Commentary on the Mahayana Vijnaptimatrata Sutra
Chapter 6: The Consciousness's Migration and Retribution Is Like Taking Good Medicine, Like a Mighty Warrior Riding a Horse
Original text: 尔时会中。有月实胜上童真从座而起。合掌白佛言。世尊。云何见色因。云何见欲因。云何见见因。云何见戒取因。
佛告月实。智见智境。愚见愚境。智者见诸。姝丽美色。了知秽恶。唯是肉段。筋骨脓血。大脉小脉。大肠小肠。液脑膜肾。心脏脾胆。肝肺肚胃。生藏熟藏。黄痰涕唾。发须毛爪。大小便利。薄皮裹之。不净污露。可畏可恶。凡所有色。皆四大生。是为色因。
Explanation: At this time, the pure youth Yueshi in the assembly rose from his seat, pressed his palms together, and said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, how can one see the cause that forms material form? How can one see the cause of sensual desire? How can one see the cause of views? How can one see the cause of the grasping of precepts (śīlavrata-parāmarśa)?
The Buddha told Bodhisattva Yueshi: What those with wisdom see is the realm of wisdom, and what the foolish see is the realm of foolishness. When those with wisdom see all beautiful forms, they understand that no matter how beautiful the outward appearance of the form body is, it is filthy and dirty, merely a lump of flesh, containing within it sinews, bones, pus, and blood, large and small blood vessels and intestines, various bodily fluids and brain membranes, as well as the heart, liver, spleen, stomach, kidneys, and other raw and cooked organs, along with yellow phlegm, nasal mucus, and saliva, hair, body hair, nails, and teeth, urine and feces. Outside, there is only a thin layer of skin wrapping it, extremely filthy and impure, utterly repulsive. All such material form is generated from the seeds of the four great elements; this is the cause that constitutes form.
When seeing form, the realms perceived by those with wisdom and those without wisdom are not the same. Likewise, with regard to material form, what those who have seen the Buddha-nature perceive differs from what those who have not seen the Buddha-nature perceive. There are also differences between what those awakened to the Way see and what those not yet awakened see, and those who have cultivated wholesome dharmas and those who have not also see differently.
When those with wisdom see all dharmas, they know they are illusory dharmas, so there is no need to avoid them; it is enough to keep the mind unmoved. For example, when encountering some foul odor, some people cover their noses while others are indifferent. Avoiding is grasping at marks, and liking is also grasping at marks; without grasping at marks, one is indifferent, and the mind remains unmoved within. As long as one grasps at marks, there is behavioral activity and fabrication, and the mind is no longer empty and pure. Buddhist practitioners should likewise remain detached toward food and drink: one who does not grasp at marks does not care whether the food is delicious; as long as it fills the belly, that is enough. One who grasps at marks discriminates between tasty and untasty, giving rise to delight and aversion in the mind, with the result that greed never ceases.
When those with wisdom see beautiful form, they know it is filthy and foul, like a portable toilet, knowing that beautiful form is in fact just a heap of flesh and blood, and that even skin and hair are unclean, so they do not give rise to greed and lust. Those without wisdom, seeing a beautiful appearance, give rise to lustful minds and seek to obtain it. In essence, the form body is just a pile of dirty things; there is nothing lovable about it—it is merely an object composed of the four great elements. All the material forms we come into contact with are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind; all flowers, grasses, trees, and houses, and the surrounding environment, are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. The universe, the vessel world (bhājana-loka), is all made of the same materials and is all equal. This is the cause that forms material form.
Original text: 月实。如父母生身。身之坚硬为地大。流润为水大。暖熟为火大。飘动为风大。有所觉知。念及声香味触等界。斯皆为识。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Yueshi, in the flesh body born of father and mother, that which has the property of hardness is the earth element. Not only is the earth element present in the sinews, bones, and muscles, it is also present in the blood; the entire form body has the earth element. Even water has hardness; when the wind blows against the body, one feels pain, so the wind also contains the earth element. That which flows and moistens is the water element; every part of the body has the water element, chiefly in the blood, saliva, urine, and sweat. That which has warmth is the fire element; that which floats and moves is the wind element. "Floating" represents lightness and "moving" represents flow; the light, floating flow and the movement of the energy channels within the body all represent the wind element; the breath and the fluidity of the blood both belong to the wind element. Whatever has awareness and perception and can be mindful of the six sense-object realms of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas is the six consciousnesses.
Original text: 月实童真复白佛言。世尊。将死之时。云何识舍于身。云何识迁于身。云何识知。今舍此身。
Explanation: The pure youth Yueshi said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, when sentient beings are on the verge of death, how does the Ālayavijñāna discard the form body? How does the Ālayavijñāna leave the form body? How does the Ālayavijñāna know that it should now discard the form body?
Based on what does the Ālayavijñāna know that it should now discard and leave the form body? It must have known the karmic seeds and karmic conditions, and it decides to leave the body in accordance with those karmic seeds and conditions. The Ālayavijñāna manifests and upholds the form body in accordance with karmic seeds. When the karmic seeds and karmic conditions indicate that at a certain moment the four great-element seeds should no longer be transmitted to maintain the existence of the form body, and the karmic conditions no longer permit the Ālayavijñāna to continue upholding the body, the Ālayavijñāna knows that at that time the form body should cease to exist and that the four great elements should be withdrawn and no longer output. At that moment, the form body disintegrates into the four great elements, the six sense objects can no longer manifest normally, and the six consciousnesses can no longer arise normally and discern the six sense objects. Thus the six consciousnesses gradually cease, and the manas and the tathāgatagarbha leave the body.
Original text: 佛告月实。众生随业获报。识流相续。持身不绝。期毕报终。识弃舍身。随业迁受。譬如水乳和煎。以火热力。乳水及腻。各各分散。如是月实。众生命尽。以业力散。形骸与识。及诸入界。各各分散。
Explanation: The Buddha told Bodhisattva Yueshi: Sentient beings receive their retribution in accordance with their wholesome and unwholesome karma. Only when the seeds perfused by the Ālayavijñāna into the form body continue in an unbroken stream can the existence and functioning of the form body be continuously maintained. Only when the lifespan reaches its end does the Ālayavijñāna decide to discard the form body and, in accordance with the sentient being's wholesome and unwholesome karma, migrate onto the form body of the next life. It is like water and milk mixed together and heated over a fire: the milk floats up while the water stays below, and the water and milk each separate. The lives of sentient beings are the same: because of karmic conditions, when a sentient being's life ends, the five aggregates disintegrate and scatter, the form body and the conscious mind separate, and the twelve sense bases and eighteen realms each disperse.
Original text: 识为所依。以取法界。及法界念。并善恶业。迁受他报。
Explanation: The Ālayavijñāna is that upon which the lives of sentient beings depend; the five aggregates rely on the Ālayavijñāna to take up the eighteen realms of dharmas. After the Ālayavijñāna abandons the original form body, the seeds of the five aggregates return into the Ālayavijñāna—the seeds of the four great elements and the seeds of consciousness all return into the Ālayavijñāna. When the causes and conditions are complete, the Ālayavijñāna, following the power of mindfulness of the manas together with the seeds of wholesome and unwholesome karma, migrates onto the five aggregates of the next life and again outputs seeds, forming the five-aggregate body of the next life, whereupon the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses appear once more.
Here, the "stream of consciousness" refers, first, to the seeds of consciousness of the Ālayavijñāna itself being perfused forth instant after instant, so that the Ālayavijñāna continues to operate unceasingly and imperishably; and second, to the Ālayavijñāna perfusing the seeds of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses, enabling the seven consciousnesses to run continuously, so as to sustain the life activities of the five-aggregate body. The Ālayavijñāna constantly and continuously upholds our form body, keeping the life activities of the form body continuing without interruption. When this present life ends, this period of retribution also ends, and the Ālayavijñāna discards the current form body.
Original text: 月实。譬如大吉善苏。以众良药味力。熟功和合。为之大吉善苏。弃凡苏性。持良药力。辛苦酸醎。涩甘六味。以资人身。便与人身。作色香味。识弃此身。持善恶业。及法界等。迁受余报。亦复如是。
Explanation: Yueshi, the medicine called "Great Auspicious Ghee" is made by mixing many fine medicines together and processing them into maturity to produce this fine medicine, Great Auspicious Ghee. This processed fine medicine no longer has the flavor of ordinary ghee-medicine but possesses the flavor-potency of fine medicine. The fine medicine has six flavors—pungent, bitter, sour, salty, astringent, and sweet. These six-flavored fine medicines are used to nourish the human body, conveniently providing the body with color, smell, and taste. After a person takes it, he receives nourishment and his bodily ailments are treated. When the Ālayavijñāna discards this body, holding the wholesome and unwholesome karma and the dharmas-realms, and migrates to receive retribution on another form body, undergoing the karmic retribution of the next life, the principle is the same.
