Commentary on the Mahayana Vijnaptimatrata Sutra
Section Three: The Ālaya-vijñāna Migrates the Body Like the Wind Element
Original Text: Bhadrapāla, the consciousness abandons this body and, following wholesome and unwholesome karma, migrates to receive the remaining karmic retribution. It is like the wind element emerging from deep mountains and secluded valleys and entering a forest of fragrant campaka trees; the wind then becomes fragrant. When it passes through places of dung, filth, corpses, foulness, and defilement, the wind becomes putrid and foul-smelling.
Explanation: Bhadrapāla, the Ālaya-vijñāna, at the time of sentient beings’ death, abandons this physical body and, following the wholesome and unwholesome karma created by the sentient beings, migrates into the next life’s physical body, enabling the five aggregates to receive the remaining karmic retribution. It is like the wind element emerging from deep mountains and secluded valleys and drifting into a fragrant forest of campaka trees; the wind then carries the fragrance of the campaka trees. When the wind element passes through places of dung, filth, corpses, foulness, and defiled areas, the wind carries a dirty, foul odor.
The body, speech, and mind actions created by sentient beings—the momentary acts of body, speech, and mind—become karmic seeds, stored by the Ālaya-vijñāna. At the time of approaching death, the wholesome and unwholesome karma created in this lifetime all manifest. The mind consciousness, within a very short period, discerns all the wholesome and unwholesome karma created in this lifetime, and the mind becomes clear about where it is about to go. Then, based on the karmic seeds, the Ālaya-vijñāna generates the physical body for the next life. The Ālaya-vijñāna, following the wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds, migrates to receive the remaining karmic retribution in another physical body, enabling the sentient being to undergo retribution. If wholesome karma is strong, wholesome retribution is received; if unwholesome karma is strong, unwholesome retribution is received.
The Ālaya-vijñāna is likened to the wind element, and the fragrance is likened to wholesome karma. The wind element emerges from deep mountains and secluded valleys and enters a fragrant campaka forest. The campaka tree is a fragrant tree with a sweet scent. When the wind blows into the forest, it carries the fragrance and then departs. This metaphor illustrates that the Ālaya-vijñāna, within the sentient being’s body, carries away the wholesome karma created by the sentient being to the next life’s physical body. Then, the next life’s physical body, following the wholesome karma, receives wholesome retribution, and the karmic retribution body comes into being.
When the wind element passes through places of dung, filth, corpses, foulness, and defilement, it carries those foul odors and drifts to other places. The foul odor metaphorically represents the unwholesome karma created by sentient beings. When sentient beings create unwholesome karma, the Ālaya-vijñāna, at the time of their death, carries the unwholesome karmic seeds to another physical body, transferring the unwholesome karmic seeds into the five aggregates of the next life, and the sentient beings’ unwholesome retribution manifests. However, wholesome and unwholesome karma are not created by the Ālaya-vijñāna; they are created by the sentient beings’ own seven consciousnesses. The Ālaya-vijñāna merely accommodates them, then carries the karmic seeds away to actualize the karmic retribution of wholesome and unwholesome actions. The Buddha’s metaphor of the wind element is extremely apt. The wind element itself has no fragrance or foulness; what it carries are the odor particles from various substances in different places. Similarly, the Ālaya-vijñāna has no karma and does not create karma; what it carries are the seeds of karma created by the sentient beings’ five-aggregate bodies.
Original Text: If the wind encounters both fragrance and foulness, it carries both fragrance and foulness together. The stronger one manifests first. The wind has no form or substance; fragrance and foulness have no form. Yet the wind carries the fragrance and foulness, migrating them far away.
Explanation: If the wind element passes through both fragrant and foul places, then it carries both fragrance and foul odor. It depends on which is stronger and which has greater influence; that odor particle will manifest, or it may be a mixture of odors, or sometimes the fragrance manifests, sometimes the foul odor manifests—it is not fixed.
The Buddha’s likening of the Ālaya-vijñāna to wind is indeed appropriate, and likening wholesome and unwholesome karma to fragrance and foulness is also fitting. The wind element passes through places with either fragrance or foulness and then carries both scents together. "Carries together" means it carries both entirely. "The stronger one manifests first" means whichever influence is stronger, that odor particle manifests.
Original Text: The consciousness abandons this body, carries the wholesome and unwholesome karma, migrates to receive the remaining karmic retribution. It is also like this, just as that wind element carries the fragrance and foulness of substances to another place.
Explanation: The Ālaya-vijñāna is also like the wind element; it accommodates the mental faculty (manas), cooperates in creating both wholesome and unwholesome actions, stores all the seeds, and at death carries the wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds into the five-aggregate body of the next life. At death, it follows whichever karma—wholesome or unwholesome—is heavier to receive that retribution.
