The Profound Meaning of Vijñapti-mātra in the Diamond Sutra (XXI)

The Buddha taught that what must be subdued are these seven deluded minds. How are they to be subdued? The World-Honored One said: "All classes of beings—whether born from eggs, born from wombs, born from moisture, or born by transformation; whether having form or formless; whether with perception, without perception, or neither with nor without perception—I cause them all to enter the state of Nirvana without remainder and thereby liberate them. Thus, though I liberate immeasurable, innumerable, boundless beings, in reality, there are no beings who attain liberation." Sentient beings of the Three Realms are divided into four modes of birth, nine realms of existence, and twenty-five categories. Oviparous birth refers to sentient beings who do not reside in a maternal womb and are not born from parents; the mental faculty carries the ālaya-vijñāna directly into an eggshell, and when external conditions such as temperature are met, the embryo develops, breaks the shell, and emerges, such as chickens, ducks, snakes, and birds. Viviparous birth refers to beings whose mental faculty in the intermediate state carries the ālaya-vijñāna into the maternal womb; when the six sense faculties grow and mature, they emerge from the womb.

Viviparous beings include all humans, most animals, some ghosts, and some asuras. Moisture-born beings refer to beings without merit born under certain conditions of temperature and humidity (such as near water, the sea, or in damp soil and air), such as various insects and bacteria, and some asuras. Transformation-born beings are those born through transformation, such as devas of various heavenly realms, beings from other lands, non-human beings like ghosts and spirits, beings in hell, some asuras, and a small number of animals, as well as bodhisattvas and arhats with spiritual powers. Beings with form refer to beings in the desire realm and form realm who possess a form body. The form body is also called the form aggregate (rūpa-skandha), referring to the physical form from the moment of conception in the fertilized egg until birth and final dissolution. It is because the ālaya-vijñāna and the first seven consciousnesses sustain the form body that it can perform various physical, verbal, and mental actions and karmic formations. This is called the form aggregate; otherwise, it would be a corpse or inanimate matter, such as plants or minerals.