Chapter Four: Consciousness Entering the Womb Like Fragrance Permeating Oil

Original Text: At that time, the noble youth Bhadrapāla paid homage to the Buddha’s feet and addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, for the eggs of chickens, geese, and others, when the eggs are not yet hatched, they are tightly sealed all around, fine and dense. How does consciousness enter? When the chick dies inside the egg, the eggshell remains unbroken, without crack or aperture. How does consciousness emerge?”

Explanation: At this time, the Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla paid homage to the Buddha’s feet and said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One, if the Ālaya-vijñāna can enter into a physical body, then for chicken and goose eggs about to hatch chicks and goslings, when they have not yet hatched, the eggs are tightly sealed, the shell fine and dense all around without the slightest gap. How does the Ālaya-vijñāna enter the egg?”

In truth, before the egg is formed, the Ālaya-vijñāna has already entered the fertilized ovum. Without the Ālaya-vijñāna, there would be no egg. How does the Ālaya-vijñāna enter the egg? Does it enter through an aperture? It is not like that. Even if the Ālaya-vijñāna has entered the egg, if it fails to hatch midway and the fetus dies, the eggshell remains unbroken. How then does the Ālaya-vijñāna emerge? The formless and immaterial nature of the Ālaya-vijñāna differs from the formless and immaterial nature of wind. Wind is material form; though invisible and intangible, it remains material form. Material form has obstruction and cannot enter a seamless egg.

The Ālaya-vijñāna, however, is not material form. It is not constrained by any dharma, neither within material form, nor outside it, nor in between. With respect to material form, it has no emergence or entry—a mode of emergence and entry that is non-emergent, non-entering, non-coming, non-going, which ordinary people cannot conceive. Although wind is also formless and immaterial, wind has coming and going, emergence and entry; wind is composed of the four great elements. In reality, wind still has form and appearance; when wind blows against the body, there is sensation and perception. But when the Ālaya-vijñāna enters the body, there is no sensation. Moreover, it is the Ālaya-vijñāna that forms the body; the Ālaya-vijñāna precedes the body.

Every type of matter we see is composed of the four great elements; no single element exists alone. For example, water is not composed solely of water element seeds. Impurities in water are the earth element component; temperature in water is the fire element component; gaps in water are the space element component; fluidity of water is the wind element component. Land is also composed of the four great elements: the temperature of land is the fire element; gaps in land are the space element; moisture in land is the water element; the hard part of land is the earth element. Burning fire is also composed of the four great elements: earth, water, fire, and wind.

Original Text: The Buddha said to Bhadrapāla: “For example, black sesame seeds are infused with the fragrance of campaka flowers. The oil extracted is fragrant and excellent, called campaka oil. Compared to ordinary sesame oil, the difference in quality is vast. The oil originally had no fragrance. Through infusing with flowers, the oil becomes fragrant.”

Explanation: The Buddha said to Bhadrapāla: “For example, black sesame seeds are infused with campaka flowers, then pressed to extract oil. This oil becomes fragrant and excellent, named campaka-infused oil. Compared to ordinary sesame oil, the difference in quality is vast. The oil originally had no fragrance. After being infused with flowers, this oil becomes fragrant.”

If infused with campaka flowers, ordinary oil becomes extremely fragrant and valuable. Without flower infusion, it remains ordinary sesame oil. Black sesame can be pressed to yield oil; campaka flowers have fragrance. Infusing black sesame with campaka flowers results in fragrant oil. Originally called black sesame, once infused, it becomes campaka oil. How did the fragrance enter the oil?

Original Text: “The fragrance does not enter by breaking the sesame, nor does it emerge by breaking the sesame. It has no form or substance remaining within the oil. Yet, through the power of causes and conditions, the fragrance transfers into the oil, and the oil becomes fragrant and lustrous. The consciousness entering and emerging from chicken and goose eggs is also like this, like the campaka fragrance transferring into the oil.”

Explanation: “The flower fragrance did not split open the sesame to enter it, nor did it break through the sesame to emerge. The fragrance neither entered nor emerged, nor did it damage the sesame. It left no form or color within the oil, yet the pressed oil became fragrant.”

This is analogous to the Ālaya-vijñāna not breaking open the eggshell, neither entering nor emerging from it, yet sustaining the chicken and goose eggs. This principle is the same as infusing sesame with fragrance. Both occur due to the combined power of various causes and conditions, resulting in such a wondrous transformation. The fragrance transfers into the oil, and the oil gains fragrance and luster. Through this conditioned nature, they blend together and mutually infuse, thus ordinary sesame oil becomes fragrant oil; the fragrance migrates into the oil, and the oil becomes infused oil. The Ālaya-vijñāna entering and emerging from chicken and goose eggs also depend on causes and conditions. When causes and conditions are complete, the Ālaya-vijñāna enters the eggs; when causes and conditions cease, the Ālaya-vijñāna emerges from the eggs.

