成唯識論了義燈 4.62

4.62

Question: The food of consciousness takes holding and sustaining as its function. That the eighth consciousness can hold and sustain is an established principle. When the eye[-consciousness] and the others are said to sustain, which [function] is that? Answer: The eye[-consciousness] and the others are not that which grasps and sustains [the body], because they are not constant. Yet it is not that when consciousness is present, it does not sustain at all. Because consciousness grasps cognitive objects, it also supports and sustains the sense faculties. Question: Contact and volition generate sorrow and suffering, and when associated with these, they are not food. Consciousness also occurs associated with sorrow and suffering; should it likewise not be food? Answer: Its essence can hold, sustain, and nurture the future so as to incur subsequent retribution; hence it is also food. Therefore, Fascicle 57 states: "It can serve as a cause of flourishing for what comes later, causing it to arise." The import of the text of Fascicle 94 is also the same as this. Question: In the destinies of misfortune, [consciousness] does not incur [future] retribution, so when associated with sorrow and suffering, it should not be food. Answer: Because consciousness actively arises, its supporting and sustaining is also food. Question: Contact and volition occur in association with all eight [consciousnesses], but when associated with the six, being prominent, they are termed food. Although the essence of consciousness is of eight kinds, is only the sixth specifically termed food? Answer: There are two explanations. The first is the unequal explanation: Generating joy and pleasure in accordance with [objects] and giving rise to aspiration, when associated with the six consciousnesses, they are prominent and specifically termed food. Holding and sustaining is the food of consciousness; holding and sustaining associated with all eight is not limited to the six. The second is the equal explanation: The essence of consciousness is of eight kinds, but prominent food is only the eighth; although contact and volition occur universally in association [with all eight], all six are called prominent food. Question: The sense faculties are supported by others to manifest, and consciousness becomes bright and flourishing. The sense faculties are not called food; consciousness must be supported by others before it can hold and sustain, so why is it called food? Answer: The sense faculties must rely on the support of solid food before they can manifest consciousness; they are not food. Even if the essence of consciousness were not supported, the seventh and eighth hold and sustain, and therefore it is called food. Fascicle 66 of the Yogācārabhūmi asks: There are seven causes and conditions that maintain formations: first, birth; second, life; third, food; fourth, mastery of the mind and supernormal powers; fifth, the harmony of causes and conditions; sixth, karma of the three natures; seventh, absence of obstacles. By these seven causes, formations endure. Why did the World-Honoured One speak only of sentient beings enduring by food? Answer: On account of five causes and conditions, they are said to endure by food: first, it is the predominant cause of the endurance of formations; second, it is easy to take and easy to ingest; third, it can cause emaciated and damaged sense faculties and great elements to increase, and also cure illness; fourth, it prevents untimely death; fifth, it facilitates entry into the Path. On account of these five causes, they are said to endure by food. Fascicle 57 is the same. Question: If it is termed food because consciousness supports the sense faculties, when the mental faculty has passed away, the subsequent consciousness only then arises. When the consciousness arises, the mental faculty has already ceased. How can a later existent phenomenon serve as food for a preceding non-existent phenomenon? Answer: This is not based on the immediately antecedent cessation; it is based on the co-existent mind supporting it, which is termed food. Thus Fascicle 57 states: "How does consciousness serve as food for the mental faculty? Answer: Because it is maintained through being supported by the three. It can serve as a cause of flourishing for what comes later, causing it to arise." Question: Sleep, the pure life (brahmacarya), and so forth are all nurturing; why are the rest not food? Answer: Fascicle 57 states: "Nurturing is of two kinds: the distinct meaning of appropriation, and non-harming." Solid food possesses both and is superior, hence it is called food; the rest merely do not harm and are inferior, hence they are not called food. If so, the four foods should altogether possess both; why are they not stated under nurturing? Answer: Although the text has not yet been seen, to provide a provisional explanation: the four foods are stated provisionally by mentioning the first, and by analogy the rest are also nurturing. Otherwise, Fascicle 94 states that all four have the capacity to nurture; on what principle could the sense faculties and great elements not be included within nurturing? Question: Does it serve as food for arisen phenomena, or for unarisen phenomena? If for what has already arisen, once arisen it does not abide. If for what has not arisen, what has not arisen lacks real essence. Answer: Fascicle 94 states: "However, it is said to have the meaning of food solely with reference to unarisen phenomena." Question: The preceding objection was well resolved, but the latter objection has not been dismissed. Answer: Being able to cause what arises later to have the function of flourishing and arising in continuity is precisely the meaning of food; it is not that there is no phenomenon. Thus Fascicle 94 states: "However, it is said to have the meaning of food solely by virtue of the principle that it serves as a condition for the arising of unarisen phenomena, only phenomena leading phenomena."