (fifty-one in
number in this system) and the "master" is the eighth
(alaya) consciousnesses. This fourth stage is known also
as proving the self-witness of consciousness.
397