_Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra: Selected Discourses_

The Buddha said: "Indeed, O King, it is so. Foolish, ignorant beings, lacking in learning and wisdom, give rise to delight and attachment upon encountering agreeable contacts. Their minds become defiled and attached, creating such karma: three types of bodily karma, four types of verbal karma, and three types of mental karma. Having created that karma, it perishes in an instant. Once this karma has ceased, it does not abide in the east, south, west, or north, nor in the four intermediate directions, above, below, or in the middle. At the time of death, they perceive their previously created actions manifesting within their thoughts and mental conceptions, just as upon waking, one recalls the events of a dream. When the final consciousness ceases, their own karma manifests before them."

If beings share a deep karmic connection from past lives, when they meet in this life and the ālaya-vijñāna causes the seeds to manifest, they will experience a special feeling towards each other. Even without meeting, merely hearing a voice, seeing written words, or a photograph can evoke a sense of some karmic bond from past lives—whether wholesome or unwholesome. Without meeting or speaking, there will be an unusual feeling. Some feel something extraordinary just upon hearing a name.

Those who formed a very deep connection with the Buddha in past lives will experience an emotional stirring within upon merely hearing the Buddha's name in this life, with goosebumps rising on their skin, indicating they practiced Buddhism for a long time in the past and share a profound karmic bond with the Buddha. People with deep Buddha-affinity feel a strong resonance upon hearing the Buddha's name, spontaneously engaging in Buddhist practice, chanting the Buddha's name, prostrating to the Buddha, and praising the Buddha. Those who practiced Buddhism for only a short time in the past show little or no reaction; it feels very ordinary to them. For example, Anāthapiṇḍika, the elder from the Jetavana Vihara in India during the Buddha's time, was like this. Upon hearing the Buddha's name, goosebumps continuously rose on his skin as he walked along the road. He was a Buddhist disciple with extremely profound wholesome roots. Just upon hearing the Buddha's name, he wished to host a feast to make offerings to the World-Honored One and donated his Jetavana Grove to the Buddha to serve as the Buddha's monastery.

Some people, upon first encountering the Buddhadharma, find the seeds of their past Buddhist practice completely manifesting. They quickly plunge wholeheartedly into the Dharma, no longer caring for worldly affairs. This is the power of the seeds. It is the ālaya-vijñāna presenting the ripened karmic seeds; the mysteries within this are profound. Studying the Dharma allows one to know many truths. Without studying the Buddhadharma, one remains foolish, only knowing how to create unwholesome karma. Suffering retribution without understanding why, there is no way to exhaust the karmic suffering of future lives. Once unwholesome karma is created and ceases, the karmic seeds remain. The most terrifying thing is precisely these karmic seeds. Can we try to beseech our own ālaya-vijñāna not to record our unwholesome actions, not to store unwholesome karmic seeds, and see if it works? It is utterly useless, because the ālaya-vijñāna does not understand the language of beings, does not know the content of mental formations, and lacks the discriminative function of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Therefore, the ālaya-vijñāna is pure, undefiled, impartial, and incorruptible. Thus, beseeching it is futile. One can only turn back and seek one's own mind, preventing it from being filled with greed, hatred, and delusion, and ceasing to create defiled karma because of them.