Saṃyukta Āgama (287), Part Two

(2) Original text: 何法有故名色有。何法缘故名色有。即正思惟。如实无间等生。识有故名色有。识缘故有名色有。我作是思惟时。齐识而还不能过彼。谓缘识名色。缘名色六入处。缘六入处触。缘触受。缘受爱。缘爱取。缘取有。缘有生。缘生老病死忧悲恼苦。如是如是纯大苦聚集。

Explanation: The Buddha said: I again gave rise to this thought: By the existence of what dharma does name-and-form come into existence? Conditioned on what dharma does name-and-form come into existence? I then entered right contemplation, and afterward there arose wisdom that was true, uninterrupted, and continuous, knowing that it is because the ālayavijñāna exists that name-and-form arise, and that it is with the ālayavijñāna as the condition that name-and-form arise. When I was engaged in such contemplation, my contemplation reached the ālayavijñāna and could go no further back, because there was no dharma beyond it. That is to say, there is no dharma that can give birth to the ālayavijñāna or cause the ālayavijñāna to arise; going back before the ālayavijñāna, there is no dharma that can go beyond the ālayavijñāna.

This is tracing against the current of birth-and-death to its source. The source of birth-and-death lies at the ālayavijñāna; from the ālayavijñāna the flow of birth-and-death transmigrates. Conditioned on the ālayavijñāna there is name-and-form; conditioned on name-and-form there arises the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana); conditioned on the six sense bases there arises contact; conditioned on contact there arises feeling; conditioned on feeling there arises craving; conditioned on craving there is grasping (upādāna); conditioned on grasping there is the existence of the three realms; conditioned on existence there is birth; conditioned on birth there are old age, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). In this way, the great suffering of birth-and-death in the three realms is assembled. Why does the flow of birth-and-death transmigrate from the ālayavijñāna? Because the manas has ignorance and desires to possess the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), the ālayavijñāna complies with the manas's ignorance and karmic seeds and gives birth to the three-realm world and the body of the five aggregates, within which birth-and-death manifest vividly.

The twelve links of dependent origination follow ignorance, resulting in the flow of birth-and-death and the arising of suffering; the ten links of dependent origination extinguish ignorance and go against the flow of birth-and-death to extinguish suffering. The reason there is the flow of birth-and-death through the twelve links of dependent origination is that sentient beings' manas has ignorance. With ignorance as the condition, the ālayavijñāna, by means of ignorance, gives birth to a whole chain of birth-and-death, pushing sentient beings into the ocean of suffering. As for the ten links of dependent origination going against the flow of birth-and-death, one traces back from the phenomena of birth, old age, sickness, and death all the way to the ālayavijñāna. If one can realize the ālayavijñāna and know how the ālayavijñāna gives birth to the name-and-form of the five aggregates, one becomes a bodhisattva and enters into the practice of the Mahāyāna.

If one personally realizes each link of both the twelve links and the ten links of dependent origination, one becomes a pratyekabuddha, a solitary enlightened one, a sage of the middle vehicle. Although pratyekabuddhas personally realize each link of the ten links of dependent origination, at the point of the ālayavijñāna they merely infer it to truly exist, and have not realized the ālayavijñāna, nor found where the ālayavijñāna operates and what function it performs. Therefore, this does not count as the realization of the ālayavijñāna; this is a difference in essence from the realization of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas.