Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (119)

Dead Aggregates and Living Aggregates

Original Text: Great King, consciousness is the master; karma is the conditioning factor. These two serve as mutual causes. The initial consciousness arises. It may descend to the hell realm, fall into the animal realm, the realm of Yama, or the realm of asuras; it may be born as a human or a deva. Once the initial consciousness arises, each receives its corresponding karmic retribution. Homogeneous mental factors continuously follow and revolve. The cessation of the final consciousness is called the dead aggregates. The arising of the initial consciousness is called the living aggregates.

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the ālaya-vijñāna is the master giving rise to the five aggregates of the next life. Karmic seeds are the objective condition. Through the union of these two causes and conditions, the initial consciousness of the next life arises. Then sentient beings will descend to the hell realm, or fall into the hungry ghost realm, or be reborn in the three evil paths of animals; or they may be reborn in the three good paths: the asura realm, the human realm, or the deva realm. Once the initial consciousness arises, sentient beings begin to receive their respective karmic retributions. Then the consciousness within the same physical body operates continuously. When the consciousness ceases at the end of life, the physical body becomes a corpse, called the dead aggregates. The initial consciousness arising within the physical body is called the initial consciousness, and the five aggregates of the physical body are called the living aggregates.

When the six consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—of the next life arise, it is because the six consciousnesses of this present life create karmic actions, and the seeds do not perish. This determines that we must have the five aggregates of the next life to undergo karmic fruition. Once the initial consciousness arises within the aggregates, this being may arrive in hell, or in the animal realm, or in the asura realm, or be reborn as a human, or ascend to the heavens, revolving within the six realms according to the wholesome and unwholesome karma we have created.