Chapter 5: Three Dream Similes Selected Lectures on the Sutra of the Meeting of Father and Son

Chapter Five Three Dream Similes

Original text: 大王。诸根如幻。境界如梦。譬如有人。于梦寐中。与诸婇女。共相娱乐。大王。于意云何。彼梦觉已。忆所受乐。为实有不。王曰不也。

Explanation: Great King, the six sense faculties are like something conjured up by illusion, and the realms of the six sense objects are just like scenes in a dream. For example, there is a person who, within a dream, plays and amuses himself together with many palace maidens. Great King, what do you think? After that person wakes from the dream, he still recollects the pleasure he experienced in the dream—is that dream realm truly existent? King Śuddhodana said: It is not truly existent.

The six sense faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are just like illusions: from empty space, which contains nothing at all, the six faculties are conjured forth, and their functions are likewise illusory and unreal. The master conjurer is the Ālayavijñāna, which is like a magician. The Buddha said that the realms the faculties confront—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—are like a dream, just like things in a dream, utterly impossible to grasp. In a dream, the mind consciousness can still discern the dream realm, come into contact with the people and things in the dream, and give rise to feelings of joy, pleasure, sorrow, and anger; after waking from the dream there is nothing at all, and nothing can be obtained. Sentient beings living in so-called reality are likewise confused and inverted as if in a dream: it seems they can contact the realms of the six sense objects, it seems there are the feelings of the six consciousnesses, but in fact all of it is illusory, and after waking from the dream nothing can be found. Because of ignorance, sentient beings have not yet awakened from the dream; bodhisattvas are in a half-dreaming, half-awake state; all Buddhas have already completely awakened and are no longer within the dream, able to fully recollect the events of the dream—whereas ordinary sentient beings are all talking in their sleep.

Original text: 佛言大王。是人所梦。执以为实。为智者不。不也世尊。何以故。梦中婇女。毕竟非有。何况与之。共相娱乐。当知是人。忆梦中境。徒自疲劳。不复可得。

Explanation: The Buddha said to King Śuddhodana: Great King, this person takes the dream he has dreamed to be truly existent—does he have wisdom? King Śuddhodana said: This person has no wisdom. Why is it said this way? Because the palace maidens in the dream ultimately do not truly exist, let alone the matter of amusing oneself together with the palace maidens—that exists even less. You should know that this person, in recollecting the dream realm of his dream, merely wearies his conscious mind in vain; the dream realm cannot come back again, and the dream cannot be continued.

Clearly, in the dream there is everything, and after waking from the dream there is nothing at all; yet after waking one still takes the people and events of the dream as real and clings to them ceaselessly—such a person is not one with wisdom. The Buddha used this method to alert King Śuddhodana not to crave the pleasures of the five desires. The pleasures of the five desires are just like events in a dream and must not be craved; by craving them, one will falsely undergo the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra.

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚痴众生。眼见色已。心生爱乐。复起贪着。为彼所牵。造贪业行。身业三种。语业四种。意业三种。最初造作。刹那灭谢。是业不依。东西南北。四维上下。中间而住。于死边际。命根灭时。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, so it is, so it is—it is indeed like this. After foolish sentient beings see form with their eyes, the mind gives rise to love and delight, and then they crave and cling to the form realm; the mind is drawn along by the form realm, and they create karmic actions of craving. The bodily karmas are the three: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the verbal karmas are the four: false speech, frivolous speech, divisive speech, and harsh speech; the mental karmas are the three: greed, hatred, and delusion. After the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are created, the karmic actions cease as soon as they are created, and finally the karmic actions all cease and are no longer created; yet the karmic actions do not abide depending on east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle, nor do they go to east, west, south, north, or to the four directions and eight points. But when, at the end of life, the six faculties are about to decay and cease, the karmic retribution one has created will all manifest, just like when one wakes from a dream and is still recollecting the events of the dream.

When foolish sentient beings see form with their eyes, craving-love manifests, and the mind of love and delight immediately arises; the mind is then seized and stuck to by form. If the external six sense objects can bind anything, what they bind is the mind; when the mind is bound by an invisible rope of craving-love, it begins to create karmic actions of greed. Karmic actions are divided into bodily formations, verbal formations, and mental formations: the body creates the three bodily actions of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the mouth creates the four verbal karmas of false speech, frivolous speech, divisive speech, and harsh speech; and the mental karmas are greed, hatred, and delusion. In this way the ten karmas are created. After these three kinds of actions of body, mouth, and mind are created, they are stored as seeds in the Ālayavijñāna; when the conditions ripen, the seeds manifest, and sentient beings undergo karmic retribution.

