Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Kyabje Rinpoche uses an unexpectedly concrete example—a possum making a racket on the roof—to explore one of Cittamātra Buddhism’s most abstract technical questions: which mind actually stores the imprints of karma? In this 60-minute session, he begins by clarifying that intention itself IS karma, not its cause. He then walks through why the ālāyavijñāna (mind-basis-of-all) must be that repository, not mental consciousness or the sense consciousnesses, and lays out five essential characteristics any such repository must possess: stability, neutrality, impermanence, continuity with the agent, and single-person continuity. When students ask whether the I itself could be that basis, Kyabje explores how Cittamātra’s answer differs from other Buddhist philosophical schools. Pitched at practitioners already familiar with Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18072017CITTAMATRA 2 – KR.mp3
UUID: 21824492-083d-44d1-8b29-e163763a7071
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Karma
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,507
So as you remember, there is a distinction which is made between the supported mind basis of all and the supporting basis of all which is the basis of all of the seed. Then the supporting basis of all, the basis of all of the seed refers to the imprints. So how precisely are these imprints infused? As you remember, this is explained in the last three verses of stanza 17. When the base is infused, is manifestly oriented towards ceasing, a potency has been placed.
Now here, what is manifestly oriented towards ceasing? It is the seven collections of consciousness. So to simplify matters, let us take the example of an infusing mind of anger. When this infusing mind of anger is oriented manifesting towards ceasing at that point, a potency, which is a karmic imprint, is implanted in the mind basis of all. So Now karmic imprints can be subdivided, there are numerous types of karmic imprints subdivided into virtuous, non virtuous and neutral.
Karmic imprints as such are exclusively neutral. So the confusion arises as follows. One thinks, virtuous karmic imprints arise through virtuous states of mind and non virtuous karmic imprints through non virtuous states of mind. So here, the problems arise from an inappropriate means of expressing oneself. As we often say in daily conversations, this is karma.
Actually, it is a case of attributing the name of a cause, karma, which is a deed to the result. What one should refer to is cause and effect or karma and its result. Causality in other words. Karma is consciousness, specifically it’s a mental factor. So let us take an example.
Let us imagine that you relaxing or meditating quietly, and suddenly a possum makes a racket on the roof. Then immediately anger arises and the wish to kill the possum. Then at that point, that anger actually is fully fully qualified as karma, both consciousness and intention. So maybe let’s assume you were not meditating, it will be a bit strange, but you were just thinking and your thought processes were disrupted by this disruptive possum, and immediately powerful anger arose within your mind stream and the wish to kill the possum. Then this anger actually is karma.
It is intention. Intention here means that the mind is oriented or focused towards something. So this will become clear if we see that karma within the five omnipresent mental factors, which are sensation, discrimination, intention, attention, and contact is probably the third one, intention. So here, at this point, when motivated by powerful anger, which is an intention and is karma, We wish to kill the possum and we use whatever means at our disposal to kill the possum at the point when that possum dies, arises what is known as the actual basis of karma. And it is said that we have accumulated the karma of killing.
Do you understand? At that point when the possum has been killed, that anger turns therefore into the actual basis of karma. And as a result of the killing of that possum, we speak of an accumulation of karma just as there is an accumulation of money, for instance, which means we have accumulated a lot of money. As a result of this killing, the karma becomes powerful and is implanted in the mind basis of all. Then once we have killed the possum as the object of anger, our anger has been destroyed, that anger dwindles quietly and a feeling of happiness arises in our mind.
We have killed the possum and the a component of that anger, that defective component, that is implanted in the Alāyavijñāna. Now here, anger actually is included within the sixth collection of consciousness. It is a mental consciousness. And therefore, as the anger dwindles, a karmic imprint is implanted in the ālāyavijñāna. Now, the mental consciousness is not the ālāyavijñāna.
There is a relation between the two. However, when we look at the sensory consciousnesses, the issue which arises is how can the sensory consciousnesses from the visual consciousness to the tactile consciousness infuse a karmic imprint in the ālāyavijñāna because they seem very distant. The ālāyavijñāna is a very subtle consciousness, which is sensory consciousnesses or not. So when we fall asleep, we can see how the as a mental consciousness dwindles, it eventually merges or dwindles into the aliyah vijnana. How precisely this happens with the sensory consciousnesses is far from clear.
