Selected Lectures on the Sutra of the Meeting of Father and Son
Chapter Four Detailed Explanation of the Six Contact Bases
Original text: 大王。云何眼处。谓四大种。地界水界。火界风界。所造净色。若地界清净。则眼处清净。若水火风界清净。则眼处清净。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, what is the eye base? The eye base is the pure form faculty constructed by the four great element seeds—the earth element, water element, fire element, and wind element. If the earth element is pure, then the eye base it constructs is pure; if the water, fire, and wind elements are pure, then the eye base constructed by their combination is pure.
The eye faculty is a material form composed of the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind combined together, containing the hardness of earth, the moisture of water, the warmth of fire, and the fluidity of wind. The eye faculty includes the superficial eye faculty (the floating-dust faculty) on the face and the eye's supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain, all formed by the four great element seeds.
The four great element seeds are seeds inherently present in the tathāgatagarbha. When the causes and conditions for producing the eye faculty mature, the tathāgatagarbha transmits the four great element seeds outward, and the eye faculty is formed; both the external and internal eye faculties are gradually formed within the mother's womb. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One described the human eye faculty as being shaped like a grape cluster—that is the eye base.
The four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind in the tathāgatagarbha are originally pure, without defilement, without the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. These four great element seeds combine in certain proportions to form the eye faculty; when the proportions in which the seeds combine differ, the material forms produced also differ. Because the four great element seeds are pure, the eye faculty formed from them is pure, without the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, without defilement. However, the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, born with the eye faculty as a condition, do have defilement and afflictions; the eye faculty itself has no defilement, nor joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, because the eye faculty has no mental activities.
Original text: 何以故。由地界清净。眼处得生。是中无有。少法可得。如是乃至。风界清净。眼处得生。是中无有。少法可得。何以故。无主宰故。无造作故。犹如涅盘。自性清净。
Explanation: Why is the eye base pure when the four great elements are pure? Because the earth element is pure, the eye faculty can rely on it to be born; although the eye faculty is born, it is still utterly unobtainable. Likewise, because the water element is pure, the eye faculty can rely on it to be born, yet it is still unobtainable; because the fire element is pure, the eye faculty can rely on it to be born, yet it is unobtainable; because the wind element is pure, the eye faculty relies on it to be born, yet it is unobtainable. Why is the eye faculty unobtainable? Because the birth of the eye faculty has no sovereign controller and no fabrication whatsoever; like the nirvāṇa mind that neither arises nor ceases, its self-nature is pure.
When the earth element is pure, the eye base constructed from it is pure, because when the raw material is pure, the material form composed from it is pure. If the water, fire, and wind elements are all pure, the eye faculty constructed from them is pure, because when the raw materials are pure, the material form composed from them is pure. Outwardly it appears that a material form of the eye faculty has appeared, having the appearance of material form, but material form is so illusory and unreal: the four great element seeds flow out bit by bit, the eye faculty forms bit by bit, established out of nothing at all; and its raw materials are formless, markless seeds of emptiness, seeds that flow out from the tathāgatagarbha. Thus the substance of the eye faculty is the tathāgatagarbha, belonging entirely to the tathāgatagarbha; therefore the self-nature of the eye faculty is utterly unobtainable.
Because the tathāgatagarbha is pure in self-nature, neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither coming nor going, the four great element seeds it outputs are pure, and the self-nature of the eye faculty constructed from them is likewise pure, neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither coming nor going, without any self-sovereignty, without any fabricating nature—all are attributes of the tathāgatagarbha, and there is not the slightest dharma of the eye faculty to be obtained.
Before the earth, water, fire, and wind elements are transmitted, do we have the existence of an eye faculty? No—originally there was nothing at all. When the tathāgatagarbha transmits the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, the eye faculty begins to form: the eye sockets, the vitreous bodies of the eyes, the retinas, the visual transmission nerves—from nothing at all, material form gradually forms, and in the end it disintegrates; in the eye base there is not the slightest dharma to be obtained.
The four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind are themselves formless and markless, not material form; the tathāgatagarbha is formless and markless, and when it transmits the formless, markless seeds outward, material form with shape and marks is formed—from nothing at all, a material object with shape and marks comes into being. Within this there is not the slightest dharma to be obtained; nothing can be gotten: the earth nature is unobtainable, the water nature is unobtainable, the wind nature is unobtainable, the fire nature is unobtainable; then the eye faculty, eyeball, vitreous body, retina, and so forth are all unobtainable, illusory, perishing the moment destruction is spoken of; they cannot be relied upon, cannot be grasped.
The four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind are all unobtainable, and the material world formed from them is also unobtainable; within this there is not the slightest dharma to be obtained. Why? Because material form has no autonomy, no sovereignty, no self-mastery; it is conjured and unreal. Within this there is no person acting as sovereign, no one fabricating it. Who fabricates it? If we say that we fabricate it, who calls upon us to? Before the eye faculty was born, there were no five aggregates and no so-called "we"; the tathāgatagarbha does not act as sovereign and does not fabricate; therefore there is no person or dharma that fabricates the eye faculty.
Original text: 大王。如是眼处。各各寻求。皆不可得。所以者何。地界空故。则地界清净。乃至风界空故。则风界清净。若诸法自性本空。则彼界何有清净。亦无忿诤。若净若诤。皆不可得。复有何色。而可见耶。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, such an eye faculty, sought from every aspect, cannot be found—it is unobtainable. Why is it unobtainable? Because the earth element is empty, the earth element is pure; down to the water, fire, and wind elements being empty, the water, fire, and wind elements are pure, with not a single dharma existing. If all dharmas are empty in self-nature, then there is no such thing as purity in any of the element realms, nor any talk of defilement, resentment, and dispute; the purity and defilement of dharmas are both unobtainable. Then what form could there be to obtain? All material forms are unobtainable.
However we probe and seek the eye faculty, it is unobtainable; its nature is the tathāgatagarbha nature, its marks are bestowed by the tathāgatagarbha, conjured—the marks are unobtainable. As for the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind that compose the eye faculty, their marks are empty and their nature is the tathāgatagarbha nature, also empty. Because they are empty, the four great elements are pure; because the four great elements are pure, the eye faculty is pure. Because the eye faculty's self-nature is empty, there is likewise no mark of purity or impurity; its marks are unobtainable, and its purity and defilement are also unobtainable. The self-nature of the eye faculty is the tathāgatagarbha nature; it has no self-substance and is also empty.
Seeking the earth nature within the eye base is unobtainable. The earth nature itself is empty, formless and markless—a formless seed, utterly unobtainable; the eye faculty formed from it is also unobtainable. Then the natures of the water, fire, and wind elements are all empty, formless and markless; the four great element natures are unobtainable, empty, and the eye faculty formed from them is also empty, unobtainable. Then, seeking the self-nature of the eye faculty, it cannot be found, because the eye faculty has no self-nature.
The Buddha said that all dharmas are empty in self-nature; therefore the dharma of the eye faculty is empty in self-nature from the very start—empty coming and empty going, nothing at all. After the eye faculty is born, it will in turn cease, becoming nothing at all; it has no place of coming and no place of going; it is itself empty. The earth, water, fire, and wind elements are all empty in intrinsic nature, so the self-nature of the eye faculty formed from them is empty; in the eye element realm there is no such thing as tranquility or non-tranquility, neither tranquility nor defilement exists, neither good nor bad exists, because it is itself empty; one cannot say whether it is pure or not, whether it is in strife or not.
Original text: 当知眼处。毕竟空故。自性亦空。前际后际。皆不可得。未来所造。亦不可得。何以故。自性离故。若自性无有。则无男相。亦无女相。何有爱乐。若生爱乐。是魔境界。若无爱乐。是佛境界。何以故。若无爱乐。则能远离。一切诸法。
Explanation: We should know that because the eye base is ultimately empty, the self-nature of the eye faculty is also empty, and both the prior limit and the posterior limit of the eye faculty are unobtainable. Why is this said? Because the self-nature of the eye faculty is apart from all dharmas. If the eye faculty has no self-nature, then the eye faculty has no male mark and no female mark, so what is there in male and female marks to be fond of? If one gives rise to a mind of fondness toward male and female marks, that is a realm of Māra. If one has no mind of fondness toward male and female marks, that is a realm of the Buddha. Why is this said? Because without a mind of fondness one can depart from all dharmas, and the mind attains purity.
