The Fifth Patriarch's Dharma Transmission Gatha

The Fifth Patriarch's Dharma Verse: Sentient beings come to sow the seeds; because of the ground, the fruit will grow. Non-sentient things have no seeds; without inherent nature, there is no birth.

Explanation: "Sentient beings" refers to living beings who possess the eighth consciousness, either five aggregates or four aggregates, have activities of consciousness, possess lifespan, and are living entities. "Non-sentient" means lacking the eighth consciousness, lacking the seven consciousnesses, lacking the five aggregates, devoid of discriminative activities of consciousness, and thus not living beings. "Because of the ground" means that it is due to the eighth consciousness serving as the mind-ground that one can reap the fruit. When Dharma seeds are sown in sentient beings, these seeds are stored by the eighth consciousness. When conditions ripen in the future, the eighth consciousness outputs the seeds, and karmic retribution takes form. Sowing seeds in non-sentient things is useless because non-sentient things lack a conscious mind to receive and accept them, nor do they have an eighth consciousness to store the Dharma seeds; thus, they can never blossom and bear fruit. All dharmas, whether sentient or non-sentient, lack inherent nature within themselves; therefore, they cannot give birth to themselves. They all come into being and are manifested due to the eighth consciousness operating through various causes and conditions.