The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)
Chapter 17: The Section on Purifying Karmic Obstacles, Sixteen
First, about the title\: the Section on Purifying Karmic Obstacles. Karmic obstacles, as everyone knows, are the seeds of evil karma created by sentient beings in past lives that have now matured, with their retributive results manifesting in the present, obstructing and impeding one's various wholesome karmic activities. For those cultivating the Buddha's path, the greatest obstacle is that which obstructs one's study and practice of the Buddha's teachings, obstructs the attainment of correct knowledge and views, and obstructs one's meditative concentration (samādhi). In short, karmic obstacles can obstruct all of a sentient being's direct and circumstantial retributions; their hindrance to the study of the Buddha's teachings will make the direct and circumstantial retributions of the five aggregates in future lives even less favorable. Therefore, being able to purify karmic obstacles is extremely important. Once karmic obstacles are cleared away, the cultivation of the Buddha's path will be unobstructed, and one will attain perfect merit and wisdom, eradicate all ignorance, and achieve ultimate anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi (unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment).
In this section of the Diamond Sutra, the World-Honored One explains that by studying and practicing the Diamond Sutra, realizing the vajra mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), and cultivating in accordance with that mind of ultimate reality, one will gradually purify karmic obstacles and reduce obstructions. Because the Diamond Sutra can directly break through sentient beings' four marks, once the four marks are broken through, the obstruction of worldly conditioned marks is uprooted. Moreover, with the merit of realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the mind of ultimate reality, heavy retribution will be experienced lightly, causing the retributive results of evil karma to manifest in advance, thereby uprooting those karmic obstacles. When each karmic obstacle has been uprooted and cleared away in this way, ignorance is extinguished, there is no retributive result of evil karma, and sentient beings attain buddhahood.
Original text:复次。须菩提。若善男子善女人。受持读诵此经。若为人轻贱。是人先世罪业。应堕恶道。以今世人轻贱故。先世罪业。即为消灭。当得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。
Explanation: Furthermore, Subhūti, if there are good men and good women who can receive, uphold, and recite this Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, and who practice according to its profound meaning, and if at that time someone slanders, humiliates, reviles, or despises them, then their evil karma will be extinguished. Because such a person created evil karma in past lives, if the evil conditions had matured, they would originally have fallen into the evil destinies to undergo evil retribution. Now, because of their reciting and upholding the Diamond Sutra, the karmic conditions of that evil karma created in past lives are caused to mature in advance; but because they are now despised by people in the world, the heavy retribution is experienced lightly, the evil karma created in past lives is immediately extinguished, and before long they will attain the Buddha's path.
Why would the karmic conditions of past-life evil karma mature in advance when one recites and upholds the Diamond Sutra in this life? Because this person, by reciting and upholding the Diamond Sutra, develops merit and virtue, and one manifestation of merit and virtue is that the conditions for evil karma mature in advance, so that one undergoes less evil retribution—this is heavy retribution experienced lightly. Whether wholesome or unwholesome karma, both carry high interest, also called karmic interest, like money deposited in a bank: the longer it is deposited, the higher the interest, and the deposit grows. This deposit is analogous to the karmic retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma: the longer wholesome karma is stored, the greater the wholesome retributive result one should receive; conversely, the longer unwholesome karma is stored, the greater the unwholesome retributive result one should receive.
When cultivation is effective, it causes the conditions for evil karma to mature, so that evil retribution is experienced in advance and the resulting evil retribution becomes slight. Therefore, when creating wholesome karma, everyone should not hope for the retributive results of wholesome karma to manifest quickly so as to enjoy them sooner—this is a mind-state lacking wisdom. The earlier one experiences the retributive results of wholesome karma, the less one enjoys the high interest, and the less one enjoys the generous treatment of compound interest. A true practitioner should not be short-sighted, considering only one's present retribution, but should instead think and plan for future lives, for the unsurpassed retribution countless eons hence; best of all is to be without thought for wholesome fruits and wholesome retribution.
Therefore, this person who recites and upholds the Diamond Sutra, because their cultivation is effective and their virtue and merit manifest, not only causes the conditions of evil karma to ripen, but can also transform the evil karma that would have caused them to fall into the evil destinies into merely the slight evil retribution of being despised by others—and that evil karma is thereby extinguished. In this way they lightly undergo the evil retribution; this is brought about by wholesome karma, brought about by merit. If a person cultivates diligently without cease, with ever-growing merit and ever-increasing virtue, adverse circumstances will arise one after another, and all the evil karma of past lives will be extinguished one by one. When all evil karma has been extinguished, this person is close to attaining the Buddha's path; when karma is exhausted, the Buddha's path is accomplished.
