The Cause of the Birth and Transformation of Consciousness

Question: It is said that the consciousness of this present life is entirely new, unrelated to previous lives, and does not cognize past lives. Consciousness arises when the manas (seventh consciousness) contacts mental objects (dharma-dhātu) from the eighth consciousness. Does the consciousness thus produced carry specific characteristics? Consciousness is new every day, all born from the eighth consciousness, with no distinction. Memory is related to the subtle sense faculty (indriya). The subtle sense faculty is the locus where mental images form; consciousness only discriminates at the locus of the subtle sense faculty. The subtle sense faculty of the present life determines the characteristics of the present life's consciousness. The reason for not remembering past lives lies not with consciousness itself, but with the entirely new subtle sense faculty. Because the subtle sense faculty is material form (rūpa-dharma), and material form cannot be carried over by its ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness) and manas (seventh consciousness) during rebirth. The characteristics of consciousness are related to the subtle sense faculty; the nature of consciousness is determined by the subtle sense faculty. From the fetal stage, the subtle sense faculty of this life is established, along with the characteristic features of this life's consciousness. The consciousness born from the same ālaya-vijñāna possesses the same mental factors (caittas). Differences or variations lie in the subtle sense faculty. Is this correct?

Answer: Consciousness arises from the ālaya-vijñāna after the manas contacts mental objects (dharma-dhātu). Consciousness depends on the five aggregates (skandhas). When the body composed of the five aggregates changes, the subtle sense faculty changes, and consequently, consciousness changes. Because the subtle sense faculties upon which the consciousness of past lives and the present life depend are different, consciousness differs. The consciousness in dreams also differs from that in the waking state. The consciousness of today and yesterday is the same consciousness, belonging to the same body of five aggregates, remembering largely the same content, yet there are slight differences: differences in understanding things, differences in viewpoints and perceptions, differences in memory, and differences in cognitive ability. Especially when karmic obstructions (karmāvaraṇa) change, and the subtle sense faculty changes, the cognitive and perceptive abilities of consciousness also change.

The issue of memory is related to karmic seeds (bīja), the subtle sense faculty, and the manas. What interests the manas is surely well remembered; the more the manas attends to something, the better it is remembered.

The arising of consciousness depends on specific conditions (pratyaya). If the conditions are not complete, consciousness does not arise; when conditions change, consciousness changes. The seeds of consciousness in dreams and in the waking state are the same, yet the content cognized by the isolated mental consciousness (dream consciousness) during dreams is not easily known by the sense-accompanied consciousness (pañcaviññāṇa) of the waking state. The consciousness during a vegetative state differs even more from normal consciousness. When the subtle sense faculty is unobstructed and the brain is well-nourished, the memory function of consciousness is good; conversely, when the brain lacks nourishment, the memory function of consciousness weakens, cognitive ability diminishes, and thinking capacity decreases. This is the case with people suffering from cerebellar atrophy, who may also experience hallucinations and abnormal cognitive phenomena.