Volume Seventeen   Chapter Twenty-Six: The Differences of the Six Elements, Part Two   

Chapter One   Four Dream Analogies

Original Text: The Buddha said, "Great King, it is like a person who, in a dream, hears the sound of wonderful music, and his mind gives rise to comfort and delight. After this person awakens, he recalls the beautiful music from the dream. Was that music real?" The King said, "No, it was not." The Buddha said, "Great King, what do you think? Is this person, who grasps what he dreamed as real, wise?" The King said, "No, World-Honored One. Why? In the dream, after all, there was no music, much less was there any arising of comfort and delight. It should be known that this person merely exhausted himself in vain, with nothing real at all."

Explanation: The Buddha said to King Śuddhodana: Great King, it is like a person who, in a dream, hears the sound of wonderful music, and his mind gives rise to a comfortable and pleasant feeling of delight. After this person awakens, he still constantly recalls the beautiful music from the dream. Was what was heard in the dream real? King Śuddhodana said: No, World-Honored One. The Buddha said: Great King, what do you think? This person regards what he dreamed as truly existing. Is he a wise person? King Śuddhodana said: This person is not wise, World-Honored One. Why is that so? Because in the dream, after all, there was no music, much less did this person’s mind give rise to a pleasant and comfortable feeling of delight. Therefore, it should be known that this person merely exhausted his mind and spirit in vain, with no real matter existing.

Hearing a wonderful sound and feeling very comfortable and happy in the mind is actually the same as dreaming; both are illusory and unreal. Hearing wonderful music in a dream and feeling very happy is even more illusory and unreal. The dream state is an exclusive image state (獨影境), a realm projected by the conceptual grasping nature (遍計所執性) of the mental faculty (意根). The ālaya-vijñāna, relying on the greed and attachment of the mental faculty, directly transforms the realm of mental objects (法塵境界) from karmic seeds for the mental faculty to perceive. The mental faculty cannot perceive in detail, so it causes the mental consciousness to arise for joint perception. Thereupon, the mental consciousness applies mental attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition to the sound of music, giving rise to feelings, finding it beautiful and pleasing to the ear, and the mind becomes delighted and happy. In this, the mental faculty is transformed by the ālaya-vijñāna, the dream music is transformed by the ālaya-vijñāna, and the mental consciousness is transformed by the ālaya-vijñāna. There is not a single dharma that is real and indestructible; all are illusory, unreal, and unreliable, neither being the self nor belonging to the self.

After awakening, the dream music disappears without a trace, the isolated mental consciousness (獨頭意識) also ceases, and its feeling of delight no longer exists. Not a single dharma can be taken as real. Hearing wonderful music, words of praise, or beloved people and things in a dream is a pleasant dream. After awakening, there is nothing at all. Although these phenomena exist in the dream, they are all illusory, false, and unreal. If a person regards the people and things he dreamed of as real, believes that the dream from the night is real, constantly fantasizes and recalls it, continuously giving rise to grasping and greed, and remains immersed in the dream state unwilling to come out, this person is truly foolish and without wisdom. Taking the dream as real while dreaming is already deluded and inverted; taking it as real after awakening is even more inverted.

Some people with cultivation know the dream is false while dreaming. When karmic conditions manifest while dreaming and they are about to create evil karma, they immediately know this matter should not be done. Their minds do not follow the state and flow along with it. Such people have an awakened mental consciousness, and their mental faculty has a certain degree of awakening, enabling them to take charge and not create evil karma. Then, at the end of life, they can also probably take charge and not create evil karma. Those who create evil karma in dreams have mental cultivation that is still not yet potent. Therefore, dreams can test whether sentient beings have cultivation, to what degree, whether the mental faculty is being influenced, whether it has strength, and whether they have mastery over life and death.

There is no sound of music in the dream, yet one not only fails to be alert that it is a dream but also gives rise to joy, comfort, and greed in the mind. That is even more inverted. The matter does not exist, and the mental state does not exist either; all are false. Taking the dream as real and constantly recalling and fantasizing is merely exhausting oneself in vain, with no real matter, pointlessly driving one's thoughts and fantasies. That is simply tiring the mind with no actual benefit to be gained. The minds of sentient beings in the six paths are similarly exhausted, constantly grasping at the objects of the six senses, only to end up gaining nothing, coming and going empty-handed. Delusions, hopes, wishes, and cravings—all these cause the mind to exhaust itself in vain. In reality, it is useless. At the time of death, it is still like drawing water with a bamboo basket—all effort is in vain.

