Dependent Origination (iv): Mentality-Materiality

[Full title: B. Exposition of Dependent Origination (III): Detailed Exposition (iv): Mentality-Materiality]

186. For the clause, “With consciousness as condition, mentality-materiality”:

(1) By analysis of mind and matter,
(2) Occurrence in becoming, etc.,
(3) Inclusion, and (4) manner of condition,
The exposition should be known.

187. 1. By analysis of mind and matter: here “mind” (nāma—mentality) is the three aggregates, that is, feeling, perception, and formations, because of their bending (namana) on to the object. “Matter” (rūpa—materiality) is the four great primary elements and the materiality derived [by clinging] from the four great primaries. Their analysis is given in the Description of the Aggregates (XIV.34f., 125f.). This, in the first place, is how the exposition of mentality-materiality should be known “by analysis.”

188. 2. By occurrence in becoming, et cetera: excepting one abode of beings, [that is, the non-percipient,] mentality occurs in all the kinds of becoming, generation, destiny, and station of consciousness, and in the remaining abodes of beings. Materiality occurs in two kinds of becoming, four kinds of generation, five destinies, the first four stations of consciousness, and the first five abodes of beings.

189. Now, when this mentality-materiality occurs thus, [559] then in the case of sexless embryos and the egg-born, at the moment of their rebirth-linking there are manifested as materiality two organic continuities, that is, the two decads of physical basis and body, and also the three immaterial aggregates. So in their case there are in detail these twenty-three states, namely, twenty states as concrete matter and three immaterial aggregates, which should be understood as “mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition.” But omitting repetitions,^[1] and so cancelling nine material instances (see 11.88) from one of the organic continuities, fourteen states remain.

By adding the sex decad for those possessed of sex [before making the above cancellation] there are thirty-three. And omitting repetitions and so cancelling eighteen material instances [nine each] from two of the organic continuities, in this case fifteen states remain.

190. At the moment of rebirth-linking of those of Brahmā’s Retinue, among apparitionally born beings, four organic continuities are manifested as materiality, that is, the decads of eye, ear, and physical basis, and the ennead of the life faculty, and three immaterial aggregates. So in their case in detail these forty-two states, namely, thirty-nine states as concrete materiality and three immaterial aggregates, should be understood as “mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition.” But omitting repetitions and so cancelling twenty-seven instances of materiality [nine each] from three of the organic continuities, fifteen states remain.

191. In the sense-sphere becoming, seven organic continuities are manifested as materiality, and also three immaterial aggregates at the moment of rebirth-linking of the remaining kinds of apparitionally born or of the moisture-born possessing sex and matured sense bases. So in their case in detail these seventy-three states, namely, seventy instances of concrete materiality and three immaterial aggregates, should be understood as “mentality-materiality with formations as condition.” But omitting repetitions and so cancelling fifty-four material instances [nine each] from six of the organic continuities, nineteen states remain.

This is the maximum. But at minimum the computation of “mentalitymateriality with consciousness as condition” in the rebirth-linking of those who lack such and such an organic continuity can be understood in brief and detail by reducing it appropriately. [The blind, for instance, lack the eye decad.]

192. For mentality-materiality immaterial beings have only the three [mental] aggregates; while non-percipient beings have only the life-faculty ennead, and that represents materiality.

193. In the course of an existence, in all places where materiality occurs there is manifested the temperature-originated bare [material] octad, which is due [initially] to the temperature that occurred together with the rebirth-linking consciousness at the moment of its presence.^[2] Rebirth-linking consciousness does not originate materiality. For, just as a man who is falling into a chasm cannot support another, so it, too, is unable to originate materiality because of its weakness, which is due to the weakness of the physical basis. But from the first life-continuum after the rebirth-linking consciousness onwards, [560] the bare octad originated by consciousness appears. And at the time when sound becomes manifest there is the sound ennead due both to temperature occurring after the moment of rebirth-linking and to consciousness.

194. The bare octad originated by nutriment appears in beings in the womb who live on matter consisting of physical nutriment as soon as their body is suffused by nutriment swallowed by the mother; for it is said:

And so it is that when his mother
Eats, consuming food and drink,
One hidden in his mother’s womb
Thereby obtains his nourishment (S I 206).

And it appears in apparitionally born beings as soon as they first swallow the spittle that has come into their own mouths.

So, with the twenty-six [material instances] consisting of the bare octad originated by nutriment, and of the, at most, two [sound] enneads originated respectively by temperature and consciousness, and also with the alreadymentioned seventy kamma-originated instances (§191) that arise three times in each conscious moment [at the instants of arising, presence, and dissolution], there are thus ninety-six material instances; and with the three immaterial aggregates there is thus a total of ninety-nine states.

195. Or because sound is not regularly present since it is only sometimes manifested, subtracting it therefore as twofold [being temperature-originated and consciousness-originated], there are these ninety-seven states to be understood as “mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition” in all beings, according as it happens to be produced. For whether these beings are sleeping or idling or eating or drinking, these states keep on occurring in them day and night with consciousness as condition. And we shall explain later how they have consciousness as their condition (see §200ff.).

