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

Original text:眼处云何。谓眼识所依净色。由此于色已见现见当见。如眼处如是。乃至意处。随其所应尽当知。于一切处。应说三时业用差别。此亦二种。谓名色种子所摄受种子六处。及彼所生果六处。五在欲色界。第六通三界。

Explanation: What is the eye base (cakṣur-āyatana)? The eye base is the pure supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda) upon which the eye consciousness is born and operates. By relying on the pure eye faculty, one can see forms of the past, present, and future. It is the same with the eye base, and likewise with the ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and even the mind base\: the mind consciousness relies on the manas to discern dharmas of the past, present, and future, and wherever it reaches, it can come to know them. The six consciousnesses can reach the various sense objects, all determined by the manas; only after the manas makes its determination can the six consciousnesses arise, and only then can there be discernment.

In all the bases—the eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and mind base—there are the three kinds of functional differences of karma in the past, present, and future. There are two kinds of such karma: the first is the seeds of the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) received and sustained by the seeds of name-and-form; name-and-form, in the seed stage, has not yet arisen, and the six sense bases even more cannot arise in the seed stage. The second is the six sense bases as the retributive fruit born upon name-and-form. The first five sense bases exist in the desire realm and the form realm, and the sixth sense base pervades the three realms.

Original text:眼触云何。谓三和所生。能取境界净妙等义。如是余触。各随别境说相应知。此复二种。谓六处种子。所摄受种子触。及彼所生果触。欲界具六。色界四。无色界一。

Explanation: What is eye contact? Eye contact is born from the conjunction of the three—eye faculty, form object, and eye consciousness—and has the meaning of being able to grasp pure and exquisite realms of sense objects. The other contacts—ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, and mind contact—are also like this, each born from the conjunction of faculty, object, and consciousness, and each able to grasp the meaning of pure and exquisite characteristics of sense objects. These include two kinds: the first is the seed contact received and sustained by the seeds of the six sense bases; when the first five of the six sense bases have not yet arisen in the seed stage, contact will not arise; since the manas does not cease, the mind base does not cease, but it simply cannot make contact upon name-and-form. The second is the retributive body contact born from the six sense bases. In the desire realm there are six kinds of contact; in the form realm there are four kinds of contact, without nose contact and tongue contact; in the formless realm there is only mind contact, without the first five kinds of contact.

Original text:乐受云何。谓顺乐诸根。境界为缘。所生适悦受。受所摄。苦受云何。谓顺苦二为缘所生。非适悦受。受所摄。不苦不乐受云何。谓顺不苦不乐二为缘所生。非适悦非不适悦受。受所摄。欲界三。色界二。第四静虑以上。乃至非想非非想处。唯有第三不苦不乐。此亦二种。谓触种子所摄受种子受。及彼所生果受。

Explanation: What is pleasant feeling? Pleasant feeling is the comfortable and joyful feeling born with the six faculties and sense objects that accord with joy as conditions, and it belongs to the dharmas subsumed under feeling. What is painful feeling? Painful feeling is the non-comfortable, non-joyful feeling born with the mind-opposing six faculties and sense objects that accord with suffering as conditions, and it belongs to the dharmas subsumed under feeling. What is neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling? Neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling is the feeling that is neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, born with the six faculties and sense objects that accord with neither pain nor pleasure as conditions, and it belongs to the dharmas subsumed under feeling. In the desire realm there are three kinds of feeling; in the form realm there are only pleasant feeling and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, without painful feeling; from the fourth dhyāna upward, all the way to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, there is only neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling also has two kinds: the first is the seed feeling received and sustained by the seeds of contact, a feeling that has not yet arisen; the second is the retributive feeling (vipāka-vedanā) born with the seeds of contact as condition.