Explanation of the *Mahāyāna Sūtra of Revealing Consciousness*

Original text: 贤护。识弃此身。受他生者。众生死时。识为业障所缠。报尽命终。犹如灭定。阿罗汉识。如阿罗汉。入灭尽定。其阿罗汉识。从身灭转。如是死者之识。弃身及界。乘于念力而作。是知彼如是。我某乙生平。所作事业。临终咸现。忆念明了。身之与心。二受逼切。

When the first six consciousnesses of a dying person cease, the manas perceives this and at the same time observes the condition of the material body, knowing that it is unusable and beyond hope. The deliberation mental factor (cetanā) then decides to leave the material body and seek a new one. The Ālayavijñāna, in accordance with the manas, gradually departs from the material body, and the two leave together. When an arhat enters the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha-samāpatti) and wishes to leave the three realms and enter nirvāṇa without remainder, it is likewise decided by the deliberation mental factor of the manas. Thus, the consciousness of the dying person abandons the material body and the eighteen realms, acting by relying on the power of mindfulness of the manas, because all of these actions are driven by the manas, directed by its deliberation mental factor.

Afterwards, the manas still wishes to be reborn and possess a material body. The Ālayavijñāna, following this power of mindfulness of the manas, either produces an intermediate-stage body (antarā-bhava) for its use, or directly takes rebirth in the heavens. The manas does not wish to extinguish itself, because it has not eradicated its attachment to self; it always wants itself to continue existing, to have another five-aggregate body to use. The Ālayavijñāna accedes to it and manifests an intermediate-stage body — this is acting by relying on the power of mindfulness of the manas. When an arhat extinguishes the material body and the eighteen realms, this too is the Ālayavijñāna acting by relying on the power of mindfulness of the manas. The arhat's manas is mindful of leaving the three realms, of leaving birth-and-death, and the Ālayavijñāna accordingly departs from the material body and no longer gives rise to any dharma. When ordinary sentient beings are on the verge of death, the manas likewise decides to leave the material body, mindful of taking rebirth in the body of the next life, and the Ālayavijñāna also accordingly manifests an intermediate-stage body — this is acting by relying on the power of mindfulness of the manas.

When sentient beings are about to die, they know that their life is ending just like this. All the wholesome and unwholesome deeds they have done throughout their entire life all manifest, remembered with complete clarity, without the slightest confusion — this is the recollection arising within the mind consciousness.

At this time the sentient being has not yet breathed his last. Before a person departs, the entire course of this life flashes by rapidly like a movie being played, and the mind consciousness knows what it has done in this life and where it is going — whether it will be reborn in a wholesome destiny or an evil destiny; it knows all of this. Afterwards, the mind consciousness ceases. The manas, knowing there is no hope, leaves the material body, carrying its attachment and craving for self, and thus an intermediate-stage body appears.

While the mind consciousness has not yet vanished, "body and mind, both feelings are pressed and urgent" — both body and mind are in extreme suffering. The suffering of the body is due to the dissolution of the four great elements. The suffering of the mind arises from one, despair over life; two, separation from loved ones; and three, no longer being able to crave the worldly. Thus body and mind endure the torment of suffering.

Original text: 贤护。识是何义。识名为种。能生众类。杂报身牙。知觉想念。同苞于识。知苦知乐。知恶知善。及善恶境。故名为识。如汝所问。云何识离此身。而受余报。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Xianhu (Bhadrapāla), what is the meaning of "consciousness" (vijñāna)? Consciousness is named "seed" (bīja) — it is the seed consciousness, the mind-substance that contains and stores seeds, holding the seeds of beings' karmic actions and the inherent seeds for the arising of the five aggregates and the world. The Ālayavijñāna, by means of these seeds, produces the various complex karmic retributive bodies of sentient beings. The knowing nature, awareness nature, mindfulness nature, and perceiving nature of sentient beings are also simultaneously contained within the substance of the Ālayavijñāna. Only after sentient beings are born can they know suffering and happiness, know evil and good, and know the various wholesome and unwholesome states. Because it contains these seeds, it is called the Ālayavijñāna. Just as you asked: how does the Ālayavijñāna abandon this body and receive the remaining karmic retributive body?

Because the Ālayavijñāna contains the seeds of the five-aggregate body, it can give rise to the sprout of the five-aggregate body. Seeds have the aspect of generative capacity, able to give rise to karmic retributive bodies of every kind — every kind of retribution exists, because every kind of karma has been created. The "body sprout" refers to the sprout of the body faculty, generally meaning the body faculty within the embryo. At the same time, the seeds of the knowing, perceiving, awareness, and mindfulness natures of sentient beings are also contained within the Ālayavijñāna. When the consciousness seeds within the mind-substance are transmitted outward, sentient beings possess the knowing, perceiving, awareness, and mindfulness natures; when these functions of mind consciousness appear, they know suffering, know happiness, know good and bad, and know wholesome and unwholesome states. The knowing nature refers to the knowing of the six consciousnesses, not the Ālayavijñāna; the Ālayavijñāna does not know suffering, does not know happiness, does not know good, does not know evil, and does not know wholesome or unwholesome states. These two kinds of consciousness-nature are easily confused. When we read the sūtras, we must distinguish whether the "consciousness" spoken of in the sūtra refers to the six consciousnesses or to the Ālayavijñāna, in order to correctly understand the sūtra's meaning.

The Buddha said: Just as you asked — why does the Ālayavijñāna leave the material body and receive other retributive bodies? The material bodies of sentient beings in the six destinies are all retributive bodies, and the material bodies of the four kinds of noble ones are also retributive bodies, only wholesome retributive bodies. The Ālayavijñāna itself does not receive retribution; the six-consciousness bodies that it transforms and manifests receive the retribution. The Ālayavijñāna merely goes to transform, manifest, and carry the retribution of sentient beings. In actuality, it is the manas that receives the retribution, but the manas has no feelings of suffering or happiness — it has neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā). If it were the six-consciousness mind receiving the retribution, the six-consciousness mind ceases at the time of death, and the six-consciousness mind of the next life is a new one; the original six consciousnesses cannot receive the retribution, and the Ālayavijñāna even less receives retribution — it does not feel suffering or happiness, and it is entirely neutral feeling. It also does not become an animal, a hungry ghost, a human, a deva, and so on; it does not become anything at all, and therefore does not receive retribution.