When undergoing karmic retribution, it is actually oneself retaliating against oneself. When sentient beings create karma, whom are they most afraid of having know? It does not matter if ghosts and spirits know, it does not matter if the Dharma-protecting deities know, it does not matter if Buddhas and bodhisattvas know—what is feared is the Ālayavijñāna knowing. But do you think the Ālayavijñāna could not know? When the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses create karmic actions, it all relies on the cooperation of the Ālayavijñāna; without Him nothing could be created at all. Therefore He knows all the actions and creations of the five aggregates, and at the same time stores the karmic seeds. Understanding this principle, one must be careful with one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, no longer create evil karma, create more good karma, and as much as possible eradicate evil and cultivate good.

When the actions of body, mouth, and mind are first created, they cease in a kṣaṇa. For example, taking a knife to kill a person: after picking up the knife, the action of picking up the knife is gone; the next step, the hand extends out, and afterward the action of extending the hand is again gone; the next step, stabbing the knife into the other person's body, and this action again disappears; the next step, pulling out the knife, and the action disappears; the next step, throwing the knife away or washing it, and the action again disappears. The action of killing is created in a continuous series: when the next movement appears, the previous movement disappears. After all the actions have disappeared, has the actual action of killing disappeared or not? If this action did not disappear, the killing would have to continue forever, which is impossible; any action always has an end. The action itself ceases as soon as it is completed; therefore any wholesome or unwholesome action is subject to arising and ceasing and utterly unobtainable. Yet the seeds do not disappear; kṣaṇa after kṣaṇa they must be stored in the Ālayavijñāna, awaiting the future ripening of conditions to receive retribution.

The creation of actions ceases kṣaṇa by kṣaṇa, extremely fast. In each kṣaṇa, eighty-one thousand seeds arise and cease, arise and cease, arise and cease and pass by, and only then is the entire action of killing formed; therefore the action of killing is entirely of a nature of arising and ceasing, yet this entire action is stored as a karmic seed in one's own Ālayavijñāna. In a finger-snap, in a single kṣaṇa, eighty-one thousand seeds arise and cease and pass by; countless phenomena of arising and ceasing form this finger-snap, so the dharma of snapping the fingers is illusory. And the dharma of killing is connected together from immeasurable finger-snaps of time, composed of immeasurable actions similar to finger-snaps; thus the action of killing is also illusory, subject to arising and ceasing, and without self-nature. By carrying out contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in this way, one can realize the Small Vehicle's emptiness of body.

One can likewise contemplate the seeds of the conscious mind arising and ceasing kṣaṇa by kṣaṇa: countless kṣaṇas of arising and ceasing constitute the continuous discriminating and creating activities of the conscious mind, so the conscious mind is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, and without self. In this way one can realize the emptiness of mind. Emptiness of body plus emptiness of mind—the five aggregates empty and without self—one realizes the purity of the Dharma Eye. After eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) through contemplative practice, continue the contemplative practice: how was this whole series of actions of killing created? Within a single finger-snap, how can eighty-one thousand seeds come forth? And how does the Ālayavijñāna record karmic actions? Contemplating in this way, for a person with good meditative concentration (samādhi), realization of enlightenment is very fast—provided there is no deliberate thinking of the conscious mind; if there is, realization is impossible. When one is to realize the fruits, when the causes and conditions ripen, it takes just a single kṣaṇa; when causes and conditions are not ripe, one remains confused and inverted in the six realms for hundreds of millions of kalpas.

Although karmic actions cease kṣaṇa by kṣaṇa, these karmic actions do not abide depending on east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle—they simply disappear like this. For example, raising a hand and then lowering it: observe the karmic action of raising the hand—where does it go when it disappears? The karmic action disappears and does not abide anywhere; if there were a place where it abided, this place would always be raising a hand; if it were killing, the karmic action of killing would always be in some place, and that would be terrible.

The Buddha said that "at the limit of death, when the life faculty ceases" means when a sentient being's lifespan comes to an end, when one is about to die but has not yet died—this is called the time when the life faculty ceases. At that point one thing appears: the Buddha said that the karmic retribution of one's own karma all manifests. What is the karmic retribution of one's own karma? It is the retribution of the karmic actions one has created manifesting, just like after waking from a dream, knowing what one did in the dream. Before sentient beings die at the end of life, the things done in this life, whether wholesome or unwholesome, manifest in the mind extremely rapidly like a film being played; at that time one knows what one did throughout this life, whether in this life the wholesome outweighed the unwholesome or vice versa, what kind of retribution one should undergo, and into which realm of saṃsāra one should go. The mind then understands everything clearly, but one can no longer speak.

