The Difference Between Bacteria and Cells

Some people say that bacteria can split off consciousness (ling), where "consciousness" refers to the mind-consciousness, the seven consciousnesses. If bacteria could split off consciousness, producing multiple mind consciousnesses and multiple five sense consciousnesses, then they would have the ability to create duplicate bodies, mind-made bodies (manomaya-kāya), and transformation bodies—that would be a great supernatural power, making them more powerful than humans. If they were more powerful than humans, why would they bother being bacteria? Bacteria are the lowest and most ignorant sentient beings; they have a material body composed of the four great elements, and their mind-consciousness has only weak and inferior functions. Each bacterium possesses one tathāgatagarbha to sustain its body. 

Cells are insentient things; they have none of the functions of the seven consciousnesses, nor does a tathāgatagarbha sustain them, because a cell is not a material body—it is a basic component of a sentient being's material body, a tiny particle on the sentient being's material body, composed of the seeds of the four great elements. Cell division is one of the most basic functions of a sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, and is a characteristic of the arising, ceasing, and changing of sentient beings' material bodies. Any change in the material body—its arising, abiding, altering, and ceasing—is a function of the sentient being's tathāgatagarbha. Bacteria can invade cells and destroy them, thereby causing sentient beings to fall ill or die.