Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (70)

Original text: 大王。识为其主。业为攀缘。二种相因。初识生起。或趣地狱。或堕傍生。琰摩罗界。及阿修罗。若人若天。初识生起。各受其报。同分心品。相续随转。最后识灭。名为死蕴。最初识起。名为生蕴。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna is the master that gives birth to the five-aggregate body of the next life, and the karmic seeds serve as the object condition (ālambana-pratyaya). When these two kinds of causes and conditions come together, the first consciousness of the next life arises. Sentient beings may proceed to the hells, or fall into the realm of hungry ghosts, or be reborn among animals—the three evil destinies; or they may be reborn in the three good destinies: the asura destiny, the human destiny, and the heavenly destiny. After the first conscious mind arises, sentient beings begin to each receive their karmic retribution, and then the conscious mind continues to run on without interruption upon that same material body. When life ends and the conscious mind ceases, the material body becomes a corpse, which is called the aggregate of death. The conscious mind that first arises upon the material body is called the first consciousness, and the five aggregates of the material body are called the aggregate of birth.