Original Text: The Buddha said, "Great King, so it is, so it is. Foolish ordinary beings (異生), hearing pleasing sounds, give rise to love and delight, generate defilement and attachment, and create evil actions—three bodily, four verbal, and three mental karmas. After creating these karmas, they cease and perish in an instant. After these karmas cease, they do not abide in the east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or in the middle. At the final limit, when the life faculty ceases, the karmic retribution of their own actions all manifests before them, just like awakening from a dream and recalling the events of the dream."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. Foolish ordinary beings, hearing sounds they like, give rise to love and delight in their minds, generate defiled minds of greed and attachment, and create evil karma—bodily killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; verbal divisive speech, harsh speech, frivolous speech, and lying; mental greed, hatred, and delusion—the ten evil karmic actions of body, speech, and mind. After these actions are created, they cease and perish in an instant. After perishing, the karmic actions do not abide in the east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or the middle; they disappear without a trace. However, at the final moment when the life faculty ceases, all the karmic retribution created in this life fully manifests, just like awakening from a dream and still recalling the events of the dream in the mind.

Original Text: "Great King, consciousness is the master; karma is the object of clinging. These two serve as mutual causes. The initial consciousness arises. Either it goes to the hell realm, or it falls into the animal realm, the realm of Yama, or the realm of asuras, humans, or gods. After the initial consciousness arises, each receives its retribution. The mental factors of the same category continuously follow and revolve. When the final consciousness ceases, it is called the dead aggregates. When the initial consciousness arises, it is called the born aggregates."

Explanation: Great King, the ālaya-vijñāna is the master giving birth to the five aggregates body in the next life. Karmic seeds and karmic force are the objects. With these two causes and conditions combining, the initial consciousness of the next life is born. Sentient beings either go to the hell realm, or fall into the ghost realm, or are reborn in the animal realm—the three evil paths; or are reborn in the asura realm, human realm, and heaven realm—the three good paths. When the initial consciousness arises, sentient beings begin to receive their respective karmic retribution. Then, the consciousnesses on the same physical body continuously operate without interruption. When the consciousness at the end of life ceases, the physical body becomes a corpse, called the dead aggregates. The initial consciousness arising on the physical body is called the initial consciousness, and the five aggregates of the physical body are called the born aggregates.

After karmic actions are created, they cease in an instant. For example, when speaking, sounds appear one after another continuously. One word appears and ceases, the next word appears and ceases—this is the creation of actions. This action ceases the moment it is created; it ceases and arises again, ceasing as it arises, instant by instant. Although the karma ceases, the karmic action exists as seeds stored in the ālaya-vijñāna. When a single word is spoken, innumerable consciousness seeds arise and cease as they arise, completing the verbal action creation of that instant. If one consciousness seed stops flowing, speech cannot be produced. Therefore, the dharma of speech is a provisional dharma, not a real dharma.

After karmic actions cease, where do they go? There is no place where they abide. The ālaya-vijñāna also does not store these karmic actions, because the ālaya-vijñāna is formless and without characteristics; it does not store the form-bearing actions of body, speech, and mind, only the formless and characteristicless seeds. All karmic actions have no place to go and no place from which they come. When speaking, the first sound arises—from where did it come? Is there a place where the sound of speech is stored? Certainly not. If there were, where are all the sounds of speech from a sentient being's lifetime or even from beginningless kalpas stored? If you search for them, you fundamentally cannot find them.

Some say that sounds are recorded with a tape recorder, and karmic actions are recorded with a video camera; then the creation of actions has a place to exist. If so, then let us dismantle the tape recorder and video camera to search for where the sounds and actions are. I'm afraid no matter how much you search, you cannot find the sounds and images. However, the entire process of creating actions, including mental karma, has something that records it like a tape recorder or video camera. This thing is the ālaya-vijñāna. After being recorded, it exists as seeds. Those with the divine power of recollecting past lives can call it up to view at any time, just like turning on a television to watch. The ālaya-vijñāna, this television, can store as many sound and video programs as needed; the programs from beginningless kalpas are all stored without loss. Those with the divine power of recollecting past lives can play them all back, regardless of whether the karmic seeds have ripened or the retribution has been fully received.

