Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra) (95)

How does karmic retribution come about?

The Ālayavijñāna 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 heaven, born among animals, born into the realm of ghosts, or born into the realm of asuras. For example, for one who 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, one cannot feel feelings of suffering or pleasure, and thus one has not yet received the actual retribution. Before the fourth or fifth month in the mother's womb, a human has no mind consciousness and cannot feel suffering or pleasure; 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 material body is itself the retributive body; it is merely that there is no mind, so suffering and pleasure are not known.

The mind consciousnesses on the same material body are continuously transmigrating and functioning. Throughout one lifetime, the six consciousnesses such as the eye consciousness continuously function on the same material body—this is called the commonality of mind and mental factors (sattva-sabhāga). When the last consciousness ceases, the material body becomes like a piece of wood—this is called the aggregate of death. When the first consciousness arises, it is called the aggregate of birth, and the six consciousnesses are called the aggregate of consciousness.