Material form is itself empty, formed by the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind; since earth, water, fire, and wind are themselves empty, the material world formed from them is empty, unobtainable. The eye faculty is likewise empty, unobtainable, not to be clung to. Originally there was no eye base and no eye faculty; when the four great element seeds are transmitted out, the eye faculty is born from nothing at all, and in the end it returns to nothing at all—the process of formation and the result are both empty; a dharma subject to birth and death, a dharma of nothing at all, is empty. What dharma is not empty? Our tathāgatagarbha mind is not empty. Although He is formless and markless, He gives rise to mind at every moment, functions at every moment, and transforms the myriad dharmas for us at every moment; apart from this, all dharmas are empty.
If the eye faculty were not empty, it would exist forever, with no birth and likewise no death; it could govern itself, and there would be no dharma able to govern its arising and ceasing—but the eye faculty is exactly the opposite. If the eye faculty can be born and can also cease involuntarily—if it must cease as soon as it is no longer sustained—then it is empty, conjured. How is the eye faculty formed? The earth component is added in, and the water, fire, and wind components are added in and mixed together; the four great element seeds, in certain proportions, are arranged and combined, uniting to form the physical body of the eye faculty. When the karmic conditions vanish, the four great element seeds disperse, and the eye faculty vanishes—empty coming and empty going, without self-substance, utterly unobtainable.
We should not give rise to greed, attachment, and delight toward the eye faculty, calling it good or bad; in reality there is no good and no bad—all is illusory and empty. Therefore the eye base is ultimately empty, and both its prior and posterior limits are unobtainable. The eye faculty of the previous life, the eye faculty of the next life, the present eye faculty and the former eye faculty, today's eye faculty and yesterday's eye faculty—all are unobtainable. Yesterday, relative to today, is the prior limit; tomorrow, relative to today, is the posterior limit; the very moment of my speaking is the fundamental limit; before speaking is called the prior limit, and after finishing speaking is the posterior limit. The prior and posterior limits linked together in this way—the prior and posterior limits are unobtainable, all empty.
The eye faculty of past lives is also unobtainable—it simply cannot be brought out, and searching everywhere it cannot be found; if in the future another eye faculty is produced, that eye faculty is still unobtainable—it cannot be brought out now, and a dharma that has not yet appeared is all the more illusory. The present eye faculty arises and ceases thought after thought, changing in every instant, and is also unobtainable. The appearance of eye ailments such as myopia, presbyopia, and glaucoma shows that the eye faculty is changing and unreliable—it cannot even maintain a healthy, normal state; its self-nature is indeed truly unobtainable.
The self-nature of the eye is apart from all dharmas and does not adhere to any dharma; it has neither a male mark nor a female mark, so we need not give rise to fondness or greed toward the eye faculty. The eye faculty itself has no particular marks—no male mark and no female mark; if one gives rise to fondness toward the eye faculty, that is a realm of Māra—attaching to the object, one is possessed by Māra; producing feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness toward anything is a realm of Māra—with such feelings, one is forever under Māra's control. The Māra king is called Pāpīyas; he dwells in the sixth heaven, the highest layer of the desire realm. Because of his great merit, he controls the entire six heavens of the desire realm, including the human world. If a sentient being has no greed for the dharmas of the desire realm, he escapes from the Māra king's palm; then the Māra king will try every means to make him give rise to greed for the desire realm again. As long as there is a mind of greed, one cannot escape from the desire realm—one is a disciple of the Māra king, a son of Māra.
When each person's preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) is complete and the first dhyāna is about to arise, the Māra king uses all kinds of means to obstruct, striking at the weakest spot within each person's mind, breaking through the weak part, causing the mind of greed to arise and meditative concentration to vanish, so that one cannot escape the Māra's palm. If one's power of concentration is firm and is not destroyed by the Māra king, at the end of life one will ascend to the form-realm heavens, higher than the Māra king's realm, and will no longer be subject to the Māra king's jurisdiction and control.
What is in the desire realm? The desire realm contains all kinds of greed: wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, with sexual desire as the main one. If one transcends this desire and eradicates it, the Māra's palace shakes. If a practitioner's resolve for the Path is not firm and his blessings insufficient, he can easily be disturbed and his meditative concentration will vanish. This is what Māra most hopes for, so he will try every means to make sentient beings love and crave this desire-realm world, so that his subjects will not decrease. Māra kings all hope their subjects grow ever more numerous; that is why they must find ways to control their subjects, making all sentient beings have minds of greed so that they do not escape their control.
