Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra) (93)

The situation when karmic retribution manifests at the time of death

When foolish, deluded ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) see an unpleasant form, they give rise to a mind of anger and resentment, a mind of aversion and disgust, a mind wishing to destroy and ruin, and then they create volitional actions of anger—either striking, or scolding, or destroying. Bodily karma consists of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; verbal karma consists of false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech; mental karma consists of greed, anger, and delusion—these are the ten unwholesome actions. How are these karmic actions created? When a karmic action is created, it arises and perishes in the very first instant; once the action has been performed, it immediately ceases. The actions of striking and scolding arise and perish as they occur; at the moment of arising there is no place, and at the moment of perishing there is no place of perishing—it is all empty.

The ten unwholesome actions do not abide in the east, west, south, or north, the four intermediate directions, up, down, or the middle; there is no place where they abide. Yet after the actions have been committed, when the life faculty is about to perish, the karmic retribution manifests, the seeds manifest. The karmic actions of an entire lifetime appear like a flash of lightning and then pass away, and one feels that this whole life was like a dream—just a dream. The feeling at the moment of death is exactly the same as the feeling of waking from a dream; one can know by oneself that this life is about to end, and one also knows what the retribution after death will be. Yet while we are alive, we never feel that it is a dream; everything feels very real.