The Great Auspicious Ghee is a metaphor for the Ālayavijñāna; the blending of the flavors of many fine medicines is a metaphor for the sentient being's wholesome and unwholesome karma and the seeds of the various dharmas-realms blended within the Ālayavijñāna. The Ālayavijñāna holds the seeds of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, holds the seeds of the various dharmas-realms, and holds the seeds of wholesome and unwholesome karma, and then benefits and nourishes the form body of the sentient being in the next life.
Original text: 月实。苏质如身。诸药和合。为大吉善。如诸法诸根。和合为业。众药味触。资成于苏。如业资识。服大吉善。悦泽充盛。光色美好。安隐无患。如善资识。获诸乐报。
Explanation: Yueshi, the substance of the ghee-medicine is like the form body; many kinds of medicines blended together become the Great Auspicious Ghee, just as form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, together with the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, must blend together before karmic actions can be created. When many medicine flavors are combined, they form the ghee-medicine flavor of the Great Auspicious Ghee, just as the seeds of bodily, verbal, and mental karma nourish the Ālayavijñāna. When sentient beings who are ill take the Great Auspicious Ghee, their bodies become strong and robust, their spirits full, their complexions rosy, and their bodies and minds at ease, free of illness—just as the seeds of wholesome karma nourish the Ālayavijñāna and enable sentient beings to obtain happy retribution.
Nourishing means storing the seeds of wholesome karma into the Ālayavijñāna, so that the five-aggregate body produced by the Ālayavijñāna receives happy retribution. Wholesome karma assists the Ālayavijñāna; the seeds are stored within the Ālayavijñāna, and the Ālayavijñāna then enables the sentient being to obtain happy retribution, manifesting the five aggregates of the sentient being all receiving happy retribution.
Original text: 服苏违法。颜容变恶。惨无血气。色死士白。如恶资识。获诸苦报。月实。吉善宝苏。无手足眼。能取良药。色香味力。识亦如是。取法界及诸受善业。弃此身界。受于中阴。得天妙念。
Explanation: If someone takes the Great Auspicious Ghee medicine improperly, his complexion turns earthy-white, wretched and bloodless. Originally the medicine was meant to cure illness, but if taken incorrectly, it becomes a poison. This is a metaphor: if sentient beings create unwholesome karma, the seeds of unwholesome karma are stored in the Ālayavijñāna and assist the Ālayavijñāna; then the Ālayavijñāna outputs the seeds of unwholesome karma, and the sentient being's five aggregates receive suffering retribution.
Yueshi, the Great Auspicious Ghee medicine has no eyes, hands, or feet, yet once all the medicines are blended together, it can take up the excellent medicinal properties of all the medicines, taking up the color, smell, taste, and potency of the fine medicines. The Ālayavijñāna is likewise like the fine medicine of Great Auspicious Ghee: it takes up the dharmas-realms, takes up the feelings of the six consciousnesses, and the wholesome karma of sentient beings. The Ālayavijñāna discards the form body of the present life and manifests an intermediate-state body (antarābhava). Within the intermediate-state body, the five-aggregate body obtains the divine eye, and the supernatural powers and thoughts of a deva arise.
Original text: 见六欲天。十六地狱。见己之身。手足端严。诸根丽美。见所弃尸。云此是我。前生之身。复见高胜。妙相天宫。种种庄严。花果卉木。藤蔓蒙覆。光明赫丽。如新炼金。众宝钿饰。彼见此已。心大欢喜。因大喜爱。识便托之。
Explanation: With the divine eye he saw the six heavens of the desire realm and the sixteen hells, and at the same time saw his own deva form body, with hands and feet dignified and beautiful, and the appearance of his five faculties lovely. Seeing the corpse he had abandoned, he knew it was the body of his previous human life. Afterwards he saw the tall, surpassing, and majestic heavenly palace adorned with the seven treasures, incomparably magnificent, along with various adorned flowering trees and fruit-bearing woods, covered with vines, dazzling and brilliant, a scene of splendor, dazzling like freshly smelted gold, adorned with many jewels. After he saw the garden and palace, his mind was greatly delighted; because of this fondness, the Ālayavijñāna caused the five-aggregate body to be conceived in heaven, obtaining a deva's form body and receiving a deva's retribution.
Devas all have gardens; each deva-son has a garden, in which there are various fruits, with flourishing flowers and fruits and vines covering them. The gardens are adorned with many precious things, extremely magnificent and resplendent. These descriptions, before and after, are all seen within the intermediate state. In the intermediate state, the sentient being's retribution includes the divine eye, enabling him to see the beautiful scenery of the heavens and the heavenly palaces. Once his mind delights in them, he becomes bound and is conceived in the heavenly palace, becoming a deva.
