Realizing the Principle of Non-Arising Can Eliminate Karma

Sentient beings find it relatively easy to study and practice the Buddha's teachings in the human realm. In the human realm, suffering and happiness are mixed in equal measure; only by knowing suffering can one practice. If everything were suffering, one could not practice; if everything were happiness, one could not practice either. Only with both suffering and happiness can one practice. That is why the World-Honored One had to come to the human world to attain buddhahood. The heavenly beings are all busy enjoying pleasures and have no mind to cultivate. Beings in the evil destinies cannot practice: animals are ignorant and do not understand speech, so they cannot practice. Hungry ghosts lack merit, enduring hunger and starvation, and cannot practice. Beings in the hells are overwhelmed by pain, their consciousness dark and dim, and have no mind to practice. As the saying goes, it is hard for the wealthy to study Buddhism, and hard for the poor to practice generosity—both make practice difficult. As for beings in the hells, as long as their suffering does not cause their consciousness to fall into a swoon and they retain some capacity for thought, they possess supernatural powers and know the karmic deeds of their past lives. Those who understand the principles can regret what they did in past lives; those who do not understand the principles do not know how to repent.

The retributive results differ between those who study Buddhism and those who do not yet create karma and fall into the hells; the retributive results differ between those with merit and those without merit who fall into the hells. The more one understands the principles, the faster one emerges. Someone arrived at the gate of the hells and recited a verse from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in a single thought: "If one wishes to know all Buddhas of the three periods of time, one should contemplate the nature of the dharmadhātu: everything is created by the mind alone." Knowing that the hells are also created by one's own mind, he emerged from the hells, and the hell-realm appearances vanished from his mind. So understanding the Dharma and comprehending the principles is extremely beneficial. When one realizes the principle that the five aggregates are false and illusory, the three fetters are severed, and the karma of the three evil destinies is extinguished. If there is no self, how could there be the three evil destinies? How could there be the karma of the three evil destinies? It is all false and illusory—how wonderful it is to extinguish karma in this way.

In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the World-Honored One extinguished karma for King Ajātaśatru, explaining to him what is called a "father": the father's five aggregates are not the father; any single aggregate alone is not the father; and their combination is not the father either. There is no dharma called "father," no person who is the father, and no person who is Ajātaśatru either; even the karma of killing one's father is false and unreal. Having heard this principle, although King Ajātaśatru did not attain the fruit of an arhat, his hell-karma was also extinguished, and he no longer had to fall into the hells.

The extinguishing of karma in the Mahāyāna Dharma is equally magnificent. There is the story of the bodhisattva Yongshe (Courageous Giving) who committed grave offenses and then awakened to nonarising. The bhikṣu Yongshe went to the home of a female donor to beg for food. The woman took a fancy to him and wanted to engage in improper conduct with him. He refused, so the woman put a hallucinogenic drug in the food and had him eat it. After eating it, he could not control himself and engaged in the improper conduct; from then on, they had ongoing relations. When the woman's husband found out, he was furious. The bhikṣu told the woman to poison him, and as a result, the husband was poisoned to death. When Yongshe learned of this, he was filled with remorse, knowing he had committed two great crimes and was certain to fall into the hells. Losing his mind, he went mad and sought out Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, who said, "You should still go to the World-Honored One to have this handled." So the World-Honored One asked about the whole affair and instructed him with the principle of nonarising, analyzing for him the falsity of all things and the falsity of self and person. After hearing this, Yongshe awakened to the Mahāyāna principle of nonarising and, upon enlightenment, became a bodhisattva. His karma of the three evil destinies was also extinguished, and he no longer needed to fall into the hells to suffer. This is equivalent to the repentance method of ultimate reality: in the Dharma of ultimate reality, there is no person and no self—how could there be an offender and a victim? How could there be any deed of creating karma? Who is the one who created the karma? There is no such one! As long as one contemplates these teachings carefully and opens the eye of wisdom, one will realize nonarising.