Generating delusion (Buddhism, Ch'an)

Tsung-mi, a chronicler of Ch'an (Zen), indicated the process whereby, in the unenlightened aspect of alaya-vijnana, intrinsic enlightenment is gradually covered over by delusion. Ten stages are enumerated, as the true, unchanging, uncreated and indestructible nature is overlaid. It is as though a wealthy and respected man (intrinsic enlightenment) falls asleep (unenlightenment), begins to have dreams (arising thought), is conscious of dreams (perceiving subject), sees himself living in squalor and misery and things which he likes or dislikes (manifest objects), believes what he sees to be real (attachment to things), identifies with the person in the dream (attachment to self), desires things that he sees and likes and forms an aversion to things he sees and dislikes (defilements), commits good and bad actions on this basis (generates karma) and experiences good or evil consequences of these activities.

These stages may be compared to the 12 links or nidana of the causally continuous doctrine of being, which is one of Buddhism's four noble truths. Tsung-mi demonstrated that, in the stages of phenomenal evolution he described, each step on the process of delusion can be counteracted by a step in the process of enlightenment.