Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (147)

The Aggregate of Death and the Aggregate of Birth

Original text: 大王。识为其主业为攀缘。二种相因初识生起。或趣地狱。或堕傍生琰摩罗界及阿修罗若人若天。初识生已各受其报。同分心品相续随转。最后识灭名为死蕴。最初识起名为生蕴。

Explanation: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna is the master that gives birth to the five-aggregate body of the next life, and the karmic seeds serve as the object condition (ālambana-pratyaya). When these two causes and conditions come together, the initial consciousness of the next life arises. Sentient beings may proceed to the hells, or fall into the realm of ghosts, or be reborn among animals—the three evil destinies; or they may be reborn in the three good destinies: the asura destiny, the human destiny, and the heavenly destiny. Once the initial consciousness has arisen, sentient beings each begin to receive their karmic retribution, and thereafter the consciousness on that same physical body continues to operate without interruption. When the consciousness ceases at the end of life, the physical body becomes a corpse, which is called the aggregate of death; the consciousness that first arises on the physical body is called the initial consciousness, and the five aggregates of the physical body are called the aggregate of birth.