Miscellaneous Discussions on Buddhism (Part One)
Chapter Five: On Cause and Effect
1. The Retribution for Mocking an Old Monk
Long ago there was an old monk whose teeth were incomplete, so his manner of eating was not very pleasant to look at. A young śrāmaṇera saw him and said to him: "You eat like an ox chewing grass." Because of this one sentence, after the śrāmaṇera died, he fell into the body of an ox for five hundred lifetimes, eating and chewing grass. When Śākyamuni Buddha was in the world, he obtained a human body, left home to cultivate the path under the Buddha. Although he had become a śramaṇa, because the karma from his previous life had not been fully purified and there was still residual karma, when he ate he still chewed like an ox chewing grass. After he had cultivated under the Buddha for some time, he realized the fruit of an arhat, but when eating he still chewed like an ox chewing grass.
The Buddha then said to him: "Your appearance like this will cause many sentient beings to mock you, and they will create evil karma on account of you. That retribution will be even more serious than your former retribution, because you are already an arhat. You would do better to dwell in the heavens, and when there is business in the saṅgha in the human world, you may come down." He followed the Buddha's words and dwelt in the heavens; when there was nothing to do he would not descend to the human world, so as to spare sentient beings from seeing him and creating evil karma—so much so that when the Buddha entered parinirvāṇa and left the Sahā world, he did not even know it. Who was this arhat? It was Gavāmpati. Cause and effect are manifest and never fail. At the very moment of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, whether wholesome or unwholesome, everything is recorded and stored as karmic seeds; when the conditions converge, the retribution must be received. Everyone should carefully guard their bodily, verbal, and mental actions, so as to avoid evil results.
A śrāmaṇera who had left home mocked an old monk who had left home, and received the great retribution of five hundred lifetimes as an ox. If a layperson mocks a monastic, what evil retribution should he receive? If a layperson mocks a monastic who teaches the Dharma, what evil retribution should he receive? If a layperson slanders a monastic who teaches the Dharma, what evil retribution should he receive? If a layperson mocks a monastic who has attained the Way, what evil retribution should he receive? If a layperson mocks a monastic who has attained the Way and teaches the Dharma, what evil retribution should he receive? If a layperson slanders a monastic who has attained the Way and teaches the Dharma, what evil retribution should he receive?
Cause and effect are beyond the capacity of ordinary people to fathom. If a person has a mind of arrogance and likes to mock others, no matter who the other person is, there will be evil retribution. If a person likes to lie and deceive others, saying east is west and west is east, speaking falsely and with flattering words, never speaking correctly, no matter who the other person is, there will be evil retribution. If a person likes to berate others (except parents and teachers), showing no respect for seniority or hierarchy, displaying his own cleverness and talent, there will also be evil retribution.
In short, the ten unwholesome actions of bodily, verbal, and mental actions all carry evil retribution. Therefore, in learning Buddhism one should understand cause and effect, should keep the precepts, should guard one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, should recognize the distinction between wholesome and unwholesome, and strive to cease evil and cultivate goodness. Only when one's mental disposition transforms and draws near to the mental disposition of sages and worthies will there be the opportunity to become a sage or worthy. The prerequisite for becoming a sage or worthy is possessing a mental disposition close to that of sages and worthies; only then is one qualified to become a sage or worthy.
2. Ordinary Beings Recklessly Discussing Arhats
With virtue like the Buddha's, one could entirely say that the noble arhats are "scorched sprouts and sterile seeds." But anyone whose level of cultivation and realization is not equal to that of an arhat—no matter who he is—must not say this; whoever says it will receive evil retribution. The wholesome roots of an ordinary being are not worth even a single hair of an arhat's; he has no qualification whatsoever to slander arhats as scorched sprouts and sterile seeds. Even with evidence it is not allowed; even if it is fact it is not allowed; there will certainly be evil retribution. For a layperson to speak of an ordinary monastic is also not allowed; there is also evil retribution. A person of high virtue may speak of a person of low virtue; a person with precepts may speak of a person without precepts; one who received precepts earlier may speak of one who received them later. Precepts are virtue: having monastic precepts is virtue, having bodhisattva precepts is virtue, daring to leave home is virtue, being able to leave home and abandon worldly life is virtue. Having cultivation and realization is even more so virtue; the higher the cultivation and realization, the higher the virtue. A person of low virtue must not speak of a person of high virtue, and a person without virtue even less so; otherwise the evil retribution will not be light.
