Do Habitual Tendencies Possess Seeds?

When a certain action is frequently performed and becomes habitual, it will be unconsciously repeated upon encountering similar circumstances in the future. This is called habitual force. Habitual force resides in the mental faculty (manas). When the mental faculty becomes accustomed to certain actions, habitual force manifests. The conscious mind (manovijñāna) is often unaware of the habitual tendencies of the mental faculty. Habitual force is categorized as wholesome and unwholesome. Unwholesome habitual force belongs to ignorance and afflictions. The mental faculty has harbored ignorance and afflictions since beginningless time, known as beginningless ignorance, which has no seeds. However, the mental faculty did not possess habitual afflictions before beginningless time, because without the functioning of the five aggregates (skandhas), habitual tendencies could not be formed. Later, after the birth of the five-aggregate body, the mental faculty continuously manifested ignorance and afflictions through the five-aggregate body, thus forming habitual tendencies. The manifested ignorance and afflictions formed seeds. Therefore, habitual force possesses seeds, whereas beginningless ignorance has no seeds.

Through the continuous operation of the five-aggregate body across countless lifetimes in the mundane realm, ignorance is constantly increased or diminished, and the habitual force of ignorance correspondingly strengthens or weakens. Thus, all ignorance and afflictions severed during cultivation primarily involve eliminating the afflictions of the mental faculty. Once the afflictions of the mental faculty are severed, the habitual afflictions of the mental faculty and the branch-like afflictions of the six consciousnesses will vanish entirely. In actual practice, however, it is the conscious mind that first subdues and eradicates afflictions, because the conscious mind comprehends truth swiftly. Understanding correct principles enables it to cultivate and realize the inherent mind. The mental faculty, being deeply entrenched in afflictions, comprehends truth slowly and finds it difficult to rectify itself. Therefore, unless the mental faculty is subdued and its afflictions eradicated, the afflictions of the conscious mind, once eliminated, will regenerate based on the mental faculty. The practice aims to eliminate all ignorance within the mental faculty and increase its clarity. When ignorance is utterly exhausted and clarity reaches its ultimate limit, the Buddha Way is perfected.