The karmic actions of body, speech, and mind themselves cease. Then, at the time of death, at the moment when the breath is about to cease, the karmic retribution that should be received on the sentient being's body, the karma created, flashes by like a movie, quickly passing through once. The deeds of a lifetime flash by, and one understands the karma one has created, which is good and which is evil, what retribution one should receive—all becomes clear. But at that time, one cannot speak; one cannot express oneself, cannot tell loved ones to eliminate the karma, perform deliverance rituals, or make amends for the offenses, cannot tell loved ones where one will go to receive retribution. When one can speak, the karmic actions do not manifest. When the karmic retribution manifests at the end of life, one feels that this entire lifetime was like a dream, passed, ended. While alive in ordinary times, one cannot experience that state of mind.

When studying and cultivating Buddhism to the stage of the Ten Grounds of Bodhisattvas (十回向位), one will feel that not only is this lifetime like a dream, but past lives were also a dream, the next life is similarly a dream, and all lives until Buddhahood are within a dream. Life after life, one dreams within the dream, being born and dying in the dream. Bodhisattvas perform Buddha-work, liberating themselves and sentient beings, all within the dream, all like a dream, unreal, performing dream-like Buddha-work.

Those who have not realized this have no real feeling. Now, one can only understand this intellectually, cannot experience it. Therefore, one does not know that since beginningless kalpas, one has been dreaming one great dream of life and death after another, connected into a continuous series of dreams. Before attaining Buddhahood, one is all within the great dream of life and death. Sentient beings with segmented birth and death are dreaming segment after segment of dreams. After segmented birth and death ends, there is still changeable birth and death (變易生死), dreaming a particularly subtle, long dream, similarly not yet fully awakened from the great dream of life and death, until attaining Buddhahood, when the great dream of life and death completely ends.

Original Text: "Great King, there is not the slightest dharma that can go from this world to the next world. Why? Because the nature is subject to birth and cessation. Great King, when the body consciousness arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. When that karma arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. When the initial consciousness arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. Why? Because its nature is apart."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, there is not a single dharma that can flow from this life to the next life. Why is that said? Because the self-nature of all dharmas is ceaselessly arising and ceasing; they are not constantly existing and abiding. At the end of life when the five aggregates cease, all dharmas will cease. Great King, when the body consciousness arises, it has no source; when it ceases, it has no destination. When karmic actions are created, the actions have no source; when the actions cease, they have no destination. When the initial consciousness of the next life arises, it has no source; when it ceases, it has no destination. Why do all dharmas have no source and no destination? Because all dharmas are apart from all natures; the self-nature of all dharmas has no characteristics; their intrinsic nature is empty, fundamentally unobtainable. An empty, unobtainable dharma cannot come or go.

Original Text: "Knowing thus, body consciousness is empty; one's own karma is empty; the initial consciousness is empty. If cessation, cessation is empty; if arising, arising is empty. Knowing the revolving of karma, there is no doer, nor is there a receiver. There are only names and characteristics, discriminatively displayed."

Explanation: One should know the body consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of body consciousness is empty; know the karmic actions created by one's own mental consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of karmic actions is empty; know the initial consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of the initial consciousness is empty; know thus that if any dharma arises, its arising is empty; if any dharma ceases, its cessation is also empty; simultaneously know the creation and revolving of karmic actions, that there is no doer and no receiver. All dharmas are merely provisional appearances and names discriminatively displayed.

All dharmas in the five-aggregate world are arising and ceasing. Consciousness is arising and ceasing, the physical body is arising and ceasing, and all karmic actions created by consciousness and the physical body are similarly arising and ceasing. These dharmas are all empty. Seeds arise instantaneously and cease instantaneously; the physical body and consciousness arise and cease instantaneously, illusory and unreal. Especially at the end of life, they all disappear and perish; even the phenomena of instantaneous arising and ceasing disappear and are no longer seen. This further illustrates the illusoriness of the five aggregates; not a single dharma can be taken to the next life.

