Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness (47)

Original text: 佛言：贤护，譬如乌麻。薝卜花熏。其油香美。名薝卜油。与凡麻油。好恶殊隔。油先无香。以花熏种。油遂成香。香不破麻而入。亦不破麻而出。复无形质。留止油内。但以因缘力故。香迁油内。油成香泽。鸡鹅子识。入出于卵。亦复如是。如薝卜香。迁于油内。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Bhadrapāla, for example, there is sesame seed. When it is infused with campaka flowers, the oil pressed from it becomes fragrant and fine, and is called campaka oil. Compared with ordinary sesame oil, the difference in quality is enormous. The oil originally had no fragrance; once the seeds are infused with the flowers, the oil becomes fragrant. Sesame seeds can be pressed to yield oil, and campaka flowers have fragrance; when the sesame seeds are infused with campaka flowers, the pressed oil becomes fragrant. Originally it was called sesame; once infused with the flowers, it becomes campaka oil. The oil originally had no fragrance, but after being infused with the flowers, the oil becomes fragrant. How does that fragrance enter into the oil?

The Buddha said, the fragrance of the flowers did not break open the sesame seeds and burrow into them, nor did the fragrance of the flowers break through the sesame seeds and burrow out of them. The fragrance neither entered nor exited, nor did it destroy the sesame seeds; nor did the fragrance leave any form or appearance within the oil, yet the pressed oil has fragrance. This is like the ālayavijñāna: it does not open the eggshell, does not enter into the eggshell, and does not come out, yet the ālayavijñāna grasps and sustains the chicken egg and the goose egg. This is the same principle as infusing sesame seeds with fragrance.

It is all due to the power of the convergence of various causes and conditions that such a marvelous transformation occurs: the fragrance migrates into the oil, and the oil acquires fragrant luster. By virtue of this causal nature, the two merge together and mutually infuse one another, and so the sesame oil becomes fragrant oil. The fragrance migrates into the oil, and the oil becomes fragrant oil. Likewise, the ālayavijñāna's entering and exiting the chicken egg and goose egg also depends on causes and conditions: when the causes and conditions are complete, the ālayavijñāna enters into the chicken egg and goose egg; when the causes and conditions cease, the ālayavijñāna exits from the chicken egg and goose egg.

When the causes and conditions for a sentient being's birth are complete, the ālayavijñāna can manifest the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) body of the sentient being. With cause and condition, in worldly phenomena the chicken egg and goose egg break open and the chicks and goslings hatch out. When the causes and conditions cease, in worldly phenomena the chicken egg and goose egg are destroyed, there is no life force within, and the ālayavijñāna no longer personally grasps and sustains the chicken egg and goose egg. Moreover, the chicken egg and goose egg cannot exist independently of the ālayavijñāna; an egg without life is jointly sustained by the ālayavijñānas of sentient beings with shared karma; when there is life within the egg, it is the single individual ālayavijñāna within that egg that alone sustains that egg, and that is why the egg has life. After the ālayavijñāna exits from the egg, the egg becomes jointly sustained by the ālayavijñānas of sentient beings with shared karma—still it is transformed by consciousness alone and manifested by mind alone.