Commentary on the Mahayana Vijnaptimatrata Sutra
Chapter Two: How the Ālaya-vijñāna Transmigrates to Receive a New Body
Section Five: The Ālaya-vijñāna Receiving a Future Body Is Like the Wind Carrying the Fragrance of Flowers
Original Text: O Bhadrapāla, when sentient beings die here, the vedanā-dhātu (realm of sensation), saṃjñā-dhātu (realm of perception), and vijñāna-dhātu (realm of consciousness) all abandon the body. The consciousness carries the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to receive another body. This is like the wind element carrying the fragrance of exquisite flowers: the flowers remain here, yet their fragrance flows afar. The wind itself does not grasp the fragrance, nor do the fragrance and wind possess form or color. Yet without the wind’s power, the fragrance would not travel far.
Explanation: O Bhadrapāla, after sentient beings die in this world, the vedanā-dhātu and saṃjñā-dhātu of the six consciousnesses, along with the ālaya-vijñāna dharma-dhātu, all depart from the physical body. The ālaya-vijñāna then carries the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to receive another physical body. This phenomenon resembles the wind carrying the fragrance of exquisite flowers: the flowers remain in one place, yet their fragrance spreads far due to the wind’s movement. The wind does not seize the fragrance, and neither the fragrance nor the wind has form or color. Yet without the wind’s power, the fragrance could not travel afar.
After death, the seven consciousnesses and ālaya-vijñāna abandon the body. When the six consciousnesses cease, the manas (mental faculty) seeks to depart, and the ālaya-vijñāna leaves the body. Without the six consciousnesses, there is no vedanā-skandha (aggregate of sensation); without vedanā, there is no saṃjñā (perception). The body, devoid of sensation and awareness, becomes a corpse. The ālaya-vijñāna then migrates the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to another (future) physical body. How does this migration occur? After the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu cease, the ālaya-vijñāna takes rebirth, forming another physical body. In due time, the six consciousnesses arise again in this new body, and the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu reappear. The new body thus gains vedanā and saṃjñā, enabling it to perceive and experience sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental objects. By generating the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses, the ālaya-vijñāna migrates the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to the next life’s body, endowing it with the functional capacities of the five skandhas.
This phenomenon is like the wind carrying the fragrance of exquisite flowers: the wind does not move the flowers themselves but carries their fragrance afar. Here, the wind symbolizes the ālaya-vijñāna, the fragrance represents the vedanā-skandha of the five aggregates, and the flowers symbolize the sentient being’s physical body. Though the ālaya-vijñāna does not carry the physical body itself, it carries the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu. This is merely an analogy; in truth, the ālaya-vijñāna manifests the functional capacities of the six consciousnesses in another physical body, enabling it to experience vedanā, saṃjñā, and perceptual awareness, thereby discerning the six sense objects.
Just as floral fragrance can travel far with the wind, the five skandhas may migrate to distant realms—perhaps to other Buddha-lands, the heavens, or hell—far removed from our human existence. The wind does not intend to seize the fragrance, yet the fragrance is carried nonetheless. Similarly, the ālaya-vijñāna itself lacks the five skandhas but carries their seeds to another body, where they generate new skandhas, thus giving rise to the vedanā and saṃjñā dharma-dhātu.
The fragrance and wind are both formless and colorless. Likewise, the seeds of sentient beings’ physical faculties are formless and colorless. The ālaya-vijñāna contains the seeds of the physical faculties. When conditions ripen, these seeds generate another physical body. This results from the ālaya-vijñāna carrying the seeds of the physical faculties and interacting with various conditions, potentially giving rise to an intermediate state body (antarābhava) or a rebirth body. The intermediate state body is still a body; any body formed from seeds possesses form and characteristics. The ālaya-vijñāna acts like the wind: without its power, the five skandhas and vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu could not migrate to the next life’s body in another realm.