Therefore the Buddha said that if a mind of fondness arises, that is a realm of Māra. We people of this world are all under the Māra king's control, and also under the jurisdiction of Śakra Devānām Indra, who dwells in Trāyastriṃśa heaven of the desire realm. If humans of the desire realm cultivate goodness, Śakra Devānām Indra is most delighted, because those who cultivate goodness will ascend to the desire-realm heavens at the end of life, and Śakra Devānām Indra's subjects increase. Therefore on the first and fifteenth of each month he sends heavenly protectors to the human world to make inspections, to see whether those practicing good dharmas are more numerous or those practicing evil dharmas are more numerous. If those cultivating good dharmas are many, Śakra Devānām Indra is pleased; if those practicing evil dharmas are many, Śakra Devānām Indra is displeased. The human world, knowing of this, makes offerings to the Buddha, keeps the fast, eats vegetarian food, and performs good deeds on the first and fifteenth of each month, in order to perform more good karma so that after death they may ascend to the heavens to enjoy pleasures—sometimes what worldly people do does have a certain rationale to it.
Having no mind of fondness is the Buddha's realm; in the Buddha's realm there is no mind of fondness, no delight or greed whatsoever toward the five desires and six dusts. The Buddha is the Tathāgata, and the Tathāgata is the tathāgatagarbha; He has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness—He neither likes nor dislikes; He is of an unconditioned nature. The minds of the first seven consciousnesses have joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; the true mind has none. When the seven-consciousness mind rejoices, rages, grieves, or delights, there is the true mind's compliance and cooperation within, otherwise the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses could not manifest the phenomena of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. In all dharmas the true and the false operate together; when the seven consciousnesses rejoice or rage, there is a tathāgatagarbha that neither rejoices nor rages, ceaselessly transmitting the various kinds of seeds to sustain the seven consciousnesses' current manifestation of their mental activities of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Finding this silent, unrecognized, unrequited giver behind the scenes—this is seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment, gaining prajñā wisdom.
Why is it said that having no mind of fondness is the Buddha's realm? The Buddha said: if there is no fondness, then one can depart from all dharmas. Because all Buddhas have already reached quiescence and non-action, they cling to none of the dharmas of the world and beyond the world, do not adhere to objects, have no existence of dharmas in their minds, and have ultimately departed from all dharmas. Although the Buddha must constantly engage in activities upon the illusory marks of the five aggregates in order to widely deliver immeasurable sentient beings, this does not prevent the Buddha's mind from abiding nowhere, giving rise to no mind of fondness toward any dharma. The Dharmakāya Buddha especially abides nowhere with respect to the dharmas of the world and beyond the world, far removed from all dharmas and marks, with no mind of fondness toward any dharma.
Why can we not depart from all dharmas? Because of greed, attachment, and clinging, because there is a mind of fondness, the mind abides in all dharmas and cannot separate from them. Toward all worldly dharmas we hope to own and possess them—this is the mind of fondness; if there is no mind of fondness, the mind will abide nowhere, not hoping to own or possess. Then the mind is not bound by any dharma, gains the power of liberation, and can attain liberation. For one who gives rise to no fondness for the desire realm, the first-dhyāna concentration arises; for one who has no fondness for the state of the first dhyāna, the state of meditative concentration rises higher; for one who has no fondness even for higher states of meditative concentration, the highest state within the three realms can be reached; for one who has no fondness for any dharma of the three realms' world, one will enter the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti)—that is the realm of an arhat of the fourth fruit. At the end of life one can extinguish all one's first seven consciousnesses; the form body ceases, the seven consciousnesses cease, the five aggregates cease, and one enters Nirvāṇa without remainder, liberated from the birth and death of the three realms, no longer transmigrating.