When creating karma, it seems that neither gods nor ghosts know; the karmic actions have all disappeared, yet at the end of life the retribution can manifest. Why can it all manifest? Because when creating karmic actions, the actions, as seeds, are stored kṣaṇa after kṣaṇa in the Ālayavijñāna; although the karmic actions have disappeared, the karmic seeds are retained. Actions have form and appearance and can disappear; seeds are without form or appearance and can only dissipate after the retribution has been received. The karmic workings of cause and effect are inconceivable.

Original text: 大王。识为其主。业为攀缘。二种相因。初识生起。或趣地狱。或堕傍生。琰摩罗界。及阿修罗。若人若天。初识生已。各受其报。同分心品。相续随转。最后识灭。名为死蕴。最初识起。名为生蕴。

Explanation: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna, as the master of sentient beings, is the primary cause of the birth of the next life's material body; the karmic actions are the condition for the birth of the next life's material body. When cause and condition converge, the initial conscious mind of the next life appears, and the next life's material body is born. At birth, this person either falls into a hellish body, or falls into an animal body, or falls into a ghost body, or falls into an asura body, or falls into a human body, or falls into a heavenly body. When the initial conscious mind of the next life is born, sentient beings begin to receive their respective retributions; afterward, the conscious mind on this material body must keep operating continuously until finally the conscious mind ceases and it becomes a corpse—this is called the death aggregate; and when the initial conscious mind arises, the sentient being is born—this is called the birth aggregate.

Why is the Ālayavijñāna the master of karma creation? Because without the Ālayavijñāna there would be no five aggregates, and no karma could be created. When the manas wants to create karma, the Ālayavijñāna knows it and cooperates with the manas, outputting various seeds to complete the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates are all realized by the Ālayavijñāna outputting seeds; therefore the five aggregates are the Ālayavijñāna, are the nature of the Ālayavijñāna. The karma created by the five-aggregate body is a contributing condition; the Ālayavijñāna and the karma condition, these two, serve as the cause and condition for the birth of the next life's five aggregates. When the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind of the next life are produced, the receiving of karmic retribution begins.

For example, one who is to be reborn as a human again produces the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; once the five aggregates are complete, there is feeling, and the human retributions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness appear. When there is no consciousness, feelings of suffering and pleasure cannot be felt, as if no retribution had been received. In fact, being born into a human womb and dwelling in the womb for ten months is itself a kind of retribution, and this retribution must be received by the manas; the Ālayavijñāna does not receive retribution and is not confined in the womb. Before the fourth or fifth month in the mother's womb, a human has no conscious mind and cannot feel feelings of suffering or pleasure; strictly speaking, at that time it does not count as truly receiving retribution—yet saying it does not count as receiving retribution, it actually does count, because that material body is the retributive body; it is just that without a mind there is no knowing of suffering and pleasure, and the feelings of the manas are not easily known by the conscious mind.

If one is reborn into hell, the hellish bodily form manifests, the conscious mind immediately appears, and one can at once feel the suffering of hell—the retribution of suffering appears. If one is reborn among animals, as soon as the animal's perceiving mind manifests, it will feel feelings of suffering and pleasure—the retribution of suffering has appeared. Or reborn into the realm of Yama, the ghost realm, or reborn into the asura realm, or born among humans, or born in the heavens—only when the conscious mind is born does formal receiving of retribution begin; then wholesome karma has wholesome retribution and unwholesome karma has unwholesome retribution. A deva, as soon as it is born, feels happiness; born in the animal realm, the hell realm, or the ghost realm, one feels suffering as soon as one is born. But even when there are no six consciousnesses to feel, it still counts as retribution.

After the conscious mind is born, it operates continuously on the material body until death. When this present life ends, after the six conscious minds of eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, and mind-consciousness have all ceased, the body is like a piece of wood—this is called the death aggregate. When the initial eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousnesses are born, it is called the birth aggregate. One arising and one ceasing constitute one period of life. At the birth and disappearance of each period of life, one brings nothing and takes nothing away; apart from carrying karmic actions along to receive retribution, everything else vanishes without a trace.

