大乘法苑義林章 4.6

4.6

Third, identifying the essence: the essence is just the three karmas. In all there are three volitions: namely, deliberative volition, determinative volition, and motiving-issuing superior volition. Motiving-issuing superior volition directly initiates [actions of] body and speech. The essence of bodily and vocal karma consists of the previous two volitions. Although the essence of mental karma extends across all three natures, we here take wholesome volition as the essence of that which pays homage. In the Mahāyāna, [the actions of] body and speech, except in the fruit of Buddhahood, are in their essence exclusively indeterminate; therefore, as the essence of the two karmas, one only takes the issuing volition. There is also an explanation stating: their essence is exclusively shame and embarrassment, where revering and honoring the virtuous and wholesome is called shame, and looking down upon and rejecting violence and evil is embarrassment. We now adopt the former explanation. The two aggregates of form and formations serve as their intrinsic nature, for body and speech are the aggregate of form, while mental karma is the aggregate of formations. The form that issues body and speech, and the volition that takes the name of form, produce movement in the mind; hence they are named mental karma and are subsumed under the two aggregates. Correspondingly, they also extend to seeds, because the two karmas of body and speech possess unmanifest form. Their states also extend to the form base and sound base.