That an arhat can enter Nirvāṇa without remainder, ending birth and death and leaving the three realms, is precisely because he no longer has mental activity of fondness for the worldly dharmas of the three realms. We suffer in the three realms, especially in the desire realm; we are born in the human world of the desire realm rather than in the desire-realm heavens precisely because our fondness for the dharmas of the desire realm is deeper than that of the devas, deeper still than that of the form-realm devas, and compared with the formless-realm devas it is deep beyond comparison. The lighter the mind of fondness, the higher the heaven one reaches at the end of life, the happier and more tranquil one's existence, the less the feeling of suffering; the heavier the mind of fondness, the heavier the suffering. If there is no mind of fondness, one can depart from all dharmas, and the mind attains purity and tranquil stillness.
In our true mind there are originally no dharmas at all. The Heart Sūtra says: 无眼耳鼻舌身意，无色声香味触法，无眼界乃至无意识界; no five aggregates, no eighteen elements, no Four Noble Truths, no twelve links of dependent origination, no bodhisattva's six perfections, no wisdom and also no attainment—truly departed from all dharmas, without any dharma, quiescent and unconditioned. Yet our minds are full of the five desires and six dusts, pursuing the worldly dharmas of the three realms; therefore joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness never cease, and suffering is endless.
The more worldly dharmas one possesses, the more one suffers and the less one can attain liberation; we are bound by the suffering of birth and death. Delighting in form, one is bound by form, bound by the form body, unable to attain liberation; delighting in sound-dust, one is bound by sound-dust, unable to attain liberation; delighting in taste-dust, touch-dust, and dharma-dust, one is bound, unable to attain liberation. Toward the objects of the six dusts, whether liking or loathing, all is affliction, all is bondage, no liberation—one will remain in the desire realm in suffering, sorrow, and grief.
The true mind has no fondness and no loathing toward any dharma; therefore it is not bound by any dharma, is forever liberated, without the sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress of birth and death. With fondness one must drift through the six paths of rebirth suffering; the true mind has no fondness, is not in the six paths, does not abide in the objects of the six dusts suffering. If there is an object to abide in, one is bound and cannot be liberated; not abiding in any object, one has departed and is liberated. Therefore the goal of our study and practice should be like the true mind: gradually to be able to depart from all dharmas, to purify and empty the mind, and to tend toward nirvāṇa.
Original text: 大王。云何耳处。谓四大种。所造净色。分别行相。如前所说。大王。诸法解脱。决定现前。如法界空。不可施设。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, what is the ear base? The ear base is the pure form appearance created by the four great element seeds; the appearance of the ear base is similar to that of the eye base, born from the combination of the four great element seeds. If the four great element seeds are pure, the ear base is pure, with not the slightest dharma obtainable within it. Because the four great elements are empty, the ear base is empty in self-nature; because the four great elements are liberated, the ear base is liberated in itself, with no dharma that can bind anyone. Great King, all dharmas are liberated in themselves; their liberation is revealed and manifested everywhere, like the emptiness of the one true dharma realm—so it has always been, not contrived by humans.
The ear base refers to the ear faculty, including the external ear faculty and the internal ear faculty, both formed of the pure four great elements; therefore it is itself pure form, without afflictions, without defilement. What is called "pure" means no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, no greed, fondness, or loathing. When the ear faculty contacts sound-dust, it never says "I like this sound and dislike that sound"; it has no mental activities—neither wholesome nor unwholesome mental activities exist. Defilement belongs to the mind; the ear faculty is not defiled. The four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind composing the ear faculty are empty, and the ear base is also empty; its self-substance is utterly unobtainable. The four great element natures of earth, water, fire, and wind are unobtainable, and the ear base is also unobtainable.
Liberation means not being bound. Since all dharmas are themselves unobtainable, they cannot bind anyone; it is sentient beings' own minds that take all dharmas as real and as self, clinging without cease, thus voluntarily sticking to all dharmas and failing to attain liberation—this has nothing to do with the dharmas. If one can realize that all dharmas are unobtainable and no longer wishes to grasp, one attains liberation and is no longer tied up by the dharmas. Sentient beings are all tied up by the objects of the six dusts, tied up by their own five-aggregate bodies, rope upon rope, loop within loop, locked very firmly, as if in the prison of the three realms, unable to break free of the bonds and rush out of the jail. The root of the problem is that sentient beings' own minds do not clearly understand the dharmas, not knowing that dharmas are empty, conjured, and unreal; dharmas do not bind anyone at all, so there is no need to cling to them. If sentient beings can recognize this principle, their minds will naturally be liberated from the illusory objects. The liberation of all dharmas is decisively manifest; sentient beings are also liberated in themselves, only because they have lost sight of the truth they bind themselves in vain. There is no sentient being who cannot be liberated, except those still lost in delusion.
