The Mind That Seeks Nothing Obtains the Greatest Merit.

Question: Person A did a good deed for Person B, and Person B received A's help. Person A wants to receive something back from Person B in return. Is it more worthwhile for Person A to receive B's repayment in this life, or to receive B's repayment in a future life, or to receive the natural repayment of cause and effect?

Answer: With a mind that seeks nothing, letting cause and effect repay naturally is the most worthwhile. Person A did a good deed but never thought about repayment—this is doing things with a mind that expects no reward. Although Person A does not seek repayment, the law of cause and effect will still naturally produce a repayment, and at that time the karmic retribution is greatest. Doing good deeds with a mind of non-action (wu-wei) yields the greatest good retribution; doing evil deeds with a mind of contrived action yields the greatest evil retribution. When one does good deeds with a mind of non-action, the good retribution is greatest—the mind is great, so the retribution is great. No one knows why the tathāgatagarbha has such a rule. Those who wish to maximize the karmic retribution of their good deeds may take advantage of this loophole. But if one has the intention of exploiting this loophole, there is still a mind at work; when there is a mind, the mind is small; when there is no mind, the mind is greatest. If one wants repayment and does good deeds with a purpose in mind, there is a mind, and with a mind the mind is small; if one does not want repayment and does good deeds without personal aims or selfish motives, the mind is great, and when the mind is great, the karmic retribution is great.

Doing good deeds for the Three Jewels yields the greatest karmic retribution. If there is selfishness involved—for the sake of money, fame, status, power, and so on—the retribution will be greatly discounted. If one does good deeds with intense selfish motives, treating the Three Jewels as a business, scheming for the benefits the Three Jewels bring, it may turn into an evil deed and result in evil retribution.

If one's afflictions are too heavy, and one schemes for the benefits the Three Jewels bring but fails to obtain them, and thereby gives rise to anger and resentment, the result could be retribution in the hells. All sinful karma arises from afflictions, and all afflictions come from that "self"; therefore, only after eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) can afflictions become mild, and one may even be able to eliminate afflictions, letting them end forever and attaining liberation. Everywhere in the world—from the large scale of relations between nations, to the middle scale of relations between groups, down to the small scale of relations between individuals—one can see the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion among sentient beings; it can be said that afflictions are blazing and rampant, and very hard to save and draw out (of suffering). The Dharma-ending age is, after all, the Dharma-ending age: sentient beings have heavy karma, deep obstructions, and meager merit (alpa-puṇya); their sinful karma far exceeds their wholesome karma, and their evil retribution far exceeds their good retribution. Therefore, in future lives an extremely large number of people will go to the three evil destinies to receive their retribution—this is absolutely unavoidable, and death and the suffering of illness are already minor matters by comparison.