Specifically, the issue which has to be addressed is how the mental consciousness on the one hand and the sensory consciousnesses on the other hand infuse karmic imprints in the mind basis of all. Then, this is something one has to reflect upon by oneself. Little is said in the text about this. Now, in the process of falling asleep, as we said, the substantial continuum of the mental consciousness eventually ceases. The the last instant of the mental continuum before deep sleep is followed by a period in which it is absent, and then there is, after we wake up at a certain point, a reappearance of the mental continuum.
Now what does it appear from? To say that it appears from a karmic imprint is strange. So it would be good for instance to reflect on what precisely happens between the instance when we fall asleep into deep sleep and when we wake up. The moment we enter into deep sleep is the last instant of the substantial continuum of the sixth collection of consciousness, the mental consciousness. Then it is interrupted in deep sleep, and when we leave deep sleep, the first instance of mental consciousness reappears.
Now what happened in between? What does it reappear from? If we say it reappears from a karmic imprint, we would be speaking of the maturation of a karmic imprint, which is not possible here. Beautiful debate. So therefore, what happens precisely to the continuum of the mental consciousness between the last instant of the mental consciousness before falling into deep sleep, and the first instant upon awakening or if an analyze is a little bit complicated where that first instant is.
Then the only place that continuum can dwell is in the Aliyavijnana. There is nowhere else for it to dwell, certainly not in our body. So then the only possibility for preserving a substantial continuum of the mental consciousness between the last instant before falling asleep and the first instant when one wakes up would have to be in the ālāyavijñāna, but this is not a karmic imprint. Now regarding the sensory consciousnesses, the same problem arises. The sensory consciousnesses cease when we go to sleep.
They resume when we wake up. What happened in between? Then one has to posit some type of continuum within the ālāyavijñāna as well. So here, what precisely is the substantial cause of the first instant of the sixth collection of consciousness, the cause of mental consciousness. We must posit a substantial cause and that will have to be the continuum of this mental consciousness.
So here, one must therefore resume the process in terms of the imputed, which is the seven collections of mind, but we will set the afflicted mind aside for the present and only consider the six collections of mind ending with mental consciousness. Then we have that which is imputed, which is the karmic imprint. And we have the base or the ground of imputation which is the mind basis of all. Now what are the characteristics of the base infused excuse me, the basis of infusion or if you prefer the ground of infusion, which is broadly speaking the mind basis of all. It has five characteristics.
So the basis of infusion or the ground of infusion has five characteristics. So these five characteristics are taught in stanza 18 of your text on page four. The last line of stanza 17, the base in basis infused is endowed with five characteristics, supported, neutral, that which is infused being related to the infuser and having become the support of one limit. So we will analyze these five characteristics one by one. So the basis infused is first supported, in other words, stable.
What this means is that the five sensory consciousnesses could not be a basis infused because they are unstable or transitory. So please don’t think that it has to be supported or stable because Buddha Śākyamūni said so, and this is a position we have to defend. It’s not the case. This is the way it is in nature in actuality. It has been so primordially.
So for instance, when we speak of virtue and non virtue, virtue would be the component of qualities and non virtue would be the defective component. Then this notion of qualities and defects is one which is widespread in the world. It is not something which is hammered into your heads from up above. So the first characteristic is now covered. It must be stable.
The second characteristic is that it must be neutral. In other words, it must be such that it can be infused either by virtuous or by non virtuous karmic imprints. Neutral. Neutral. Neutral.
Neutral. So the third characteristic that it must be that which is infused. This indicates that it must be impermanent and cannot be permanent. The fourth characteristic in line three is that it must be related to the infuser. In other words, the seven infusing minds, six collections of consciousness and the afflicted mind must be related to the infuser, and this means that they must be included within one continuum.
