Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: Volume IX - Exposition of the Twelve Nidānas (Part 1)

What is the entity of dependent origination? If explained concisely, the entity of dependent origination is established through three characteristics. These are: arising from the prior state into the intermediate state; arising from the intermediate state into the subsequent state; and after arising in the intermediate state, either tending toward cyclic existence or tending toward ultimate purity.

Explanation: What is the entity of dependent origination? If explained concisely, the entity of dependent origination is the self-nature established by the three characteristics of the aggregate body from the previous life, the aggregate body of the present life, and the aggregate body of the future life. The three characteristics are respectively: the entity of dependent origination of the aggregate body born in the present life due to causes and conditions from the previous life; the entity of dependent origination of the aggregate body born in the future life due to causes and conditions in the present life; and the aggregate body born in the present life having two different results—one continuing to tend toward cyclic existence through the six destinies, and the other tending toward ultimate purity.

The entity of dependent origination refers to the aggregate body that arises due to various causes and conditions. The aggregate body cycles through life after life, with each life's cycle being related to the karmic force and causes and conditions from the previous life, as well as to the karmic force and causes and conditions in the present life. The cycle of future lives is related to the karma and causes and conditions of the present life. If ignorance and fetters are eliminated in the present life, future lives will tend toward purity, extinguishing the cycle of birth and death; otherwise, one will continue to cycle within the six paths of rebirth. The entity of dependent origination has three characteristics: the characteristic of the previous life, the characteristic of the present life, and the characteristic of the future life. The aggregate body is divided into the previous life, present life, and future life. These three characteristics are both similar and different due to causes, conditions, and karmic force.

Original text: How does it arise from the prior state into the intermediate state, and after arising in the intermediate state, again tend toward cyclic existence? It means that for someone who does not understand the prior state, encompassed by ignorance, with ignorance as the condition, bodily, verbal, and mental actions of merit, non-merit, and the imperturbable are performed or increased. Due to this, the consciousness following karma flows continuously until death, becoming the cause for the consciousness of continuity in future existence.

Explanation: Why does the entity of dependent origination, born in the present life due to causes and conditions from the previous life, after being born in the present life, again tend toward the cycle of birth and death? This is because if a sentient being with the entity of dependent origination, due to not knowing the ignorance of their own mind from the previous life, experiences birth and death in the present life, and in the present life still due to ignorance, performs meritorious bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions, or non-meritorious bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions, or pure, imperturbable bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions that are neither meritorious nor non-meritorious, or further increases the performance of meritorious karma, non-meritorious karma, and pure, imperturbable bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions that are neither meritorious nor non-meritorious. Due to the performance of these karmic actions, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, which operate following karma, cause the aggregate body to continue cycling without cessation until death, becoming the cause for the birth of the six consciousnesses in the three realms of future existence.

The consciousness following karma refers to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, primarily the seventh consciousness. Specifically, the sixth consciousness performs karmic actions, while the seventh consciousness, the mental faculty, governs and directs the performance of karmic actions. All karmic seeds created by the aggregate body are stored in the ālaya-vijñāna at all times and places. The ālaya-vijñāna then continuously gives birth to and transforms the aggregate body corresponding to these karmic seeds. Wherever there is karmic force, the mental faculty and sixth consciousness necessarily operate, and of course the ālaya-vijñāna also operates to sustain the aggregate body corresponding to the karmic force—whether defiled or pure karma—though the ālaya-vijñāna itself does not cycle within the flow of birth and death. The seventh consciousness, the mental faculty, cycles life after life following its own karmic force, inseparably bound to karmic force at every moment. The sixth consciousness, however, is intermittent, not constantly with karmic force. The birth and cycling of the sixth consciousness are also due to the non-extinction of the mental faculty and karmic force, and due to the ignorance of the mental faculty.

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