3. What Does It Mean That Cause and Effect Span the Three Lifetimes?
Cause and effect span the three lifetimes: the past life, the present life, and the future life. So what one does now, and the wholesome or unwholesome experiences one encounters, may be fruit or may be cause. What is called fruit means there was a cause in a past life and the fruit is reaped in this life; what is called cause means that what one does in this life serves as the cause, and there will be fruit in a future life. If others create toward you something wholesome or something unwholesome, it may be fruit or may be cause. If it is fruit, then you planted the cause in a past life, and in this life you deserve this fruit; if it is not fruit but cause, then the other person is planting a cause upon you, and in the future it is he who will reap the fruit. This is the principle of cause and effect spanning the three lifetimes. Therefore, present experiences are not necessarily fruit, nor necessarily cause; only a person with supernatural powers or great wisdom can judge whether a given matter is cause or fruit.
If what we encounter is fruit, then we must accord with conditions and not take it to heart. If it is cause, we must be careful in what we create, striving to ensure that toward others and ourselves we plant good causes and wholesome causes, so that in the future we may reap wholesome fruit. If we have done our utmost and still cannot change anything, then accord with conditions. But at the very least we must ensure that what we plant are all wholesome causes and not evil causes, so as to avoid encountering evil fruit in future lives.
In cause and effect, the cause is very minute, but the fruit will be infinitely great. Bodhisattvas understand cause and effect and therefore fear the cause; ordinary beings do not understand cause and effect and only fear the fruit. Bodhisattvas fear planting bad causes, so as to avoid great evil fruit; ordinary beings only feel that fate is dreadful when a great evil retribution arrives, and even feeling it dreadful, they still do not awaken, not knowing that the dreadful retribution was brought about by one minute mental action of their own. When cause and effect come, no one can stop them; no matter how powerful one's influence, no one can cope with cause and effect. For those who love to attack others, who dare to slander the Three Jewels, cause and effect come very swiftly, like a flood, unstoppable. Understanding cause and effect, our minds are at peace.
4. All Dharmas Are Empty — Are Cause and Effect Empty or Not?
"Empty" means unreal, illusory, transformed; it means arising and ceasing. Cause and effect are also arising, ceasing, illusory, and unreal. If cause and effect were not empty, then once a karmic cause was created, retribution would appear forever, and the retribution would never end; sentient beings could never exhaust their karma and could never attain liberation—that would be unreasonable. For example, when the karmic seeds of hell become manifest, once the retribution of the hell karma has been received, it will not continue afterward; if the retribution continued, sentient beings could not obtain human bodies. When sentient beings have ended birth and death, the retribution ends, and then they become Buddhas. If cause and effect were received endlessly, no sentient being could become a Buddha or escape the cycle of the six realms.
The karma of killing a person, once its retribution has ended, will not be received forever afterward—only such cause and effect is reasonable. If you owe me one hundred yuan, once you repay me the matter is finished and concluded; surely it need not be repaid forever? There is no such cause and effect. Are cause and effect ultimately empty or not? If they were not empty, then I could scatter money everywhere, and those who received the money would owe me repayment for countless kalpas without ever finishing—then I would never need to practice generosity and cultivate merit again, and could just sit back and enjoy the proceeds. That would be unreasonable. Therefore it is said that cause and effect are also empty: they come from nowhere and go nowhere; once the retribution is complete, there is no more cause and effect.
5. Why Is Cause and Effect Also Illusory and Unreal?
Retribution is divided into direct retribution and circumstantial retribution. The direct retribution is the body of the five aggregates; the circumstantial retribution is the living environment of the universe, the inanimate vessel world. The realization of cause and effect is accomplished mainly through the body of the five aggregates; the retribution is received upon the body of the five aggregates, so the five-aggregate body is the direct retribution, while the living environment is the circumstantial retribution, which also manifests the causes, conditions, and retributions of sentient beings. The five aggregates are illusory, the eighteen realms are illusory, the universe we live in and the vessel world are illusory, the living environment is illusory—thus cause and effect and their retributions are illusory and unreal.
Since all our retributions manifest through these illusory dharmas, the retributions are illusory. For example, the wholesome and unwholesome retributions you receive—whether getting rich, falling ill, or encountering disaster—are they not all received upon these illusory dharmas? These illusory dharmas are illusory; are the retributions then not illusory? Of course they are all illusory. All retributions are nothing other than what manifests on the body of the five aggregates. If the five-aggregate body is illusory, the retributions are illusory; moreover, these retributions arise, cease, and change; they are impermanent, and what is impermanent is illusory. Therefore, all cause and effect is also illusory; all dharmas are illusory—apart from the tathāgatagarbha, everything is a manifested, illusory dharma.
For example, the retribution of poverty, the retribution of defective faculties, and all the pleasant and painful retributions—are these retributions illusory? They are all illusory, all manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with karmic seeds and various conditions; none of them is a real dharma. Take another example: if you receive a wholesome retribution—being promoted, getting rich, or being reunited with family, and various wholesome retributions such as wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep—where are these retributions received? They are all received upon the body of the five aggregates, manifesting through the five-aggregate body. The five-aggregate body is illusory, unreal, and false, so these retributions are even more illusory, illusory, and unreal—they are not real dharmas!
