Revealing the Operational Mechanism of the Five Aggregates in Conjoined Twins

There is a pair of conjoined twin sisters with two heads. A large portion of their body is shared: the parts above the heart are each independent, each person has one arm and one leg, the middle and lower portions of the torso are partly shared, and in total one-half to two-thirds of the body is independent for each of them. The sisters' spines are fused together at the pelvis, they share part of the nervous system, and they share one set of reproductive organs. They can ride a bicycle, play ball, swim, and drive a car together.

The two of them entered the womb and dwelt in the womb together. In the mother's womb, the two tathāgatagarbhas jointly, in accordance with karmic seeds, transformed and created the shared parts of the body as well as the parts unique to each. Of course, they had shared karmic seeds; they had previously engaged in shared karmic actions, and their relationship in past lives was so close that they shared many things, to the point that in this life they must share one body and must live closely together in tight cooperation. If they do not cooperate, neither of them can survive. This is karmic obstruction (karmāvaraṇa) — an extremely unfree and non-independent karmic obstruction. Therefore, relationships between people should maintain an appropriate distance: do not be too intimate, and do not vow about what you will do in future lives. When the future life actually arrives and things turn out that way, it will not necessarily be happy — it may even be extremely painful.

The two tathāgatagarbhas, in accordance with the same karmic seeds, output the seeds of the four great elements to become shared four great elements, which operate in harmony to create the shared parts of the body; whereas the parts that are independent of each other must be transformed and created by each tathāgatagarbha separately outputting the seeds of the four great elements. When the material body was somewhat complete, the two tathāgatagarbhas each gave rise to a mind consciousness, and thus there were two awarenesses. When the gestation was full, they were born together and became conjoined sisters. Fortunately, the two are of the same sex; if they were of different sexes, living together would have been very awkward.

The two people's hands and legs need to cooperate together; activities of the five aggregates such as eating, dressing, and walking require the two to cooperate and be coordinated. Each has her own mental deliberation; their habitual tendencies and preferences differ, and their temperaments and dispositions are also different. Being joined together, they must accommodate and coordinate with each other, otherwise there will be great unpleasantness. Each has her own breathing and heartbeat; food and water each go into their own stomachs — each person eats and each is filled. But from the stomach downward, the digestive system has shared parts, so these foods are digested jointly and then excreted through the shared excretory system. Although each eats her own food, they still influence each other: if one person is ill, the other can take medicine on her behalf.

The two share part of the nervous system, so their reactions to external stimuli are fairly consistent, and their ways of responding are also similar. Although the two people's manas have different dispositions, because they have wholesome karmic affinity, in dealing with shared people, matters, and objects, they will cooperate with and accommodate each other. From this it can be seen that the division of labor and cooperation between the two tathāgatagarbhas is extremely subtle and wondrous. The tathāgatagarbha knows everything, so as long as the karmic seeds allow, the tathāgatagarbhas will certainly cooperate closely, completing the work of coordination without words or mental thought — inconceivable.

Among the six consciousnesses, the two people's body consciousnesses cooperate the most; they must cooperate with each other almost constantly, otherwise nothing can be accomplished, because the nervous systems are interconnected and can perceive each other. The two people's eye faculties are on their respective heads, and each eye consciousness is used by each of them, but because they are on one body, the objects they face cannot differ by much, so their visual range is limited. The ear faculties are on two heads, each with its own ear consciousness, each hearing its own sounds; the nose faculties are on their respective heads, each with its own nose consciousness, each able to smell its own scent objects; the tongue faculties are on their respective heads, each with its own tongue consciousness, each able to taste its own taste objects; each has her own manas, and the mind consciousnesses each reside in their own supreme faculty (indriya), deliberating and discerning different dharmas.

When the two people's five-aggregate bodies need to act, the two sets of eight consciousnesses must cooperate closely with each other, each with its own division of labor — equivalent to sixteen consciousnesses dividing the work and cooperating, far more complex than eight consciousnesses. The shared parts of the abdomen and lower torso are many — almost everything is shared — so during digestion and excretion, the minds must be applied to one place, with shared intention and shared feeling, unable to be separated from each other. When one is ill, it is as if both are ill; when there is pain, both feel pain at the same time, yet it is still each one's own body consciousness and mind consciousness that separately sense the illness and pain, so the feelings have some differences.

Among the seven consciousnesses, the most closely connected is the cooperation between the two body consciousnesses; sharing one body, they cooperate extremely swiftly, almost seamlessly, without the slightest sense of discord or strain. Most crucial is the directing and operating of the two manas. If both people had strong grasping at self (ātma-grāha) and their habitual tendencies were diametrically opposed, they would quarrel constantly. The two have wholesome karmic affinity, so although their personalities, moods, habitual tendencies, and preferences differ, they can still coordinate very well, applying their minds to one place and caring for each other — only thus can they obtain the greatest benefit.

When lying in bed to sleep, the two manas jointly decide to lie down, and they cannot move their bodies casually, for fear of disturbing the other. If one person falls asleep, the six consciousnesses cease, and the body consciousness also ceases. If the other person has not yet fallen asleep and moves her body, it will cause the other person's mind consciousness and body consciousness to arise, and she will wake up. If one deliberates too much in the mind, it will also affect the other person's sleep, because they share a nervous system; and even without that, the power of mental thought and the power of the magnetic field would still influence the other person — this involves many secrets here.

If one person's body gradually becomes unusable, or she dies, the functions and operations of the material body belonging to that person will no longer function. The head no longer works, the supreme faculty (indriya) is destroyed, one arm and one leg are useless, the heart stops beating, and the internal organs can no longer be used. The other person, still alive, will have to make do with an incomplete body, whose functions will also be greatly affected and limited; after all, the dead portion of the body cannot be completely removed, and some diseases may be transmitted. Even if the transmission of disease can be prevented, the loss of some functions will greatly hinder the five-aggregate functions of the surviving person; life will be quite inconvenient, the quality of life will decline greatly, and her lifespan will not be long either.

Where there is life there is the feeling of suffering; how much more so when it is not even a normal life — a life with two bodies joined together is all the more suffering. But because sentient beings crave existence, they may not feel the suffering, and instead constantly pursue pleasure, even taking suffering as happiness. Such is the ignorance and foolishness of sentient beings: their craving is extremely heavy, and no matter how much they suffer, they will never have any thought or pursuit of escaping suffering. With wisdom and without foolishness, there will be no craving; one will know suffering and seek to sever and depart from it. Therefore, the root of liberation lies in wisdom.