The Discriminating Mind Transcends the Distinction Between Internal and External Appearances

When a doctor treats a patient and restores the patient's physical health, is it the doctor's external aspect or internal aspect that changes? The patient's physical body is the external aspect for the doctor. When the patient's health improves, it is the doctor's external aspect that changes, and the internal aspect changes accordingly along with the alteration of the external aspect.

Changing another person's mind, however, belongs to altering their consciousness, causing shifts in their knowledge, thoughts, concepts, attitudes, and so forth. Mind consciousness is only categorized as belonging to which sentient being; it is not divided into internal or external. Mind consciousness is formless and immaterial; it cannot be transmitted into another person's superior sense faculty. Therefore, unlike material phenomena, it is not divided into internal and external aspects. Mind consciousness is not jointly manifested by multiple tathāgatagarbhas (Buddha-nature); it is individually produced by the tathāgatagarbha of a sentient being. It is not communal, hence there is no concept of internal or external. For mind consciousness to change, it means that its recognition, feelings, intentions, attitudes, thoughts, decisions, mental states, mental factors, and so forth undergo alterations.