The Decisive Role of the Mind Base in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

All living beings experience the great mass of suffering consisting of birth, aging, sickness, and death, entirely due to ignorance, and this ignorance is the ignorance of the mind faculty. Only when the mind faculty possesses ignorance do mental activities and the mental factor of volition arise; with the mental factor of volition, there is the choice to create karma, and only then do the six consciousnesses appear. The first two links of the twelve links of dependent origination both pertain to the mind faculty, and the six consciousnesses of the third link also arise because of the mind faculty. Therefore, the mind faculty holds absolute dominance over birth and death and has a driving force over all other phenomena. Even the karmic actions of the six consciousnesses, the third link, occur in accordance with the mind faculty, and the seeds that settle down also exist because of the mind faculty. Thus, the name-and-form of later lives arises because of the mind faculty. If the mind faculty is defiled, the six consciousnesses become defiled, the seeds become defiled, and the suffering of name-and-form increases, especially the suffering of the three lower realms.

After name-and-form grows and develops, the six sense bases arise. The contact between the six sense bases and the six sense objects is governed by the mind faculty. If the mind faculty clings and proliferates, contact increases, and the karma of birth and death increases; if it clings less, contact decreases, and the karma of birth and death decreases. Although the feeling, craving, and grasping following contact involve the feeling, craving, and grasping of the six consciousnesses, what actually plays a decisive role and leads to the arising of the next link is the feeling, craving, and grasping of the mind faculty. Without the feeling, craving, and grasping of the mind faculty, no subsequent link would arise. The final three links—existence, birth, and aging-and-death—arise entirely because of the grasping of the mind faculty. Therefore, the mind faculty plays a decisive role in the emergence of the cycle of birth and death.

The twelve links of dependent origination elucidate that the mind faculty is the root of birth and death; both liberation and sinking lie with the mind faculty. To transcend birth and death, one must resolve the issue of the mind faculty and eradicate its ignorance. The mind faculty is also the root of the Four Noble Truths—suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the path. Suffering arises from the mental activities of the mind faculty's ignorance, which impel the six consciousnesses to create karma. Accumulation arises from the seeds deposited by the six consciousnesses' karma, impelled by the mind faculty. Cessation is the extinguishing of the mind faculty's ignorant mental activities. The path is attained through the mind faculty's realization of the Dharma.

Since the mind faculty holds such immense decisive power within the cycle of birth and death, it is endowed with all mental factors, including all wholesome mental factors, all unwholesome mental factors, and all neutral mental factors. The mental factors of the mind faculty determine the mental factors of the five consciousnesses and determine the mental factors of the mind consciousness. If the mental factors of the mind faculty change, the mental factors of the six consciousnesses change, and all phenomena change accordingly. If the mental factors of the mind faculty are not changed, even if the mental factors of the six consciousnesses are altered, they will revert to their original state. If the mind faculty's afflictions are not severed, even if the mind consciousness temporarily cuts off afflictions, afflictions will arise again. If the mind faculty lacks meditative concentration, even if the six consciousnesses attain concentration, it will not last long, and they will inevitably become scattered again.