The creation of all karmic actions has no creator, because consciousness has no autonomy; it is illusory. The physical body is illusory and has no autonomy. Both body and mind are like illusions; therefore, the illusory body and mind cannot create karmic actions. The revolving of all karmic actions also has no receiver, because consciousness is illusory, empty, and without self-nature; therefore, consciousness is not the receiver of retribution. The physical body is illusory, empty, and without self-nature; it is also not the receiver of retribution. All form dharmas are appearances; all mental consciousnesses are names. None have substance; they are merely provisional appearances discriminated and displayed by consciousness.

The world's wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep are similarly empty of self-nature, illusory, and unobtainable. When born in this life, one did not bring the fame of the previous life. Even if one was a king or minister in a past life, in this life, not a single bit of status or power was brought over. One must start from scratch in this life, striving anew to obtain wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep. When this life ends, all the wealth, sex, fame, food, sleep, family, loved ones, and so on gathered in a lifetime will disappear; not a single thing can be taken to the next life. Even the five aggregates and consciousness cannot flow to the future life; except for the master consciousness, the mental faculty, everything completely disappears.

When one sleeps at night without dreaming, the six consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—all cease. After ceasing, where do they go? When awakening, these consciousnesses reappear; from where do they come? In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One says that all dharmas are the nature of the Tathāgata-garbha. This Father and Son Collection Sūtra does not speak of the Tathāgata-garbha. If the Tathāgata-garbha nature were spoken of, some listeners might become enlightened upon hearing it. Without speaking of the Tathāgata-garbha nature, sentient beings can still attain the fruit of Arhat emptiness, enabling all sentient beings to benefit. Some sūtras spoken by the Buddha can enable people to attain the fruit and also become enlightened. This depends on the capacity of the sentient beings. Those of the Small Vehicle capacity can only realize the Small Vehicle emptiness; those of the Great Vehicle capacity, while realizing the Great Vehicle emptiness—the Tathāgata-garbha—can also realize the Small Vehicle emptiness. Capacities differ; the degree of enlightenment differs. It lies in the wisdom level of the person hearing the Dharma.

When the Buddha spoke the Dharma, eighty-four thousand people listened. Their wisdom differed, so their understanding differed; the fruits they attained differed, and the karmic retribution they received differed. The Buddha spoke the Dharma without a discriminating mind, teaching the same Dharma to all sentient beings. The sentient beings' roots and capacities differ, so the fruits they attain differ. Those who created great evil karma have their evil karma obscuring them; the fruit they can attain is only a kind of rootless faith. Those without the obstruction of evil karma can attain the Small Vehicle fruit of Arhatship. Those with sharp capacities can attain the Great Vehicle fruit of Bodhisattvahood. Those with even better capacities can attain the patient endurance of the non-arising of dharmas (無生法忍), attaining the fruit of a certain Bodhisattva ground. Therefore, it is said that the Buddha speaks the Dharma with one sound, and sentient beings, according to their kind, each understand accordingly. Hearing the same Dharma, what one understands and attains depends on each sentient being individually; the Buddha has no partiality.

The body consciousness itself is empty, coming and going empty, cannot be grasped, cannot be retained, arising, ceasing, and transforming illusorily without cease. The karmic actions created are empty; the initial consciousness is also empty. If consciousness ceases, the phenomenon of cessation itself is also empty; there is no real dharma of cessation. Who ceases it? There is no ceaser. If mental consciousness arises, the phenomenon of arising is also empty; dharmas born following karmic seeds are all empty. Only the ālaya-vijñāna is not empty. It contains the seeds of all dharmas and can produce all dharmas. It truly exists. Everything else is empty, false, illusory, and unreal.

