Miscellaneous Discourses on the Dharma (Part II)
Chapter 8: Sentient Beings and Insentient Phenomena
1. The Difference Between Sentient Beings and Insentient Phenomena
The fundamental difference between sentient beings and insentient phenomena lies in this: the material body of a sentient being is born and sustained solely by that being's own tathāgatagarbha, and on that material body there are the discriminating functions of the seven consciousnesses, and thus there is the activity of the five aggregates. The material form of insentient phenomena, however, is produced and sustained collectively by the tathāgatagarbhas of beings with shared karma, and has no seven consciousnesses or five aggregates. Because the seven consciousnesses are produced by the consciousness-seeds emitted by a single tathāgatagarbha, they cannot possibly be formed by many tathāgatagarbhas jointly emitting consciousness-seeds. Therefore insentient objects have no activity of the seven consciousnesses or five aggregates and are not sentient beings. The fundamental difference between the five-aggregate activity of sentient beings and the material activity of insentient phenomena is that the five-aggregate body of sentient beings has the functions of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness.
If a being's manas feels that a certain material form is useful to it and can serve as its material body, its tathāgatagarbha and manas will enter into or attach to that material form and generate five-aggregate activity—this is the phenomenon of possession in sentient beings. The reason beings want to enter the womb is that they want to have five-aggregate activity; without a material form there is no way to carry out five-aggregate activity. So all beings will try every means to enter the womb. If they truly lack the merit and opportunity to enter a womb, they will use some material form as their material body and then carry out five-aggregate activity on that material form. Therefore, on the material body of a sentient being there must be the aggregate of feeling, or the functions of the aggregates of perception, volitional formations, and consciousness; only when these functions combine can a five-aggregate being be formed. If a material form cannot be used by a being and cannot generate five-aggregate activity, the being will not attach to that material form.
When an earthworm is cut into two, three, or several segments, each segment may survive, and at that point each segment of the body becomes a separate earthworm; a separate earthworm is a single sentient being, with its own tathāgatagarbha facilitating its own five-aggregate activity, and the same is true of the other surviving segments. Because the earthworm's body has a special regenerative function, its bodily functions can be utilized; when a being's tathāgatagarbha and manas enter into it, they can possess their own material body and have five-aggregate activity. The bodies of other animals, once cut open, cannot regenerate and can no longer be used as a material body, so beings will not enter into them, and the severed limbs will decay and perish.
Those beings without the merit or karmic connection to enter a womb will use any usable material as their material body. The number of beings in the great trichiliocosm is enormous, and there are very many solitary ghosts and spirits without material bodies in a wandering state. They will not let pass any opportunity to enter a womb, doing everything they can to be reborn or to possess a body, so as to have their own five-aggregate activity. Without a material body they feel they have nothing to rely on and feel intense suffering; being able to use a material body to live in the world gives them something to rely on—no one wishes to be bodiless. If environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity are suitable, there will be especially many beings entering wombs or possessing bodies; they may become various bacterial kinds of beings, or enter into extremely tiny wriggling, crawling kinds of beings. No matter what kind of being they enter into, as long as they can have a material body as a support, they are willing. Even though the life of bacteria arises, abides, changes, and perishes extremely quickly—entering a body and dying, entering again and dying again—they still want to enter, because the feeling of being bodiless is truly bitter.
2. Does Destroying Viruses Constitute Killing?
Viruses are bacterial kinds of beings that are harmful and of no benefit to humans. Since they are called sentient beings, killing them is called killing. However, the precept against killing established by the Buddha does not include bacterial kinds of beings, because in the human realm of the Sahā world, no one can avoid bacteria and survive—except those with great supernatural powers.
Bacterial beings are everywhere, filling the sky and covering the earth—utterly countless. Bacteria are everywhere inside the body, on the skin, and in the air; they are also in food. Leavened dough relies on bacteria to rise; various enzymes, pickled foods, and so on all rely on bacteria. Without bacteria, humans would not be able to enjoy many foods and drinks. Human survival must depend on bacterial beings; otherwise we could not survive. For example, the digestion, absorption, and excretion of food and drink, and the peristalsis of the stomach and intestines, all rely on the help of bacteria. There is no place in the body without bacteria; of course, bacteria include beneficial and harmful kinds. Harmful bacteria are those that can harm the human material body and can cause humans to fall ill and die; taking medicine and disinfecting are means to counteract this portion of bacteria. Only when this portion of bacteria dies can the human body be healthy and life be secured.
