Saṃyuktāgama (287), Part Two

(2) Original text:何法有故名色有。何法缘故名色有。即正思惟。如实无间等生。识有故名色有。识缘故有名色有。我作是思惟时。齐识而还不能过彼。谓缘识名色。缘名色六入处。缘六入处触。缘触受。缘受爱。缘爱取。缘取有。缘有生。缘生老病死忧悲恼苦。如是如是纯大苦聚集。

Explanation: The Buddha said: I again gave rise to this thought: By the existence of what dharma does name-and-form exist? Conditioned on what dharma does name-and-form arise? Thereupon I entered right contemplation (yoniso manasikāra), and afterward there arose wisdom that is true, uninterrupted, and direct, knowing that it is because the Ālayavijñāna exists that name-and-form arises, and that it is with the Ālayavijñāna as the condition that name-and-form arises. When I was engaged in such contemplation, my contemplation reached the Ālayavijñāna and could go no further back, because there was no dharma before it; that is to say, there is no dharma that can give birth to the Ālayavijñāna or cause the Ālayavijñāna to arise. Before the Ālayavijñāna, no dharma goes beyond the Ālayavijñāna.

This is tracing back against the current of birth-and-death to seek the root and source. The source of birth-and-death lies at the Ālayavijñāna; from the Ālayavijñāna the flow of birth-and-death transmigrates. Conditioned on the Ālayavijñāna there is name-and-form; conditioned on name-and-form there is the arising of the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana); conditioned on the six sense bases there is the arising of contact; conditioned on contact there is the arising of feeling; conditioned on feeling there is the arising of craving; conditioned on craving there is grasping (upādāna); conditioned on grasping there is existence in the three realms; conditioned on existence there is birth; conditioned on birth there are old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). In this way, the great suffering of birth-and-death in the three realms is assembled. Why does the flow of birth-and-death transmigrate from the Ālayavijñāna? Because the manas has ignorance (avidyā) and desires to possess the dharmas of the five-aggregate world, the Ālayavijñāna complies with the manas's ignorance and karmic seeds and gives birth to the world of the three realms and the five-aggregate body, whereupon birth-and-death vividly unfolds within it.

The twelve links of dependent origination follow ignorance, resulting in the flow of birth-and-death and the arising of suffering; the ten links of dependent origination extinguish ignorance and go against the flow of birth-and-death to extinguish suffering. The reason there is the birth-and-death flow of the twelve links of dependent origination is that sentient beings' manas has ignorance; with ignorance as the condition, the Ālayavijñāna, relying on ignorance, gives birth to a whole chain of birth-and-death, pushing sentient beings into the ocean of suffering. As for the ten links of dependent origination going against the flow of birth-and-death, one traces back from the phenomena of birth, old age, sickness, and death all the way to the Ālayavijñāna. If one can realize the Ālayavijñāna and know how the Ālayavijñāna gives birth to the name-and-form of the five aggregates, one becomes a bodhisattva and enters into Mahāyāna practice.

If one personally realizes every link of the twelve links of dependent origination and the ten links of dependent origination, one becomes a pratyekabuddha, a solitary awakened buddha, a sage of the Middle Vehicle. Although the pratyekabuddhas personally realized each link of the ten links of dependent origination, at the point of the Ālayavijñāna they merely inferred it to be truly existent and did not realize the Ālayavijñāna, nor did they find where the Ālayavijñāna is and what function it performs. Therefore, this does not count as the realization of the Ālayavijñāna, and this point differs essentially from the realization of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas.