The Gāthā of Dharma Transmission by Vipassī Buddha

Original Text:

The body arises from the formless, like illusions manifesting all appearances. The consciousness of the illusory person is fundamentally nonexistent; both sin and merit are empty, with nothing to abide in.

Explanation:

The first line, "The body arises from the formless," refers to the physical body as the aggregate of form, which obscures sentient beings' consciousness, causing them to mistake the false for the real. Sentient beings have always regarded this physical body as the "self," believing it to be real. "Formless" refers to the ālaya-vijñāna (the eighth consciousness, tathāgatagarbha). This is the true mind—formless, without characteristics of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought, and devoid of any phenomenon within the three realms. It is like space yet not space, for space is insubstantial and illusory, whereas this mind truly exists. It is the true reality (dharmatā), possessing genuine essence and function.

The true mind gives rise to all dharmas, including the physical body. The physical body arises from this mind. Due to the unceasing clinging to self, the manas (seventh consciousness) attaches to the notion of "I." After death, an intermediate state body (antarābhava) arises. When encountering karmically destined parents, the manas carries the eighth consciousness to take rebirth, forming nāmarūpa (name and form, i.e., a fertilized egg). Because the eighth consciousness contains the seeds of the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind), upon contact with the four elements in the mother’s womb, it transforms into a fertilized egg. Every seven days, it changes, growing a head, limbs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. Around the fifth month, the discriminating mind arises, discerning the living environment. Once the six sense faculties are complete, the eighth consciousness "blows the karmic wind," turning the head downward to exit the womb. The eighth consciousness then absorbs the four great elements, transforming the infant into a child, youth, adult, and elder, until death. Thus, the physical body arises from transformations of the eighth consciousness, which, though formless, manifests all appearances.

The second line, "like illusions manifesting all appearances," means the physical body produced by the eighth consciousness is like an illusion—manifesting from nothing into a fertilized egg, then into an adult-sized body, or even bodies as large as an elephant, a dragon, or a garuḍa. It is like a magician suddenly conjuring a beautiful woman in empty space, or a painter freely depicting landscapes and figures on a blank canvas. Like clouds in the sky gathering and dispersing to form a cat, a dog, or a flower—these illusory manifestations come from emptiness and return to emptiness, fundamentally ungraspable. No matter how much one clings, they vanish.

The third line, "The consciousness of the illusory person is fundamentally nonexistent," means sentient beings in the fertilized egg originally lack the six discriminating consciousnesses. There is no discriminative function until around the fifth month, when the sixth consciousness (mano-vijñāna) arises, followed by the ear, nose, tongue, and body consciousnesses. Seven days after birth, the eye consciousness becomes capable of discrimination. These discriminating consciousnesses arise and cease moment by moment; they are unreal. In a single instant, eighty-one thousand mental seeds arise and cease, enabling sentient beings to discriminate the six sense objects. Each seed is delivered by the ālaya-vijñāna. If even one seed fails to be delivered, the discriminative function of consciousness ceases to exist. For example, a lamp requires an electric current to emit light. The current is formed by electrons: one electron arises and ceases, followed immediately by another, and countless electrons link together to form a current. When this current passes through a bulb, light is emitted.

The seeds of consciousness are like those electrons. Similarly, a stream of water is formed by successive drops of water. The seeds of consciousness are like those water droplets. The water flow is drawn by a pump; electrons are generated by a dynamo. The ālaya-vijñāna is like the dynamo and pump, delivering seed after seed of consciousness. Eighty-one thousand seeds arise and cease in succession within an instant, forming consciousness. With the activity of consciousness, the discriminative function exists. If the ālaya-vijñāna departs or ceases to function, consciousness no longer arises, and discriminative function vanishes. The body then becomes like a block of wood.

The fourth line, "both sin and merit are empty, with nothing to abide in," means that sinful and meritorious karmas are created by the deluded mind. While the deluded mind engages in bodily, verbal, and mental actions—whether good, evil, or neutral—the ālaya-vijñāna records and stores them all. When karmic conditions ripen in a future life, the ālaya-vijñāna delivers the karmic seeds, and sentient beings experience the results. However, the five aggregates experiencing retribution differ from those of the previous life. Both the creator of karma and the experiencer of retribution are arising-ceasing, illusory, and unreal. Sinful and meritorious karmas are also arising-ceasing and illusory. Merits vanish once enjoyed; sins disappear after retribution or repentance. All are impermanent dharmas subject to arising and ceasing.

For example, the karma of false speech: before it is created, it exists nowhere. After creation, the speech vanishes, and the karmic action disappears. After disappearance, it goes nowhere. Yet the entire process is fully recorded by the ālaya-vijñāna. False speech itself is illusory. Who commits false speech? The body cannot lie; the mouth cannot lie; the tongue cannot lie—otherwise, a corpse would be capable of false speech. The tongue-consciousness and mind-consciousness cannot lie, for they arise and cease moment by moment. The manas cannot speak and thus cannot lie. The ālaya-vijñāna has no mouth or tongue and certainly cannot lie. Ultimately, there is no agent of false speech; the karma of false speech is illusory.

Sentient beings are manifestations of the ālaya-vijñāna. Like a robot or puppet, an illusory being creates karmic actions that are also illusory. They cannot be condemned, for even if condemned, they cannot bear it. Illusory sentient beings are the same. The illusory nature of sin and merit is demonstrable through many facts. Take the example of King Ajātaśatru: after killing his father, his karmic retribution manifested, and he went to see the World-Honored One. The Buddha analyzed for him the illusory nature of the "father" as a dharma. Thus, the act of "killing the father" was also illusory. Upon understanding this, Ajātaśatru’s sinful karma vanished. At death, he did not fall into the Avīci Hell but was reborn in Sukhāvatī (the Pure Land). This reveals the illusory nature of sinful and meritorious karma.

Furthermore, upon attaining the first fruit of arhatship or realizing the mind’s true nature, all karmic sins from beginningless kalpas leading to the three evil destinies are eradicated. One will never again fall into the three evil destinies to undergo retribution, suffering only in the human realm. All dharmas, including sinful and meritorious karma, are arising-ceasing, impermanent, and empty illusions. By deeply contemplating this principle, one awakens to the truth of the unborn in Mahāyāna, becoming a bodhisattva of true meaning.