Original Text: O Bhadrapāla, when a sentient being’s body dies, the consciousness carries the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to the next life. Through the condition of parents, the consciousness relies on them. The vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu follows the consciousness likewise. Just as from the flower’s superior power, the nose gains the ability to smell; from the smelling’s superior power, the fragrance is perceived. Similarly, from the wind’s superior power, the color and touch of wind arise; by the wind’s superior power, the fragrance travels far. Thus, from consciousness arises vedanā; from vedanā arises saṃjñā; from saṃjñā arises dharma. Thereby, one discerns good and evil.
Explanation: O Bhadrapāla, when a sentient being’s physical body dies, the ālaya-vijñāna carries the seeds of the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu to the next life. Within the intermediate state, due to the karmic condition of parents, the ālaya-vijñāna enters the fertilized ovum, giving rise to nāmarūpa (name and form). The vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu migrates with the ālaya-vijñāna to the next life’s body, just as described. It is like how the nose gains the capacity to smell due to the flower’s superior power, and how the nose’s superior smelling power perceives the fragrance. Similarly, due to the wind’s superior power, the color and touch of wind arise; and by the wind’s powerful conveyance, the fragrance travels far. Likewise, from the ālaya-vijñāna arises vedanā; from vedanā arises saṃjñā; from saṃjñā arises dharma (phenomena). Sentient beings thereby discern the virtuous and non-virtuous nature of phenomena.
The ālaya-vijñāna contains the seeds of the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu. When conditions ripen, it projects the karmic seeds of vedanā-saṃjñā and the six consciousnesses, causing vedanā and saṃjñā to arise. Sentient beings thus regain the functional capacities of vedanā and saṃjñā. The seeds of the physical faculty first manifest as a physical body based on parental conditions. Then, the seeds of the consciousnesses gradually arise and function. The seeds of the eyes, ears, nose, and tongue faculties arise depending on the physical body. The seeds of the six consciousnesses arise based on the conditions of the six faculties and six objects, initiating their functions. In this way, the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu reemerges.
Because flowers have fragrance and the nose possesses olfactory function, the nose’s smelling capacity and the power of nose-consciousness enable us to perceive the fragrance. The nose faculty apprehends the fragrance as an odor object. When the faculty and object contact each other, nose-consciousness cognizes the odor object, apprehending its characteristic and thus perceiving the fragrance. Through the functions of nose-consciousness and mind-consciousness, the characteristic of the odor object is grasped, yielding the perception of fragrance. Perception requires consciousness; without consciousness, there is no grasping. “Grasping” here means apprehending and clinging to characteristics.
Due to the wind’s inherent power of conveyance, wind contacts the flowers, carrying their fragrance elsewhere. Similarly, the ālaya-vijñāna has the function of transporting seeds. After death, when the ālaya-vijñāna contacts karmic seeds, it carries the five skandhas to the next body in another realm. Just as fragrance travels far due to the wind’s propulsion, the ālaya-vijñāna enables the migration of the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu seeds to another body. Here, the wind symbolizes the ālaya-vijñāna, the flowers symbolize the physical faculty, and the fragrance represents the vedanā-saṃjñā dharma-dhātu and the seeds of the five skandhas. The nose’s capacity to smell arises from nose-consciousness, enabling us to perceive fragrance and have awareness. This shows that vedanā and saṃjñā are functions of the six consciousnesses, which apprehend the six sense objects (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental objects), causing them to manifest in the mind.
Why can the six consciousnesses apprehend the six sense objects? Because there is a physical body with six faculties, and because there is the ālaya-vijñāna, which can transmit the six objects. The six consciousnesses arise based on this, causing vedanā and saṃjñā to appear and the sense objects to manifest. This illustrates that the ālaya-vijñāna can manifest the six objects and the six consciousnesses, enabling the six consciousnesses to apprehend the six objects. From the ālaya-vijñāna arises vedanā; from vedanā arises saṃjñā; from saṃjñā phenomena manifest. For example, the ālaya-vijñāna transmits sound; when the faculty and object contact each other, ear-consciousness arises, hearing the sound and generating vedanā. With vedanā comes perception, and the sound manifests in ear-consciousness. With nose-consciousness, odor objects are cognized and manifested. “From saṃjñā arises dharma”: because there is perception, the six sense objects (dharma) appear. Here, “dharma” represents the six sense objects, and “saṃjñā” represents the six consciousnesses.
