Chapter Two: How the Ālaya-vijñāna Transmigrates and Assumes Bodies

Section Four: The Operation of the Ālaya-vijñāna Resembles the Wind Element

Original Text: The Buddha said: Excellent, excellent, Bhadrapāla. Excellent question. Listen attentively, listen attentively. Reflect well upon it. I shall now explain it to you. Bhadrapāla addressed the Buddha: World-Honored One, certainly, I shall respectfully follow your instruction.

Explanation: The Buddha said: Bhadrapāla, you have asked very well! You must listen carefully and contemplate carefully; I will now explain it to you. Bhadrapāla replied to the Buddha: Very well, World-Honored One, I will certainly follow your teaching.

If one does not listen carefully, some Dharma principles cannot be understood. After hearing them, one must also reflect skillfully, contemplating according to correct principles and proper reasoning. Some people hear the Dharma and contemplate, but they engage in erroneous contemplation, employing faulty reasoning throughout, which prevents them from arriving at correct conclusions. Therefore, the Buddha instructed Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla to contemplate skillfully and to contemplate well.

Original Text: The Buddha told Bhadrapāla: The operation of consciousness, its transmigration, cessation, coming and going, is like the wind element. It has no color and no form; it cannot be manifested. Yet it can set all things in motion, displaying various distinct states. It can shake forests and trees, causing them to break, split, and collapse, emitting great sounds. It can manifest as cold or heat, contacting the bodies of sentient beings, causing suffering or pleasure. The wind has no hands or feet, no facial features or appearance, nor does it have colors such as black, white, yellow, or red.

Explanation: The Buddha told Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla that the ālaya-vijñāna operates within the material body, transmigrates, enters, departs, and constantly moves back and forth between material bodies. When it is not present in a material body, that body ceases to exist; when it is present in a material body, that body exists. The ālaya-vijñāna thus comes and goes between material bodies, just like the wind element—formless, colorless, incapable of being manifested, yet able to stir all things, displaying numerous different states. The wind element may shake and vibrate forests and trees, breaking branches, causing leaves to fall, and snapping tree trunks, emitting loud roars; or it may contact the bodies of sentient beings as hot wind, or as cold wind, causing sentient beings to experience various sensations of suffering or pleasure. The wind element has no hands, feet, facial features, or form, nor does it have colors like black, white, red, yellow, and so forth.

The wind element is formless and colorless; its appearance cannot be manifested. We cannot see the wind, yet we can know that the wind has come. Through the function of the wind element, we can perceive the wind; it is through the wind's function that we know the wind has appeared. The wind can blow upon all things, manifesting its function through the various postures of all things; from these functions, we know the wind has appeared. When the wind blows through a forest, a strong gust shakes it, causing trees to break and fall; when a tree falls, it produces a rumbling sound. Or, when a strong wind causes branches and leaves to fall, it produces crashing sounds. Who produces these sounds? The wind itself has no sound, but when it contacts trees, sound appears. Within this lies many profound mysteries of the Tathāgatagarbha. These sounds are actually produced by the combined operation of dharmas, including the function initiated by the wind and the movement of trees—all are functions of the Tathāgatagarbha. These dharmas are extremely profound and subtle.

When the weather is hot, hot wind blowing on the body makes one feel heat; when the weather is cool, cool wind blowing on the body makes one feel cold; through this heat and cold, one knows what kind of wind is blowing. Some sentient beings feel suffering when hot wind blows on them, while others feel comfortable and pleasant when hot wind blows on them. The same hot wind causes sentient beings to experience both suffering and pleasure. Blowing hot wind in winter naturally feels pleasant, but blowing hot wind in summer feels like suffering; blowing cold wind in winter feels like suffering, while blowing cold wind in summer feels pleasant.

The wind has no hands or feet, nor any face, appearance, or form; it has no colors like black, white, red, yellow, or any other visible characteristics—it has no visible form at all. The ālaya-vijñāna is also like this. It also has no color, no hands or feet, no face, and no shape. Yet, like the wind, when it operates, the functions of sentient beings' five aggregates and seven consciousnesses manifest; the feeling aggregate (vedanā), perception aggregate (saṃjñā), mental formations aggregate (saṃskāra), and consciousness aggregate (vijñāna) become apparent. Using the wind to metaphorize the ālaya-vijñāna is very appropriate.

The ālaya-vijñāna is formless and without characteristics; it cannot manifest alone. How then can it be realized? It must be realized through its functions. This requires meditation (dhyāna); one must contemplate within the activities of the five aggregates to realize the function of the ālaya-vijñāna, the Tathāgatagarbha. It is not seen with the eyes because it has no form; nor is it heard because it has no sound. Rather, one must discover it through contemplating and observing its functions in conjunction with the five aggregates. Finally, understanding that this function arises from it, that function arises from it, and realizing how it operates—this is called realization (证悟).

Original Text: Bhadrapāla, the dharmadhātu of consciousness is also like this. It has no color and no form; it has no luminous manifestation. Due to causes and conditions, it displays various kinds [of phenomena], its functions being distinct and extraordinary. You should understand that the dharmadhātu of sensation and perception is also like this—formless and without characteristics. Due to causes and conditions, its functions are manifested.

Explanation: The Buddha said, Bhadrapāla, the dharmadhātu of the ālaya-vijñāna is also like this. It has no color or form, nor does it manifest luminosity for sentient beings to see with their eyes. Therefore, the physical eye cannot see the ālaya-vijñāna, nor can it be touched. Only through various causes and conditions are its various functional roles displayed, which are exceedingly special and distinct; only then does one know the ālaya-vijñāna exists. Without causes and conditions, it cannot manifest. Similarly, it can be understood that the dharmadhātu of the conscious mind capable of sensation and perception is also like this—formless and without characteristics; it requires various causes and conditions to manifest its various functions.

The ālaya-vijñāna is formless and without characteristics. When conditions arise, the five aggregates can function, manifesting the various functional roles of the ālaya-vijñāna. Then we know the ālaya-vijñāna exists and operates, and we can realize it. However, in the state of Nirvana without residue (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), there are no conditions at all; the functional roles of the ālaya-vijñāna cannot manifest. Even a Buddha cannot locate the ālaya-vijñāna within Nirvana without residue. When there is no Nirvana without residue, various conditions arise endlessly; so-called causes for birth are everywhere. The ālaya-vijñāna operates in accordance with various conditions, its functions continuously manifesting, making it relatively easy to realize.

The manifesting functions of all dharmas are entirely the functional roles of the ālaya-vijñāna. However, before realizing the mind (明心), it is very difficult to distinguish which functions belong to the five aggregates and which belong to the ālaya-vijñāna. These true and false functions are mixed and tangled together. When prajñā wisdom is not yet complete, one does not know which is real and which is illusory, because the ālaya-vijñāna manifests the five aggregates of sentient beings due to causes and conditions. When the six sense faculties contact the six sense objects, the sensations and perceptions of the six consciousnesses arise. Although they arise, consciousness is formless and without characteristics; it cannot be seen with the eyes, it can only be comprehended and felt. When the six sense faculties are impaired, their functions obstructed, and the six sense objects do not appear, then the sensations and perceptions of the six consciousnesses cannot manifest.