Selected Lectures on the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra

Original text: 复有三种从因所生有漏法因。若于此中。不如正理修方便者。能生诸苦。若能如理修方便者。于苦于因。能知能断。谓于欲界系法。染污希求。于色无色界系法亦尔。

Explanation: There are also three kinds of causes that give rise to defiled (sāsrava) dharmas from causes, such that the untainted cannot be cultivated and accomplished. These three causes are: first, having a defiled intention toward the dharmas of the desire realm that can bind one's own mind and prevent liberation, giving rise to aspiration and craving for the dharmas of the desire realm, being attached to them and unable to break free. Second, having a defiled intention toward the dharmas of the form realm that can bind one's own mind and prevent liberation, giving rise to aspiration and craving, being attached to the form realm and unable to break free. Third, toward the dharmas of the formless realm that can bind one's own mind and prevent liberation, the mind gives rise to aspiration, craving without letting go, and thus cannot attain liberation.

If, in cultivation, one cannot contemplate the faults of these three causes that give rise to defiled dharmas in accordance with right principle, and lacks the corresponding methods to counteract them, then in the end they will give rise to suffering and the faults of birth and death. If, in the course of cultivation, one can contemplate their faults in accordance with right principle and has the corresponding skillful means to counteract them, distancing oneself from aspiration and craving for the three realms, and knowing the causes of suffering in the three realms, then one can eradicate suffering and the faults of birth and death.

On the surface, all the conventional dharmas of the three realms bind the six consciousnesses, but in fact what they bind most of all is the manas. It is because the manas grasps at the dharmas of the three realms that the five aggregates can be born and exist within the three realms, undergoing birth and death and transmigrating within them. If the manas does not crave the dharmas of the three realms, the craving of the six consciousnesses cannot take effect; moreover, the six consciousnesses are dharmas that cease and perish, having already ceased at the time of rebirth.

Because of the craving and grasping of the manas, karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and in the next life one will necessarily be reborn into the three realms on account of the manas's craving and the karmic seeds. If the manas craves the desire realm, it is bound by the desire realm; if the manas craves the form realm, it is bound by the form realm; if the manas craves the formless realm, it is bound by the formless realm. If the manas craves the desire realm as well as the form realm and the formless realm, then it is impossible to be born into the form realm or the formless realm, for one will inevitably be bound by the craving at the lowest level.

Therefore, in the desire realm, if one wishes to sever desire, it cannot be merely the surface severing of desire by the mind consciousness; the manas deep within the mind must also sever desire. Otherwise, one will certainly not attain the first dhyāna meditation, nor be able to leave the desire realm and be born into the form realm or the formless realm. The craving for the form realm and the formless realm follows the same principle.