Therefore all dharmas are themselves dharmas of arising and ceasing; they are empty. Empty things cannot be taken away; only real things can be taken away. What is it that can be taken away? The Ālayavijñāna has always followed oneself through life after life, carrying karmic seeds through life after life, realizing the karmic retribution of life after life. As for where the five aggregates go to receive retribution, the Ālayavijñāna does not care—He does not receive retribution anyway. He has never abandoned sentient beings; He simply keeps manifesting the five-aggregate bodies in accordance with karma. Then who is sentient beings' dearest? It is the Ālayavijñāna, who for not even a moment is willing to abandon the five-aggregate body.

Original text: 大王。无有少法。从于此世。得至他世。所以者何。性生灭故。大王。身识生时。无所从来。灭无所去。彼业生时。无所从来。灭无所去。初识生时。无所从来。灭无所去。何以故。自性离故。

Explanation: Great King, there is fundamentally not a single dharma that can be carried from this world to another world. Why is it so? Because all dharmas are subject to arising and ceasing. Great King, when body-consciousness is born, it comes from nowhere; when it ceases, it goes nowhere. The karmic actions created by the conscious mind, when arising, have no place of coming, and when going, no place of going. When the initial consciousness on the material body arises, it likewise has no place of coming, and when it ceases, no place of going. Why do these dharmas all have no place of coming or going? Because the self-nature of these dharmas is apart from all dharmas; there are no real dharmas.

Original text: 如是了知。身识身识空。自业自业空。初识初识空。若灭灭空。若生生空。了知业转。无有作者。亦无受者。但唯名相。分别显示。

Explanation: In this way one can know body-consciousness and know the emptiness of body-consciousness; know the karmic actions created by oneself and the emptiness of those karmic actions; know the initial consciousness and the emptiness of the initial consciousness. If these dharmas cease, their ceasing is also empty; if these dharmas arise, their arising is also empty. Knowing the transmigration of karmic force, there is no creator and no receiver of retribution—it is all merely the discriminating display of various names and marks.

When body-consciousness arises, there is no place it comes from—it does not come from east, south, west, or north, nor does it come from empty space. The conscious mind has no place of coming, and after the conscious mind ceases there is also no place of going; therefore the conscious mind is illusory and empty. When the created karmic actions arise, they have no place of coming and no place of going; they too are empty and illusory. In this way one can realize the Small Vehicle's fruit of emptiness. For example, before the karma of killing a person arises, where is this karma of killing? Where is the action of killing? It exists nowhere; the karma has no place of coming. After this karma is created, the karma disappears—where does the karma go, where does the action of killing go? There is no place to go; it does not go to east, south, west, north, or the empty space above and below—there is no place of going.

Likewise, holding a book in the hand—when this action is gone, where has it disappeared to? Nowhere to go; it is illusory. Before the action of wanting to take the book has been produced, where does it exist? There is no place to store it. Before speaking, where is the language hidden? There is no place to hide it; when the speech is finished, the language disappears—where has it disappeared to? Nowhere to go. If there existed a place to store these things, even empty space could not contain them. All actions and creations are illusory, conjured, and empty; analyzing over and over, not a single dharma is real. If a person is completely a Small Vehicle person who thinks only of his own liberation, he will feel that his being alive has little meaning and is very boring.

If one wants to keep living, one must bring forth the Great Vehicle bodhisattva mind, aspiring to become a Buddha to deliver suffering sentient beings. Living is just this one thing, and there is no second thing. Everything in the world is empty, possessing nothing. What state of mind is it to live in the world with this mind? Lightly floating, dwelling in empty space, everything has nothing to do with me, without ties or attachments, without affliction or vexation, at ease and free. Ordinary sentient beings, however, live too heavily: carrying on their shoulders, loaded in their hearts, wanting everything—yet when they die they cannot take it away. It is all empty; how can it be taken away?

The self-nature of the conscious mind is apart from all dharmas and does not possess any dharmas; it is empty and without self-substance—this is called "self-nature apart." One should thus know body-consciousness and know the emptiness of body-consciousness; thus know one's own karmic actions and the emptiness of those karmic actions; know the consciousness that first arises on the material body and the emptiness of that consciousness. The six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind have no location before they arise and no place to go after they cease; therefore they are empty. If the conscious mind ceases, that dharma of ceasing is also empty—who ceases it? There is no creating master who makes the conscious mind cease; the conscious mind ceases by itself, and no one extinguishes Him.

