Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Forty-Six)

Original text:大王。识为其主。业为攀缘。二种相因。初识生起。或趣地狱。或堕傍生。琰摩罗界。及阿修罗。若人若天。初识生已。各受其报。同分心品。相续随转。最后识灭。名为死蕴。最初识起。名为生蕴。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna serves as the master of sentient beings; it is the cause for the birth of the material body of the next life, and karmic actions are the condition for the birth of the next life's material body. When cause and condition come together, the initial mind-consciousness appears, and the material body of the next life is born. This person either falls into a hell body, or falls into an animal body, or falls into the realm of ghosts, or falls into an asura body, a human body, or a heavenly body. When the initial mind-consciousness of the next life is born, sentient beings begin to receive their respective retributions. Thereafter, the mind-consciousness on this material body continues to operate without cease; when the final consciousness ceases, it is called the aggregate of death, becoming a corpse, one who has died. And when the initial consciousness arises, it is called the aggregate of birth, that is, one who is born.

The Ālayavijñāna, the tathāgatagarbha, is the master of sentient beings. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are a contributing condition. When cause and condition combine, there arise the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind of the next life, and the retribution of the next life begins. Once the initial consciousness is born, one immediately knows that one has been born into hell, born into the heavens, born among animals, born into the ghost realm, or born into the asura realm. For example, one who is due to be reborn as a human, once the initial consciousness is born again, feelings arise, and the human retribution manifests. When there is no consciousness, there is no feeler of sensations; one cannot feel feelings of pain or pleasure, and thus has not yet received the true retribution. Before the fourth or fifth month in the mother's womb, a human has no mind-consciousness and cannot feel feelings of pain or pleasure; strictly speaking, that does not count as truly receiving retribution. Yet saying it does not count as receiving retribution, it actually does count as receiving retribution, because that material body is itself the retributive body; it simply has no mind and does not know feelings of pain or pleasure.

The mind-consciousnesses on the same material body keep transmigrating and functioning. Throughout one period of life, the eye consciousness and the other six consciousnesses continuously function on the same material body; this is called the commonality of sentient beings (sattva-sabhāga) of the mental category. When the final consciousness ceases, the material body becomes like a piece of wood; this is called the aggregate of death. When the initial consciousness arises, it is named the aggregate of birth; the six consciousnesses are called the aggregate of consciousness.