Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume 9: Commentary on the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (Part Three)

Original text:又五色根。若根所依大种。若根处所。若彼能生大种曰色。所余曰名。由识执受。诸根堕相续法。方得流转。故此二种依止于识。相续不断。

Explanation: Furthermore, the five material sense faculties—the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body—are based on the seeds of the five great elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space within the ālayavijñāna. The great elements that can generate the material five faculties are called "form" (rūpa), while the seeds of consciousness apart from these five great elements are called "name" (nāma), and the seeds of consciousness are grasped and sustained by the seven consciousnesses. In this way, after the seeds of the great elements give rise to name-and-form, the six faculties fall into the continuum of continuity from past lives to this life and even into future lives, and only then can the five-aggregate body transmigrate life after life without cease. Therefore, it is said that the material faculties and the seven consciousnesses depend on the ālayavijñāna, continuing life after life without interruption.

This passage sufficiently proves the principle that name-and-form is conditioned by consciousness: the arising and continuous operation of name-and-form is entirely due to the existence of the ālayavijñāna, because the form of the physical body is constituted by the seeds of the five great elements, and the name of the seven consciousnesses is formed by the seeds of consciousness, and these six great element seeds belong to the ālayavijñāna. Therefore, it is said that the ālayavijñāna gives rise to the name-and-form of the five aggregates, and causes the five-aggregate body to transmigrate and operate without cease. The relationship between name-and-form and the ālayavijñāna is expounded here with perfect clarity.

Original text:由此道理。于现在世。识缘名色。名色缘识。犹如束芦。乃至命终。相依而转。如是名为。从前际中际诸行缘起生。中际生已。流转不绝。当知此中。依胎生者。说流转次第。若卵生湿生者。除处母胎。余如前说。

Explanation: From this principle, we know that in the present life, the ālayavijñāna can only operate by being conditioned on name-and-form, and name-and-form can only arise and continue by being conditioned on the ālayavijñāna; the two are like a bundle of reeds, relying on each other to function until the end of life. This is called: due to the causes and conditions of past lives, the various formations of the present life arise; after the present life has arisen, the five-aggregate body transmigrates without interruption. It should also be known that in this cycle of birth and death, for sentient beings who are born by relying on the mother's womb, this is the sequence of transmigration; if they are egg-born or moisture-born sentient beings, or beings born by means other than the womb, the sequence of transmigration is the same as described above.

This passage again emphasizes the principle that consciousness conditions name-and-form: the ālayavijñāna has a basis for support only when conditioned on name-and-form, and only then can it operate; without name-and-form, it cannot operate the world of the five aggregates. However, the ālayavijñāna itself does not need to rely on name-and-form in order to exist. At this point, the relationship of name-and-form conditioning consciousness and consciousness conditioning name-and-form—the relationship between the ālayavijñāna and name-and-form—has been clearly expounded.

Original text:若于有色。有情聚中。谓欲色界。受化生者。诸根决定。圆满而生。与前差别。若于无色界。以名为依。及色种子为依。识得生起。以识为依。名及色种子转。从此种子。色虽断绝。后更得生。与前差别。

Explanation: If, among the aggregates of sentient beings with material form—that is, in the desire realm and the form realm—there are sentient beings of the spontaneously-born (upapāduka) type, then in their process of taking birth, the five material faculties are certainly born complete in an instant, not arising sequentially and then gradually becoming complete; this differs from the womb-born case described above. If in the formless realm, sentient beings transmigrate relying on name—the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; if they are to manifest in the desire realm and the form realm, they must further rely on the seeds of the five great material elements to give birth to the five consciousnesses, and then rely on the seven consciousnesses, whereby the name seeds of consciousness and the form seeds of the five great elements transmigrate forth. Because there are form seeds to rely on, although the physical body was severed in the formless realm, a physical body can be born again in later lives; this mode of transmigration differs somewhat from the two sequences described above.

Original text:又由福业。生欲界人天。由非福业。生诸恶趣。由不动业。生色无色界。云何不生。由不生故。趣清净究竟。

Explanation: Furthermore, due to the meritorious formations (puṇyābhisaṃskāra) that sentient beings have cultivated, they will be born among humans and devas of the desire realm at the end of life; due to the non-meritorious formations (apuṇyābhisaṃskāra) that sentient beings have committed, they will be born into the three evil destinies at the end of life; due to the pure immovable formations that sentient beings have created, they will be born into the form realm and the formless realm at the end of life. What is the situation of not being born? Because there is no further birth in future lives, one escapes the three realms and advances toward the ultimate purity of liberation.