How to Correctly Understand "Volitional Formations Condition Consciousness, and Consciousness Conditions Name-and-Form"

First of all, misunderstandings may exist in the translations of the Buddhist sūtras themselves. Because the translators' levels of realization and cultivation varied, with different degrees of realization—and some translators had no realization at all—the translated sūtras contain discrepancies in the meaning of the Dharma. One translator represents one level; multiple translators represent multiple levels. In the past, practitioners of the Small Vehicle did not understand the manas, so when translating sūtras and encountering the portion of Dharma meaning concerning the manas, their understanding was skewed, and some simply could not understand it at all. If such a person had excellent meditative concentration (samādhi), this could compensate for the deficiency in their cultivation and realization, but there was no way to compensate for this deficiency when explaining and translating the sūtras. This led to all sorts of misunderstandings among later generations who lacked meditative concentration, who were unable to realize the truth through practice, and who had no choice but to resort to inference, analysis, and conjecture.

If a Buddhist practitioner has not yet achieved a thorough grasp of the Dharma meaning and is unable to understand and realize the manas, their understanding of the sūtras will be marked by misunderstanding and incoherence. For example, in the twelve links of dependent origination—ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), and volitional formations condition consciousness (saṃskāra-pratyayāḥ vijñānam)—no matter how one thinks about it, one cannot figure out what the "formations" and "consciousness" refer to; one cannot sort out the relationship between the two, and the sequence of their operation gets turned upside down. If the consciousness in "volitional formations condition consciousness" is understood as the seventh consciousness or the eighth consciousness, then the Dharma meaning would be absurdly wrong. What kind of formations could produce the seventh consciousness? Only the formations of the eighth consciousness could produce the seventh consciousness, but the eighth consciousness has no ignorance, so "ignorance conditions volitional formations" would then be inexplicable. What kind of formations could produce the eighth consciousness? No formation in the world or beyond the world can produce the eighth consciousness. Therefore, the consciousness in "volitional formations condition consciousness" and in "consciousness conditions name-and-form" (vijñāna-pratyayāḥ nāma-rūpam) cannot be the seventh or eighth consciousness; it can only be the six consciousnesses.

Then what kind of formations can produce the six consciousnesses? Bodily, verbal, and mental actions absolutely cannot produce the six consciousnesses—it is precisely the reverse. Because without the six consciousnesses there can be no bodily, verbal, and mental actions; the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses cannot possibly produce the six consciousnesses themselves. Something cannot give birth to itself; it can only be brought forth by other consciousnesses and other dharmas. The six consciousnesses can only be brought forth by the eighth consciousness, with the formations of the seventh consciousness serving as a contributing condition. With the actions of the seventh consciousness as the initiating cause, the eighth consciousness accords and cooperates to bring forth the six consciousnesses, which then create bodily, verbal, and mental actions and store karmic seeds, which serve as the cause for the arising of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha)—name-and-form—in future lives. Only through this chain of links, each fastened onto the next, does the complete twelve links of dependent origination of birth-and-death, saṃsāra, and suffering exist.