Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (138)

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。初闻妙香。便生爱乐。心起染着。造如是业。身三语四。意三种业。造彼业已。即便灭谢。是业灭已。不依四方。四维上下。中间而住。乃至最后识灭。自业现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. When foolish ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) first smell an exquisite scent, they give rise to delight, and their minds become defiled and attached, creating such karma—three kinds of bodily karma, four kinds of verbal karma, and three kinds of mental karma. After that karma is created, it immediately passes away; once it has ceased, the karmic formations do not abide in the four directions, the four intermediate directions, above and below, or in between—they vanish without a trace. Yet at the moment when the final consciousness ceases and the life faculty comes to an end, all the karmic retribution created in this life manifests in full, just like waking from a dream and still recalling the events of the dream.

When one smells a scent and feels great joy and comfort, giving rise to a mind of delight, the mind becomes defiled and attached. If the mind does not crave the scent, it will not feel delight; it can only feel indifferent. Once the mind gives rise to delight, it becomes defiled and stuck, no longer at ease and free; it is locked by the realms of the six paths of rebirth, and thus transmigrates through birth and death, unable to attain liberation. The defiled mind, the clinging mind, and the delighting mind are the ropes and locks that can firmly bind the five-aggregate body within the great prison of the three realms.