勝鬘寶窟 2.45

2.45

The second is the gate of revealing the essence. Some say: There are two kinds of fragmentary [birth-and-death]. First, the fragmentary bound by karma: the lower two realms take the five aggregates as their essence, while the upper realm takes the four aggregates as its essence. If it is fragmentary [birth-and-death] not bound by karma, it takes feelings such as suffering and pleasure as its essence. Transformation also has two kinds: first, transformation of one's own retribution, which takes the uncontaminated five aggregates as its essence; if it is transformation for the sake of beings, relying on the body to manifest apparitions, it takes the form aggregate as its essence—this is based solely on the one person of the Buddha. Some say: Transformation has no form; it is simply the hidden succession of mental consciousness, arising and ceasing from thought to thought in unbroken continuity, within which there are no limits, demarcations, or proximities and distances of kalpas; this birth-and-death is only exhausted upon reaching bodhi; therefore it takes only mental phenomena as its essence.