Who Knows About Accumulating Hidden Virtue?

The deeds a person does, the words a person speaks, and the thoughts in a person's mind are all known by sentient beings who possess supernatural powers, including immortals, ghosts, spirits, devas, asuras, Rāhula, mahoragas, and so on, as well as humans with supernatural powers, great arhats, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, Buddhas, and Dharma-protecting deities, and so forth. Even bodhisattvas without supernatural powers, and people of lofty wisdom, can discern these things. And the one who knows them most minutely, most completely, and most precisely is, of course, one's own tathāgatagarbha; at the very moment of knowing, everything is recorded in full, becoming karmic seeds. When the karmic seeds mature, karmic retribution manifests. Therefore, if you wish others not to know, the only way is not to do it in the first place. Good deeds need not be publicized, and bad deeds cannot be hidden—all of it lies in broad daylight.