Take another example of wholesome retribution: in this life becoming a king in the world, or ascending to heaven to become a heavenly lord. Are the thrones of kings and heavenly lords illusory? Is the universe one lives in, the vessel world, the palaces, illusory? Are fine clothes and exquisite food illusory? Are all the servants, ministers, officials, and attendants at one's side all illusory? Everything one contacts—these all belong to wholesome retribution. Where do these retributions come from? They are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha according to karmic seeds and according to conditions. Therefore the wholesome retribution of being a king or a heavenly lord is illusory and unreal.
Take another example of evil retributions such as being killed or dying in a car accident: these retributions are all borne by the body of the five aggregates. Why is the five-aggregate body killed? Why is it imprisoned? Why does it lose so much property and so many loved ones? These all belong to evil retribution. Where do these evil retributions come from? They are all false appearances manifested by the tathāgatagarbha according to karmic seeds and various conditions, all manifesting upon the body of the five aggregates. When evil retribution is received, the feeling experienced is painful feeling—is this painful feeling not the feeling of the conscious mind? Where does the conscious mind's feeling come from? It is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. All dharmas, whether wholesome or unwholesome retribution, are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. Without the tathāgatagarbha, there would be no dharmas at all.
Since what is illusory is arising and ceasing, unreal, mutable, and empty, it is not self, not real, and not possessed by self—this is called non-self. In terms of the tathāgatagarbha, everything else is unreal dharma; therefore everything is empty and illusory dharma.
6. What Price Do Sentient Beings Pay for Gluttony?
In the earliest period of the earth's formation, there were as yet no sentient beings and no humans. The devas of the Abhāsvara heaven of the second dhyāna flew to the surface of the earth, and after landing, seeing the thick, rich essence of the earth on the surface, they found it delicious. Out of curiosity, each deva tasted it. As a result of those one or two mouthfuls of deliciousness, the devas' bodies became heavy; some could no longer fly, some could no longer fly high or far. The more they ate, the heavier their bodies became and the less they could fly. So this group of devas stayed on the earth, unable to return to heaven. Being few in number and fearing loneliness, they called over other deva companions; the companions all tasted the earth's essence upon arriving on earth, and none could fly back. Thus humans gathered more and more on the earth, and these people became the earliest humans of the earth.
Whom may one owe? What may one crave? Once karmic affinities are formed, one becomes bound together with them, and the ties cannot be severed. Some people's view of living is: eat whatever can be eaten, eat whatever one wants to eat—no loss in eating. What is the result of such craving? Because of gluttony, one becomes bound by food and drink and cannot attain liberation, suffering immeasurably within the desire realm. Therefore gluttony brings losses far outweighing the gains.
7. What Is the Proper Way to Show Compassion to Sentient Beings?
Sentient beings who have left the three evil realms, born through craving and desire, with the future retribution of craving and attachment, mostly go to the ghost realm to repay their karmic results; those with slight craving can become human or ascend to heaven. Craving belongs to the water element, and water flows downward—down means the three evil realms. The Buddha said this in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra; one may consult the Buddhist scriptures. Some people vigorously encourage Buddhist practitioners to crave romantic relationships between men and women, saying it is to form affinities. The affinity is indeed formed, but as to whether it is wholesome or not—according to the Buddha's intent, there is no good result: transmigration through the six realms, birth, death, and suffering.
There was a man who, not long after leaving home, was entangled back by his girlfriend; then he left home again, and was entangled back again—repeating this seven times, in extreme anguish. You want liberation, but she insists on entangling you and not letting you be liberated—a deadly enemy of birth and death. When a person wants tranquility but is entangled relentlessly by another, that experience is agonizing and hard to endure. Some will say: a bodhisattva should show compassion to sentient beings; wife and children are also sentient beings, so of course one should show them even more compassion. But compassion must be appropriate and kept within bounds. If one shows compassion only to one's own family and those with affinities, spending all one's time and energy on just a few people, and these few people's spiritual faculties are not very good, thereby delaying one's own progress on the path, then it is not worthwhile. Such "compassion" is craving and attachment, and brings no liberation; it is not what the Buddha advocates.
A bodhisattva's compassion should be primarily directed toward the majority of sentient beings. By concentrating one's energy on cultivation and realization, one will benefit immeasurable family members and those with affinities, and will benefit one's parents, wife, and children across countless kalpas of successive lives—rather than placing one's main energy on the current one wife, one child, one father, one mother. Compared with great love, small love is insignificant; being held captive by small love will impede one's progress on the path. A bodhisattva's vision should be far-reaching and vast, and one should vow to illuminate all sentient beings under heaven with the light of one's own wisdom. A heart of great loving-kindness and great compassion is the true bodhisattva heart; small kindness and small love can only obstruct the path and should be abandoned as soon as possible.
