Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume 9: Commentary on the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (Part Two)

Original text:此识将生果时。由内外贪爱。正现在前。以为助伴。从彼前际。既舍命已。于现在世。自体得生。在母腹中。以因识为缘。相续果识。前后次第而生。乃至羯罗蓝等位差别。而转于母胎中。相续果识。与名色俱。乃至衰老。渐渐增长。尔时感生。受业名已。与异熟果。

Explanation: When the consciousness that follows karma is about to manifest the karmic retributive body, because craving for internal and external objects is presently manifest, with that craving as an assisting condition and companion, after the life faculty of the previous life has been relinquished, the self-identity of the five aggregates of the present life is able to be born. Within the mother's womb, with the causal consciousness of the previous life that gave rise to the self-identity as the condition, the retributive consciousness that continues in sequence arises one after another, and so on through the successive stages such as the kalala stage, continuing to evolve within the mother's womb. The retributive consciousness that continues in sequence transmigrates together with nāma-rūpa, gradually growing until old age and decline. At that time, because of karma, the six consciousnesses that undergo karmic retribution, called the receiving-of-karma name, are brought forth together with the vipāka retribution.

When the manas and the ālayavijñāna are about to take rebirth, the craving of the karma-following consciousness—the manas and the mind consciousness—for the physical body of the future life, as well as the sexual desire for the father and mother of the future life, appear; with this craving as an assisting companion, they enter the mother's womb. If there is no craving, two situations will occur: one is not taking rebirth in the womb, the other is entering the womb with a pure mind. One who has no craving is a noble one who has relinquished craving for the desire realm. If a noble one does not take rebirth in the womb, he may be born by transformation, or may enter nirvāṇa without remainder. If a noble one does take rebirth in the womb, it is because of pure great vows, taking rebirth through the power of those vows.

Here there are two concepts—the causal consciousness and the continuing retributive consciousness—that need to be explained. The cause refers to the previous-life cause for the birth of this life's nāma-rūpa. In the previous life, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the six consciousnesses left behind karmic seeds; when those karmic seeds matured, this life's nāma-rūpa came into being. Only after nāma-rūpa is born does this life's six consciousnesses arise, to undergo the karmic retribution of actions created in the previous life. Therefore, this life's six consciousnesses are the retributive consciousness that undergoes retribution and connects with the previous life to continue operating, while the previous life's six consciousnesses are the cause leading to this life's retribution, and are called the causal consciousness.

Original text:又此异熟识。即依名色而转。由必依托六依转故。是故经言。名色缘识。俱有依根曰色。等无间灭依根曰名。随其所应。为六识所依。依止彼故。乃至命终。诸识流转。

Explanation: The ālayavijñāna is also called the vipāka consciousness. The vipāka consciousness operates depending on nāma-rūpa; because the vipāka consciousness must rely on the six faculties in order to operate, the sūtra says that nāma-rūpa arises conditioned on the ālayavijñāna or the vipāka consciousness. The faculty that operates together with the ālayavijñāna is called rūpa, that is, the fertilized egg; the supporting faculty that operates simultaneously with the ālayavijñāna is called nāma, that is, the manas. The manas is the faculty upon which the seeds of the six consciousnesses arise and cease sequentially without interruption in continuity. In this way, the ālayavijñāna operates together with nāma-rūpa, and the six consciousnesses arise depending on it. The six consciousnesses, relying on the ālayavijñāna and nāma-rūpa, operate ceaselessly until the end of life.

Because the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses create karmic formations during the process of transmigration, leaving behind karmic seeds, there will be karmic retribution in future lives. Karmic formations exist depending on the ālayavijñāna, and karmic retribution requires the ālayavijñāna to manifest it; therefore the ālayavijñāna is also called the vipāka consciousness, which enables the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses to undergo karmic retribution in different forms when the karmic seeds mature. However, the ālayavijñāna cannot operate on its own; it must cooperate with the manas and karmic force. Only when the manas and the karmic retribution require it can it operate, can there be the mental characteristic, and can it be discovered. If the manas and the karmic retribution have no need of it, the ālayavijñāna no longer operates, there is no characteristic of its functioning, and it will not be detected.

Therefore, the ālayavijñāna must operate in the mother's womb depending on the fertilized egg and the manas, and subsequently gives rise to the six consciousnesses. Thus nāma-rūpa is also the supporting faculty upon which the six consciousnesses are born, and after the six consciousnesses are born, they are also subsumed within nāma. Since the ālayavijñāna must rely on the manas in order to operate, the manas is also called the dominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya) for the operation of the ālayavijñāna; but it is not that the ālayavijñāna exists only by relying on the manas—without the manas, the ālayavijñāna still exists, only it can no longer function to produce all the dharmas of the five-aggregate world. In the mother's womb, at first there is only the rūpa of the fertilized egg and the nāma of the manas; therefore, the faculty upon which the six consciousnesses that arise and cease sequentially without interruption depend is the manas. The six consciousnesses can be born and operate only by relying on the manas and the fertilized egg, and they are also born and operate by relying on the ālayavijñāna, as well as on the karmic seeds.