Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: Commentary on the Twelve Links of Dependent Arising (Fifteen)

Original text: 问。识亦以名色为缘。何故此中。但说行为缘耶。答。行为识杂染缘。能引能生后有果故。非如名色。但为所依所缘。生起缘故。

Explanation: Question: The six consciousnesses also arise with name-and-form as their condition, so why does this passage say only that the six consciousnesses arise with bodily, verbal, and mental actions as their condition? Answer: Bodily, verbal, and mental actions are the defiling condition for the six consciousnesses, because they can induce and generate the retributive fruits of future existence. This is not like name-and-form, which serves only as the supporting basis and the object condition, the condition for arising.

With actions conditioning consciousness, when bodily, verbal, and mental actions are defiled, the six consciousnesses are defiled; there are then defiled seeds, as well as defiled karmic retribution in future lives. But bodily, verbal, and mental actions are the actions of the six consciousnesses; without the six consciousnesses there would be no bodily, verbal, or mental actions. Therefore bodily, verbal, and mental actions do not induce the arising of the six consciousnesses themselves, but rather induce the arising of the karmic seeds created by the six consciousnesses—that is, they induce the arising of the defiling condition for the six consciousnesses. Why are bodily, verbal, and mental actions defiled? Because the mental activities of the manas are defiled, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions induced by the manas are defiled, and the six consciousnesses are defiled; the seeds and their fruits are likewise defiled. After the defiled fruit of name-and-form is born, the six consciousnesses will arise depending on the defiled name-and-form. Name-and-form is the dominant condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses, not the inducing condition.

Original text: 问。名色亦由。大种所造。及由触生。何故但说。识为缘耶。答。识能为彼。新生因故。彼既生已。或正生时。大种及触。唯能与彼。为建立因。

Explanation: Question: Name-and-form is also created by the great seeds, and also arises through the condition of contact—there is mental contact at the time of entering the womb, and contact through the six sense bases at the time of exiting the womb. So why does this passage say only that name-and-form arises with the six consciousnesses as its condition? Answer: The six consciousnesses can serve as the inducing cause for the new arising of name-and-form. After name-and-form has arisen, or while it is arising, the six great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness, as well as contact, can only serve as the establishing cause, the sustaining cause, and the transforming cause for name-and-form to become the five aggregates. The two kinds of causes function respectively before and after the arising of name-and-form, and their functions differ. From the perspective of the importance of the inducing cause, it is said that consciousness conditions name-and-form; therefore it is not said that the great seeds and contact are the conditions for the arising of name-and-form.