Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (95)

How does karmic retribution come about?

The ālayavijñāna, the tathāgatagarbha, is the master of sentient beings, while the bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind serve as a contributing condition. When cause and condition come together, there will be the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind in the next life, and the karmic retribution of the next life begins. As soon as the first consciousness arises, one immediately knows that one has been born into hell, born into the heavens, born among animals, born into the realm of ghosts, or born into the realm of asuras. For example, if one is due to be reborn as a human, once the initial consciousness is born again, feeling arises, and human karmic retribution manifests. When there is no consciousness, there is no experiencer (bhoktṛ); one cannot feel feelings of suffering or happiness, and thus has not yet received the actual karmic retribution. Before the fourth or fifth month in the mother's womb, a human has no mind consciousness and cannot feel suffering or happiness; strictly speaking, that does not count as actually receiving retribution—yet saying it does not count as receiving retribution, it actually does count, because that physical body is itself the retributive body; it is simply that there is no mind, so suffering and happiness are not known.

The mind consciousnesses on the same physical body keep flowing and functioning continuously. Throughout one lifetime, the six consciousnesses such as the eye consciousness all keep functioning on the same physical body; this is called the common nature of sentient beings (sattva-sabhāga) of the mind and mental factors. When the final consciousness ceases, the physical body becomes like a piece of wood; this is called the aggregates of death. When the initial consciousness arises, it is called the aggregates of birth, and the six consciousnesses are called the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna).