The Venerabel Yen-shou，in treating the eight consciousnesses, incorporated the earlier scholars' theories of one through eleven consciousnesses, and expounded the nature of the consciousnesses in terms of cause and effect and substance and function. By examing the eye，ear，nose，tongue，body，and mind consciousnesses he arrived at the conclusion that the eighth, the Alaya Consciousness, is the substance. It does not change and yet accords with conditions; it accords with conditions and yet does not change. When this Consciousness fails to abide in its own nature and changes according to conditions, it seems to be drifting in samsara, but in fact，it neither is produced nor becomes extinct; it neither comes nor goes. When in a placid body of water are stirred up some bubbles, the bubbles are nothing but water. When a flower appears in the empty space (through hallucination)，the flower is nothing but empty space. Just as the empty space neither arises nor becomes extinct，so the Substance-Consciousness neither comes nor goes. The Alaya is a composite consciousness, a combination of substance and function of `Tathagata-garbha` and the seven other consciousnesses. The two are neither the same nor different，like water and ripples.
