Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 12: Miscellaneous Discussions on Cause and Effect
1. What retribution does one receive for making money and profit through deliverance rituals (chāodù)?
First, we need to clarify whether this way of making money is a fair and legitimate transaction. If it is not, its nature is deception or fraud, and then the offense and the resulting retribution should be measured and judged according to the behavior and nature of the act of deception. What is a fair and legitimate transaction? It is one in which both the buyer and the seller each obtain the benefit or advantage they expect. If only one party gains benefit while the other gains nothing, it is an unfair transaction.
Next, let us discuss whether this kind of transaction is legitimate. Whether this matter is legitimate or not is measured from several aspects: First, does this person have the qualification to perform deliverance rituals? Second, does this person have the ability to perform deliverance rituals? Third, should delivering sentient beings from the sea of suffering be charged for, and what is the standard for charging fees?
To clarify the above questions, we must sort out the concept and connotation of the term "deliverance" (chāodù). What is deliverance? Deliverance means that a high-ranking bodhisattva, sentient being, or member of the Saṅgha Jewel with high energy, high virtue, and high quality, through reciting Buddhist sūtras, mantras, and the words of the Buddha, prays to obtain the blessing power of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas, blessing the sentient beings of the three evil destinies so as to lighten their karmic obstructions, gain a certain amount of merit, and faithfully accept the Three Jewels, thereby being able to escape the three evil destinies. Therefore, the matter of deliverance relies on the combined power of merit, virtue, and compassion of all Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels, together with the deliverer himself, to lift the beings of the evil destinies out of the sea of suffering and lighten their retribution for offenses.
If the deliverer performs deliverance rituals for the sake of money, then first of all his virtue is lacking, his merit is lacking, and his compassion is lacking. Such a person cannot receive the protection and blessing of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels; all recitations have no merit, and beings with karmic offenses cannot gain benefit. Deliverance itself is not something that can be accomplished by one's own strength alone; it is accomplished jointly by one's personal virtue and cultivation plus the majestic spiritual power of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels. If an individual has no majestic spiritual power, that would be one thing, but by what right should one use the majestic spiritual power of the Three Jewels to make money for oneself? What kind of person has the audacity and the qualification to rely on the Three Jewels to make money and get rich? Is this not making money off the Three Jewels? The wealth of the Three Jewels—who could afford to take it? It means not only throwing away one's life but throwing away everything!
How could a person who truly understands cause and effect, understands principles, and is deeply grateful to the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels dare to, or have the heart to, use the Three Jewels to make money? Bodhisattvas deliver sentient beings for the sake of bodhicitta, for suffering sentient beings, and to repay the kindness of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels; they never do so for personal gain. Bodhisattvas never charge fees or make money when teaching and transforming sentient beings; no matter how much energy they spend writing teachings and books, they provide them free of charge for sentient beings to study.
Because this is a great undertaking that cannot be accomplished by one's own strength alone, and all the wisdom of bodhisattvas comes from the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels—they can hardly repay the kindness in time, so how could they use the majestic virtue of the Three Jewels to pursue personal profit? If one does so, one is not a bodhisattva. Those who make money off the Three Jewels, who make money by selling books and other products of the Three Jewels, are not true bodhisattvas, not true good teachers (kalyāṇamitra). This ungrateful act of selling is called "peddling the Tathāgata." Peddling the Tathāgata is the karma of Māra and brings Māra's retribution. Using the Three Jewels to make money is making money off the Three Jewels; the more of this money one makes, the poorer one becomes, and in the end one falls into the evil destinies to suffer the miserable retribution of poverty.
2. Cause and Effect Is Fearful
Now that we have taken up Buddhist study and cultivation, we must take the matter of cause and effect seriously. Every time we say something or do something, we must consider the corresponding consequences, and not feel that nothing matters. It is not that nothing matters—there are many very big matters, because in between there is karmic interest (nièxī), with retribution multiplied thousands of times, millions of times, even immeasurably many times. Everyone must be extremely careful, otherwise you will suffer great losses. Are the immeasurable sufferings within the six destinies of saṃsāra not a great loss?
How many people have committed evil bodily, verbal, and mental actions against the Three Jewels! One must repent and eliminate one's karma every day; even a single unwholesome thought carries quite serious karmic retribution. Valuing cause and effect and being mindful of cause and effect is what a wise person does. Otherwise, no matter how much Buddhist dharma one studies, it will be of no avail; one will still have to undergo evil retribution first, and after the evil retribution is exhausted, how much of the Buddhist dharma one studied remains usable? Even such small matters as disrespect and pointing fingers and making judgments count as evil karma. Though the matter looks small, it is actually a very big matter—one only needs to compare with the actual examples in the sūtras on cause and effect to know.
