Volition and Functions of Alaya Consciousness

Summary

The talk, delivered on December 19, 2013 in the Full Moon Meditation Hall in the New Hamlet during the Winter Retreat, focused on the nature and function of alaya consciousness within Buddhist psychology. The speaker also noted the schedule of upcoming Dharma talks, including several sessions in English in the following days, but the main teaching centered on volition, bodhicitta, and the practical meaning of spiritual aspiration. A major theme was the distinction between wholesome and unwholesome volition. The speaker explained that volition, or cetana, is not mere thinking but a deep intention or desire to realize something. This volitional energy was described as a kind of nourishment, one of the four nutriments, and as essential to life itself. Without a meaningful source of volition, a person loses vitality and direction. The talk emphasized that alaya consciousness contains this energy and that it can be either healthy and life-giving or destructive, as in the case of revenge, hatred, and terrorism. The speaker used these examples to show that strong desire can generate immense energy, but that energy must be examined and transformed. The teaching then turned to the Buddha’s own life as an illustration of wholesome volition. Siddhartha, before becoming the Buddha, was presented as someone who had every material advantage—status, wealth, family, and future—but who was not satisfied with worldly success. He did not want to become a king like his father because he saw that political power could not resolve suffering, injustice, or inner distress. Instead, his deepest aspiration was to become a monk, find liberation, understand suffering, and help others. This aspiration was identified with bodhicitta, the mind of love and awakening that seeks enlightenment in order to serve others. The speaker described bodhicitta as a precious source of energy that gives monks and nuns courage, resilience, and joy, and that must be protected and nourished. The talk also extended this insight to relationships in family life, marriage, and monastic life. Before entering a marriage or joining a sangha, one should carefully examine whether one shares the same direction, ideals, and dreams as the other person or community. The speaker warned that people can live together physically while pursuing entirely different aspirations, which leads to suffering and alienation. Communication about one’s deepest dreams and volition was presented as essential for harmony in families, among spouses, and between parents and children. The speaker encouraged children to ask parents about their dreams and whether those dreams were fulfilled, and suggested that such conversations can create deep friendship and mutual understanding. Another central point was that a spiritual ideal must not remain abstract or postponed to the future. Liberation, awakening, pure land, the kingdom of God, and even socialist paradise were discussed as examples of ideals that are meaningless unless they are embodied in the present moment. The speaker insisted that every step, breath, and action should already express the goal. In this view, the path and the destination are not separate: the means is the end. This was presented as the spirit of Buddhism and as a practical way to keep one’s volition alive in daily life. The latter part of the talk shifted to a detailed explanation of alaya consciousness. The speaker described its characteristics as unobstructed, indeterminate, neutral, and shared with the seeds it contains. Alaya was compared to a hard drive or storehouse that preserves, holds, and processes all seeds and experiences. Its functions include learning, habit formation, ripening, nourishing, healing, and sustaining life. The speaker explained that learning becomes stored as vasana, or perfuming, and eventually manifests as skill or habit, such as driving a car or chanting. Ripening was illustrated through examples from agriculture, cooking, and personal transformation, showing that experiences mature over time and can manifest as insight, talent, or change in character. The talk concluded with a discussion of impermanence and the interdependence of life and death. The speaker argued that birth and death occur not only at the end of a lifetime but at every instant. Cells die and are born continuously; children become adults through a series of moment-to-moment deaths and rebirths. This was linked to the Buddhist understanding that life and death inter-are: one cannot exist without the other. The speaker used images of waves, globes, and cellular renewal to show that transformation is constant and that death is not the opposite of life but part of its ongoing process. The overall message was that understanding alaya, nourishing wholesome volition, and living one’s ideal in the present moment are essential to freedom, happiness, and compassionate service.