The perception of the six consciousnesses refers to eye-consciousness seeing, ear-consciousness hearing, nose-consciousness smelling, tongue-consciousness tasting, body-consciousness feeling, and mind-consciousness knowing. This is “saṃjñā.” What manifests from eye-consciousness? Visual objects manifest. Without eye-consciousness, could you know visual objects? Eye-consciousness apprehends visual objects, causing them to appear. For instance, eye-consciousness apprehends the form of a cup on a table. Without eye-consciousness, could the cup’s form be apprehended? One would not know the cup exists. Only when eye-consciousness arises can the cup be cognized; eye-consciousness apprehends the cup’s form, which is eye-consciousness grasping a visual object.
Similarly, because ear-consciousness hears sound, it apprehends the sound object. Without consciousness, could apprehension occur? Apprehension involves both cognition and grasping of characteristics. “Grasping” here aligns with the function of saṃjñā-skandha (aggregate of perception), which first cognizes, then recognizes what it is (apprehending characteristics), and finally assigns a name. With nose-consciousness, odor objects are apprehended; with body-consciousness, tactile objects like sunlight’s warmth, hunger, thirst, and fatigue are apprehended; with mind-consciousness apprehending mental objects, all phenomena are known, including good and evil, right and wrong, beneficial and harmful.
Original Text: O Bhadrapāla, it is like a painter preparing a wall panel. The areas to be painted are properly cleaned and arranged. Once the surface is pure, he freely paints various images as he wishes. The painter’s conscious wisdom is formless and colorless, yet it creates all manner of wondrous forms and extraordinary appearances.
Explanation: O Bhadrapāla, it is like a painter preparing to paint. He first cleans the wall panel, removing debris and dust from the areas to be painted, ensuring it is properly arranged for his work. Once the surface is clean, he paints freely as he wishes. The painter relies on his conscious mind, which intends to paint, to conceive and design. The conscious mind with wisdom is formless and colorless yet creates all manner of formless and colored landscapes, figures, and extraordinary appearances—the painting’s entire conception materializes. But the mind that conceives and designs during painting is formless.
Original Text: Similarly, conscious wisdom is formless yet generates the six sense objects. That is: through the eye, forms are seen, yet eye-consciousness is formless; through the ear, sounds are heard, yet sounds are formless; through the nose, fragrances are known, yet fragrances are formless; through the tongue, tastes are known, yet tastes are formless; through the body, touches are known, yet touches are formless; through the mind, mental objects are perceived, yet they are formless. Consciousness is likewise formless and colorless.
Explanation: Similarly, the wisdom of the ālaya-vijñāna is formless and colorless yet generates the six sense objects: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental objects. That is: through the eye faculty, forms are seen, yet eye-consciousness is formless; through the ear faculty, sounds are heard, yet ear-consciousness is formless; through the nose faculty, smells are known, yet nose-consciousness is formless; through the tongue faculty, tastes are known, yet tongue-consciousness is formless; through the body faculty, touches are known, yet body-consciousness is formless; through the mind faculty, mental objects are perceived, yet mind-consciousness is formless. The ālaya-vijñāna, being formless and colorless, operates in the same way.
Without the ālaya-vijñāna, the six consciousnesses could not arise and cognize. Here, the Buddha reveals the true reality: both the painter’s six consciousnesses and the ālaya-vijñāna are formless and colorless yet create all manner of painted scenes and conceptions.
Original Text: O Bhadrapāla, when consciousness abandons this body to receive another life, at the time of death, the consciousness is enveloped by karmic obstacles. When the karmic retribution ends and life ceases, it is like the consciousness of an arhat in nirodha-samāpatti (cessation attainment). Just as the arhat’s consciousness ceases upon entering nirodha-samāpatti, so too does the deceased’s consciousness depart from the body.
Explanation: O Bhadrapāla, after the ālaya-vijñāna abandons this body, it goes to the next body to receive it (“another life” means the next life). At the time of death, the ālaya-vijñāna is enveloped by the karmic obstacles created by the seven consciousnesses. When this lifetime’s karmic retribution is exhausted and life ends, the ālaya-vijñāna abandons the body, just as the six consciousnesses of an arhat in nirodha-samāpatti vanish from the body. When an arhat enters nirodha-samāpatti, the six consciousnesses disappear from the body; similarly, at death, the ālaya-vijñāna vanishes from the body.