All worldly dharmas are originally empty and illusory; we need not empty them. All dharmas are originally liberated; we need not liberate them. As long as we recognize the truth and reality, there is no dharma that is not empty, no dharma that is not liberated. We cannot posit the dharmas as existent; the ten dharma realms and the eighteen elements are likewise empty and illusory; therefore there are no sentient beings, no sages, no six faculties, no objects of the six dusts, and no six consciousnesses; then there is no bondage at all, nor anyone bound—bondage and the bound are both illusory marks, unobtainable.
Original text: 大王。诸根各各。乐着境界。眼缘色时。而生爱乐。是故说色。为眼境界。又此眼根。缘于色境。有三种相。见可爱色。起于贪想。不可爱色。起于嗔想。非爱非恶。而起舍想。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the six faculties each delight in and cling to their own corresponding objects; when the eye faculty contacts form-dust, the mind gives rise to fondness; therefore form-dust is said to be the object realm of the eye faculty. Moreover, when the eye faculty contacts form-dust objects, three kinds of marks arise: the first mark is that when the eye faculty contacts lovable form-dust objects, the mind gives rise to thoughts of greed; the second mark is that when the eye faculty contacts unlovable form-dust objects, the mind gives rise to thoughts of hatred; the third mark is that when the eye faculty contacts form-dust objects that are neither lovable nor hateful, the mind gives rise to neutral thoughts, neither fondness nor aversion.
The eye faculty delights in and clings to form objects, the ear faculty to sound objects, the nose faculty to smell objects, the tongue faculty to taste objects, the body faculty to touch objects, and the manas to dharma objects. Each faculty greedily clings to its corresponding object\: the eye faculty can only face form and cannot contact sound; the ear faculty can only contact sound and cannot contact touch-dust—ordinary beings' six faculties cannot function interchangeably. When a sage has cultivated to a certain degree, the six faculties can interpenetrate: the eye faculty can contact sound and smell odors, the ear faculty can contact form and feel touch, the manas can see form and deliberate—the six faculties interconnect and can substitute for one another. The six faculties are originally interconnected; only because of sentient beings' deluded clinging and greedy attachment to dust objects has one function been divided into six functions, and each faculty acquired its boundary. When cultivation breaks through the deluded clinging of the six faculties and the mind penetrates, the six faculties achieve interfunctioning. Then, even without a form body, one can still feel touch-dust, feel the gentle breeze and warm sun; one faculty can serve as six, unifying the functions of the six faculties.
When the six faculties contact the six dusts, the mind's feelings have three states: one is liking, one is loathing, and one is neither liking nor loathing—the neutral state. For us practitioners of the Path, which state should the mind maintain? For one cultivating the Path, the mind should be peaceful: toward all objects, neither liking nor loathing, maintaining a state of the Middle Way abiding nowhere—that is the neutral state.
Original text: 如是乃至。意着法处。为意境界。若彼意处。缘可爱色。极生爱乐。为彼所牵。引生贪行。不可爱色。生于嗔行。爱非爱色。起于痴行。如是声等。三种攀缘。领纳等相。准前应说。
Explanation: The Buddha said: just like this, when faculties and dusts contact, three kinds of mental activities are born; when the manas contacts dharma-dust, mind consciousness is born to discern the objects of dharma-dust. If the manas contacts lovable form, mind consciousness gives rise to a mental activity of intense fondness, is drawn by form, and gives rise to a mental activity of greed; if the manas contacts unlovable form, mind consciousness gives rise to a mental activity of hatred; if the manas contacts form that is neither lovable nor unlovable, mind consciousness gives rise to a mental activity of delusion. Likewise, when the manas contacts sound-dust, mind consciousness also has three mental activities, the same as the mental activities when the manas contacts form; when the manas contacts the smell, taste, and touch bases, mind consciousness is likewise so.