Strictly speaking, everyone has killed bacteria, both actively and passively. When human body cells with strong immunity encounter invading viruses, they will actively devour these viruses, without humans knowing it. If destroying viruses constituted killing, no one could keep the precepts established by the Buddha, and no one could attain the Way. From this we know that destroying viruses does not constitute killing. In order to protect humans, a higher form of life, destroying the lowest and harmful forms of life is something that cannot be helped; the evolution of life requires this. But cause and effect still exist: in future kalpas, when these bacteria are reborn as larger animals and ghost beings with some merit, and as human beings, they will harbor anger toward humans, with grudges and resentments.
3. Can Bacteria Become Humans in the Future? How Do They Become Human Beings?
In the future, bacteria can not only become humans but can also study and practice the Buddha's teachings and attain buddhahood; the key is how they become human. To become a being of any particular realm, one's merit must correspond to that of the beings of that realm; even becoming a deva of the desire realm, a deva of the form realm, or a deva of the formless realm requires one's merit to correspond to that of the beings of those heavenly realms. If one is reborn in other buddha-lands in the future, one's merit must also correspond to that of the beings of those buddha-lands; otherwise one cannot live together with them. Even among humans, the members of a family must have corresponding merit; otherwise they cannot become one family, or the family will fall apart, each going their own way and living according to their own merit. The same is true of a group: if merit differs, people cannot come together or undertake endeavors jointly.
Bacteria are the lowest, most inferior, tiniest, and least meritorious beings in the realm of sentient beings. By slowly accumulating merit on human bodies and on the bodies of larger animals, providing services for these beings and maintaining their basic life activities, when their merit accumulates to a certain degree, they will be reborn as somewhat larger animals. As the animals help one another, their merit increases further, and they will be reborn as even larger animals with stronger autonomy and viability, until they are reborn as humans. If their conditions are good and they encounter the Buddha's teachings, they will first blindly believe in the Dharma and finally hold correct faith in the Dharma.
All the merit accumulated by beings comes from serving other beings. Therefore, if we wish to possess greater merit, we must no longer be selfish and self-interested, thinking only of our own little affairs and refusing to benefit others. The truth is that helping others is helping oneself; the merit one cultivates never falls upon others. Cultivating merit is never done for others; only by trying to let others gain benefit can one gain benefit oneself.
4. How Do Harmful Bacteria and Flesh-Eating Animals Obtain Human Bodies?
As for how bacteria became bacteria, if we trace back to the origin, there are no examples or evidence, nor can any basis be found in the Buddhist sutras; likewise, how harmful bacteria became harmful bacteria cannot be traced to its origin. But harmful bacteria are only harmful to some beings, not necessarily to all beings in the dharma realm, and they will not necessarily remain harmful bacteria forever without change. Life forms undergo variation in the cycle of birth and death, because although bacterial beings are extremely ignorant, they do after all have extremely faint activity of the conscious mind and very faint karmic actions. As long as there are karmic actions, there are karmic retributions, and life will undergo variation. As for large animals, when their karmic retribution ends, they will gradually be reborn as humans; for specifics, refer to the truth of the six realms of rebirth spoken by the Buddha in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra.
Large flesh-eating animals generally were humans in past lives; because they committed evil karma they were reborn as large animals. When the evil karma is exhausted, they will of course become human again. The human body is an important turning point—one can go up or down. Whether humans can be reborn as the most ignorant bacteria is not yet known.
5. The Difference Between Bacteria and Cells
Some people say bacteria can divide their spirit—of course "spirit" refers to the conscious mind, the seven consciousnesses. If bacteria could divide their spirit, producing multiple mind consciousnesses and multiple five sense consciousnesses, then they would have the ability to split their body, mind-made bodies, and transformation bodies—that would be great supernatural power, making them more powerful than humans. Since they would be more powerful than humans, why would they be bacteria? Bacteria are the lowest and most ignorant sentient beings; they have a material body composed of the four great elements, as well as the faint and inferior functions of the conscious mind. One bacterium possesses one tathāgatagarbha to sustain its body.
Cells are insentient objects, without the functions of the seven consciousnesses, and without a tathāgatagarbha sustaining the body, because a cell is not a material body; it is a basic component of a being's material body, a tiny particle on the material body of a sentient being, composed of seeds of the four great elements. Cell division is one of the most basic functions of a sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, a characteristic of the arising, ceasing, and variation of a being's material body. Any change of the material body—arising, abiding, changing, perishing—is the function of a sentient being's tathāgatagarbha. Bacteria can invade cells and destroy them, thereby causing beings to fall ill or die.
6. The Meaning of "Sentient and Insentient Together Perfect the Wisdom of All Aspects"
"Together perfecting the wisdom of all aspects" means that wisdom is perfect and unobstructed, that consciousness is transformed into wisdom, and that one ultimately becomes a Buddha. "Sentient" refers to sentient beings. When a sentient being becomes a Buddha, the five-aggregate body with the thirty-two major marks and eighty minor marks is the direct retribution, while the insentient environmental world—the buddha-land—is the circumstantial retribution. The circumstantial retribution turns along with the direct retribution, and the buddha-land where the Buddha resides also becomes supremely beautiful and sublime. When the mind changes, all the dharmas around one change accordingly. As the saying goes, "A person of merit dwells in a land of merit, and a land of merit is dwelt in by a person of merit!"