When the causes and conditions for a sentient being’s birth are complete, the Ālaya-vijñāna can manifest the five aggregates body of that being. With causes and conditions, in the mundane world, chicken and goose eggs hatch, and chicks and goslings emerge. When causes and conditions cease, in the mundane world, the eggs decay, lose vitality, and the Ālaya-vijñāna no longer personally sustains them. Thus, chicken and goose eggs cannot exist independently of the Ālaya-vijñāna. Eggs without life are collectively sustained by the Ālaya-vijñāna of beings sharing the same karma. When an egg contains life, it is sustained solely by the individual Ālaya-vijñāna within that egg, hence the egg possesses life. After the Ālaya-vijñāna emerges from the egg, the egg becomes collectively sustained by the Ālaya-vijñāna of beings sharing the same karma. It is still transformation by consciousness alone, manifestation by mind alone.

Original Text: “The migration of consciousness is like sunlight radiating, like a mani jewel illuminating, like wood producing fire.”

Explanation: The migration and entry/emergence of the Ālaya-vijñāna is like sunlight illuminating all things. Sunlight is formless and immaterial, yet it enables all things to have luster and warmth. If sunlight ceases, all things immediately lose luster and warmth. Similarly, the Ālaya-vijñāna enables sentient beings to have life activities and to lose them. The migration of the Ālaya-vijñāna is like a mani jewel illuminating objects. The light of the mani jewel is formless and immaterial, yet it enables objects to manifest jeweled radiance. When the Ālaya-vijñāna migrates to a physical body, it manifests that body. The migration of the Ālaya-vijñāna is like wood producing fire: when wood is ignited, fire emerges. There is no fire within the wood originally; due to causes and conditions, fire appears. The Ālaya-vijñāna is also like this: due to karmic causes and conditions, it migrates to another physical body, and that body is born.

Original Text: “Furthermore, like seeds planted in the earth. The seed transforms entirely within the earth. Sprouts, seedlings, stems, and leaves manifest externally, producing white, non-white, red, and other variegated colors, various flowers, various strengths and flavors, ripened fruits—all deeds manifesting in diverse distinctions. The same earth equally provides the four great elements, yet according to each seed, what is born differs.”

Explanation: The migration of the Ālaya-vijñāna is also like seeds planted in the earth. The seed entirely transforms within the earth, and the plant’s sprouts, seedlings, stems, and leaves emerge, fully manifesting outside the earth, producing flowers of various mixed colors. Then fruits are borne; seeds differ, fruits differ, flavors vary—all are produced upon the ripening of the seeds. The same earth provides the same nourishment of the four great elements’ material, yet according to the different seeds, the fruits produced have various distinctions.

After seeds enter the soil and transform within the earth, they cannot be found. Where did the seed go? Where did the sprouts, seedlings, stems, and leaves come from? When the sprouts, seedlings, stems, and leaves have fully grown, the seed vanishes without a trace. Where did the seed go? The arising and ceasing of all these phenomena have their conditioned nature. The Ālaya-vijñāna entering chicken and goose eggs is also like this—with causes and conditions, the eggs form and hatch into chickens and geese. The Ālaya-vijñāna migrating into a sentient being’s body—whether egg-born, womb-born, or spontaneously born—is like sunlight casting its radiance, like a mani jewel illuminating with its brilliance, like wood capable of producing fire.

Furthermore, like seeds planted in the earth: after causes and conditions are complete, the seed vanishes, and roots, sprouts, seedlings, stems, leaves, and flowers all grow, then various variegated flowers are produced, and after the flowers bloom, fruits are borne, and the flavor of the fruits manifests. Because seeds differ, the fruits produced also differ. If one seeks where the seed has gone, it has no destination. Originally, it is the same earth, equally endowed with the four great elements—earth, water, fire, wind. Relying on the nourishment of the four great element seeds, roots, sprouts, seedlings, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits grow. But seeds differ, and fruits differ. Each produces its fruit according to its seed.

Original Text: “In this way, the single consciousness dharma-realm gives birth to all bodies within the cycle of life and death—whether black, white, yellow, red, etc., gentle or wrathful, of various distinct kinds.”

Explanation: “In this way, the single consciousness dharma-realm gives birth to all bodies within the cycle of life and death.” All physical bodies are born-and-ceasing bodies of life and death. When the Ālaya-vijñāna enters them, the body is born; when the Ālaya-vijñāna departs, the body ceases. Sentient beings each have their own Ālaya-vijñāna; their essence is the same, yet the physical bodies born are of various types, and their karmic retribution differs. Even for the same Ālaya-vijñāna, at different times it gives birth to different physical bodies, and the karmic retribution also differs—skin may be black, white, or yellow; temperament may be gentle and kind, or wrathful and violent, etc.—with various categorical distinctions.