8. What Constitutes Slander?
The Saṃyukta Āgama records that a non-Buddhist or a certain layperson asked a disciple of the World-Honored One about the Buddha's Dharma. After the disciple answered, he thought: "Does my answer accord with the World-Honored One's teaching of the Dharma? Surely it does not contradict or slander the World-Honored One?" So this disciple went to ask the World-Honored One: "World-Honored One, a non-Buddhist asked me about the Buddha's Dharma, and this is how I answered—did I slander you?" The World-Honored One said: "You answered correctly; you did not slander me." From this we should know that as long as speech or verbal expression does not accord with facts, it is slander. If the Dharma a disciple transmits does not accord with the Buddha's intent and is inconsistent with the Buddha, it is slandering the Buddha. If the Buddha says a certain dharma is thus, and the disciple says it is not thus, that is slandering the Buddha and also slandering the Dharma; regarding the Dharma taught by the Buddha, to utter a single word of "no" is already slandering the Buddha and slandering the Dharma.
Then slandering the Saṅgha is also easy to commit. Slandering the Saṅgha is divided into slandering ordinary monastics and slandering monastic bhikṣus and bodhisattvas who have attained the Way; the former offense is lighter, while the latter offense is extremely grave, and the retribution is inconceivable. As long as you deny a bhikṣu or a bodhisattva, uttering a "no" or "not so" or "wrong," when the facts are not so, the offense of slander is established. Sentient beings usually pay no attention to this, thinking there is nothing wrong in denying others, and casually open their mouths to say "wrong" or "not so"—but this is not merely a matter of fault, it is a matter of offense; matters touching on fundamental issues are usually hell offenses, and in future lives one will receive the immense evil retribution for slandering noble monks of ultimate truth. When one truly receives that evil retribution in a future life, one often does not know why one received such retribution, and so one receives the retribution in confusion, and then creates karma in confusion—such is the foolish ignorance of sentient beings.
9. How Can One Eradicate Grave Offenses?
The premise of breaking precepts should be that one has already received the precepts and possesses the precept dharma; if one has not received precepts, there is no such thing as breaking them. "Breaking" means destroying; without receiving precepts, there is no talk of breaking them, but heavy evil karma still brings obstruction. If one has committed a grave precept violation, one must repent earnestly and sincerely; one needs to see auspicious signs in order to eliminate the evil karma, and it is necessary to receive the precepts anew.
One who has committed grave precept violations can still be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), provided there is no obstruction at the time of death. If at the moment of death a single thought arises in which the realms of evil karma appear in the mind, one will immediately follow the evil karma and receive evil retribution. Before death, the thoughts in the mind must be purified; no scattered thoughts may appear—only then can one avoid the three evil realms. Attaining the stage of entering the first fruit and the first fruit can also eradicate offenses—the fear is only that karmic obstructions will prevent one from attaining the stage of entering the first fruit.
The Buddha taught disciples who had committed grave precept violations and grave offenses about ultimate reality and about the empty character of the five aggregates; the disciples not only eradicated their offenses but also realized ultimate reality. For example, before Bodhisattva Yongshe was enlightened, he had violated the precept against sexual misconduct and the offense of inciting murder; when the Buddha taught the Mahāyāna principle of non-arising, he became enlightened and realized ultimate reality. King Ajātaśatru killed his father; the Buddha taught him that the five aggregates are illusory and unreal, thereby eradicating the king's extremely grave offense, and he attained rootless faith—but did not attain the stage of entering the first fruit, because the offense was too great. If the Buddha had not taught him the Dharma, he might not even have attained rootless faith. But if King Ajātaśatru had killed his mother, then the offense might not have been eradicable, and he might not have attained rootless faith either.
After receiving precepts, if one violates them, there is an intrinsic offense—that is, an offense of mental disposition—and also a precept offense, an offense of violating the precepts. Those who have not received precepts have only the obstruction of intrinsic offense, without the obstruction of precept offense. But without receiving precepts, the precepts are incomplete, one's progress on the path cannot advance, and it obstructs the realization of fruits and the seeing of the mind and the nature.