Know that the revolving of karma has no doer and no receiver. "Karma revolving" refers to the behavioral creation of sentient beings' body and mind, the operation of the actions of body, speech, and mind. There is no creator of this operation. For example, I am currently explaining the Dharma, speaking. Actually, there is no person doing this matter. Who is doing it, speaking? You say it is me. What is "me"? Is my physical body called me, or is my mental consciousness called me? These are all false appearances. The five aggregates formed by the combination of the physical body and mental consciousness are even more false appearances; there is no real me. The five aggregates are false appearances; the phenomenon of the five aggregates speaking is even more unreal. The person speaking is not me; it is a composite. Since it is a composite, it is assembled by causes and conditions. When the conditions cease, the composite disperses and ceases to be. The present composite is also not truly existent.

For example, an army is composed of infantry, cavalry, and various military branches, provisionally named "the troops." After the troops are formed, they go out to war and are victorious. The king says: How brave our troops are, how invincibly heroic, how mighty. But is there the dharma of "our troops"? The troops are composed of multiple military branches; a single branch is not called troops. After being combined, it is even less appropriate to call it troops. There is fundamentally no real existence of the dharma "troops." Troops are an illusory, provisionally combined entity, not real. A dharma formed by the combination of conditions is not a real dharma. When conditions disperse, the combined entity disperses. A combined entity that can assemble and disperse is false and unreal. Two or more gathered together are called one entity; separated, none is called one entity. A is A, B is B; they are actually not one entity but a provisionally combined entity. A provisionally combined entity is not real.

The sentient being's five aggregates are also combined, formed by the physical body and several kinds of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing consciousnesses. Only after being combined do they have feelings, thoughts, perceptions, discriminations, and the volitional formations of coming, going, and acting in body, speech, and mind. If mental consciousness ceases, the five aggregates cannot be combined; if the body ceases, the five aggregates cannot be combined. Therefore, the false phenomenon formed by combination is not real. Actually, there is no real five-aggregate "I," this person. A person is a thing combined by several causes and conditions; it is a false appearance. When the causes and conditions cease, it disperses. For example, this chair is combined from nails, wood, and labor. When the conditions arrive, this chair disperses, becoming wood. When the wood is gone, it becomes ash. Finally, the ash is gone. Things that come from the combination of causes and conditions are all like this, unreal; therefore, there is no need to grasp them.

In the Small Vehicle Dharma, it is taught that all worldly dharmas are born from causes and conditions; all are provisional dharmas, not real. Anything formed by the combination of causes and conditions is a provisional dharma, arising, ceasing, false, and unreal. From the Great Vehicle perspective, why is there combination by causes and conditions? It is all because of the dharma of the ālaya-vijñāna. Without the ālaya-vijñāna, even this chair could not be combined. When I nailed this chair together with labor, if the function of the ālaya-vijñāna did not operate, I could not nail this chair together. Without the ālaya-vijñāna, there would be no wood, because trees cannot grow alone; they rely entirely on the functional operation of the ālaya-vijñāna of sentient beings with shared karma. The growth of all things cannot be separated from the ālaya-vijñāna.

The creation of karmic actions has no doer. Then, is there a receiver for the karmic retribution received? Without a doer, there is no receiver, because the five-aggregate being is a provisionally combined entity with no real subject. Who receives the retribution? There is no "I" experiencing suffering and pleasure. The body does not experience suffering; mental consciousness does not experience suffering. Body and mind are both false; the suffering retribution itself is also illusory. Therefore, in all dharmas, there is no real doer or receiver. No single dharma can be said to be a person; multiple dharmas combined are even less a person; all are false entities. Therefore, the creation of all dharmas has no doer and no receiver. To truly realize this point is not merely enlightenment; it probably reaches the stage of a First Ground Bodhisattva.

Since all dharmas have no real characteristics and are all illusory projections, it can be said that all dharmas are merely the false discrimination of names and appearances. For example, giving a noun to a certain thing to represent and display it; otherwise, it cannot be referred to or expressed. Giving this four-legged thing the name "chair," upon hearing "chair," the appearance of a chair arises in the mind. Only when the name and appearance arise can the chair be discriminatively displayed, facilitating communication and use among sentient beings.