Original Text: “Bhadrapāla, consciousness has no hands, feet, limbs, or speech. Yet, from within the dharma-realm, the power of mental formation is strong. When sentient beings die, consciousness abandons this body.”

Explanation: “Bhadrapāla, the Ālaya-vijñāna has no hands, no feet, no limbs or joints, no verbal activity. Yet, due to the strong power of mental formation within the eighteen elements, when sentient beings die, the Ālaya-vijñāna abandons this physical body.”

The five aggregates body of sentient beings is formed by the solidified deluded thoughts of sentient beings’ minds. The mental power of sentient beings refers to the power of the mental formations of the manas (mind faculty). The mental formations of manas are powerful because manas has volition, decision-making power, and can drive the Tathāgatagarbha (Ālaya-vijñāna) to actualize its mental formations. Before the five aggregates body of sentient beings is formed, only manas and the Tathāgatagarbha exist. The Tathāgatagarbha does not have mental formations or the desire for a five aggregates body. Manas, due to ignorance, is unwilling to cease; it necessarily has mental formations—the desire to take rebirth with a physical body, to enjoy the dharmas of the three realms. Therefore, name-and-form (nāmarūpa) and the five aggregates arise due to the mental power of manas. In terms of ordinary beings, mental power is karmic force, indicating that manas corresponds with karmic seeds and can drive the Tathāgatagarbha to manifest the five aggregates body, actualizing karmic retribution.

Original Text: “Consciousness and the power of mental formation become the seed for the next life. Separated from consciousness, the dharma-realm cannot be attained; separated from the dharma-realm, consciousness also cannot be attained. Consciousness, the wind element, the subtle mental formation element, the sensation element, and the dharma-realm migrate together in harmony.”

Explanation: The Ālaya-vijñāna and the mental power of manas together serve as the seeds for the birth of the five aggregates body in the next life. That is to say, without the Ālaya-vijñāna, there is no five aggregates and eighteen elements of the next life; without the functioning of the mental power of manas, there is no five aggregates and eighteen elements of the next life; and without the five aggregates and eighteen elements, the mysterious functioning of the Ālaya-vijñāna cannot be revealed. The Ālaya-vijñāna migrates harmoniously to the physical body of the next life together with the wind element, the subtle mental formation element of manas, and the sensation element.

When sentient beings die, the Ālaya-vijñāna, relying on the mental power of manas, abandons the current body. Consciousness and mental power together give birth to the intermediate state (antarābhava) body or the physical body of the next life for the sentient being. Because the Ālaya-vijñāna contains the karmic seeds of sentient beings and can give birth to the five aggregates body, it is also called the storehouse consciousness (seed consciousness). Manas corresponds with karmic seeds; thus, the mental power of sentient beings serves as karmic seeds. The two harmonize and combine, producing the five aggregates body of the next life. This illustrates that without the Ālaya-vijñāna, there would be no realm of sentient beings, just as without earth there would be no flowers or fruits. Separated from the five aggregates of sentient beings, separated from the eighteen elements of sentient beings, the function of the Ālaya-vijñāna would also not be revealed.

Because the Ālaya-vijñāna itself is formless and colorless, even the Buddha cannot see it directly. When the Buddha seeks the Ālaya-vijñāna, He discovers its traces within the five aggregates of sentient beings. So how do we realize the Ālaya-vijñāna upon awakening to the mind and seeing the nature? We must also seek the traces of the Ālaya-vijñāna within the activities of the five aggregates. Without the five aggregates, without the activities of the five aggregates, the Ālaya-vijñāna cannot be revealed. To realize it, one must start from the functions of the five aggregates. For example, to realize wind, we can only find wind through its functions; through the phenomena manifested by the wind element, we know what kind of wind this is or that is. The Ālaya-vijñāna is similarly invisible like the wind element; it can only be sought and discovered through its functions.

The Ālaya-vijñāna, together with the wind element, the mental power of manas, and the sensation element, migrates harmoniously to another physical body. After the Ālaya-vijñāna migrates to the physical body of the next life, it again gives birth to the six consciousnesses of sentient beings, and the sensation element also arises. Thus, the five aggregates of sentient beings become complete.

Original Text: Bhadrapāla addressed the Buddha: “If it is like this, why, World-Honored One, do you say that consciousness is formless?” The Buddha said to Bhadrapāla: “Form is of two kinds: internal and external. Internal refers to eye-consciousness; the eye is external. Similarly, ear-consciousness is internal; the ear is external. Nose-consciousness is internal; the nose is external. Tongue-consciousness is internal; the tongue is external. Body-consciousness is internal; the body is external.”

