Realizing the Principle of Non-Arising Can Eliminate Karma

It is relatively easy for sentient beings to study and practice the Buddhadharma in the human realm. In the human realm, suffering and happiness are mixed in equal measure: only when one knows suffering can one cultivate; if it were all suffering, one could not cultivate; if it were all happiness, one could not cultivate 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 devas are all busy enjoying pleasures and have no mind to cultivate. Beings in the evil destinies cannot cultivate: animals are ignorant and do not understand speech; hungry ghosts lack merit and endure hunger and starvation, unable to cultivate; beings in hell are racked by pain, their consciousness dark and dim, with no heart for practice. As the common saying goes, it is hard for the wealthy to learn Buddhism, and hard for the poor to practice generosity—both are difficult for practice. As for beings in hell, as long as their suffering does not cause their consciousness to fall into a swoon and they retain some capacity for thought, they possess supernormal powers and know the karmic deeds of their past lives; those who understand the principles can repent of their past conduct, while those who do not understand them know no repentance.

The retributive results differ between those who study Buddhism and those who do not yet create karma and fall into hell; the retributive results differ between those with merit and those without merit who fall into hell. The more one understands the principles, the faster one emerges. Someone arrived at the gate of hell and recited in a single thought a verse from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra: "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 mind alone." Knowing that hell is also created by one's own mind, he emerged from hell—the hell-appearance vanished from his mind. So understanding the Dharma and its 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 karma of the three evil destinies? It is all illusory—how wonderful it would be to dissolve karma in this way.

In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the World-Honored One dissolved 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 even in combination they are not the father. There is no dharma called "father," no person who is the father, and no person who is King Ajātaśatru either; thus the karma of killing one's father is also false and unreal. Having heard this principle, although Ajātaśatru had not attained the fruit of an arhat, his hell-karma was nonetheless dissolved, and he no longer had to fall into hell.

The dissolution of karma in the Mahāyāna Dharma is equally magnificent, as in the story of the Bodhisattva Yongshi, who committed grave offenses and then awakened to non-arising. The bhikṣu Yongshi 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. When he refused, she drugged his food with a hallucinatory agent. After eating it, he could not control himself and engaged in the improper act, and from then on they kept company. When the woman's husband found out, he was furious, and the bhikṣu told the woman to poison him; as a result, the husband was poisoned to death. When Yongshi learned of this, he was filled with remorse, knowing he had committed two great crimes and was bound for hell. He lost his mind and went mad, and went to seek out Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, who said he should instead let the World-Honored One handle it. The World-Honored One then asked into the whole affair and instructed him with the principle of non-arising, analyzing for him the illusoriness of all things and the illusoriness of self and person. Upon hearing this, Yongshi awakened to the Mahāyāna principle of non-arising and, enlightened, became a bodhisattva. His karma of the three evil destinies was also dissolved, and he no longer needed to fall into hell and suffer. This is equivalent to the repentance method of suchness: in the Dharma of suchness, there is no self and no other—how could there be an offender and a victim, how could there be any deed of karma-making? Who is the maker of karma? There is none! As long as one deliberates carefully upon these principles, the eye of wisdom will open, and one will realize non-arising.