A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness

Original text:贤护。识弃此身。受他生者。众生死时。识为业障所缠。报尽命终。犹如灭定。阿罗汉识。如阿罗汉。入灭尽定。其阿罗汉识。从身灭转。如是死者之识。弃身及界。乘于念力而作。是知彼如是。我某乙生平。所作事业。临终咸现。忆念明了。身之与心。二受逼切。

When a dying person's first six consciousnesses cease, the manas knows it and at the same time observes the condition of the physical body, knowing that it is unusable and beyond hope; the deliberation mental factor (manana) then decides to leave the physical body and seek a new one. The ālayavijñāna, in accord with the manas, gradually leaves the physical body, and the two depart together. When an arhat enters the cessation of perception and feeling and then wishes to leave the three realms and enter nirvāṇa without remainder, it is likewise decided by the manas's deliberation mental factor. Thus the consciousness of the dying person abandons the physical body and the eighteen realms, acting by the power of the manas's mindfulness, because all of these actions are driven by the manas and directed by its deliberation mental factor.

Afterwards, the manas still wants to take rebirth and possess a physical body. The ālayavijñāna follows this power of mindfulness of the manas, either producing an antarā-bhava for its use, or directly taking rebirth in a heaven. The manas does not want to extinguish itself, because it has not eliminated its innate attachment to self; it always wants itself to continue to exist, with another five-aggregate body to use. The ālayavijñāna follows it and manifests the antarā-bhava—this is acting by the power of the manas's mindfulness. When an arhat extinguishes the physical body and the eighteen realms, it is also the ālayavijñāna acting by the power of the manas's mindfulness: the arhat's manas is mindful of leaving the three realms, of leaving birth and death, so the ālayavijñāna follows and leaves the physical body, no longer generating any dharma whatsoever. When ordinary sentient beings are dying, the manas likewise decides to leave the physical body, mindful of taking rebirth in the next life's body; the ālayavijñāna also follows and manifests the antarā-bhava—this is acting by the power of the manas's mindfulness.

When sentient beings are on the verge of death, they know that their life is thus coming to an end; all the wholesome and unwholesome deeds of their entire life manifest in full, remembered clearly without the slightest confusion—this is the recollection arising within the mind consciousness.

At this time the sentient being has not yet breathed their last. Before a person departs, the entire course of their life flashes by rapidly like a movie being played; the mind consciousness knows what it has done in this life and where it is going—whether it will be born into a good destiny or an evil destiny—it knows all of this; afterwards the mind consciousness ceases. The manas, knowing there is no hope, leaves the physical body, carrying its attachment and craving for self, and thus an antarā-bhava appears.

While the mind consciousness has not yet vanished, "body and mind, both feelings press urgently"—both body and mind are in great pain. The pain of the body is due to the dissolution of the four great elements; the pain of the mind is due to despair over the loss of life, due to parting from loved ones, and due to no longer being able to crave the world; thus body and mind are tormented by suffering.

Original text:贤护。识是何义。识名为种。能生众类。杂报身牙。知觉想念。同苞于识。知苦知乐。知恶知善。及善恶境。故名为识。如汝所问。云何识离此身。而受余报。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Bhadrapāla, what is the meaning of "consciousness" (识)? Consciousness is named "seed"—it is the seed consciousness, the mind-substance that contains and stores seeds, holding both the seeds of beings' karmic actions and the intrinsically existing seeds for producing the five aggregates and the world. The ālayavijñāna, relying on these seeds, produces beings' various complex karmic retribution bodies. Beings' capacity for knowing, their nature of awareness, mindfulness, and perception are also simultaneously contained within the consciousness-substance of the ālayavijñāna; only after beings are born can they know suffering, know pleasure, know evil, know good, and know various wholesome and unwholesome states. Because it contains these seeds, it is called the ālayavijñāna. Just as you asked: how does the ālayavijñāna abandon this body and go on to receive the remaining karmic retribution body?

Because the ālayavijñāna contains the seeds of the five-aggregate body, it can produce the sprout of the five-aggregate body. Seeds have the aspect of generative capacity, able to produce karmic retribution bodies of every kind—every kind of retribution exists, because every kind of karma has been committed. The "body sprout" refers to the sprout of the body faculty, generally meaning the body faculty within the embryo. At the same time, the seeds of beings' capacity for knowing, perceiving, awareness, and mindfulness are also contained within the ālayavijñāna; when the seeds of consciousness within the mind-substance are transmitted out, beings possess the capacity for knowing, perceiving, awareness, and mindfulness—these functions of mind consciousness appear, and they know suffering and pleasure, know good and bad, and know wholesome and unwholesome states. This knowing capacity refers to the knowing of the six consciousnesses, not that of the ālayavijñāna; the ālayavijñāna does not know suffering, does not know pleasure, does not know good, does not know evil, and does not know wholesome or unwholesome states. These two kinds of consciousness-natures are easily confused. When we read the sutras, we must distinguish whether the "consciousness" spoken of in the sutra refers to the six consciousnesses or to the ālayavijñāna, in order to correctly understand the meaning of the sutra.

The Buddha said: Just as you asked, why does the ālayavijñāna leave the physical body and go on to receive another retribution body? The physical bodies of beings in the six destinies are all retribution bodies; the physical bodies of the four noble ones are also retribution bodies, only they are bodies of wholesome retribution. The ālayavijñāna itself does not receive retribution; it is the six-consciousness bodies that it transforms and manifests which receive the retribution, while the ālayavijñāna merely goes to transform and carry beings' retribution. In fact, it is the manas that receives the retribution, but the manas has no feeling of suffering or pleasure—it is neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā). If it were the six-consciousness mind that receives the retribution, the six-consciousness mind ceases at the time of death, and the next life's six-consciousness mind is a new one, so the original six consciousnesses cannot receive the retribution; still less does the ālayavijñāna receive retribution—it does not feel suffering or pleasure, being entirely neutral feeling. Nor will it become an animal, a hungry ghost, a human, or a deva, and so on; it becomes nothing at all, and therefore does not receive retribution.