How Ālayavijñāna Perceives and Discerns the Faculties of Sentient Beings and the Material Environment

The ālayavijñāna discerns sentient beings' faculties and body as well as the material world, because within the ālayavijñāna there are the seven intrinsically existing great seeds, along with sentient beings' karmic seeds. The karmic seeds are stored in the ālayavijñāna, and the ālayavijñāna can apprehend them, knowing whether the karmic seeds have ripened and when they will ripen. It then transmits the seven great seeds to construct sentient beings' five aggregates. Since it discerns the karmic seeds of the five aggregates, it certainly knows what kind of five aggregates a sentient being should have, so that it can transform and construct the five aggregates in accordance with reality. After they have been constructed, the ālayavijñāna knows everything about the condition of the five aggregates, because He constantly sustains the physical body of the five aggregates, continuously transmitting and altering the seeds, so that the physical body can continue to exist and undergo constant development and change. The material world (bhājana-loka) is jointly constructed by the ālayavijñānas of all sentient beings. All ālayavijñānas discern the karmic seeds of the material world within their own substance, and only then can they transmit the four great seeds to construct the cosmic material world; afterwards, they must also jointly sustain the material world, allowing it to undergo arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing.

Only because the ālayavijñāna discerns the faculties, body, and material world can He know how to transform and construct them; otherwise, there would be no way to construct them. He does not construct things arbitrarily and randomly—there is necessarily a pattern and principle. He transforms, constructs, and upholds all dharmas according to the law of cause and effect. After constructing the body, He still must discern the body, knowing how it should change, and He lets the body change accordingly—all in accordance with the law of cause and effect, operating naturally so (dharmatā). He is not like the six consciousnesses, which hold various names and concepts about the body of the five aggregates and the material world and know the specific details of how things are; He does not have this kind of discerning nature and does not make specific discriminations.

He also does not have the function of analysis, deliberation, or judgment. His capacity of knowing is completely different from the knowing of the six consciousnesses. As for the food and drink we consume every day, He extracts the four great elements within them and uses them to further construct the body. He knows how much to extract and how to transform and construct it. Sentient beings with different karma, even though their food and drink are the same and their living environments are the same, nevertheless have different bodies—precisely because their karmic force is different, what the ālayavijñāna constructs is different.