10. If a Bodhisattva Who Has Seen the Mind and the Nature Commits Evil Karma, Will He Lose His Attainment?
In the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva's Ornament of the Fundamental Activities, the Buddha said that if a bodhisattva creates actions contrary to bodhisattva conduct, all the three stages of worthiness and ten bhūmis are lost. Bodhisattvas before the bhūmis, whose afflictions are not yet exhausted, may occasionally create evil actions due to afflictions; bodhisattvas on the bhūmis still have afflictive habits not yet exhausted, and may also create slight evil actions due to afflictive habits. Those residual afflictive habits are very deep and subtle and not easy to exhaust; once they are exhausted, one enters the eighth bhūmi and becomes an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. But bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above still have subtle ignorance—that is, extremely subtle foolishness—and still have unknowing regarding extremely profound and subtle Buddha-dharmas; only at the Buddha stage can it all be exhausted.
Ordinary sentient beings who have not eradicated the view of self, or who have not fully eradicated it, may still fall into the three evil realms because of the view of self. Sentient beings create karma because of "self"; countless afflictions arise from "self." Therefore it is necessary, through cultivation, to fully eradicate the view of self and subdue grasping at self. But even when grasping at self is exhausted, an even subtler grasping at dharmas awaits us, all of which must be exhausted. Afflictive habits must not be underestimated either; bodhisattvas on the bhūmis have the manifestation of afflictive habits, which are also very hard to eradicate. Therefore bodhisattvas on the bhūmis inevitably have faults and subtle evil actions; if they violate the Buddha's precepts, their bodhisattva attainment will also be lost.
Therefore, in learning Buddhism and cultivating, every day we should introspect on where our main afflictive bonds lie, and then focus on contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to resolve them, not letting deep and heavy afflictions obstruct our cultivation. Based on whether afflictions have been eradicated and on the degree of wisdom, one is classified as a worthy or a sage. Those of the first and second fruits who have eradicated the view of self are still worthies, not sages; only those of the third and fourth fruits and bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi upward are sages. Bodhisattvas before the bhūmis are worthies, because they still have greed, hatred, and delusion not eradicated, so their virtue is insufficient to make them sages. The true sage, complete with all the virtues of a sage, is the Buddha alone.
11. Which Consciousness Suffers Punishment in Hell? How Many Consciousnesses Go to Hell Together?
The manas and the eighth consciousness go down to hell together, and then the six consciousnesses immediately arise. The mind consciousness discovers: "Eh! How did I come down to hell?" Then the body consciousness feels the intense pain of being punished by instruments of torture, the mind consciousness feels indescribable suffering, all six consciousnesses feel the pain, and the mind consciousness helplessly endures the torment of all kinds of suffering, until the karmic retribution is exhausted and it can leave hell—but who knows how many kalpas have passed. In the Avīci hell there are vast great iron beds; however large the hell is, so large is the iron bed. The hell is boundlessly vast, and the iron bed is boundlessly vast; however large the iron bed is, so large is the material body. All the instruments of torture are applied to the body simultaneously without a gap; every part of the body can feel the cruel torment of the instruments—unbearably painful, fainting from the pain, immediately waking up again, and continuing to receive the torment. Slandering the Three Jewels leads to just such an end.
Slandering the Three Jewels includes grounded slander and groundless slander. Grounded slander means that what the person says is factual, but there is still offense. That is why the precepts the Buddha established for monastics are not permitted to be viewed by laypeople—for fear that laypeople, knowing the precepts, would accuse monastics of violating them, thereby slandering the Three Jewels. Groundless slander means fabricating facts about something that never happened at all; the offense is even greater. Both carry offenses, so everyone should not speak of the faults of the Three Jewels; whether or not such things exist, one must know to keep silent—the retribution is fearsome, too dreadful to behold. In the past, someone slandered an arhat, and the arhat assembled the crowd and had the person who had created the slander repent publicly, in order to eliminate that person's offense. The person repented publicly before the arhat to eliminate his own offense. But at the end of his life he still fell into hell and received evil retribution—only the time of receiving the evil retribution was shorter. Without repentance, it would be very hard to emerge from hell, and the suffering received in hell would also be extremely heavy.
If among the Three Jewels there are sages and worthies who have realized the fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles, creating slander against such sages and worthies carries an offense of indescribable severity. Whether it is slander concerning the Buddha-dharma, or slander of personal conduct in ordinary daily life, whether or not it is factual, it is invariably boundless offense. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of monastics must not be criticized under any circumstances; otherwise the offense is grave and evil retribution will certainly be received. Especially for monastics who have attained the Way, one must not criticize even the slightest fault in their bodily, verbal, and mental actions. For a person with extremely heavy afflictions, dwelling close to the Three Jewels is not necessarily a good thing, because a person with extremely heavy afflictions can create evil karma toward anyone; regardless of who the other person is, he acts without scruple and cannot control himself. Therefore, for such a person, it is better to keep some distance from the Three Jewels.