In the world and beyond the world, there is no dharma that is not empty—except the Ālayavijñāna. From beginning to end, from inside to outside, when all the worldly dharmas of the three realms are emptied and purified, one realizes the fourth fruit: not only will one never go to the three evil destinies again, one will also transcend the three realms. When all one's various mental activities, all kinds of minds—the greedy mind, the hateful mind, the deluded mind, the arrogant mind, the mind that knows all dharmas—are completely emptied and purified, one can enter nirvāṇa without remainder. The material body is relatively easy to realize as false, empty, and illusory; negating the conscious mind's various perceptions, feelings, thoughts, plans, and discernments, and realizing the conscious mind as empty and illusory, is somewhat more difficult. For a person of keen faculties, as long as these conditions are fulfilled, practice and realization of the fruits are not very difficult.

When realizing no-self, not only is the person empty, the karmic actions are also empty. For example, when I kill someone, is there an "I" who kills? What is called "I"? My conscious mind, the conscious mind that wants to kill, is illusory and empty; my material body is illusory and empty—then is there such a person as me? There is no such person as me. Is the knife held in the hand real? It is not real. Then does the karmic action of killing exist? It is empty: the person is empty, the object is empty, and the action of creating is empty—the karmic action of my taking a knife to kill is illusory. Is there anyone creating the act of killing? No. The person killed by me—is there such a person? No; his material body is likewise empty and false, his conscious mind likewise empty and illusory, his feelings empty and illusory, his feeling of suffering empty and illusory. Then is there an "I," a "he," or karmic actions? None of these. As long as one applies effort in contemplative practice like this, it would be hard not to realize the fruits; one can also see the mind and attain enlightenment, and can even cultivate to the fruition of a first-bhūmi bodhisattva.

The Buddha said: knowing the transmigration of karma, there is no doer and no receiver. The arising, operation, and cessation of karmic actions are all empty; there is no person who creates karma, no person who receives karma, and no receiver of retribution. Emptiness all the way through, the sagely nature of the mind arises; one is no longer an ordinary person's mind, without the mental activities of an ordinary being; the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion melt away like snow dissolving in boiling water. Then one need not expend much effort and energy to counteract the various afflictions. Using counteractive methods to counteract afflictions is very tiring for the mind; counteracting for many lives and many kalpas still does not solve the fundamental problem, because one takes all dharmas as real things, all considered as existent—how could that counteract thoroughly and solve the fundamental problem? When one recognizes right now that everything is empty and illusory, is counteraction still needed? Counteraction is not needed at all.

Therefore, that approach of following along with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion in order to counteract them is far too roundabout, too winding, and too slow a way of practice; it is neither the most fundamental method nor the fastest shortcut. We must start from the root. For example, to remove a big tree, one must start from the root: cut off the root, and the whole tree falls and will never grow again. In practice one must not pick branches and leaves—picking leaf after leaf slowly; after picking, they grow again, and after picking again, they grow again; this can never be finished. The counteractive method of practice is precisely picking tree leaves, whereas the contemplative practices described above are methods of severing the tree root—complete and thorough: cut off from the root, and the leaves, branches, and trunk will never grow again, and thus become extinct. Eradicating afflictions is the same: directly sever the root of the ten thousand dharmas and realize the emptiness of the ten thousand dharmas; when facing the ten thousand dharmas, afflictions will no longer arise.

Original text: 大王。譬若有人。于睡梦中。与诸冤对。共相斗战。于意云何。是人觉已。忆念梦中。斗战等事。为实有不。王曰不也。佛言大王。是人所梦。执以为实。为智者不。王曰不也。世尊。何以故。梦中毕竟。无有冤对。何况与之。共相斗战。当知是人。徒自忧恼。都无有实。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, suppose there is a person who, in a sleeping dream, fights battles with many enemies. What do you think? After this person wakes up, he is still recollecting the fighting and such events in the dream—are those events in the dream truly existent? King Śuddhodana said: They are not truly existent. The Buddha said: Great King, this person takes the dream as truly existent and clings without letting go—is he a person with wisdom? King Śuddhodana said: This person is not a person with wisdom, World-Honored One. Why? Because in the dream there are ultimately no enemies, let alone the matter of battling with those enemies. This person merely gives rise to sorrow and vexation by himself; in the dream there are no real people or events.

