English
its special action does not cease, but follows that mind-stream. This is called the kamma-stage. The sign-stage is when that kamma finds an opportunity to ripen, then at the time near death, for that person, that very kamma appears, or that person then is as if giving a gift, or observing precepts, or taking life. Or a kamma-sign appears, a gift-object and so on, or a weapon and so on, or any other object that was previously an instrument for that kamma, then for that person... is as if in the hand of the person. Or a destiny-sign appears, or a divine mansion, etc., or a hell-fire, etc., an object to be obtained or to be experienced in the arising existence is then seen. This is called the sign-state. The fruition-state: If that person dies without abandoning that one object, that karma, or karma-sign, or destiny-sign, which has thus appeared, then that karma ripens in that existence, that karma appears in that existence as one individual existence. There, in the first three states, that karma is soft and tender; but having reached the last fruition-state, it is ripened. Therefore it is said: Ripening means surpassing the soft and tender state and reaching the ripened state. Thus, the group of mental and concomitant phenomena that has reached the ripened state is called fruition. There, just as mango fruits, when they reach the ripened state, are entirely smooth in form; even so, fruition-phenomena, being without effort and without activity, are entirely tranquil in form. Because of their tranquil form, the object of the life-continuum consciousness is not distinct; at the time of emerging from the life-continuum, one does not know that object. Thus, for one sleeping at night, even though the stream of life-continuum flows, taking as its object the karma, etc., grasped at the time of approaching death in the previous existence, that stream of life-continuum does not become a condition for the arising of any cognitive-process consciousness that knows, "This was my object in the previous existence." That person, neither while sleeping nor while waking, knows that sign established in the previous existence. Thus, helpfulness by way of being without effort, without activity, and tranquil in form is called fruition-conditionality. The exposition of fruition-conditionality is finished. 15. Food Conditionality Food conditionality is twofold: material food conditionality and immaterial food conditionality. There, material food conditionality is that called edible food, Food is called matter. And that food is twofold: internal food and external food. For beings who consume nutriment in the form of a morsel, all the material phenomena arising from four causes are produced by that twofold material food. Immaterial food, however, is threefold: food of contact, food of mental volition, and food of consciousness. These three phenomena are a condition of food for co-arisen mental and material phenomena. And co-arisen mental and material phenomena are produced by them. In what sense is it food? It is food in the sense of strongly carrying forth. By "strongly carrying forth" it is meant "strongly causing to proceed," "sustaining for a long time," "for growth, for development, for abundance." Even though food has the function of generating, it is primarily for the function of sustaining. Therein, the twofold material food, nourishing the material body arising from four causes in one's own continuum, strongly carries forth, strongly causes to proceed, makes it go for a long time, causes it to reach the end of that particular lifespan— thus it is food. The food of contact, extracting agreeable and disagreeable flavor from objects, strongly carries forth the associated phenomena. The food of mental volition, generating enthusiasm in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, strongly carries forth the associated phenomena. The food of consciousness, carrying out the leading function in the sense of knowing objects, strongly carries forth the associated phenomena, strongly causes to proceed, makes them go for a long time— thus it is food. Strongly carrying forth the associated phenomena, it also strongly carries forth the co-arisen material phenomena. Here, the Suttanta method should also be stated. Just as birds, having discerned the directions with their eyes, flying through the air from tree to tree, from forest to forest, with their wings, pecking fruits and non-fruits with their beaks, sustain themselves throughout life. Similarly, these beings, having discerned objects with the six consciousnesses, having made efforts to obtain the basis of objects with the six foods of mental volition, having made the flavor in objects manifest with the six foods of contact, experience pleasure and pain. Or, objects with consciousnesses... Developing mind-and-matter, they achieve success. By contacts, making flavor appear in objects, producing feeling, the experience of object-flavor, they fall into the proliferation of craving. By volitions, giving rise to various craving-rooted actions, they wander from existence to existence. Thus, the great function of nutriment should be understood as the nature of nutriment. The exposition of the nutriment condition is concluded. 16. Faculty Condition The faculty condition is threefold: the conascent faculty condition, the pre-nascent faculty condition, the material life faculty condition. Among these, the fifteen faculty-states are called the conascent faculty condition: the life faculty, the mind faculty, the pleasure faculty, the pain faculty, the joy faculty, the sorrow faculty, the equanimity faculty, the faith faculty, the energy faculty, the mindfulness faculty, the concentration faculty, the wisdom faculty, the faculty of 'I shall know the unknown', the faculty of final knowledge, the faculty of one who has known. The mind-and-mental-factor states and material states conascent with these are conditioned by them. The five material faculties are the pre-nascent faculty condition: the eye faculty, the ear faculty, the nose faculty, the tongue faculty, the body faculty. The five sense-consciousness mind-and-mental-factor states are conditioned by them. The one material life faculty is the material life faculty condition. All kamma-born material states, except for the life material state, are conditioned by it. In what sense is it a faculty? It is a faculty in the sense of mastery. Where, then, is this mastery? It is mastery over its own conditioned states. Over what particular function is there mastery? It is mastery over its own particular function. The mental life faculty has mastery over the life-sustaining function of its associated states. The life-sustaining function means the function of increasing life-span, the function of long-term persistence of continuity. The mind faculty has mastery over the function of apprehending objects for its associated states. The remaining meaning of faculty has already been stated in the exposition of the faculty couplet. Here one might say, even though the two states of femininity faculty and masculinity faculty are faculties, why are they not separately included in the faculty condition? not taken? Because of the absence of the function of condition. For the function of condition is threefold: the function of generating, the function of supporting, and the function of maintaining. Among these, that condition which is a condition for the arising of the conditioned phenomenon, without which the conditioned phenomenon does not arise, the function of that condition is called the function of generating. For example, the immediately preceding condition. That condition which is a condition for the standing, the growth, and the flourishing of the conditioned phenomenon, without which the conditioned phenomenon does not stand, does not grow, does not flourish, the function of that condition is called the function of supporting. For example, the subsequently arisen condition. That condition which is a condition for the continuity of the conditioned phenomenon, without which the conditioned phenomenon does not continue for a long time, its succession is cut off, the function of that condition is called the function of maintaining. For example, the life faculty condition for form. But these two faculty phenomena do not accomplish even one of these three functions of condition. Therefore, these two phenomena are not taken separately in the faculty condition. Even so, should these two phenomena not be called faculties? No, they should not be said not to be called. Why? Because of the existence of the faculty function. What then is their faculty function? Mastery over gender, sign, manner, and deportment is the faculty function. Thus, for a person in whose continuum the female faculty form arises at the moment of rebirth-linking, the five aggregate phenomena, arisen from the four conditions such as kamma, transform into the state of femaleness. That existence is entirely endowed with female gender, female sign, female manner, and female deportment, and not otherwise. And the female faculty form does not generate those five aggregate phenomena, nor does it support them, nor does it maintain them. Rather, those phenomena, arising from their respective conditions, it causes its own influence to operate on them, as if establishing a command: "Let them arise in this way and that way!" And those phenomena arise in that very way, and not otherwise. This is the female faculty. The mastery of that form in female characteristics and so on. This is the way for the form of the male faculty in its mastery over male characteristics and so on. Thus these two phenomena, due to the existence of the faculty-function in characteristics and so on, are called faculties. But the heart-base form, even while accomplishing the function of a supporting base for the two consciousness-elements, does not accomplish the faculty-function in them. For it is not that