The six faculties respectively contact the six dusts: the eye faculty faces form-dust, the ear faculty faces sound-dust, the nose faculty faces smell-dust, the tongue faculty faces taste-dust, the body faculty faces touch-dust, and the manas faces dharma-dust. Dharma-dust is a form included in the dharma base (dharmāyatana-saṃgṛhīta-rūpa) manifested upon the first five dusts. For example, when I look at a book, upon the form-dust of the book there manifests a dharma-dust of the book, referring to the book's shape and size, its length and breadth, squareness and roundness, the quality and thickness of the paper, the size and shape of the printed characters, the content information within, and so on—all of these belong to dharma-dust, the marks discerned by mind consciousness. When the manas faces the dharma-dust and the eye faculty faces the book's colors, mind consciousness and eye consciousness are born simultaneously to discern the book, but the content, scope, and degree of fineness of their discernment all differ.
The manas clinging to the dharma base is the object realm of the mind; when mind consciousness likes and craves the dharma-dust objects and is drawn by them, a greedy mind will arise. For example, take a piece of cake: the cake has colors, seen by eye consciousness; the shape manifested on the cake, the ingredients it contains, its nutrition, and other information are dharma-dust, faced by the manas and discerned by mind consciousness. After mind consciousness discerns it and finds the cake sweet and delicious, greed and attachment arise; with greed there is greedy conduct—one wants to make it one's own, to get it into one's mouth quickly, and may also think of ways to ensure one can eat it again in the future—this is greedy conduct. Greedy conduct is the action of body and mouth; the greedy mind is the mind's deluded scheming and feelings. Being drawn by objects, one decides to create karmic actions; after karmic actions are created, the seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and when the seeds' conditions ripen there is karmic retribution. If the manas is successfully perfumed, this person will be gluttonous life after life.
If the cake eaten belongs to someone else, and when eating it the owner does not know, or does not wish to give it, then it is stealing the cake and eating it; the karma of stealing is stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and when the karmic conditions ripen, the retribution manifests—one must repay the other person a thousandfold or more. Stealing one cake brings at minimum a thousandfold retribution; in the future one must repay at least a thousand cakes. If one steals the property of the Three Jewels, or the belongings of a person of spiritual attainment, the repayment is ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, immeasurable times over; moreover, there is also the intrinsic offense of the greedy mind—if the intrinsic offense is grave, one must fall into hell to undergo evil retribution.
As long as actions of greed, hatred, and delusion are carried out, whether great or small, they are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as karmic seeds. The tathāgatagarbha makes no choices; He does not, because the form body and five aggregates were created by Himself, refrain from recording the karma of killing—having no discriminating mind, He records and preserves it all the same. The tathāgatagarbha does not favor the five aggregates He Himself birthed by storing only wholesome karma and not unwholesome karma; the tathāgatagarbha has no such mental activity—He is non-discriminating. As long as there is karmic action, whether great or small, wholesome or unwholesome, neither wholesome nor unwholesome, He stores it all impartially.
For example, cooking is an action neither wholesome nor unwholesome; having learned the skill of cooking, it is stored as a seed, and in a future life, upon meeting the conditions, one will quickly know how to cook. Driving skills and other skills are all like this: whatever is learned, He stores it—storing the wholesome, storing the unwholesome, storing the neither-wholesome-nor-unwholesome. Some people are born with a certain talent because they have karmic seeds and were adept at it in a past life; some people can never learn no matter how they try because they stored no karmic seeds in past lives. Therefore each person's special talents differ: some children understand music from birth and can arrange musical scores; some are born able to dance; some dogs can even dance very well—their past-life abilities are all stored in the tathāgatagarbha. This is called habituation (vāsanā), habits, karma, seeds. Some people liked to curse others in past lives; in this life they are born knowing how to curse without being taught, and cannot be restrained—this is the current manifestation of karmic seeds; such is habit.
All greedy conduct and hateful conduct belong to deluded conduct; not understanding what is beneficial or harmful, not recognizing the wholesome and unwholesome, right and wrong—this too is delusion, and delusion has delusion's karmic fruits. How is delusion to be counteracted? Use the principles of the Buddha's teachings to break through ignorance and delusion.
When the manas contacts the six dust objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma, mind consciousness will manifest three mental activities: fondness, hatred, and delusion. When the six faculties face the six dusts, three kinds of feelings appear: delight, hatred, and neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā). These feelings are all arising-and-ceasing, illusory, and not to be clung to.