Original Text: Thus, the deceased’s consciousness abandons the body and sense realms, propelled by the power of mental formations. At that time, it knows: “Such is my life. All deeds I performed now appear clearly.” Memories arise vividly, and both body and mind endure intense suffering.
Explanation: At death, it is the same: the ālaya-vijñāna abandons the physical body and eighteen elements (dhātus). The ālaya-vijñāna’s departure from the body follows the power of the manas’ mental formations, cooperating with the function of the manas’ cetanā (volition). At this moment, the dying person knows this life has ended. All deeds performed in this life appear in the mind in the final instant, recalled one by one with clarity. Simultaneously, body and mind experience intense suffering.
While consciousness has not yet ceased, “body and mind endure intense suffering”: the body suffers due to the dissolution of the four elements, and the mind suffers from despair over life’s end, separation from loved ones, and the inability to cling to worldly attachments—thus, body and mind are tormented by pain.
Because the deceased’s karmic deeds leave imprints, at death the ālaya-vijñāna follows these karmic seeds to migrate to the next life. If one created animal karma, one is bound by it, and the ālaya-vijñāna receives an animal body; if one created hungry ghost karma, one is bound by it, and the ālaya-vijñāna goes to a hungry ghost body. When this life’s retribution ends, the ālaya-vijñāna departs from the body, like the six consciousnesses of a fourth-stage arhat in nirodha-samāpatti.
When an arhat masters the four dhyānas and eight samāpattis and enters nirodha-samāpatti, the first six consciousnesses cease, leaving only the seventh consciousness (manas) and ālaya-vijñāna. In the manas, the universal mental factors (pañca sarvatraga) cease vedanā and saṃjñā, leaving only attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), and volition (cetanā). The manas can still attend to the body and environment manifested by the ālaya-vijñāna, perceive the body’s condition through attention and contact, and generate volitional decisions—for example, deciding to arise from samādhi or enter parinirvāna. These decisions are made by the manas’ cetanā. At death, the ālaya-vijñāna’s departure from the body resembles the arhat’s six consciousnesses departing in nirodha-samāpatti.
When the first six consciousnesses cease in a dying person, the manas perceives this and observes the body’s condition, realizing it is no longer usable and beyond hope. The cetanā then decides to abandon the body and seek a new one. The ālaya-vijñāna gradually departs with the manas, both leaving together. Thus, the deceased’s consciousness abandons the body and eighteen elements, propelled by the power of the manas’ mental formations, for all such actions are driven by the manas under the direction of its cetanā.
Thereafter, the manas still seeks rebirth to obtain a body. The ālaya-vijñāna follows this mental formation of the manas, either manifesting an intermediate state body for its use or directly leading to rebirth in a heaven. The manas does not wish to extinguish itself, for it has not severed attachment to self and always seeks continued existence with another five-skandha body. The ālaya-vijñāna complies, manifesting an intermediate state body—this is “propelled by the power of mental formations.” At the moment of death, if all mental formations of the manas cease, the ālaya-vijñāna can no longer project seeds of the five skandhas and eighteen elements. The five skandhas and eighteen elements gradually cease, the manas ceases, and one enters parinirvāna without residue. For ordinary sentient beings at death, the manas also decides to abandon the body, intending to be reborn in the next five-skandha body. The ālaya-vijñāna then manifests an intermediate state body in accordance with this mental formation.
At the time of death, sentient beings know this life has ended. All good and evil deeds performed in this lifetime manifest entirely, recalled clearly and without error—this is the recollection arising in the mind-consciousness. At this stage, the dying person has not yet expired. Just before death, the entire course of this life flashes rapidly through the mind like a film. The mind-consciousness knows all that was done in this life and where it will go—whether to a fortunate or unfortunate realm. After this, mind-consciousness ceases. The manas, knowing there is no hope, abandons the body, carrying attachment to self and craving, thus giving rise to an intermediate state body.