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚痴异生。眼见恶色。即生于恼。厌离破坏。毁呰过失。造嗔业行。身业三种。语业四种。意业三种。最初造作。刹那灭谢。是业不依。东西南北。四维上下。中间而住。于死边际。命根灭时。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so; you are right. When foolish ordinary sentient beings see evil forms with their eyes, the mind immediately gives rise to anger and vexation, gives rise to a mind of disgust and a mind of abandonment, wanting to destroy the evil form and denounce the various faults of the evil form, thereby creating karmic actions of hatred. Their karmic actions are divided into three bodily karmas, four verbal karmas, and three mental karmas. The karmic actions first created cease kṣaṇa after kṣaṇa; these karmic actions do not abide depending on east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle. When at the end of life the material body is about to perish, the retribution of the karma one has created manifests, just like waking from a dream and still recollecting the events of the dream.

A "differently-born one" (pṛthagjana) means one born at different times, in different places, and as different kinds: after death, being born at another, different time, born in a different location, born among different kinds, receiving different retributions. Different times means taking rebirth again after the intermediate body (antarābhava) ends; different places—perhaps in the heavens, perhaps in hell, perhaps in the form realm, perhaps on other celestial bodies, none of which is certain; different kinds—different identities within the six realms: perhaps a human, or a deva, or a ghost, or an animal, or an asura, and this too is not certain.

When foolish differently-born ordinary beings see bad forms with their eyes, they give rise to minds of anger and vexation, minds of disgust, minds wanting to destroy and ruin, and then create karmic actions of hatred—hitting, scolding, or destroying. The bodily karmas are killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the verbal karmas are false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech; the mental karmas are greed, hatred, and delusion—these are the ten unwholesome karmas. How are these karmic actions created? When creating karmic actions, the initial creation ceases kṣaṇa by kṣaṇa: after the action is created, it immediately ceases; the actions of hitting and scolding cease as soon as they appear; at arising there is no location, and at ceasing there is no place of ceasing—it is all empty.

The ten unwholesome karmas do not abide depending on east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle; unwholesome karma has no location of abiding. But after the creating is finished, when the life faculty is about to cease, the karmic retribution manifests—the seeds have ripened; a lifetime's karmic actions appear and vanish like lightning, and one feels that this whole life was like a dream—in fact it was just a dream. The feeling at the moment of death is the same as the feeling of waking from a dream: one knows this life is about to end, and one also knows what the retribution after death will be. Yet while alive, one never feels it is a dream; on the contrary, it feels very real.

Explanation: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna, as the master of sentient beings, is the cause of the birth of the next life's material body; the karmic actions are the condition for the birth of the next life's material body. When cause and condition converge, the initial conscious mind appears, and the next life's material body is born. This person either falls into a hellish body, or an animal body, or the ghost realm, or falls into an asura body, a human body, or a heavenly body. When the initial conscious mind of the next life is born, sentient beings begin to receive their respective retributions. Afterward, the conscious mind on this material body keeps operating until finally the conscious mind ceases and it becomes a corpse and a deceased one—this is called the death aggregate. And when the initial conscious mind arises, that is the one being born—this is called the birth aggregate.

The Ālayavijñāna is the master of sentient beings; the bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions created by the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are contributing conditions for birth. When cause and condition come together, there are the next life's six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and the next life's retribution begins. After the initial consciousness is born, one immediately knows one has been born into hell, born in the heavens, born among animals, born into the ghost realm, or born into the asura realm. For example, one who is to be reborn as a human: when the initial consciousness is born, feeling appears and the human retribution manifests; when there is no consciousness, there is no receiver, no feeling of suffering or pleasure, and no true retribution has been received. In the retributive body during the first four or five months in the mother's womb there is no conscious mind, so feelings of suffering and pleasure cannot be felt. Strictly speaking, at that time it does not yet count as truly receiving retribution—yet saying it does not count, it actually does count, because that material body is the retributive body; it is just that without a mind there is no knowing of suffering and pleasure.

The conscious minds on the same material body keep transmigrating and functioning. Within one period of life, the six consciousnesses such as eye-consciousness continuously function on the same material body—this is called the mental continuum of commonality. When the last consciousness ceases, the material body becomes a corpse like a piece of wood—this is called the death aggregate. When the initial consciousness arises, it is named the birth aggregate; the six consciousnesses are called the consciousness aggregate.

Original text: 如是了知。身识身识空。自业自业空。初识初识空。若灭灭空。若生生空。了知业转。无有作者。亦无受者。但唯名相。分别显示。

Explanation: In this way one can know body-consciousness and know the emptiness of body-consciousness, know the karmic actions created by oneself and the emptiness of those karmic actions, know the initial consciousness and the emptiness of the initial consciousness. If these dharmas cease, their ceasing is also empty; if these dharmas arise, their arising is also empty. Knowing the transmigration of karmic force, there is no creator and no receiver of retribution—it is all merely the discriminating display of various names and marks.

