成唯識論述記 8.338

8.338

Fourth, general and specific functional activities: this refers to being able to cause sentient beings to cycle through birth and death. The entity of birth and death is birth and aging-and-death; because the preceding ten can cause birth and so forth to turn, this is the general functional activity. As for the specific functional activities, the Abhidharma-samuccaya says: Ignorance has two activities: 1. It makes sentient beings deluded regarding existence—that is, obscured by it, they do not understand the three periods of time as they truly are, giving rise to doubts about the past and future, and so on; 2. It acts as a condition for formations—that is, through its power it causes karma for future existence to increase. The Daśabhūmika-sūtra says: 'Ignorance has two [activities]: 1. Delusion regarding conditions, causing sentient beings to be confused—this is the aforementioned failure to understand and doubting regarding known objects of existence and so forth; 2. Acting as a cause for formations—identical to the preceding Samuccaya down to aging-and-death.' The two activities in the Samuccaya state: '1. It frequently causes the temporal periods of sentient beings to alter, destroying youth and vigor; 2. It frequently causes the lifespan of sentient beings to alter, destroying life.' The Daśabhūmika says: 'Aging has two [activities]: 1. It ripens the sense faculties; 2. It acts as a cause for death. Death has two: 1. It destroys the body of the five aggregates; 2. Because of not seeing and knowing, it causes continuity not to be severed.' However, the Samuccaya combines them into a single formulation, while the Daśabhūmika opens them apart. Furthermore, the Samuccaya is based on aging-and-death having no further result and being the termination; the Daśabhūmika discusses death as having results. Therefore it says that because of not seeing and knowing, continuity is not severed, and so forth. Furthermore, among the preceding twelve branches, the Daśabhūmika throughout is consistent with this treatise; although the texts differ slightly, the meaning is largely the same, so they cannot be cited in full.