Seeds - Store consciousness

In Buddhist psychology, we talk about ‘store consciousness’. Store consciousness is the lower part of our consciousness which stores many things; we call them seeds — seeds of happiness, seeds of sorrow, seeds of pain, all kinds of seeds. And that part of our consciousness is described as being like a garden, or soil, or earth, which preserves seeds.

The upper part of our consciousness is called ‘mind consciousness’, and this is linked to the intellect. So a dharma talk should be considered to be like rain falling down on the earth. We should let the rain touch the soil and to penetrate into it. Then there is a chance that the seeds that are buried in the depths of our consciousness will be touched by the talk. We should not, therefore, use mind consciousness a lot. We should refrain from thinking, from comparing, from judging; we should just allow the dharma talk to fall like rain and to penetrate into the soil of our store consciousness. And that is why it is better to stay in a state of half sleep rather than to use your intellect! While you are snoring, the dharma talk is able to sneak in! But if you use the intellect, it is like using a lot of buckets to receive the water, and that prevents the rain from penetrating into the depths of your consciousness.

It is certain that we have seeds of happiness, seeds of joy, of peace, of love, in us, but it may be that during our daily lives, nobody knows how to touch those seeds. That is why they don’t grow. They remain deeply buried in the bottom of our consciousness. Maybe during a dharma talk, how­ever, you allow the talk to come down and touch these seeds.

Dharma talks can also come down and touch the seeds of suffering in us. The contact between the dharma and the seeds of suffering might then provoke a kind of transformation. The best thing to do during a dharma talk, therefore, is not to think, not to compare, to measure, or to reflect.

Various schools of Buddhist thought held that karmic effects arose out of seeds that were latent in an individual's mindstream or psycho-physical continuum.[1] Rupert Gethin describes the theory thus:

When I perform an action motivated by greed, it plants a 'seed' in the series of dharmas [phenomena] that is my mind. Such a seed is not a thing in itself - a dharma but merely the modification or 'perfuming' of the subsequent flow of dharmas consequent upon the action. In the course of time this modification matures and issues in a particular result, in the same way as a seed does not produce its fruit immediately, but only after the 'modifications' of the shoot, stem, leaf, and flower.[2]

The Sautrantika school held such a theory as did the Mahasamghikas and the early Mahasisakas. The Sautrantika Sthavira Srilata held a conception of "subsidiary element" (anudhatu or *purvanudhatu) which also corresponds to this theory of seeds. The seed theory was defended by the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu in his Abhidharmakosha who mentions that is the view of the “old teachers” (purvacarya). It is also present in the Viniscayasamgrahani of the Yogacarabhumi.[4] In the Bashyam Vasubandhu connects the Sautrantika theory of seeds with the notion of the latent defilements or anusaya:

The Sautrantikas define anusayas as kleshas in the state of seeds and say that they are not separate dravyas (substances). Anusayas are dormant, i.e., not actualized, while paryavasthanas (active defilements) are awakened.

Likewise, the Nyayanusara of Sanghabhadra states that the theory had different terms to refer to "seeds":

There are certain masters who give different names to these seeds, each according to his own understanding. Some call them subsidiary elements (anudhatu), others call them impressions (vasana); still others call them capability (samarthya), non-disappearance (avipranasa), or accumulation (upacaya).[1]

The theory is considerably extended in the Consciousness-only teachings of the Yogacara school of Buddhism. According to this theory, all experiences and actions produce bīja as impressions, stored in the alaya (storehouse) consciousness. The external world is produced when the seeds "perfume" this consciousness.