The Self-Repair of the Rūpa-Kāya Is the Functional Role of the Ālaya-Vijñāna

The material body possesses self-repairing functions: when damaged, it automatically mends itself; when internal organs are impaired, it automatically repairs them; when exhausted, it restores energy after rest; surgical incisions heal automatically, and missing muscle or skin is naturally replenished. Lost blood can be regenerated; when the stomach and intestines lack food, the body automatically replenishes energy—fasting to regulate the material body utilizes this miraculous mechanism. What are these mechanisms? Whose functions are they? When did this miraculous source of life first emerge?

Master Kuiji, in his previous life, entered meditative absorption for thousands of years awaiting the advent of Śākyamuni Buddha, yet missed it while in samādhi. He then sought to enter absorption again to await Maitreya Buddha. A human body sustained by the four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) and food remained in samādhi for millennia—even tens of thousands of years—without eating or drinking, yet experienced no discomfort and could enter absorption for millions of years without perishing. By what mechanism did Master Kuiji and other long-lived meditators sustain their lives? It is said that an experiment found thin people live longer than the obese, and those who eat less outlive heavy eaters. What is the principle behind this?

Modern medicine and health doctrines insist on sleeping between 11 pm and 1 am (the Zi period), claiming that staying awake harms internal organs by depriving them of rest, leading to physical depletion. Yet, sitting in meditation at midnight causes no harm. The Buddha encouraged his disciples to diligently practice during the first watch, middle watch, and last watch of the night without rest. No physical ailments were reported among the bhikṣus; instead, their energy increased, and their minds grew sharper. Modern medicine also claims skipping breakfast causes gallstones, yet during the Buddha’s time, monastics ate only once a day at noon, and no cases of gallstones were recorded. What mechanism accounts for these phenomena?

Sunlight automatically replenishes the body’s yang energy and vitality. With focused visualization, the replenishment increases, enhancing physical regulation. Except for formless realm devas, who lack physical bodies and thus need no nourishment from the four elements, all beings with material forms require sustenance from them. Beings of higher realms need fewer and subtler four elements, while those of lower realms, due to scant merit, must endure coarse and inferior forms.

Humans reside in the middle level of the desire realm, not among its highest beings. The four elements they experience are relatively crude, yet they consider their sustenance superior—their food refined—when in truth it is coarse. Form realm devas enjoy the highest and most subtle four elements, followed by desire realm devas, then immortals. All humans are inferior to devas in sustenance: their diet is not only coarse but also filthy, lacking color, fragrance, or flavor. Due to karmic conditions, they perceive no fault in this; instead, they crave it—much like dogs delight in excrement or insects thrive in cesspools.

All repair mechanisms of the material body and the four elements it utilizes are functions of the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha, based on beings’ karmic seeds and merits, creates these mechanisms. Because beings have karmic connections to the human desire realm—with karmic seeds and conditions for human or animal rebirth—the five aggregates must possess adequate nourishment from the four elements to survive normally here. If the four elements in the material body are deficient, the normal functioning of the five aggregates is impaired. The Tathāgatagarbha then automatically replenishes the missing four elements according to karmic seeds and conditions. If karmic obstacles prevent replenishment, the five aggregates continue operating imperfectly within an incomplete material body, revealing the beings’ adverse karmic conditions. For beings with ample virtuous karma, the Tathāgatagarbha automatically replenishes any deficiency in the material body. If replenishment fails, it manifests as the karmic retribution of a maimed or incomplete physical form.