The Harmful Effects of the Three Poisons: Greed, Hatred, and Delusion (III)

When our body is unhealthy, we should examine our own mental state—whether there are thoughts and emotions involving greed, hatred, and delusion that obstruct and affect the physical body. These emotions are most capable of producing toxins in the body and impairing its functions. Physical ill-health arises from one of two causes: one is afflictive factors in this present life, and the other is karmic force carried over from past lives. The unwholesome karmic actions created in past lives can summon forth an unhealthy physical body in this life, a body beset with all kinds of illnesses, because the physical body is the master of karmic retribution. When we now give rise to the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and commit unwholesome karma, the condition of the physical body must undergo change, exerting an adverse influence upon it. Once the physical body is affected, it gradually and quietly begins to change; the initial changes are not easy to detect, but once they have accumulated over a long time, the physical body will undergo a qualitative transformation, and then the symptoms of illness become clearly manifest.

Our mental emotions—the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, as well as various unwholesome mental states—can all affect the health of the physical body, and the mental activities of the six consciousnesses can also influence our physical body. Since the physical body can be changed under the influence of the six consciousnesses, it follows that the production of all dharmas does not rest with the eighth consciousness alone; there are also the seventh consciousness (manas) and the first six consciousnesses. The eight consciousnesses operate in harmonious conjunction to produce all dharmas, but the seeds all come from the eighth consciousness. Our physical body is changing at every moment, and this is related not only to the eighth consciousness but also to the present mental activities of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

If the six-consciousness mind that responds to sense objects is calm and placid, the physical body remains in its original state, unaffected. If the six-consciousness mind is neither calm nor placid, and the emotions undergo a sudden upheaval, then the physical body will be in another state entirely: heart pounding and flesh quivering, trembling all over, veins bulging, complexion sallow, lips turning purple, calves shaking, face flushed and neck thick, fainting, and so on—the functioning of the physical body becomes neither smooth nor normal. This shows that the functioning of the physical body is related to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. All dharmas are manifested jointly by the three consciousnesses operating in conjunction; they are not produced by the eighth consciousness alone—this is called "all dharmas are consciousness-only." The meaning of "the three realms are mind-only" is that all dharmas in the world of the three realms come from the eighth consciousness, manifested by it through its seeds; therefore all dharmas come from the eighth consciousness.

When the eighth consciousness encounters conditions, it can give birth to and transform the myriad dharmas of the world and transform the five-aggregate physical body, and these conditions of course include the mental activities of the six-consciousness mind. Whether the six-consciousness mind operates in a pure or defiled manner—whether it carries the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion or not—makes the changes in the physical body different. The six fundamental afflictions—greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong views—are poisoning the present mind and also poisoning the future five-aggregate body and mind. Why can the six fundamental afflictions also affect the future? Because the seeds of created karma are stored in the eighth consciousness, and when, in the future, these seeds are delivered forth upon encountering conditions, the mental activities of the six consciousnesses will be defiled. With the accumulation, life after life, of defiled karmic seeds, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion become ever more severe, the physical body becomes ever less healthy, and both the direct retribution and the circumstantial retribution become ever less satisfactory.

Therefore each of us should properly subdue our own afflictions and innate afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa). Having subdued greed, hatred, delusion, and arrogance, we not only bring an atmosphere of joy and harmony to others, but the greatest beneficiary is ourselves: physical health, mental happiness, an open and expansive heart, free of worry and affliction, and increased merit. Having countered our own afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and resolved all afflictions and sorrows, everything around us becomes pleasant. Not only will we be free of affliction and vexation life after life, but in the future we can become a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, attain buddhahood, and become the honored one of the three realms.