Why Did the World-Honored One Not Expound the Profound Dharma Teachings of Vijñānavāda to Ordinary Beings and Śrāvakas?

Original text from the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: The ālaya-vijñāna is profoundly deep and subtle; all seeds flow like a torrent. I do not expound this to the foolish and ignorant, lest they misconstrue and cling to it as a self.

Explanation: The ālaya-vijñāna is an exceedingly profound and subtle Dharma principle, difficult to know, difficult to understand, and difficult to realize. The seeds contained within the ālaya-vijñāna continuously flow out like a torrent, forming the various phenomena of the five-aggregate world. I am unable to expound this Dharma principle—that the ālaya-vijñāna emits seeds to produce worldly phenomena—to ordinary worldlings and foolish śrāvakas. If it were expounded, ordinary people and śrāvakas would mistake the phenomena formed by the seeds as being a self and what belongs to the self, thereby giving rise to clinging and increasing their entanglement in birth and death.

The phenomena of the five-aggregate world formed by the ālaya-vijñāna using seeds are all encompassed within the five aggregates, the inner six elements and the outer six elements, the six sense faculties and six consciousnesses, which together constitute the eighteen elements, possessing the functions of the five aggregates. The inherent seeds within the ālaya-vijñāna include the seven great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness, and perception, which are neither born nor extinguished. The externally entering seeds are the karmic seeds of arising and ceasing deposited by the actions of the five aggregates. These seeds combine and continuously surge forth moment by moment like a torrent, flowing unceasingly year after year, month after month, day after day, aeon after aeon, causing the five-aggregate world to ceaselessly revolve in cycles of birth and death. If such a profound and subtle Dharma principle were expounded to ordinary people and śrāvaka disciples of the two vehicles, they would think that the phenomena of the five-aggregate world all originally arise from my ālaya-vijñāna and all belong to me. If the ālaya-vijñāna is not empty, then I am not empty. Thus, they would cling even more to the phenomena of the five-aggregate world born from the ālaya-vijñāna, thereby further increasing their entanglement in birth and death.

However, bodhisattvas on the bhūmis who possess the wisdom of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātra) and the wisdom of seeds (bīja-jñāna), having realized the functional nature of all the seeds of the ālaya-vijñāna, realize that the phenomena of the five-aggregate world are all illusory manifestations produced by the ālaya-vijñāna using seeds; they are all empty, with no real five-aggregate world. Therefore, their wisdom no longer clings to the five-aggregate world, their minds become emptier, and they gradually transition from the stage of segmental birth and death (saṃsāra) to the stage of transformational birth and death (pariṇāma-cyuti), progressing towards great liberation and ultimate liberation. Thus, it can be seen that the very same Dharma principle, due to differences in wisdom, gives rise to differences in understanding, leading to differences in practice. Consequently, one results in increased clinging, while the other eradicates clinging and attains liberation.