Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (108)

The Aggregate of Death and the Aggregate of Birth

Original text: 大王。识为其主。业为攀缘。二种相因。初识生起。或趣地狱。或堕傍生。琰摩罗界。及阿修罗。若人若天。初识生已。各受其报。同分心品。相续随转。最后识灭。名为死蕴。最初识起。名为生蕴。

Explanation: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna is the master that gives birth to the five-aggregate body of the next life, and the karmic seeds and karmic force serve as the object condition (ālambana-pratyaya). When these two causes and conditions come together, the initial consciousness of the next life arises. Sentient beings may proceed to the hells, or fall into the realm of hungry ghosts, or be reborn among animals—the three evil destinies; or they may be reborn in the three good destinies: the asura destiny, the human destiny, and the heavenly destiny. Once the initial consciousness has arisen, sentient beings begin to each receive their karmic retribution, and then the consciousness on that same material body continues to run on without interruption. When the consciousness ceases at the end of life, the material body becomes a corpse, which is called the aggregate of death; whereas the consciousness that first arises on the material body is called the initial consciousness, and the material body with its five aggregates is called the aggregate of birth.