Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (79)

The Five Aggregates and Seven Consciousnesses Create All Karmic Actions, and the Tathāgatagarbha Knows Them All

When deluded sentient beings see forms with their eyes, they immediately give rise to a mind of craving and delight; greed and craving manifest, and the mind is seized by, stuck to, and bound by form. When the six sense objects of the external world bind us, they bind the mind. Once the mind is bound by an invisible rope of craving, it begins to create karmic actions of greed. Karmic actions are divided into bodily actions, verbal actions, and mental actions. Bodily actions are the three kinds created by the body: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. There are also verbal karmic creations: the four kinds of verbal karma—false speech, frivolous speech, divisive speech, and harsh speech—appear. Mental karma consists of greed, hatred, and delusion, and thus the ten kinds of karma emerge. After these three kinds of actions of body, speech, and mind are created, they are stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha. When the conditions ripen, the seeds manifest, and sentient beings undergo retribution.

When undergoing karmic retribution, it is actually oneself taking revenge on oneself. When sentient beings create karma, whom do they most fear will know it? It does not matter if ghosts and spirits know, or if the Dharma-protecting deities know, or even if the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas know—what is feared is that the tathāgatagarbha knows. But do you think the tathāgatagarbha could possibly not know? When the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses create karmic actions, it all depends on the tathāgatagarbha's cooperation; without Him, no karmic action could be created at all. Therefore, He knows all the actions and creations of the five aggregates, and at the same time collects and stores the karmic seeds. Once we understand this principle, we must be careful with our bodily, verbal, and mental actions, no longer create evil karma, and instead create more wholesome karma, doing our utmost to cease evil and cultivate goodness.