Not a single dharma is carried from this world to another world—nothing is taken away. Why? Because the natures of these dharmas are all subject to arising and ceasing, empty, and illusory, so nothing can be taken away. When body-consciousness arises it comes from nowhere, and when it ceases it goes nowhere; wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions, and karmic actions that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, have no place of coming before they arise and no place of going after they cease. Because all dharmas lack self-substance, they do not inherently possess the nature of any dharmas; they are apart from all dharmas, without the reality of any dharmas.

The consciousnesses on the material body are all empty, and the created karmic actions are also empty. But do not think that because karmic actions are empty one may create evil karma at will—the retribution is still illusorily existent. A person who truly knows emptiness and realizes emptiness will not create evil karma at all: knowing it is empty, why create evil karma for something empty and unobtainable? There is simply no need to create evil karma; knowing it is empty, one does not create it. The consciousness of the next life is produced, and that next life's consciousness is also empty; the dharma of the emptiness of cessation is also empty. Birth and death themselves are empty; there is no dharma that is not empty. Emptiness all the way through, and one arrives at the city of nirvāṇa.

In the creation and transmigration of karmic actions, there is no person who creates and no person who receives retribution: "I" is illusory, "you" are illusory, "he" is illusory; all dharmas are illusory, and there are no persons. The body is false and empty, the conscious mind is false and empty, the five aggregates are false and empty; there is no "I," no "you," no "he," no sentient beings, and hence no karmic actions. The created karmic actions, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions, are also false and empty. When this knot is untied, one realizes the fruit.

Original text: 大王。譬若有人。于睡梦中。为毕舍遮。之所娆害。心生怖畏。痴迷闷绝。大王。于意云何。是人觉已。忆念梦中。为鬼所娆。为实尔不。王曰不也。佛言大王。是人所梦。执以为实。是智者不。王曰。不也世尊。何以故。梦中毕竟。无鬼所恼。何更说有。痴迷闷绝。当知是人。徒自疲劳。都无有实。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, suppose there is a person who, in a sleeping dream, is harassed and harmed by a piśāca ghost; his mind is extremely frightened, dazed, and faints. Great King, what do you think? After this person wakes up, he is still recollecting being harassed by the ghost in the dream—did that really happen? King Śuddhodana replied: It is not truly existent, World-Honored One. The Buddha said: Great King, this person takes the dream as truly existent—is he a person with wisdom? King Śuddhodana replied: He is not a person with wisdom, World-Honored One. Why is it said this way? Because in the dream there is fundamentally no such thing as being harassed by a ghost, let alone the matter of being frightened unconscious and fainting. One should know that this person merely labors his mind in vain; there is no real event.

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。眼见是色。迷惑不了。造痴业行。身业三种。语业四种。意业三种。最初造作。刹那灭谢。是业灭已。不依东方。南西北方。四维上下。中间而住。最后边际。命根灭时。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so; you are right. When foolish ordinary sentient beings see forms with their eyes, their minds are confused and cannot discern the substance of form, and they create karmic actions of delusion—three bodily karmas, four verbal karmas, and three mental karmas. The karmic actions first created cease kṣaṇa after kṣaṇa; these karmic actions do not abide depending on east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle. When at the end of life the material body is about to perish, the retribution of the karma one has created all manifests, just like waking from a dream and still recollecting the events of the dream.

The karmic actions first created cease kṣaṇa after kṣaṇa. After this karma ceases, it does not abide depending on east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle; there is no location of abiding. For example, the verbal karma of speaking: before it arises there is no place where it abides, and when it disappears there is no place of disappearance to go to. But after the life faculty finally decays and ceases, the seeds of this verbal karma ripen, and one goes on to receive retribution in accordance with the karmic seeds. At the time of death, one's own karmic retribution manifests, just like recalling the events of a dream after waking: at the moment of dying, a lifetime's deeds flash through the mind like recollecting the events of a dream; afterward there is only receiving retribution according to karma, falsely undergoing the suffering of saṃsāra in the six realms.

