Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra)

Sentient beings are of little learning and lack wisdom because they do not listen to the sūtras or hear the Dharma; their exposure is limited, they do not understand the true meaning of the Buddha's teachings, nor the truths of the world, and therefore they lack wisdom. If we wish to have wisdom, we must study the Buddha's teachings extensively, listen to the sūtras and hear the Dharma often, and delve deeply into the treasury of the sūtras; only then will wisdom arise, and only then can wisdom be as vast as the ocean. Believe and accept the Buddha's words more, listen to the sūtras and hear the Dharma more. Each principle you understand breaks one layer of ignorance and removes one form of foolishness. When your bodily, verbal, and mental actions are pure, your mind will be happy and free of afflictions.

Worldly beings of little learning and no wisdom develop love and delight upon agreeable contact. Agreeable contact refers to bodily feelings that greatly delight and please the mind consciousness—this is called exquisite tactile sensation. For example, the body touching soft clothing, warm sunlight, a comfortable bed; and most important of all is the touch between men and women—the desire realm is a world established primarily upon this kind of touch. What the body faculty and body consciousness come into contact with is called the touch sense-object. For instance, when warm, comfortable sunlight touches the body, when cold or hot wind touches the body, when soft or hard clothing touches the body, and the body consciousness has a sensation, that is called touch; the dharma that is touched is called the touch sense-object. Also, the sensation of hunger or thirst, the feeling in the stomach, is also touch—all of these are touch sense-objects. For another example, when one sits for a long time and feels fatigued, that fatigue is also a touch sense-object; when meditating, if the body feels at ease and the body feels extremely comfortable, these are all touch sense-objects.

Ordinary sentient beings crave agreeable tactile feelings most of all, primarily the touch between men and women. When a man and a woman touch each other, the mind gives rise to love, delight, and craving, and thus the mind is defiled. This is craving dominated by the mind consciousness, and it also includes the eye consciousness and body consciousness, but mainly it is the feelings of the sixth consciousness (mind consciousness) that predominate. Once the mind consciousness gives rise to defiled attachment, karma is created; the step following a mind of love and delight is certainly the creation of karma, and karmic actions will appear. Those without cultivation will produce foolish karmic actions of body, speech, and mind. Some practitioners, though their minds may sometimes have defiled attachment, do not create karmic actions of body or speech. The most accomplished practitioners do not have defilement even in the mind. As for the karmic actions created: bodily karma can create three kinds—killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; verbal karma has four kinds—false speech, frivolous speech, divisive speech, and harsh speech; mental karma is of three kinds: greed, hatred, and delusion.