Giving the name "physical body" to the body composed of the four great elements allows people to use language to express the state of the physical body, facilitating recognition and communication. Giving names to the several consciousnesses on the body—eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mental consciousness—and giving the name "manas" to the master consciousness, then one can expound and describe the functions, actions, and states of these consciousnesses, enabling sentient beings to express, display, and communicate. Without names and appearances, sentient beings cannot communicate or live. Giving a provisional name makes it easy. For example, if a towel had originally been named "sheet," when sentient beings need a towel to wipe their face, they would tell the child, "Bring the sheet to wipe my face." As long as it becomes habitual and fixed, what it was originally called doesn't matter; it's all a kind of noun, name, and appearance, without much real meaning.

Original Text: The Buddha said, "Great King, hearing unpleasant sounds with the ear gives rise to worry and distress. It is like a person in a dream experiencing separation from loved ones, wailing and crying, giving rise to great suffering. What do you think? After this person awakens, recalling the events of the dream, were they real?" The King said, "No."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, some people hear unpleasant sounds and give rise to worry, sorrow, and distress in their minds. It is like a person who, in a dream, dreams of parting from loved ones in life and death, grieves and cries, and his mind suffers greatly. What is your view on this? After this person awakens, he still constantly recalls the events of the dream. Were the events in the dream truly existent? King Śuddhodana replied: They were not truly existent.

Original Text: The Buddha said, "Great King, is this person, who grasps what he dreamed as real, wise?" The King said, "No, World-Honored One. Why? The loved ones in the dream, after all, did not exist. How much less could there be any matter of separation? It should be known that this person exhausted himself in vain, with nothing real at all."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, this person regards what he dreamed as real. Is he a wise person? King Śuddhodana replied: That person is not a wise person, World-Honored One. Why is that so? Because the loved ones in the dream, after all, did not exist. If there were a matter of parting from loved ones, that would be even less real. Therefore, it is said that this person pointlessly exhausted his mind and spirit over non-existent people and matters, toiling in vain with no benefit.

Original Text: The Buddha said, "Great King, so it is, so it is. Foolish ordinary beings, hearing unpleasant sounds, give rise to worry and distress, generate angry minds, and create angry karmas—the so-called three bodily, four verbal, and three mental karmas. After creating those karmas, they cease and perish in an instant. After these karmas cease, they do not abide in the east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or in the middle. At the final limit, when the life faculty ceases, the karmic retribution of their own actions all manifests before them, just like awakening from a dream and recalling the events of the dream."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. Foolish ordinary beings hear unpleasant sounds and give rise to worry and distress in their minds. After an angry mind arises, they create angry karmic actions. These actions manifest as three bodily, four verbal, and three mental karmas. After these karmic actions are created, they cease in an instant. After the karmic actions cease, they do not abide in the east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or the middle. When the final moment of life approaches, the karmic fruit retribution created by oneself fully manifests, just like awakening from a dream and still recalling the events of the dream.

When sentient beings create karma, they all feel that no god knows and no ghost notices, as if no one knows. In reality, it cannot be hidden; otherwise, there would be no karmic retribution. First, one's own mind knows and has recorded it. Then, the surrounding ghosts and gods all know; Yama has a record there. Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma-protecting gods all know. At the time, sentient beings with spiritual powers know. Later, when encountering sentient beings with spiritual powers, they will still know. As long as karmic actions are created, it is a file. This file is preserved until after Buddhahood is attained; it never disappears. Even after the retribution is received and the karmic seeds disappear, the file does not disappear. All sentient beings with spiritual powers can look it up.

Original Text: "Great King, consciousness is the master; karma is the object of clinging. These two serve as mutual causes. The initial consciousness arises. Either it goes to the hell realm, or it falls into the animal realm, the realm of Yama, or the realm of asuras, humans, or gods. After the initial consciousness arises, each receives its retribution. The mental factors of the same category continuously follow and revolve. When the final consciousness ceases, it is called the dead aggregates. When the initial consciousness arises, it is called the born aggregates."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the ālaya-vijñāna is the master giving birth to the five aggregates body in the next life. Karmic seeds are the objects. With these causes and conditions combining, the initial consciousness of the next life is born. Then sentient beings go to the hell realm, or fall into the animal realm, or are reborn in the ghost realm—the three evil paths; or are reborn in the asura realm, human realm, and heaven realm—the three good paths. When the initial consciousness arises, sentient beings begin to receive their respective karmic retribution. Then, the consciousnesses on the same physical body continuously operate without interruption. When the consciousness at the end of life ceases, the physical body becomes a corpse, called the dead aggregates. The initial consciousness arising on the physical body is called the initial consciousness, and the five aggregates of the physical body are called the born aggregates.

