成唯識論述記 3.46

3.46

The Commentary states: Although they are transformed by consciousness and conventionally called seeds, they are not real seeds, because they are actualized phenomena. The Mahāyānasaṃgraha states: 'Because of the faults of action, non-action, loss, and gain, there is contradiction; external seeds have the internal as their condition, arising through dependence on that perfuming.' It also cites a verse: 'Earth, sky, wind, space, / waves, ponds, directions, and the great ocean / are all truly made by the internal; / conceptual discrimination is not external.' Thus, it is due to internal seeds that external grain and so forth ripen; they are not real seeds. Question: Seeds are also transformed by consciousness; should they then not be real seeds? Answer: This is not so. After internal seeds are transformed by consciousness, they further produce barley and so forth, and barley and so forth are again transformed by consciousness; because they are doubly transformed, they are not seeds, just like the eye faculty and the like. Therefore the text below states: 'External barley and the like, in their definite substance, do not produce fruits through primary causes.' Thus primary causes are only internal seeds and not external seeds; all these points above are found in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha.