In Yogâcāra 唯識, the seeds are one phase of the latent potentialities of all mental and physical dharmas which are stored in the ālayavijñāna. Coming into existence as the result of present activities and conditions, the seeds result either in actual effects, or in new potentialities, giving rise to continued existence. Earlier Yogâcāra thinkers such as Sthiramati 安慧 understood seeds to be strictly metaphorical, but Xuanzang 玄奘 regarded them to be actual potentialities. Seeds are explained as having six characteristics. See 種子六義; see also the two categories of seeds 二種種子 and four categories of seeds 四種種子. According to the research by Yamabe (2021, which recaps earlier work in Japanese) in the fully-formed tradition of Yogâcāra, bīja and vāsanā 習氣 (habit energies) are usually treated as synonymous, but in the earlier portions of the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra 瑜伽論, vāsanā was used for a much narrower range of meanings than bīja. He argues that the for the broadening of the usage of vāsanā, conceptualization (vikalpa) 分別 played a key role. 〔成唯識論 T 1585.31.8; 瑜伽論 T 1579.30.363c01 〕 .

References:

Dessein, Bart. 2008. “Of Seeds and Sprouts: Defilement and its Attachment to the Life-stream in the Sarvāstivāda Hṛdaya Treatises.” Asian Philosophy 18 (1): 17–33.

Jaini, Padmanabh S. 1959. “The Sautrāntika Theory of Bīja.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22 (2) : 236–49.

Matsushima Hisakami. 2010. “Saṃghabhadra on karma and Momentariness.” Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 印度学仏教学研究  58 (3): 43–47.

Park, Changhwan. 2014. Vasubandhu, Śrīlāta, and the Sautrāntika Theory of Seeds. Vienna:  Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde.

Shastri, Dvarikadas Swami, ed. 1970. Sphūṭārthā Abhidharmakośa-Vyākhyā. Varanasi:  Bauddha Bharati Series.

Yamabe Nobuyoshi 山部能宜. 1989. “Shuji no hon'u to shingun no mondai nitsuite 種子の本有と新薫の問題について .” Nihon bukkyō gakkai nenpō 63 : 43–58.

----. 1991. “Shuji no hon'u to shingun no mondai nitsuite (II) 種子の本有と新薫の問題について .” Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 47 : 93–112.

----. 1990. “Bīja Theory in the Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī.” Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 38 (2): 929–31.

Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. 2021. “The Position of Conceptualization in the Context of the Yogācāra Bīja Theory.”  In Endo, Toshiichi, ed. Illuminating the Dharma: Buddhist Studies in Honour of Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti. Hong Kong:  Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. 463–86.

Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. 2006. “Yuishiki gakuha ni okeru shuji setsu no kaishaku ni tsuite: shinnyo shoen'en shuju kara muro shuji he 唯識学派における種子説の解釈について—真如所縁緣種子から無漏種子へ .” Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 55(1) : 86–92.