Original text: 此善业人。舍身受身。安乐无苦。如乘马者。弃一乘一。譬如壮士。武略备具。见敌兵至。着坚甲胄。乘策骥骏。所去无畏。舍界入身。迁受胜乐。亦复如是。
Explanation: When this person with wholesome karma discards his body and receives a new body, his body and mind are at ease, without suffering. Before death, when the four great elements disintegrate, there is no suffering; when receiving the deva's form body, as soon as his mind delights, he enters the heavenly palace and becomes a deva, without the slightest suffering, without needing to enter a womb or suffer within the womb. The conception of a person with wholesome karma is like a horseman who abandons one horse and immediately mounts another; changing form bodies is like changing horses—abandoning the human body and obtaining a deva body, with the Ālayavijñāna being like the horseman. It is also like a mighty warrior whose armor and weapons are complete: seeing enemy troops approaching, he immediately dons hard protective armor, takes up the best weapons, and rides the finest steed out to meet the battle; moreover, with his own superior martial skills, he is unafraid, showing not the slightest trace of fear. When a person who has created wholesome karma goes to take rebirth, discarding this body and migrating into that body, it is the same.
A person who has created wholesome karma has no fear in his mind before death, no fear in the intermediate state, and no fear at the time of rebirth. Because he created wholesome karma in this life, with wholesome karma and wholesome roots nourishing the Ālayavijñāna, the Ālayavijñāna discards this form body and receives and upholds that form body; the five aggregates then obtain happy retribution. The happy retribution appears, and he experiences the wonderful enjoyments brought by the wholesome retribution. As for sentient beings who have created unwholesome karma, once the unwholesome karma manifests, they suffer utterly, their hands and feet flailing about, and they know they are headed for the three evil destinies.
Original text: 自梵身天。爰至有顶。生于其中。
Explanation: When a person who has created wholesome karma is born in heaven, he can be born not only in the six heavens of the desire realm, but also in the heavens of the first dhyāna of the form realm, up to the highest heaven of the formless realm; as long as his meditative concentration (dhyāna) is complete, he can be born in the corresponding heaven.
The Brahmā-body heavens are the heavens of the form realm. "Brahmā" represents purity; so-called purity means having no desires, no sexual desire between men and women. From the first dhyāna to the fourth dhyāna of the form realm, all belong to Brahmā, because the devas there are all of neutral sex, neither male nor female, with minds pure and free of desire. Without meditative concentration of the first dhyāna or above, one cannot ascend to the heavens of the form realm. As for the six heavens of the desire realm, one can be reborn there merely by cultivating merit, creating wholesome karma, and having desire-realm concentration. Besides cultivating merit and creating wholesome karma, one must also attain the dhyāna concentrations from the first to the fourth dhyāna in order to be born in the heavens of the form realm; with only merit but no meditative concentration, one still cannot reach the various heavens of the form realm.
The Māra king Pāpīyas, because he cultivated great merit when he was a human being but did not attain form-realm meditative concentration, having only preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), was born after his death in the highest heaven of the desire realm, the Heaven of the Devas Who Control Others' Enjoyments (Paranirmita-vaśa-vartin). The blessings of the Paranirmita-vaśa-vartin Heaven are also considerable, and it also has the desire-realm meditative concentration of preparatory concentration. Meditative concentration itself carries merit—it is the merit of concentration; adding the wholesome karma he himself cultivated, the merit he obtained is the greatest in the desire realm. Therefore the Māra king Pāpīyas can govern the six heavens of the desire realm and rule over all sentient beings of the desire realm; as long as sentient beings are in the heavens of the desire realm, they are his subjects, governed by him. Those who have attained the first dhyāna are beyond his control.
Therefore, before sentient beings attain the first dhyāna, the Māra king comes to obstruct them, not letting them succeed, because once they succeed they are no longer under his jurisdiction. Even after they have succeeded, he will still come to obstruct them, causing the first-dhyāna concentration to regress, because he has an extremely strong desire for retinue, always wishing that the sentient beings under his rule would increase more and more. When encountering this situation, one must continue to cultivate merit and also repent frequently to eliminate karmic obstructions; when merit increases, one will escape Pāpīyas's control. If a person's merit is great, even the Māra king can do nothing; if one has no merit, even ordinary ghosts and spirits can come to obstruct, and even an ant, in the intermediate state, can come to take revenge on you. Therefore, Buddhist practitioners should repent frequently and make many dedications of merit (pariṇāma), thereby eliminating karmic obstructions and increasing merit.