196. Now, although this kamma-born materiality is the first to find a footing in the several kinds of becoming, generation, destiny, station of consciousness, and abode of beings, it is nevertheless unable to carry on without being consolidated by materiality of triple origination [by consciousness, temperature, and nutriment], nor can that of triple origination do so without being consolidated by the former. But when they thus give consolidating support to each other, they can stand up without falling, like sheaves of reeds propped together on all four sides, even though battered by the wind, and like [boats with] broken floats^[3] that have found a support, even though battered by waves somewhere in mid-ocean, and they can last one year, two years … a hundred years, until those beings’ life span or their merit is exhausted.

This is how the exposition should be understood here “by occurrence in becoming, etc.”

197. 3. By inclusion: now there is (a) the simple mentality with consciousness as condition in both the course of an existence and rebirth-linking in the immaterial sphere, and in the course of an existence in the five-constituent becoming, and (b) the simple materiality with consciousness as condition in both cases among the non-percipient, and in the course of an existence in the five-constituent becoming, and (c) the [combined] mentality-materiality [561] with consciousness as condition in both cases in the five-constituent becoming. All that mentality and materiality and mentality-materiality should be understood as “mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition,” including them under mentality-materiality according to the method that allows any one part to represent any remaining one of its kind.^[4]

198. Is this correct in view of the absence of consciousness in non-percipient beings?—It is not incorrect. For:

This consciousness, as cause of mind
And matter, is twice reckoned:
Result, and also not-result.
Wherefore this is correctly said.

199. The consciousness that is the cause of mentality-materiality is reckoned to be twofold classed as resultant and not resultant. And since in the case of non-percipient beings materiality is originated by kamma, it has as its condition kamma-formation consciousness that occurred in the five-constituent becoming. This applies also to the kamma-originated materiality arising in the course of an existence in the five-constituent becoming at the moment of profitable or any other consciousness. So this is correct.

This is how the exposition can also be known here “by inclusion.” 200. 4. By manner of condition: here:

Resultant-consciousness conditions
Mentality first in nine ways,
Then basis matter in nine ways,
And other matter in eight ways;

Formation-consciousness conditions
This matter in a single way.
The rest of consciousness conditions
This matter as the case may be.

201. Rebirth-linking or some other kind of resultant consciousness is a condition in nine ways, as conascence, mutuality, support, association, kamma-result, nutriment, faculty, presence, and non-disappearance conditions, either at rebirth-linking or in the course of an existence, for that mentality called resultant, whether mixed with materiality or not. At rebirth-linking it is a condition in nine ways, as conascence, mutuality, support, kamma-result, nutriment, faculty, dissociation, presence, and non-disappearance conditions, for the materiality of the physical [heart-] basis. It is a condition in eight ways, namely, as the above conditions omitting the mutuality condition, for materiality other than the materiality of the physical basis.

Kamma-formation consciousness is a condition in one way only, as decisive-support condition, for the materiality of non-percipient beings, or for the kammaborn materiality in the five-constituent becoming, according to the Suttanta method.

All the remaining kinds of consciousness from the time of the first lifecontinuum [consciousness following rebirth-linking] onwards should be understood as a condition for some kind of mentality-materiality as appropriate. But since the whole contents of the Paṭṭhāna must be cited in order to show how it acts in detail, we do not undertake that.

202. Here it may be asked: “But how is it to be known [562] that the mentality-materiality of rebirth-linking has consciousness as its condition?” From the suttas and from logic. For in the suttas it is established in many places that feeling, etc., have consciousness as condition in the way beginning, “States with parallel occurrence through consciousness” (Dhs §1522). But as to logic:

From matter seen here to be born
Of consciousness a man can tell
That consciousness is a condition
For matter when unseen as well.

Whether consciousness likes it or not, [certain] material instances are seen to arise in conformity with it. And the unseen is inferred from the seen. So it can be known, by means of the consciousness-born materiality that is seen, that consciousness is also a condition for the unseen materiality of rebirth-linking. For it is said in the Paṭṭhāna that, like the consciousness-originated, also the kamma-originated has consciousness as its condition (see Paṭṭh I 172–73).

This is how the exposition should be known “by manner of condition.”

This is the detailed explanation of the clause “With consciousness as condition, mentality-materiality.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Resolve compound agahitagahaṇena as gahitassa a-gahaṇena, not as a-gahitassa gahaṇena; i.e. it is “by not taking what is taken,” not “by taking what has not been taken”; cf. IV.75.

[2]:

“This means, due to the heat element in the materiality that arose together with the rebirth-linking consciousness. It is because the heart-basis is arisen only at that very moment, that there is weakness of the physical basis” (Vism-mhṭ 622).

[3]:

Vāhanika—“having a float”: not in PED. The context suggests a catamaran, universal in Indian waters.

[4]:

The expression “ekadesasarūpekasesa” is grammatically explained at Vism-mhṭ 623; see allied expressions, “katekasesa” (§204) and “ekasese kate” (§223). Cf. Pāṇini I 2, 64.