Explanation: Bhadrapāla addressed the Buddha: “If it is like this, why, World-Honored One, do you say the Ālaya-vijñāna is formless, without form?” The Buddha said to Bhadrapāla: “Form is of two kinds: internal and external. Internal is eye-consciousness, which manifests form internally and discerns it with wisdom. External is the eye faculty, which apprehends form externally. Similarly, ear-consciousness is internal, manifesting form internally and discerning it with wisdom; the ear faculty is external, apprehending form externally. Nose-consciousness is internal, manifesting form internally and discerning it with wisdom; the nose faculty is external, apprehending form externally. Tongue-consciousness is internal, manifesting form internally and discerning it with wisdom; the tongue faculty is external, apprehending form externally. Body-consciousness is internal, manifesting form internally and discerning it with wisdom; the body faculty is external, apprehending form externally.”

Original Text: “Bhadrapāla, like a person blind from birth who dreams of beautiful forms—hands, feet, face, features, graceful and lovely—and in the dream feels great joy and delight. Upon awakening, he sees nothing in the darkness. When night ends and day dawns, people gather together. The blind man then recounts the pleasures of his dream: ‘I saw a beautiful woman, her appearance supremely exquisite, gardens resplendent with flowers, crowds of hundreds and thousands, adorned and frolicking, skin radiant, shoulders full and rounded, arms long and rounded like an elephant’s trunk. In my dream, I attained great happiness, felt comfort and joyful admiration.’”

Explanation: “Bhadrapāla, for example, a person blind from birth dreams at night of a beautiful woman—her hands, feet, face, and features extremely lovely and dignified. The blind man feels joy and delight in the dream. Upon awakening, his surroundings remain dark; the blind man sees nothing. When night passes and day arrives, many people gather together. The blind man then recounts the happy events of his dream, saying: ‘I dreamt of a beautiful woman, her appearance truly peerless, and a splendid, magnificent garden with hundreds and thousands of people. The woman was adorned exquisitely, frolicking nearby, skin radiant, arms long and rounded like an elephant’s trunk. Seeing her in my dream, I felt extremely happy and comfortable, and marveled incessantly.’”

Original Text: “Bhadrapāla, this person blind from birth has never seen anything. How is it that in a dream he can see forms?” Bhadrapāla said to the Buddha: “I beseech you to explain.” The Buddha told Bhadrapāla: “What is seen in a dream is called the internal eye-object. It is discernment by wisdom, not seen by the physical eye. The internal eye-object, through the power of mental formation, momentarily appears in the dream of the blind person. Again, through the power of mental formation, upon awakening he recalls it. The internal forms perceived by consciousness are also like this.”

Explanation: The Buddha said to Bhadrapāla: “This person blind from birth has never seen people or scenery. How is it that in a dream he can see forms, see gardens and beautiful women, see hundreds and thousands of people?” Bhadrapāla replied to the Buddha: “I beseech the World-Honored One to explain.” The Buddha told the Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla: “The forms seen in dreams are seen by the internal eye-consciousness; it is discernment by wisdom, not seen by the physical eye. Due to the mental power of manas, beautiful women and crowds instantly appear in the dream of the person blind from birth, enabling him to see everything—people and scenery in the dream. Then, again through the functioning of the mental power of manas, upon awakening from the dream, he recalls the entire dreamt realm. The perception of internal forms by the six consciousnesses is also like this.”

The Buddha said that seeing forms in dreams is not seen by the physical eye but by the internal eye, the wisdom eye. This refers to the perception by the solitary mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) in dreams, not by eye-consciousness. Therefore, in dreams, there are no five sense consciousnesses; only the solitary mental consciousness perceives mental objects (dharmas) alone. The internal eye refers to the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna); it is the wisdom nature of the mental consciousness that sees, not the eye-consciousness. Forms seen in dreams are not seen by eye-consciousness but by the solitary mental consciousness; there is no joint discrimination by the five sense consciousnesses.

Dreaming occurs due to the clinging and mental power of manas, which presents the dream realm. It is propelled by the mental factors (caittas) of attention, sensation, conception, and volition of manas. After awakening, manas causes the mental consciousness to recall the dream. Because sentient beings all take the knowing of the mental consciousness as knowing, and rely on the mental consciousness to handle matters, they say they know only when the mental consciousness knows. When manas knows but does not fully know, they say they do not know. Moreover, manas itself cannot recall; only the mental consciousness can recall. The internal forms manifested by the Ālaya-vijñāna are also like this; they are presented through the clinging nature and mental power of manas. The Ālaya-vijñāna itself is formless, yet it can manifest all forms, including the forms of the five aggregates.