Session 4 - The Causes and Conditions of Saṃsāra

Review of Sessions 1-3

There are two ‘gateways’ (門, doors or entryways) based on the Dharma of the One Mind:

The Suchness of Mind

“It is only through illusions that all things come to be differentiated. If one is freed from illusions, then there will be no appearances (lakṣana) of [independently existent] objects; therefore all things from the beginning transcend all forms of verbalization, description, and conceptualization and are, in the final analysis, undifferentiated, free from alteration, and indestructible. They are only of the One Mind; hence the name Suchness.

The Arising and Ceasing of Mind (i.e Saṃsāra)

“The arising and ceasing of mind exists based on the tathāgatagarbha (’Womb of Thus Come Ones)… “This is called the ‘alaya consciousness.’ As the collector and producer of all dharmas, this consciousness has two aspects:

• Awakened - Innately Awakened - Because “The single characteristic of the ‘realm of reality’ (dharmadhātu) is none other than the undifferentiated Dharmakāya, the “essence body” of the Tathāgata.”
• Not Awakened - Beginningless ignorance because “thought-moment after thought-moment have always followed one another in a continuous flow (念念相續 the ‘mindstream’ / citta-santāna) and sentient beings have never been free from conceiving (念)….Due to not truly realizing oneness with Suchness, there emerges an unenlightened mind and, consequently, its thoughts (念).”

The Causes and Conditions of Saṃsāra (arising and ceasing / birth & death)

“That a person is in saṃsāra results from the fact that thoughts (manas) and thought consciousness (vijñāna) develop on the ground of mind 心 (citta, i.e. the ālayavijñāna).

“Since all things are, without exception, developed from the mind and produced under the condition of deluded thoughts, all differentiations are no other than the differentiations of one’s mind itself.”

Thought Consciousness 意識 (vijñāna)

“As ordinary people become ever more profoundly attached [to the mind’s own discriminations], they posit ‘self’ and ‘mine’ as real and cling to them.”

This is called:

• Citta-santāna, ’mindstream’相續識
• Thought Consciousness 意識
• Separating Consciousness 分離識
• Phenomenal Discriminating Consciousness 分別事識

“This Consciousness, which arises on the basis of habituation by ignorance, is something that ordinary people cannot understand, nor are the insights of the Two Vehicles aware of.”

“The nature of the mind is called “unchanging” (’immutable’) because it is constantly beyond conceiving.” (Jorgensen, et. al)

“When the unified Dharma Realm is yet to be realized, the mind is not in perfect unity [with Suchness]” (Hakeda)

Mind (citta) - There are six kinds of defiled mind

六染心 The six mental 'taints'. Though mind-essence is by nature pure and without stain, the condition of 無明 ignorance, or innocence, permits of taint or defilement corresponding to the following six phases:

(1) 執相應染 the taint interrelated to attachment, or holding the seeming for the real; it is the state of 執取相 and 名字相 which is cut off in the final pratyeka and śrāvaka stage and the bodhisattva 十住 of faith;

(2) 不斷相應染 the taint interrelated to the persisting attraction of the causes of pain and pleasure; it is the 相續相 finally eradicated in the bodhisattva 初地 stage of purity;

(3) 分別智相應染 the taint interrelated to the 'particularizing intelligence' which discerns things within and without this world; it is the first 智相, cut off in the bodhisattva 七地 stage of spirituality;

(4) 現色不相應染 the non-interrelated or primary taint, i. e. of the 'ignorant' mind as yet hardly discerning subject from object, of accepting an external world; the third 現相 cut of in the bodhisattva 八地 stage of emancipation from the material;

(5) 能見心不相應染 the non-interrelated or primary taint of accepting a perceptive mind, the second 轉相, cut of in the bodhisattva 九地 of intuition, or emancipation from mental effort;

Characteristics of arising and ceasing (birth & death / saṃsāra)

There are two characteristics of arising and ceasing: Coarse (w/mind) and Subtle (no mind).

Coarsest of the Coarse = the perceptual fields of ordinary people

Subtlest of the Coarse = the perceptual fields of (beginner) bodhisattvas

Coarsest of the Subtle = the perceptual fields of the (advanced) bodhisattvas

Subtlest of the Subtle = the perceptual fields of buddhas

Habituation / Permeation (熏習, Vāsanā, to fumigate, perfume)

I. “Defiled and pure dharmas arise without interruption because of habituation by four dharma:

• Pure Dharma, called Suchness 淨法，名為真如
• The Cause of all Defilement, called Ignorance 一切染因，名為無明
• The False Mind, called karmic consciousness 妄心，名為業識
• Falsely Constructed Perceptual Fields, which are The Six Dusts 妄境界、所謂六塵

“The pure state of Suchness certainly has no defilement, but if it is permeated by ignorance, then the characteristics of defilement appear on it. The defiled state of Ignorance is indeed devoid of any purifying force, but if it is permeated by Suchness, then it will come to have a purifying influence.” (Hakeda Tr.)

“Because the ‘false mind’ does not fully discern the dharma of Suchness, it is non-awakened and so conceiving arises, presenting false perceptual fields. Because there are the defiled dharmas of false perceptual fields as conditions, these then habituate the false mind, so that conceiving and attachments generate all kinds of karmic action and one experiences all the sufferings of body and mind.” (Jorgensen Tr.)

II. The ‘perfuming’ (habituation) of Suchness

Two kinds of habituation to falsely constructed perceptual fields:

• Habituation that increases conceiving 念
• Habituation that increases grasping 取

Two kinds of habituation by a false (deluded) mind:

• Fundamental habituation of karmic consciousness that undergoes rebirth as an arhat, pratyekabuddha, or bodhisattva.
• Habituation that increases phenomena-discriminating consciousness, hence ordinary suffering

Two kinds of habituation by Ignorance:

• Fundamental habituation, which brings karmic consciousness to realization
• Habituation by false views and cravings, bringing about phenomena-discriminating consciousness