12. Ordinary Beings Must Not Casually Imitate the Conduct of Sages
What sages do, those who have not attained the Way must not blindly follow. Wisdom differs, intention differs, and the results differ. A person who has not seen the mind-ground does not see the markless mark, does not know the principle of non-arising, sees dharmas as truly existent, and does not know the ultimate. A person who has seen the mind knows that dharmas do not arise, that marks are fundamentally nonexistent, illusory and unreal, deceiving human eyes. Seeing marks as truly existent, there are karmic actions; seeing that marks are not marks, even karmic actions are illusory. With different minds and wisdom, the karmic fruits differ. In the past there was a practitioner who wrote the names of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas all over his underwear and wore it on his body. A foolish man saw it and imitated him; a few days later, he vomited blood and died.
The sage's mind cannot be imitated; to imitate only the outward appearance, not knowing that he had a unique intention—sentient beings, through foolishness, harm themselves endlessly. In the past there was Chan Master Danxia, who, in order to liberate people attached to marks, used an extraordinary means: he burned a wooden Buddha statue. In the practitioner's mind, he had directly realized non-arising, had no four marks, and no marks whatsoever. A wooden Buddha is not the Buddha; it has no relics. With or without relics, it is not the true Buddha. The true Buddha is markless; fire cannot burn it, water cannot drown it, wind cannot blow it away, stones cannot strike it, mountains cannot crush it; wailing, spitting, and reviling, insult and slander—all likewise cannot touch it; even God can do nothing to it. Sentient beings are dull and foolish—do not imitate Danxia. Wooden Buddhas and stone Buddhas display images to people; keeping a respectful mind, merit increases; if one can bow in worship, the merit is boundless, toppling the banner of arrogance and subduing one's own mind. Cultivate diligently, awaken to non-arising early, recognize your own mind—it is the Buddha's mind; seeing the nature and becoming a Buddha does not depend on another.
13. Sentient Beings Dare to Commit Evil Karma Only Because of Ignorance and Disbelief in Cause and Effect
In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings' minds are restless and agitated, and some people precisely cater to this restlessness of sentient beings, seeking to please them. If one never goes against the bad habits of sentient beings at all, then how can one turn those bad habits around, how can one bring sentient beings to liberation? Sentient beings are not only greedy but also foolish, insisting on licking that bit of honey on the tip of the blade—what do they get in the end? No one considers this. Most people care only for a tiny bit of so-called benefit right before their eyes, while risking descent into the three evil realms. It looks like boldness, but in fact it is because of foolishness and short-sightedness, unable to think of the great benefit of the far distant future.
In fact, most people plan and calculate for their personal benefit, yet what they do not only fails to bring them benefit but often causes them to lose what they already have. Yet no one thinks of this, and no one can see it. Why? Because of the ignorance and foolishness of avidyā, because afflictions have blinded their own eyes, so they cannot see themselves clearly and cannot see the true gains and losses.
Regarding cause and effect, many people do not truly believe in it, always harboring a fluke mentality, thinking that cause and effect will fall on others' heads and not on their own. So for their own benefit they say to others that if they do not obey their arrangements, some evil retribution will surely befall them—not knowing that their own evil retribution is about to arrive, and that they are right now creating the causes of evil retribution. When I first began studying Buddhism and reading the scriptures, I read some true stories about cause and effect and came to believe that cause and effect is real and unfailing, and I was careful in all my bodily, verbal, and mental actions. But Buddhist practitioners nowadays do not read the Buddhist scriptures at all and do not know what the scriptures are saying; therefore their minds are blind and they do not understand cause and effect.
Now the internet is highly developed, and creating evil karma is far more convenient than before: with a flick of the fingers, evil karma spreads across the whole country—truly lamentable. No one is alert to what the evil consequences will be after moving their fingers. Only the ignorant are fearless; with the mind blocked, blindly following others, not knowing good from evil, they commit great evil karma without knowing remorse. Some people commit evil karma because they were instigated and egged on by others, without knowing it themselves. For example, being told: "Go ahead and do this, nothing will happen; I will bear the cause and effect for you—you will have only wholesome fruit, no evil fruit." So some blind-minded people believe what this person says, thinking this person can truly bear the cause and effect on their behalf. Little do they know that when cause and effect arrive, each has his own retribution, and no one can substitute for another—even one's own birth parents can do nothing about it.
14. The Karmic Condition of the Cycle of Birth and Death Is Craving and Attachment
Cause and effect manifest at the end of life, like settling accounts after autumn—though some accounts are settled in summer too: when the karmic fruit is very great, the retribution ripens early, and accounts are settled before autumn. For each person at the time of death, if the mind is filled with craving—whether craving for family members, or craving for life in the human world, craving wealth or craving affection—one will take rebirth in the ghost realm. If the final thought at death is one of hatred—no matter what is hated, if relatively severe—one may well take rebirth in hell.