So the meaning of this fourth characteristic is that the infuser and the base infused must be included within the continuum of one being or one person. So what this means is for instance that my virtuous or Geshe-la’s virtuous and non virtuous minds can in no way infuse anything within my basis of all. We are completely different. There’s no relation. And the fifth characteristic having become the support of one limit refers to the fact that for instance, the five omnipresent mental factors which are associated with the mind basis of all which are are sensations, discrimination, intention, attention and contact can in a way be themselves infused by the infusing minds because they themselves depend on the main mind which is the mind basis of all.
And therefore, there is no basis of infusion, no ground of infusion endowed with these five characteristics apart from the Alāyavijñāna. The Alāyavijñāna is it. Then today we covered a lot of material and we should try to reflect on it carefully. Specifically, according to Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, and Sautrāntika-Madhyamaka, it is the sixth collection of consciousness, the mental consciousness which is the base of infusion of karmic imprints. Whereas for Cittamātra which accepts the existence of a mind basis of all, it is the Alāyavijñāna, the eighth collection of consciousness, which is the base of infusion of the karmic imprints.
So if I were to ask you, what is the reason for which the subject, the ālāyavijñāna is not the basis of infusion in the other schools, what would be your answer? So excuse me, the question is, why is the subject the sixth collection of consciousness, the mental consciousness not the basis of infusion of karmic imprints? Yes, because from within the five characteristics of the basis of infusion, the first characteristics which is supported or stability is absent since the mental consciousness is interrupted during deep sleep or during a coma when one faints. So then another difficult point, for what reason is the I not the basis of infusion of karmic imprints? So according to Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka, it is the I which is the basis of infusion of karmic imprints.
The Chitamatra says no. Why? Because it’s empty. The I exists, be very strange if the I didn’t exist. Who gets angry?
Who accumulates karma? Who is the experience of the fruition of karma? The I. You confuse the I and the self obviously. The I and the Ātman.
Why? Yes, well it’s not there when you sleep. Actually Andrew answered that question. Very funny. So who is sleepy, know, If at that in deep sleep the eye isn’t there, who is asleep?
Yeah. Yeah but, alright, I know that like if I was watching somebody else’s sleep, I know that that would be their eye, but I, if I’m asleep, I’m not aware that my eye is asleep. And that’s a sign one doesn’t understand the Alāyavijñāna, right? That’s a sign one doesn’t understand the mind basis of all, right? Did the Chittamatrin say no because to a Chittamatrin if someone said the I is the basis of infusion then they are referring to, it’s the afflicted mind that’s saying that, the afflicted mind thinking that the Alāyavijñāna is the self, so it’s incorrect.
Could you repeat please? So if somebody said that the eye is the basis of the infusion of karmic imprints, if a Chittamatrin heard that then they would think that it’s the afflicted self thinking that So what Geshe-la is asking you is the basis of infusion of the karmic imprints must have the five characteristics, right? So does the eye have these five characteristics or not? So obviously, it’s not clear. Do you understand the five characteristics?
Yes. I understand the five characteristics. Is it the fifth characteristic that it’s not a base? Okay. What are the fifth five characteristics?
It’s a, stable, b, not a subject, b, not a subject of moralizing, c, it is perfumed, d, related to the perfumer, and this is from I’m using Garith’s script. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And a basis in its own right.
So I would say it’s e, it’s not a basis in its own right. The I. The I. Everything depends on causes and conditions. So these five characteristics we have to think about.
If these five are present, then that base can be infused by the karmic imprints. Do you understand these five characteristics? It’s not terribly clear. So the Alāyavijñāna, as you remember, satisfies the first characteristics. It is impermanent, it is stable.
But the ālāyavijñāna as the main mind is accompanied by five mental factors, and the question which arises is, in addition to the ālāyavijñāna, can the five mental factors be infused by the karmic imprints or not? And it is to prevent or to block this infusion of the five mental factors of the ālāyavijñāna by the karmic imprints that it is said having become the support of one limit. Then at present, us meditate during a couple of minutes on these five characteristics in verse 18 on page four. So at present, we’ll have discussion or debate ideally two or three, an absolute maximum of four, no more than four per group. So in the topic for debate is please analyze carefully the five characteristics of the basis of infusion and see whether the ālāyavijñāna satisfies these or not.