Plants have growth periods and annual rings; in their life there is no activity of the seven consciousnesses or the eighth consciousness. Therefore plants are not sentient beings, and not being sentient beings, they have no transmigration. They are the circumstantial retributional environment for the survival of beings, summoned forth by the karmic power of beings. If beings have merit, the plants they summon forth will all be abundant and precious; otherwise they will be barren and decayed.
7. Among the Four Births, Nine Existences, and Twenty-Five Kinds of Beings, What Kind of Being Do Cells Belong To?
Cells are the basic tissue composing the life bodies of beings, composed of seeds of the four great elements, without a conscious mind; therefore they are not independent life forms and are not sentient beings. The composition, arising, ceasing, and variation of the seeds of the four great elements are functions of the tathāgatagarbha, so all the functions of cells are the operating mechanisms of the tathāgatagarbha, and all life activities are the operating mechanisms of the tathāgatagarbha. This part of the content is extremely profound and subtle, very difficult to observe—many times harder than observing the activity of the manas. All of this belongs to the domain of the wisdom of the seeds of consciousness-only (yogācāra seed-wisdom), including observing the operating mechanism of the manas; all of it requires the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only. Ordinary people's views of the manas are not derived from direct contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of direct perception, so they are all unreliable; one should not be too confident.
Observing the various activities of cells under a microscope, one will know how fine, subtle, and profound the operating mechanisms of the tathāgatagarbha are, how hard to know and fathom, and how miraculous. How does He construct life forms? How does He make life forms operate? How does He make life forms disappear and perish? All of these are extremely profound, subtle, hard to know, and hard to realize. From this we know that the entire life form is entirely the function of the tathāgatagarbha; therefore the life form belongs to the tathāgatagarbha, not to the manas-self. The manas has not the slightest reason to claim the life form as its own, yet it goes on "me, me, me" endlessly, without self-awareness or awareness of others. Knowing none of the dharmas, it goes on endlessly with "me, me, me" and inexhaustible afflictions—this is the most fundamental beginningless ignorance.
8. The Difference Between the Aggregate of Form and Material Sense-Objects
Material sense-objects are material forms composed of the four great elements; they are insentient objects, objects to be recognized and acted upon, without initiative, without selfhood, without ignorance and afflictions, and it cannot even be said of them that they are pure or impure. The aggregate of form is the aggregating function upon material sense-objects. Material sense-objects themselves have no initiative and thus no aggregating function; it is a function that the conscious mind imposes upon the material body. A material body propelled by the conscious mind is called the aggregate of form. When the conscious mind acts upon the material body, the material body is a living life form; a material body without the conscious mind acting within it is an insentient object—a corpse, one of the material sense-objects. The action of the conscious mind upon the material body is bodily and verbal action; where there is action there is karma, and where there is karma, karmic seeds are left behind. Thus karmic results are aggregated, and in future lives there will be bitter results, sweet results, and neither-bitter-nor-sweet results.
9. Why Can HeLa Cancer Cells Survive Outside the Body for 59 Years, Continuously Dividing and Growing?
These cancer cells are actually bacteria—viral bacteria that are harmful to the human body. Cells and bacteria are different: cells are material forms composed of seeds of the four great elements, without the seven consciousnesses, and are not sentient beings. Bacteria not only have a material form composed of seeds of the four great elements, but also have the manas, tathāgatagarbha, mind consciousness, body consciousness, and other conscious minds; they are sentient beings. Cells within the body are sustained solely by the being's own tathāgatagarbha in their arising, abiding, changing, and perishing; outside the body, the four great elements decompose, and they gradually disintegrate and perish.
Bacteria, as sentient beings, within the body are sustained solely by their own tathāgatagarbha in arising, abiding, changing, and perishing, and outside the body they are still sustained solely by their own tathāgatagarbha in arising, abiding, changing, and perishing. All kinds of viruses actually belong to bacterial kinds of beings and can survive outside the body—perhaps surviving quite well. So as long as the living environment is suitable, viruses and bacteria can survive and develop whether outside or inside the body. Some cancer cells are also viral bacteria and can still survive after leaving the body. The coronaviruses that have appeared in recent years are all bacterial beings and can still survive on materials at low temperatures. Under suitable environmental conditions, bacterial beings can arise on all kinds of materials; if the environment changes and becomes unsuitable for bacteria to survive, the bacteria will perish.
