Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (188)

The conscious mind arises in dependence on conditions; it is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, and not the self

Original text: 大王。彼识起时。无所从来。灭无所至。其缘生时。无所从来。灭无所至。彼业生时。无所从来。灭无所至。大王。无有少法。从于此世。得至他世。何以故。自性空故。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, when the initial mind consciousness arises, it comes from nowhere; when it ceases, it goes nowhere. When the conditions that give rise to the conscious mind arise, they come from nowhere; when they cease, they go nowhere. When the karmic actions that are created arise, they come from nowhere; when karmic actions cease, there is no place they cease to. Great King, there is not a single dharma that can pass over from this life to the next life. Why is this so? Because the self-nature of all dharmas is empty.

When we are in our mother's womb and several consciousnesses arise, where do they come from onto us? Is there a place they come from? There is no place they come from; no place of origin can be found. When our consciousnesses cease, where do they cease to? There is also nowhere to go; no destination of cessation can be found.

Once the conditions for the conscious mind are produced, the conscious mind emerges; these conditions likewise come from nowhere and, when ceasing, go nowhere. The arising of the conscious mind requires certain supporting conditions; without supporting conditions, the conscious mind cannot arise. For example, the arising of eye consciousness requires nine conditions: light, space, the faculty, the object, attention (manaskāra), the mind consciousness as its basis of discrimination, the defiled-and-pure basis, the fundamental basis, and seeds. Therefore eye consciousness does not arise without cause or reason; only when all nine conditions are complete can eye consciousness arise; if they are not complete, it cannot arise. Thus, in the mother's womb, the fetus has no eye consciousness, because there is no light and no space in the womb. The first consciousness to arise in the womb is the mind consciousness, because the conditions required for the mind consciousness to arise are relatively few, so it arises more easily. If there is no space—for instance, if the hand is pressed right against the eye—eye consciousness cannot see the hand; if there is no sunlight or lamplight, eye consciousness cannot see objects. When the conditions are not complete, eye consciousness does not arise. Therefore, only when causes and conditions are complete can eye consciousness be produced. Eye consciousness arising in dependence on conditions means it is illusory and not autonomous; eye consciousness cannot determine its own existence and has no self-mastery.

The same is true of the other consciousnesses. For example, the arising of ear consciousness requires eight causal conditions; apart from light, all the other conditions must be complete before ear consciousness can arise. The arising of nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness requires the completion of seven conditions; apart from light and space, all the other conditions must be complete before nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness can arise. The arising of the mind consciousness requires the completion of five conditions: attention (manaskāra), the manas, mental objects (dharmāyatana), the Ālayavijñāna, and the seeds of the mind consciousness. It requires fewer conditions than the five sense consciousnesses, and therefore arises into activity more easily. The manas, however, requires only attention and the consciousness seeds of the seventh consciousness to arise—still fewer conditions—so the manas is continuously active and is extremely difficult to extinguish. Only when the manas no longer generates attention toward the dharmas of the three realms, and its craving and attachment to the three realms have been severed, will the manas cease. Therefore it is said: dharmas that can only be produced through the gathering together of various causes and conditions are dharmas subject to arising and ceasing, illusory dharmas, dharmas that are not the self.