Original text:须菩提。我念过去无量阿僧祗劫。于然灯佛前。得值八百四千万亿那由他诸佛。悉皆供养承事。无空过者。若复有人。于后末世。能受持读诵此经。所得功德。于我所供养诸佛功德。百分不及一。千万亿分乃至算数譬喻。所不能及。
Explanation: Subhūti, I recall that in past lives, throughout immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, before Dīpaṃkara Buddha, I encountered 840 million nayuta Buddhas, and I made offerings to and served them all, never missing a single one. If there is again someone in the later degenerate age who can receive, uphold, and recite this sutra, the merit this person obtains, compared with the merit of my offerings to all those Buddhas, does not reach one percent—not even one part in millions of millions, beyond all calculation and analogy.
Subhūti, I recall that in past lives, throughout immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, before I met Dīpaṃkara Buddha, I encountered immeasurable World-Honored Ones. To so many World-Honored Ones, I personally made the four kinds of offerings of food and drink, clothing, bedding, and medicine, and I also attended upon each Buddha, obeying all the Buddhas' instructions. I never missed a single Buddha's appearance in the world; I encountered them all.
If there is again someone in the later age when the Buddha's teachings are about to perish who can receive, uphold, and recite this Diamond Sutra, the merit this person obtains will be even greater than the merit I accumulated from making offerings to immeasurable Buddhas over immeasurable lifetimes; the merit of my offerings to immeasurable Buddhas does not even reach one percent of this person's merit from upholding and reciting the Diamond Sutra—not even one part in millions of millions; no number or analogy can describe or illustrate it; it cannot be expressed in words. The merit of receiving, upholding, and reciting the Diamond Sutra is beyond analogy, its merit is immense, extending all the way to buddhahood.
Because what the Diamond Sutra points to is purely unconditioned dharma; when this unconditioned dharma is cultivated to perfection, the Buddha's path is perfected and one swiftly attains buddhahood. Therefore, the merit of upholding the Diamond Sutra is of course immensely vast; the merit of any conditioned dharma cannot compare with it. This is the World-Honored One recounting events from before he met Dīpaṃkara Buddha, that is, before he had realized the stage of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. At that time, the World-Honored One's mind had not yet reached true pure unconditionedness; he was still performing conditioned and tainted actions, and making offerings to the Buddhas with worldly dharmas was offering with attachment to marks, tainted offering. Therefore, not a single Buddha gave the prediction of future buddhahood to the Bodhisattva Śākyamuni. Only when the Bodhisattva Śākyamuni's mental conduct reached pure unconditionedness, cultivating to the immovable ground of the eighth bhūmi and meeting Dīpaṃkara Buddha, did Dīpaṃkara Buddha give him the prediction of future buddhahood; by that time the World-Honored One had already encountered immeasurable Buddhas.
"Eight hundred forty million nayuta" is an expression in the Indian language; in Chinese it should be four thousand eight hundred million nayuta, representing an incalculably vast number. We should know that in the course of cultivating the Buddha's path, we will all encounter and make offerings to immeasurable Buddhas—not only the four kinds of offerings, but also personally attending upon the Buddhas; most important and most crucial is to make the offering of Dharma, with the offering of Dharma being supreme. The so-called offering of Dharma means personally following the Buddhas to study the various Buddha-dharmas, and also universally teaching sentient beings to cultivate the Buddha-dharmas together, propagating the Buddha's teachings on his behalf. If one can cultivate according to what the Buddha taught, gradually according with the unconditioned purport within the Buddha-dharma, until one's mind reaches pure unconditionedness, this is the true offering to the Buddhas, and one will certainly receive the Buddhas' prediction.
Original text:须菩提。若善男子善女人。于后末世。有受持读诵此经。所得功德。我若具说者。或有人闻。心则狂乱。狐疑不信。须菩提。当知是经义。不可思议。果报亦不可思议。
Explanation: Subhūti, if there are good men and good women in the later degenerate age who receive, uphold, and recite this sutra, the merit they obtain would be so very great that if I were to describe it in detail, some who heard it would become mentally deranged and filled with doubt, unable to believe it. Subhūti, you should know that the meaning of this sutra is inconceivable, and the retribution it brings is also inconceivable.
Explanation: Subhūti, if there are good men and good women who, in the degenerate age when the Buddha's teachings are about to perish, can receive, uphold, and recite this Diamond Sutra, the merit they obtain is extremely, extremely abundant. If I were to describe in detail what this person's merit is actually like, how much there is, and what specifically it consists of, then some people who heard me say this would have their minds thrown into frenzy, full of doubt, unable to believe. Subhūti, from this we should know how inconceivable, profound, and unfathomable the profound dharma-meaning contained in this Diamond Sutra is; and the retributive result of upholding this Diamond Sutra is likewise inconceivable.
This shows that the merit of upholding the Diamond Sutra is so supremely excellent that ordinary people cannot imagine or believe it. By cultivating according to the principles in the Diamond Sutra and realizing the prajñā mind of ultimate reality, from then on one's merit and wisdom will gradually expand, and one's wisdom will become ever more profound and wondrous. When merit and wisdom are both perfectly complete, one will become the unsurpassed master and unsurpassed venerable one in the world of the three realms. This retributive result is truly inconceivable and beyond conception; this retribution and merit could not be fully told or praised even in countless eons.