Therefore, if one places all hope on the final moment, thinking that one will be able to recollect the Buddha at death and keep the mind pure, that is extremely unreliable. At death, who knows what situation may arise, who knows what mental state one will have. If one cannot even control one's ordinary daily thoughts, then at death, when the four great elements dissolve, karmic obstructions reappear, and creditors of karmic debts come to collect, the vast majority of people, their minds stirred according to karmic conditions, go to the three evil realms—there is no guarantee of not entering the three evil realms. The exception is those with extremely great merit in their karmic actions, who can ascend to heaven and enjoy blessings.
What can guarantee not entering the three evil realms? First, eradicating the view of self; second, seeing the mind and seeing the nature; third, accomplishment of the earth contemplation in the Contemplation Sutra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. Even recollecting the Buddha and knowing in advance the time of death is not reliable—at the moment of death, if the mind of recollecting the Buddha is not single-minded and the sincerity insufficient, the Buddha will not come to receive one. Over ninety percent of Buddhist practitioners, at death, take rebirth in the three evil realms, and most of them go to the ghost realm, because one hundred percent of people have greed and none have eradicated craving. Eradicating craving means that after eradicating the view of self, the first dhyāna meditation arises, and within that meditative concentration craving and hatred are eradicated; apart from this, everyone has a mind of craving. But even if those of the first and second fruits have slight craving, because they have severed the three fetters, they will not take rebirth in the ghost realm; they can only take rebirth in the desire-realm heavens or among humans and continue craving there, or gradually eradicate craving.
Such is the mercilessness of transmigration through the six realms—it shows no favoritism. Without genuine cultivation and realization, at the end of life one is swept away according to karmic conditions, following one's craving, with no room for choice, because one has not trained in ordinary times, nor trained successfully. Only those who have eradicated the view of self are people whose training has succeeded.
But those who have not truly eradicated the view of self and seen the mind still have not succeeded in training, still have not severed the three fetters, and will still follow their craving to take rebirth in the ghost realm—unavoidable, especially for those who violate the five precepts and the bodhisattva precepts. Countless Buddhist practitioners are unaware of this, still craving food, clothing, and lodging every day, loving enjoyment, loving so-called freedom, loving glamour, loving comfort, loving various arts such as music, chess, calligraphy, and painting—these likings are afflictive bonds that bind oneself within the six realms; they are diseases of the mind. Everyone has enjoyed what they should enjoy; living a lifetime, one has not been shortchanged, one has not treated oneself unfairly. But what about future lives? Is present enjoyment more important, or is being spared the suffering of the three evil realms in future lives more important?
There are also some lofty-sounding cultivation methods that say: when eating meat, do not conceive of it as meat. But as for truly not conceiving of it as meat when eating—only those whose minds have already been transformed can do so; Monk Jigong counts as one—how many others can manage it? Since one is no longer interested in meat, why must one insist on eating it? Would it not be good to let one fewer animal die? At the time of death, when the owner of the meat comes to collect the debt, would one have the ability not to repay it?
15. Why Do Buddhist Practitioners Encounter More Hardships as They Progress?
People who enter the gate of Buddhism to learn the Buddha's teaching all have wholesome roots; they did not begin studying and cultivating Buddhism only in this or a few lifetimes—their cultivation time is reckoned in kalpas. Those with complete faith in the Three Jewels and complete confidence in themselves may already have cultivated for as long as a hundred thousand kalpas; those who have entered the Ten Abodes to cultivate the bodhisattva's six perfections have cultivation time far exceeding a hundred thousand kalpas.
Most people enter the gate of Buddhism because of some circumstances—perhaps bodily illness and suffering, or things not going smoothly. After studying Buddhism for a while, the illness lessens, things go smoothly, and they feel that studying Buddhism is good. But when faith in studying Buddhism becomes complete, various obstructive conditions appear; various things stop going smoothly, illness and other conditions arise in the body. Sentient beings have been creating karma for beginningless kalpas, and their karmic obstructions are extremely deep and heavy. When one first studies Buddhism, Dharma protectors and bodhisattvas come to protect one, not letting severe karmic obstructions impede the study of Buddhism, because at this stage one could not yet bear this karma—the appearance of retribution would cause sentient beings to lose faith. After cultivating for some time, when one can bear some karmic obstructions, the Dharma protectors will no longer block the manifestation of karmic obstructions; obstructions one cannot bear will still be blocked a little. In this way, after studying for a while, one discovers that one's own karmic obstructions have manifested.
