The Meanings of Maturation Consciousness, Maturation Habit-Energies, Equally Flowing Habit-Energies, and Undefiled Consciousness

The vipākavijñāna (retributive consciousness) is another name for the tathāgatagarbha, representing the true mind of bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above. The vipākavijñāna indicates that the karmic seeds within the mind-substance can still cause the bodhisattva to have subtle birth-and-death transmigration, still have transformation, so that he cannot become a Buddha, nor attain ultimate nirvāṇa. This subtle birth-and-death is distinct from the coarse segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa). The Ālayavijñāna stores the seeds of segmented birth-and-death of sentient beings prior to the eighth bhūmi, meaning that sentient beings at this stage have defiled karma of segmented birth-and-death within their seven consciousnesses and five aggregates (pañca-skandha). The vipākavijñāna stores the seeds of transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa) of sentient beings after the eighth bhūmi, indicating that bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above still have subtle birth-and-death seeds that need to be eliminated; only when they are eliminated completely can one become a Buddha, at which point the vipākavijñāna is renamed the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna).

Vipāka habituation (vāsanā), also called the habituation of birth-and-death transmigration, the habituation of ignorance, and the habituation of afflictions, is extremely subtle. It generally refers to the habituation of ignorance of bodhisattvas after the eighth bhūmi, and can also be said to be the habituation of afflictions of bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi upward. Where there is habituation, there is birth-and-death; only when habituation is severed completely can one become a Buddha.

The "equal" (niyama) in "equal-flowing habituation" (niyanda-vāsanā) means equal and identical; "flowing" means transmigration, indicating the habituation by which the same consciousness transmigrates continuously, or the habituation by which the same sentient being continues unchanged.

The "pure white consciousness" is another name for the eighth consciousness during the bodhisattva stages from the eighth bhūmi upward. The karmic seeds contained within the mind-substance of the eighth consciousness are pure and white, mostly seeds of white, wholesome karma; seeds of black, unwholesome karma have almost disappeared and can no longer manifest. At this time, the eighth consciousness can be called the Ādānavijñāna.