It would be interesting to me too. Tomorrow, I'll try to go back through the discussion of seeds from Xuanzang's "Demonstration of Consciousness Only," which may yield further sprouts in our fruitful conversations. 
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Replying to @NoaidiX @memeristor
First, here are some theories on the origins of seeds, as outlined by Xuanzang in Chapter 3, Section 2, of the "Demonstration of Consciousness Only" (成唯識論; Cheng Weishi Lun).pic.twitter.com/qMBTlTZnXz
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Replying to @NoaidiX @memeristor
Immediately following this discussion, Xuanzang offers a refutation, illustrating the multiple interweaving seed theories and interpretations of the time.
pic.twitter.com/LoVVfc8J6S
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Replying to @NoaidiX @memeristor
Although not referencing seeds explicitly, a later passage by Xuanzang (Chapter 9, Section 2) on the power of samādhi & vows, which are undertaken by the bodhisattva in order to preserve the body's functioning in future births, hearkens back to the thread's original quote.pic.twitter.com/owFSkZ3irl
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Replying to @NoaidiX
May I ask, What do these excerpts mean? I have the sense that they in part speak about genetic predispositions towards likes, dislikes, and patterns of behavior Are all potential manifestations contained in the vault at birth only to become active in relationship to experience?
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Replying to @memeristor @NoaidiX
One of the mysteries to me is that the role of attention in relation to the "perfuming" or planting of seeds is not mentioned It seems to me that the active agent is attention and that the development of the seeds for good or bad is in direct proportion to the degree of attention
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Replying to @memeristor
Attention is a key component, also acknowledged by William James: "My experience is what I agree to attend to." This is discussed as manasikāra (Pāli) or manaskāra (Sanskrit), with its "wise" (yoniso) variety of particular interest. Here is a brief passage from Xuanzang.pic.twitter.com/txyqdBvkeQ
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Replying to @NoaidiX @memeristor
For Xuanzang, attention (manaskāra|作意) is characterized by arousing/awakening the mind's seeds and functions to direct the mind to its objective bases (ālambana|縁境). Based on what I've experienced, such arousing/awakening through attention plants/re-plants/perfumes the seeds.
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Replying to @NoaidiX
Attention and its direction is to a large the only real thing in us. We are conscious in direct relation to the degree of intentionality invested in attention. Consciousness and attention are inseparable. Attention is at the heart of ever effort yet for the most part ignored.
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Replying to @memeristor @NoaidiX
The excerpt I posted earlier Self Remembering an act of dividing attention acts as a solvent. I would suggest that Buddhism ignores attention as it is integral to a sense of self. Hard to push near nihilism and unpack attention.
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My experience, at least, suggests otherwise. Attention functions integrally in the various flavors of Buddhism I've practiced without recourse to a substantial or enduring self. Perhaps we're working with different aspects or definitions of attention, but I see no contradiction.
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Replying to @NoaidiX
Different definitions of self? Did you read the posts where the similarities between attention and electricity were discused? Moving away from biological properties to electrical properties seeds become capacitors storing the current of experience.
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Replying to @memeristor
Different definitions of attention, but likely self as well. I understand electricity to be a metaphor for a process. The same goes for seeds and all the various other images that are invoked. Do you see them some other way, perhaps as literal entities?
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