A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness

Original text: 贤护白佛言。世尊。众生虽知有识。如宝闭在箧中。不显不知。世尊。不知此识。作何形状。何故名识。众生死时。手足乱动。眼色变异。制不自由。诸根丧灭。诸大乖离。识迁于身。去至何所。自性如何。作何色相。云何舍离此身。更受余身。

The main cause obstructing the arising of the first dhyāna is the five hindrances: greed-desire, ill will, sloth-torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. Especially among the five hindrances, the hindrance of greed-desire: if one's desires for the human realm and the desire-realm heavens are heavy, one cannot give rise to the first dhyāna of the form realm. Only when all desires for the human realm and the desire-realm heavens have been subdued can the first dhyāna of the form realm arise. To give rise to the first dhyāna of the form realm requires subduing all kinds of desires, including sexual desire and the desire for food and drink. If a person is particular about clothing, food, shelter, and daily use, and delights in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, the first dhyāna cannot be cultivated successfully; if one is too attached to one's living environment, there will also be no meditative concentration. Only if one can truly make the mind indifferent to any living environment—good or bad, neither craving the good nor recoiling from the bad, with no mental activity arising toward the environment—can there be meditative concentration. The moment a craving thought arises, there is no samādhi; only when one truly achieves indifference does one cease to give rise to mental activity. In daily life, if one is indifferent to and unconcerned with everything, indifferent to whether the environment is good or bad—only when one truly achieves this will meditative concentration arise. If one is still particular about food, about nutrition, about color, aroma, and flavor, the first dhyāna will not arise, and one cannot enter the form-realm concentration.

At the time of just attaining the fruit and seeing one's true mind, if meditative concentration cannot arise or deepen, and this period of opportunity passes, then afterward it will not be easy for the first dhyāna to arise. One should seize the time to cultivate meditative concentration while, at the moment of eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), the illumination of awareness appears and inner joy arises. If there is no illumination of awareness and the power of concentration is shallow, then afterward one should not even think about the first dhyāna—it will not easily appear. Especially for laypeople, who are too closely tied to daily life, it is even harder to give rise to the first dhyāna; monastics have it relatively a bit easier, being more distant from worldly things. It is very difficult for laypeople to cultivate the Buddha-dharma; in life, everywhere there are things that trigger one's mental activity, so meditative concentration is not easy to attain.

Among the non-Buddhist ascetics of the past, after they left home, let alone the first dhyāna, there were those who attained the four dhyānas and the four formless absorptions, and some could even attain the highest concentration among all dhyānas—the concentration of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. They went deep into the mountains to cultivate meditative concentration exclusively, and could truly be without any seeking toward everything in the world. Yet now we find it so difficult even to cultivate preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) or desire-realm concentration. From this point of view, we are now not even the equal of the non-Buddhists.

How can the spiritual faculties of us present-day Buddhists compare with those non-Buddhists, whom we nonetheless look down upon? Those non-Buddhists cultivated the four dhyānas and eight absorptions, never shouting slogans about "letting go, letting go," yet they truly let go of all the five desires and six sense objects; they were people who genuinely cultivated and realized meditative concentration. But we Buddhists shout slogans all day long, yet in a whole lifetime have not given up even a little bit of worldly things. Those who cultivated non-Buddhist dharmas merely had unfavorable karmic conditions from past lives; for example, in a past life they may also have cultivated meditative concentration, only it was a non-Buddhist dharma—they neither took refuge in the Three Jewels nor received the precepts—so in this life they did not encounter the Buddha's true Dharma. Therefore taking refuge in the Three Jewels is very important: if in this life one takes refuge in the Three Jewels, then in the next life one will still take refuge in the Three Jewels, and one will not go off to cultivate in non-Buddhist dharmas. For studying Buddhism, not encouraging receiving the five precepts and not taking refuge in the Three Jewels is absolutely unacceptable; with such an unstable foundation, in later lives one can easily drift into non-Buddhist paths. If in this life one does not cultivate meditative concentration, in the next life one will still be estranged from cultivating and realizing it, still unable to cross the threshold of cultivating concentration, and the Buddha-dharma cannot be realized. Therefore, whatever dharma the Buddha tells us to cultivate, we should cultivate; do not engage in our own inventions and creations. However the Buddha instructs us to cultivate, that is how we should cultivate. Everything the Buddha taught is the noble word (āgama); we must follow it one hundred percent in order to gain the benefits of the Buddha-dharma.

The Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla asked the Buddha: "What is its self-nature? What form and appearance does it have? How does it abandon this body and take up another body?" The self-nature spoken of here refers to the ālayavijñāna, the eighth consciousness. He has His own intrinsic nature, whereas other dharmas have no intrinsic nature of their own—all are manifested by Him. What is the self-nature of the ālayavijñāna? What form and appearance does He have? At the end of life, how does the ālayavijñāna abandon the present physical body and then take up another physical body? How does He go on to generate and manifest another body? The Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla asked the key question concerning sentient beings' transmigration. This "taking up" refers to the ālayavijñāna going on to appropriate (upādāna) another body, casting off this dying body and manifesting, appropriating, and accepting another physical body.