How to Correctly Understand Volitional Formations Conditioning Consciousness and Consciousness Conditioning Name-and-Form

First of all, misunderstandings may exist in the translations of the Buddhist sūtras. Because the translators' levels of cultivation and realization varied, with different degrees of realization, and some translators had no realization at all, the translated sūtras contain discrepancies in the Dharma meaning. One person's translation reflects one level; multiple translators reflect multiple levels. In the past, practitioners of the Small Vehicle did not understand the manas, so when translating sūtras and encountering the Dharma meaning concerning the manas, their understanding was biased, and some simply could not understand it at all. If such a person's meditative concentration (dhyāna) was very good, this deficiency could be compensated for in their cultivation and realization, but in explaining and translating the sūtras there was no way to make up for this deficiency. This led later generations—those lacking meditative concentration—to all kinds of misunderstandings, unable to realize the truth through practice, and having no choice but to resort to inference, analysis, and speculation.

If a Buddhist practitioner has not yet achieved a thorough understanding of the Dharma meaning and is unable to understand and realize the manas, their comprehension of the sūtras will involve misunderstandings and blockages. For example, in the twelve links of dependent origination—"ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), volitional formations condition consciousness"—no matter how one thinks about it, one cannot figure out what the "volitional formations" and "consciousness" refer to, cannot sort out the relationship between the two, and will get the sequence of their operation reversed. If the "consciousness" in "volitional formations condition consciousness" is understood as the seventh consciousness or the eighth consciousness, then the Dharma meaning is outrageously wrong. What kind of volitional formations could produce the seventh consciousness? Only the volitional formations of the eighth consciousness can produce the seventh consciousness, but the eighth consciousness has no ignorance, so "ignorance conditions volitional formations" cannot be explained. What kind of volitional formations could produce the eighth consciousness? No volitional formations, whether worldly or transcendent, can produce the eighth consciousness. Therefore, the "consciousness" in "volitional formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions name-and-form" is neither the seventh consciousness nor the eighth consciousness; it can only be the six consciousnesses.

Then what kind of volitional formations can produce the six consciousnesses? Bodily, verbal, and mental actions absolutely cannot produce the six consciousnesses—this is precisely the reverse. Because without the six consciousnesses there can be no bodily, verbal, and mental actions; the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses cannot possibly produce the six consciousnesses themselves. Something cannot give birth to itself; it can only be brought forth by other consciousnesses and other dharmas. The six consciousnesses can only be brought forth by the eighth consciousness, with the actions of the seventh consciousness serving as a contributing condition. With the actions of the seventh consciousness as the initiating cause, the eighth consciousness complies and cooperates to bring forth the six consciousnesses, which create bodily, verbal, and mental actions, depositing karmic seeds as the cause for the arising of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) of name-and-form in future lives. Only when this operates in one interlocking link after another is there the complete twelve links of dependent origination—the suffering of birth, death, and saṃsāra.