Revealing the Operating Mechanism of the Five-Aggregate Body of Conjoined Twins

There is a pair of conjoined twin sisters with two heads. A large portion of their body is shared: the parts above the heart are each independent, each person has one independent arm and one leg, the middle and lower portions of the torso are partly shared, and in total one-half to two-thirds of the body is independent of each other. The sisters' spines are fused at the pelvis, they share part of the nervous system, and they share one set of reproductive organs. They can ride a bicycle, play ball, swim, and drive a car together.

 The two of them entered the womb and dwelt in the womb together. In the mother's womb, the tathāgatagarbhas of the two people jointly, in accordance with karmic seeds, transformed and fabricated the shared parts of the body and their respective different parts. Of course, they had shared karmic seeds: in past lives they had performed shared karmic actions, their relationship was extremely close, and they had shared many things, to the point that in this life they must share one body. They must live closely together in tight cooperation, otherwise neither of them could survive. This is karmic obstruction (karmāvaraṇa) — an extremely unfree and non-independent karmic obstruction. Therefore, relationships between people should maintain an appropriate distance: do not be too intimate, and do not vow about what you will do in future lives. When the future life actually comes and things turn out that way, it is not necessarily joyful — it may even be extremely painful.

 The tathāgatagarbhas of the two people, in accordance with the same karmic seeds, output the seeds of the four great elements to become shared four great elements, which operate in harmony to create the shared parts of the body; whereas the parts that are each independent must be transformed and fabricated by each tathāgatagarbha separately outputting the seeds of the four great elements. When the material body was somewhat complete, the two tathāgatagarbhas each gave rise to a mind consciousness, and thus there were two awarenesses. When the gestation was full, they were born together and became conjoined sisters. Fortunately, the two are of the same sex; if they were of different sexes, living together would have been very awkward.

 The two people's hands and legs need to cooperate together, and the activities of the five aggregates — eating, dressing, walking, and so on — also require the two to cooperate together in coordination. Their mental deliberations are each their own, their habits and preferences differ, and their temperaments and dispositions are also not the same. Being joined together, they must accommodate and coordinate with each other, otherwise it will be very unpleasant. Each has her own breathing and heartbeat; food and water each go into their own stomach — each person eats and each is filled — but the digestive system below the stomach must have shared parts, to jointly digest this food and drink, and then excrete it through a shared excretory system. Although each eats her own food, there is still mutual influence: if one person is ill, the other can take medicine on her behalf.

Because the two share part of the nervous system, their stress responses and reactions to the external world are largely the same. Although the manas of the two people differ in disposition, and their ways of responding have slight differences, because they have wholesome karmic affinity, when responding to shared people, matters, and objects, they will cooperate with and accommodate each other. From this it can be seen that the division of labor and cooperation between the two tathāgatagarbhas is extremely subtle and wondrous. The tathāgatagarbha knows everything, so as long as the karmic seeds allow, the tathāgatagarbhas will certainly cooperate closely, completing the work of coordination without words or mental thought — this is truly inconceivable.

 Among the six consciousnesses, the mutual cooperation of the two people's body consciousnesses is the most frequent; they must cooperate with each other almost constantly, otherwise nothing can be accomplished, because the nervous systems are interconnected and can perceive each other. The two people's eye faculties are on their respective heads, and each uses her own eye consciousness; but because they are on one body, the material objects they face cannot differ by much, so their visual range is limited. The ear faculties are on two heads, each with its own ear consciousness, each hearing its own sounds; the nose faculties are on their respective heads, each with its own nose consciousness, each able to smell its own scent objects; the tongue faculties are on their respective heads, each with its own tongue consciousness, each able to taste its own taste objects; the manas are each their own, and the mind consciousnesses each reside in their own supreme faculty (indriya), deliberating and discerning different dharmas.

 When the two people's five-aggregate bodies are to move, the two sets of eight consciousnesses must cooperate closely with each other, each with its own division of labor — equivalent to sixteen consciousnesses dividing the work and cooperating, far more complex than eight consciousnesses. The shared parts of the lower abdomen are many — almost everything is shared — so when digesting and excreting, the minds must be applied to one place, with shared intention and shared feeling, unable to be separated from each other. When one is ill, it is as if both are ill; when there is pain, both feel pain at the same time; yet it is still each one's own body consciousness and mind consciousness that separately sense the illness and pain, so the feelings will have some differences.

 Among the seven consciousnesses, the most closely connected is the cooperation of the two body consciousnesses. Sharing one body, their cooperation is extremely swift, nearly seamless, without the slightest sense of discord, and not forced. Most crucial is the directing and operating of the two manas. If both people have strong grasping at self (ātma-grāha), and their habits are diametrically opposed, then they will quarrel constantly. If the two have wholesome karmic affinity, then although their personalities, dispositions, habits, and preferences differ, they can still coordinate very well, applying their minds to one place and caring for each other — only thus can they obtain the greatest benefit.

 When lying in bed to sleep, the two manas jointly decide to lie down, and they cannot move the body casually, for fear of affecting the other. If one person falls asleep, the six consciousnesses cease, and the body consciousness also ceases. When the other person has not yet fallen asleep, if she moves the body, it will prompt the other person's mind consciousness and body consciousness to arise, and thus she will wake up. If one mentally deliberates too much, it will also affect the other's sleep, because they share a nervous system; and even without that, the power of mental thought and the power of the magnetic field will affect the other person — here many secrets are involved.

 If one person's body gradually becomes unusable, or she dies, the functions and operations of the material body belonging to that person will no longer function. The head no longer works, the supreme faculty (indriya) is destroyed, one arm and leg are useless, the heart stops beating, and the internal organs can no longer be used. The other person is still alive, and will have to make do with an incomplete body, whose functions will also be greatly affected and limited; after all, the dead portion of the body cannot be completely removed, and it will transmit some diseases. Even if the transmission of disease can be prevented, the loss of some functions will greatly hinder the five-aggregate functions of the one who survives; life will be quite inconvenient, the quality of life will decline greatly, and her lifespan will not be long either.

 Where there is life there is the feeling of suffering; how much more so when it is not a normal life — a life with two bodies joined together is even more suffering. But because sentient beings crave existence, they may not feel the suffering; on the contrary, they keep pursuing pleasure, even taking suffering as joy. Such is the ignorance and folly of sentient beings: those with extremely heavy craving, however much they suffer, will not have any thought or pursuit of escaping suffering. With wisdom and without folly, there will be no craving; one will know suffering and seek to sever and escape it. Therefore, the root of liberation lies in wisdom.