When the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousnesses of the next life arise, it is because the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousnesses of this life created karmic actions, and the seeds do not cease. This determines that there must be a next life's five aggregates to receive the karmic fruit retribution. When the initial consciousness arises on the five-aggregate body, this person either goes to hell, or to the animal realm, or to the asura realm, or is reborn as a human, or ascends to heaven, revolving in the six paths according to the good and evil karma created by sentient beings.

Original Text: "Great King, there is not the slightest dharma that can go from this world to the next world. Why? Because the nature is subject to birth and cessation. Great King, when the body consciousness arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. When that karma arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. When the initial consciousness arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. Why? Because its nature is apart."

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, there is not a single dharma that can flow from this life to the next life. Why is that said? Because the self-nature of all dharmas is ceaselessly arising and ceasing; they are not constantly existing and abiding. At the end of life when the five aggregates cease, all dharmas will cease. Great King, when the body consciousness arises, it has no source; when it ceases, it has no destination. When karmic actions are created, the actions have no source; when the actions cease, they have no destination. When the initial consciousness of the next life arises, it has no source; when it ceases, it has no destination. Why do all dharmas have no source and no destination? Because all dharmas are apart from all natures; the self-nature of all dharmas has no characteristics; their intrinsic nature is empty, fundamentally unobtainable.

Original Text: "Knowing thus, body consciousness is empty; one's own karma is empty; the initial consciousness is empty. If cessation, cessation is empty; if arising, arising is empty. Knowing the revolving of karma, there is no doer, nor is there a receiver. There are only names and characteristics, discriminatively displayed."

Explanation: One should know the body consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of body consciousness is empty; know the karmic actions created by one's own mental consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of karmic actions is empty; know the initial consciousness thus, knowing that the self-nature of the initial consciousness is empty; know thus that if any dharma arises, its arising is empty; if any dharma ceases, its cessation is empty; simultaneously know the creation and revolving of karmic actions, that there is no doer and no receiver. All dharmas are merely provisional appearances and names discriminatively displayed.

When all dharmas arise, they have no source; when they cease, they have no destination. Why? Because the fundamental nature is apart from all dharmas. When the initial consciousness arises, it has no source; when it ceases, it has no destination. Created karma has no source and no destination. The dharmas of creating karma and receiving karmic retribution are also false. Although false, one can still feel suffering; although feeling suffering, it is also a false, illusory feeling.

Throughout the arising and ceasing of all these dharmas, the ālaya-vijñāna constantly follows the five-aggregate body, playing a leading role behind the scenes. Because it is unborn and unceasing, it is a truly existent dharma. Without it, all dharmas, all false appearances, would cease to exist. It is the reality mind-substance; false-appearance dharmas depend on reality to exist. Among all dharmas, only the ālaya-vijñāna is a reality dharma, truly existent; all other dharmas are false. Going to hell to receive retribution is also false. If one truly knows in hell that hell is empty and illusory, the hell karma is eliminated, and one is liberated from hell. If one does not know hell is false, believes hell truly exists, ignorance does not cease, then one continues to suffer in hell. When sentient beings truly realize that karmic actions are false, that all dharmas are false, the three evil path karmas are eliminated. When not realized, the three evil paths are still truly existent in the mind, so one still must go to the three evil paths to receive retribution.

At the time of enlightenment, one realizes that the five-aggregate body is empty or that all dharmas are empty, all transformed by the ālaya-vijñāna; only the ālaya-vijñāna is not empty. Thus, the three evil path karmas are also eliminated, and one does not fall into the three evil paths to receive evil retribution. If one believes the three evil path karmas are not empty, are truly existent, then one cannot attain the fruit nor become enlightened. Knowing that the karmic actions of the three evil paths are false, the three evil paths cease to exist, and the karmic actions no longer function; it merely transforms the three evil path karma into retribution in the human realm, suffering in the human world.