Explanation: Great King, the Ālayavijñāna, as the master of sentient beings, is the cause of the birth of the next life's material body; this life's karmic actions are the condition for the birth of the next life's material body. When cause and condition converge, the initial conscious mind of the next life appears, and the next life's material body is born. This person either falls into a hellish body, an animal body, or the ghost realm, or falls into an asura body, a human body, or a heavenly body. When the initial conscious mind of the next life is born, sentient beings begin to receive their respective retributions. Afterward, the conscious mind on this material body keeps operating continuously until finally the conscious mind ceases and it becomes a corpse and a deceased one—this is called the death aggregate. And when the initial conscious mind arises, the sentient being is born—this is called the birth aggregate.

Explanation: Great King, there is fundamentally not a single dharma that can be carried from this world to another world. Why is it so? Because all dharmas are subject to arising and ceasing. Great King, when body-consciousness is born, it comes from nowhere; when it ceases, it goes nowhere. The karmic actions created by the conscious mind, when arising, have no place of coming, and when going, no place of going. When the initial consciousness on the material body arises there is no place of coming, and when it ceases there is no place of going. Why do these dharmas all have no place of coming or going? Because the self-nature of these dharmas is apart from all dharmas, without the reality of any dharmas.

Original text: 如是了知。身识身识空。自业自业空。初识初识空。若灭灭空。若生生空。了知业转。无有作者。亦无受者。但唯名相。分别显示。

Not a single dharma transmigrates from this world to another world; nothing can be taken away, because the natures of all dharmas are subject to arising and ceasing, empty, and illusory: the material body is empty, the mind is empty, karma is empty—everything is empty, all dharmas are completely empty, self-nature is empty. When the initial consciousness arises there is no place of coming, and when it ceases there is no place of going; the self-nature of these dharmas is apart from all dharmas, does not truly exist in itself, and is empty and illusory. Karma, when it ceases, is also empty; karma, when it arises, is also empty. There is no person who creates karma and no person who receives retribution, nor any receiver—it is all merely the discriminating display of names and marks.

Original text: 大王当知。诸根如幻。境界如梦。一切诸法。皆悉空寂。此名空解脱门。空无空相。名无相解脱门。若无有相。即无愿求。名无愿解脱门。如是三法。与空共行。涅槃先道。当如是学。

Explanation: Great King, you should know that the six sense faculties are like illusions, and the various realms are like a dream. All dharmas are entirely empty and tranquil—this is called the door of deliverance of emptiness (śūnyatā-vimokṣa-mukha); the dharmas being empty yet without even a mark of emptiness is called the door of deliverance of signlessness (animitta-vimokṣa-mukha); if all dharmas do not even have marks, then one should give rise to no wishes or aspirations—without wishing or seeking is called the door of deliverance of wishlessness (apraṇihita-vimokṣa-mukha). These three doors of deliverance—emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness—exist together with emptiness; the path toward nirvāṇa should be cultivated and studied in this way.

The six sense faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are all conjured forth. The various realms the eyes see, the various realms the ears hear—the various realms the six faculties confront—are like events in a dream, not real. What more should we pursue? All dharmas are entirely empty and tranquil; there is nothing that is not empty, nothing that is not quiescent—there is nothing at all. This is the door of deliverance of emptiness. Realizing the emptiness of all dharmas and knowing they are empty, the mind is liberated.

Emptiness without a mark of emptiness is called the door of deliverance of signlessness. Empty dharmas have no appearance that can be seen, spoken of, or pointed out; even emptiness is empty—this is the door of deliverance of signlessness. Knowing that emptiness has no marks at all, that even emptiness does not exist, the mind is further liberated. If even the mark of emptiness does not exist, if there is not even emptiness, what emptiness is there to cling to? If there are no marks, there are no wishes and aspirations: if there are not even marks, what is there to seek? What wishes or aspirations remain? There is nothing more to seek—this is the door of deliverance of wishlessness. Without wishes and aspirations, the mind is liberated even more. When the three doors of deliverance of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness are accomplished, one is a noble one (ārya).

The three dharmas of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness proceed together with emptiness: neither departing from emptiness, nor having a mark of emptiness, and the three are inseparable, advancing level by level toward ultimate liberation. If sentient beings wish to enter nirvāṇa and seek the unborn and unceasing, they should practice in this way, constantly producing mental activities of emptiness, ever emptier, until even emptiness is empty—only then is the emptying clean and thorough. If there is still an "emptiness" in the mind, that is not true emptiness; one should also extinguish the mind of emptiness. One should cultivate and study in this way on the road to nirvāṇa in order to realize nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is liberation; nirvāṇa is the unborn and unceasing; nirvāṇa is quiescence and non-action (asaṃskṛta); nirvāṇa is great freedom.