To avoid suffering in the three lower realms, we should cultivate great wholesome karma during our ordinary lives and in our later years, and quickly repent of unwholesome karma. After repentance, before death, we should mentally recall the wholesome karma we have created in this lifetime. If wholesome karma is insufficient, we should create more wholesome karma to compensate, and again generate pure, great vows, so that the power of these vows exceeds the power of the unwholesome karma. Then we can temporarily escape the retribution of unwholesome karma. If wholesome karma is always greater than unwholesome karma, and the conditions for wholesome karma always mature first, while the conditions for unwholesome karma remain latent, then the future outcome of the unwholesome karmic seeds is uncertain; perhaps they will disappear. Some minor unwholesome karma, buried for a long time, will gradually wither and fail to manifest.
The wind element is formless and colorless; the fragrance and foulness it carries also have no form or substance. Yet the wind can carry the fragrance and foulness far away. The farther it blows, the fainter the odor becomes, as the scent gradually disperses during the drifting process. Therefore, the farther the wind travels, the fainter the odor. The Ālaya-vijñāna itself is also formless and without characteristics. Karmic seeds themselves are also formless and without characteristics. If karmic seeds had form and characteristics, they could not exist within the formless, characteristicless Ālaya-vijñāna; that would make the Ālaya-vijñāna characterized, which is factually impossible.
The Ālaya-vijñāna abandons the dying physical body, carries the wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds, and migrates to another physical body to receive the remaining karmic retribution. "Migrates" means to change, to flow into another physical body, enabling that other body to receive the retribution, also like the wind. The Ālaya-vijñāna carrying wholesome and unwholesome karma to enable another body to receive retribution is also like the wind element carrying the fragrance and foulness of substances to a distant place.
Original Text: Furthermore, it is like a person dreaming, seeing various forms and images, engaging in various activities, yet unaware that they are peacefully asleep in bed. A person of great merit, when their life ends and consciousness migrates, is also like this. Peaceful and unaware, like dreaming and transforming, without any fear.
Explanation: Furthermore, for example, when a person dreams, they see various forms and also dream of themselves engaging in various activities ("activities" meaning actions created by body, speech, and mind), yet they are unaware that they are lying in bed asleep. A person of great merit and virtue, when their life ends and the Ālaya-vijñāna migrates, is also like this. It is like dreaming; in an instant, they arrive in another physical body. Strictly speaking, it is the Ālaya-vijñāna manifesting another physical body without the awareness of the consciousness. A person who creates wholesome karma and possesses great merit, when the Ālaya-vijñāna departs at the end of life, experiences no feeling of suffering in their consciousness. They pass away peacefully, directly ascending to the heavens to enjoy blessings, without passing through an intermediate state (antarābhava), just like dreaming, without any fear at all. Upon reaching the heavens, they know they have become a heavenly being.
Before death, the wholesome and unwholesome karma created in this lifetime can also manifest, flashing by in an instant, and they know they are about to ascend to the heavens to enjoy blessings. A person of great merit experiences no suffering or struggle at the time of death. The time for the Ālaya-vijñāna to leave the physical body is relatively short. It is like dreaming and transforming, without any fear; peacefully and freely they ascend to the heavens. As mentioned earlier, a person who creates unwholesome karma manifests ominous signs at death: limbs thrashing, eyes rolling—these are ominous signs. Their eyes and body are not free. This is completely different from the passing of a person of great merit who creates wholesome karma.
Original Text: The migration of consciousness does not occur through the throat, mouth, or any other orifices. Its origin cannot be fathomed; its path and portal cannot be known.
Explanation: For a person of great merit, when the Ālaya-vijñāna leaves the physical body, it does not depart through the throat, mouth, or any other orifice in the body. For a person of great merit, the Ālaya-vijñāna departs the body from an unknown location; there is no specific place.
Orifices refer to the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, anus, and urethra—these are all orifices. When sentient beings approach death, the location from which the Ālaya-vijñāna departs the physical body differs, indicating the destination of rebirth. Departing through the throat may indicate rebirth in the human realm because the throat is relatively close to the heart; departing through the knees leads to the animal realm; through the soles of the feet leads to the hell realm; through the navel leads to the hungry ghost realm; through the chest leads to the human realm; through the forehead leads to the heavenly realm; through the crown of the head leads to other Buddha lands. The path for the asura realm is not indicated. Here, it is said that for those ascending to heaven, the Ālaya-vijñāna departs from an unknown location, indicating that virtuous people die unknowingly, without suffering.
