Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (118)

The Retributions of the Ten Unwholesome Karmas All Manifest at the Time of Death

Original text:佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。闻其恶声。则生忧恼。起于嗔心。造作嗔业。所谓身三。语四意业三种。造彼业已。刹那灭谢。是业灭已。不依东方。南西北方。四维上下。中间而住。最后边际。命根灭时。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. When foolish ordinary beings hear an evil sound, they give rise to worry and distress in their minds; once anger arises, they create karmic actions of anger. These karmic actions manifest in body, speech, and mind as three kinds of bodily karma, four kinds of verbal karma, and three kinds of mental karma. After these karmic actions are created, they cease and vanish in an instant. After the karmic actions have ceased, they do not abide in the east, south, west, or north, the four intermediate directions, up or down, or in between. When the final limit is reached and the life faculty perishes, the karmic retributions one has created all manifest in full, just like waking from a dream and still recalling the events of the dream.

When sentient beings create karma, they all feel that no god or ghost knows about it, as if nobody knew—but in fact it cannot be hidden from anyone; otherwise there would be no karmic retribution. First of all, one's own mind knows it and makes a record of it; then the ghosts and spirits in the surroundings all know it, and there are records in King Yama's registry; the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma-protecting deities all know it, and sentient beings with supernatural powers at the time also know it; later, upon encountering other sentient beings with supernatural powers, it will be known again. As long as a karmic action has been created, it becomes a file, and this file is preserved until after one attains buddhahood and will never disappear; even after the retribution has been fully received and the karmic seeds have vanished, the file still does not disappear—all sentient beings with supernatural powers can look it up.