There is another important reason for things not going smoothly: when cultivation is very effective, the retribution that should be received in future lives is received in advance in this life. Receiving it in advance is "heavy retribution experienced lightly"—the earlier the evil retribution is received, the lighter it is; the later the wholesome retribution is received, the greater it is. This is the same principle as depositing money in a bank: deposits earn interest, which in Buddhist terms is called karmic interest. If a deposit is withdrawn early, the interest is small—the evil karma is light, and the wholesome karma is also light. Therefore evil karma should be received early, the earlier the better; wholesome karma should be received later, the later the better. If one can get by, wholesome karma should be received as late as possible, so that the retribution will be very great—the bank deposit grows larger and larger, equivalent to compound interest.
The karmic seeds of the karma sentient beings create are stored in the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is like a bank, and this bank's deposit interest rate is extremely high—the minimum is one hundred times, the maximum is immeasurable times. So planting a little wholesome dharma can bring rebirth in heaven to enjoy blessings; planting a little evil karma brings descent into hell to suffer. Moreover, this bank of the tathāgatagarbha will never go bankrupt, and the karmic seeds will not be lost—that is to say, the retributions of wholesome and unwholesome karma cannot be stolen or robbed by anyone; only oneself receives them, and no one can substitute. In the sixteenth chapter of the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha says that after a person upholds the Diamond Sutra, the offenses created in past lives that would have made him fall into evil realms—if someone despises him, his past offenses are thereby annihilated, and having only received the retribution of being despised, the retribution is complete. This is "heavy retribution experienced lightly."
Therefore, after a bodhisattva sees the mind and sees the nature, the karma of the three evil realms is annihilated, but there will still be various hardships—all heavy retribution experienced lightly; suffering among humans, never descending to the three evil realms to receive retribution. So when cultivation reaches a certain point, various karmic obstructions that can be borne will gradually appear—this is a good thing, far better than receiving even greater retribution in future lives. After these retributions have been received, obstructive conditions diminish, and subsequent cultivation becomes very fast.
Some of these karmic obstructions are controlled and managed by Dharma-protecting deities; they look after practitioners, sometimes blocking karmic obstructions, sometimes not blocking them, or blocking one part and not another. Therefore, in studying Buddhism and cultivating, every day we should make dedication of merit (pariṇāma) to our Dharma-protecting deities, hoping that they may all see the mind and see the nature, continually advance on the path, and perfect their sublime merit of protecting the Dharma. When we ourselves encounter obstructive conditions, we should not complain, and we should also try to enjoy fewer blessings, making fewer withdrawals from the bank of the tathāgatagarbha—those wholesome funds will not be lost, but once withdrawn and enjoyed, they are gone. Moreover, the more deposits in the bank of the tathāgatagarbha, the wealthier we are, the more provisions for the bodhisattva path, and the faster we travel on the road to Buddhahood. May the provisions for our study and cultivation of the Buddha-dharma grow ever greater, and our progress on the path ever faster!
16. Who Can Be Free from the Karma of the Three Evil Realms?
Only those who have truly eradicated the view of self, truly seen the mind, and severed the three fetters can be guaranteed not to go to the three evil realms. If one has not truly eradicated the view of self but merely believes mentally that the five aggregates are without self, the three fetters are not severed, and the three evil realms cannot be avoided. The aspiration to propagate the Dharma and deliver sentient beings is precious, but if one has not achieved one's own cultivation, one cannot deliver sentient beings out of birth and death, one's own progress on the path is delayed, and once the karmic seeds of affliction and foolishness manifest, it leads directly to the three evil realms. Cause and effect depend partly on the aspiration, and partly on the facts.
For one who delivers others before being delivered oneself, though the aspiration is a bodhisattva's aspiration, without genuine attainment of the Way, the consequences are also fearsome. If one can already be spared the three evil realms, and then comes out to propagate the Dharma and deliver sentient beings, sacrificing one's personal progress on the path, then it does not matter. Some will say: "I have eradicated the view of self, I have seen the mind, I can be spared the three evil realms." But whether one has truly eradicated the view of self, whether one has truly seen the mind—that is not for oneself to decide, nor for whichever person gives the confirmation to decide; cause and effect have their own logic.
Some say that keeping the five precepts without violation secures a human body. Yet the devas of the formless realm heavens, with minds pure for eighty thousand great kalpas, not creating the slightest evil karma, at the end of their lives had evil karma from beginningless kalpas past ripen, and fell directly into hell. So too with the devas of the desire-realm heavens and the form-realm heavens. Not creating evil karma in this life does not mean one has not created great evil karma in beginningless kalpas past—there is an immense amount of evil karma for which retribution has not yet been received. At the end of life, once those evil karmic conditions ripen, one transmigrates according to karma, with no capacity for self-determination at all. Only by truly eradicating the view of self and severing the three fetters can the karma of the three evil realms be annihilated. But if one creates great evil karma again, one will still go to the three evil realms to receive retribution.
