Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Revelation of Consciousness (72)

Original text: 月实童真复白佛言。世尊。将死之时。云何识舍于身。云何识迁于身。云何识知。今舍此身。佛告月实。众生随业获报。识流相续。持身不绝。期毕报终。识弃舍身。随业迁受。譬如水乳和煎。以火热力。乳水及腻。各各分散。如是月实。众生命尽。以业力散。形骸与识。及诸入界。各各分散。识为所依。以取法界。及法界念。并善恶业。迁受他报。

Explanation: The kumārabhūta Yueshi (Yue Shi) said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, at the time of death, how does the Ālayavijñāna relinquish the material body? How does the Ālayavijñāna depart from the material body? How does the Ālayavijñāna know that it should now relinquish the material body?

By what does the Ālayavijñāna know that it should now relinquish and depart from the material body? It must be that it has cognized the karmic seeds and, based on those karmic seeds, decides to depart from the body. The Ālayavijñāna manifests and sustains the material body in accordance with the karmic seeds. When the karmic seeds indicate that at a certain moment the four great elements' seeds should no longer be transmitted to maintain the existence of the material body, the Ālayavijñāna knows at which minute the material body should disappear and that the four great elements should be withdrawn and no longer emitted. At that moment, the material body disintegrates into the four great elements, the six sense objects can no longer be manifested normally, the six consciousnesses can no longer normally discern the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses gradually cease, and the manas together with the tathāgatagarbha depart from the body.

The Buddha told Yueshi that sentient beings receive karmic retribution in accordance with their wholesome and unwholesome karma. Only when the Ālayavijñāna continuously transmits seeds into the material body in an unbroken stream can it continue to sustain the existence and ongoing functioning of the material body. Only when the lifespan comes to an end does the Ālayavijñāna decide to relinquish the material body, and in accordance with the sentient being's wholesome and unwholesome karma, it flows onward to the material body of the next life.

It is like water and milk mixed together and heated over a fire: the milk floats to the top, the water stays below, and the water and milk each separate. The lives of sentient beings are like this too: because of karmic conditions, when a sentient being's life ends, the five aggregates disintegrate and break apart, the material body and the mind-consciousness separate, and the six faculties and six sense objects all separate from one another.

The Ālayavijñāna is that upon which sentient beings' lives depend. After He relinquishes the original material body, the seeds of the five aggregates return to the Ālayavijñāna; the seeds of the four great elements and the seeds of consciousness all return to the Ālayavijñāna. When the causes and conditions are complete, the Ālayavijñāna, in accordance with the power of the manas' mindfulness and the seeds of wholesome and unwholesome karma, migrates to the five aggregates of the next life, again emitting seeds to form the five-aggregate body of the next life, whereupon the six faculties, six consciousnesses, and six sense objects all appear again.

Here, the "stream of consciousness" refers, first, to the seeds of the Ālayavijñāna itself being transmitted forth instant after instant, so that the Ālayavijñāna continues to operate without interruption and without cessation; and second, to the Ālayavijñāna transmitting the seeds of the seven consciousnesses, allowing the seven consciousnesses to operate continuously, thereby sustaining the life activities of the five-aggregate body. The Ālayavijñāna constantly sustains our material body, allowing the life activities of the material body to continue without interruption. When this present life ends, the retribution of this present life also comes to an end, and the Ālayavijñāna relinquishes this material body.