There are quite a few people who have studied the Mahāyāna dharma and cultivated the bodhisattva path for decades, yet every day they commit evil karma against the Three Jewels; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions have never been pure. After such people die, they first go to hell to undergo evil retribution, then the evil retribution of the ghost destiny, and finally the evil retribution of the animal destiny. After emerging from the animal destiny and obtaining a human body again, the Mahāyāna they studied has probably been mostly forgotten, and they must start learning from the beginning; in between they commit evil karma again and go to the three evil destinies to undergo retribution again, transmigrating in this cycle over and over—when will it ever end? The sufferings of the human realm already make people grieve deeply; the sufferings of the three evil destinies—how have they been endured throughout beginningless kalpas?
3. The Reason Those Who Slander the Buddhist Dharma Cannot Attain Liberation
In a certain community within the Buddhist world, there are those who exclusively believe in the Small Vehicle dharma and exclusively cultivate the path of liberation, but do not believe in the Mahāyāna dharma, do not believe in the tathāgatagarbha, and do not believe in the manas—in fact they are six-consciousness theorists who only acknowledge the six consciousnesses. They slander the Mahāyāna dharma as not spoken by the Buddha and deny the Mahāyāna patriarchs and bodhisattvas. In this way they not only slander the Buddha and the dharma but also slander the Saṅgha—slandering all Three Jewels. Those who slander the Three Jewels are offenders within the Buddha-dharma, and offenders have retribution for their offenses; cause and effect is manifest and never misses by the slightest. If they do not repent and eliminate their karmic offenses, they cannot obtain the supreme benefits of the Buddha-dharma, that is, they cannot attain liberation. If slandering the Three Jewels could enable one to eradicate the view of self and attain liberation, then it would show that the world has no cause and no effect, or has cause without effect. Yet cause and effect has never been absent, and the retribution of wholesome and unwholesome actions has never failed to operate.
If one does not acknowledge the existence of the tathāgatagarbha, then when arhats enter nirvāṇa it becomes annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), no different from the non-Buddhists. Those arhats who turn from the Small toward the Great Vehicle, who are in nirvāṇa without remainder and, when the conditions of the Mahāyāna ripen, must take rebirth in the human world to continue studying and cultivating the Mahāyāna—how would they obtain a five-aggregates body? If they cannot obtain a five-aggregates body, then all arhats become fixed-nature arhats; there would be no unfixed-nature arhats and no arhats who turn from the Small toward the Great Vehicle. Then would not the Mahāyāna dharma that the World-Honored One specially taught to arhats before they entered nirvāṇa have been effort in vain? Yet the World-Honored One's immeasurable great wisdom has never been effort in vain; whatever He spoke and whatever He aspired to will surely come to fruition.
If one does not acknowledge the existence of the manas, saying that the manas is just the mind consciousness and there is no manas, then when contemplating the five aggregates and eighteen realms in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), among the six faculties one cannot contemplate the manas but only the five faculties; one cannot contemplate the twelve bases, only eleven bases; one cannot contemplate the eighteen realms, only seventeen realms. Such an incomplete contemplative practice cannot eradicate the view that the manas is the self, so how can one eradicate the view of self? The manas is one of the six faculties; it has the function of a faculty and also the function of a consciousness. Not acknowledging the existence of the manas, the contemplative practice is abandoned halfway and liberation cannot be attained.
As for those who claim at every turn that they have attained the fourth dhyāna, and those who claim at every turn that they have realized the fourth fruit—how great must their misunderstanding be? Because sentient beings' pride in self (māna) is too heavy, they always like to exalt themselves and elevate themselves, never willing to examine themselves truthfully or evaluate themselves realistically. As a result, the world is full of so-called sages, Buddhism has been torn to pieces, the order has been thrown into chaos, and sentient beings have nothing to rely on and cannot truly discern what is right and wrong in the Buddha-dharma! In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings' karmic obstructions are so heavy—how could there be so many sages dwelling in the world? May the wise think it over, deliberate carefully, choose well, and not drift with the current!
4. On the Principles for Using Supernatural Powers
Question: When using supernatural powers, does one directly plant all of one's motives and traces in the other person's home? Does one have to bear the cause and effect? How should supernatural powers be viewed? How can one avoid the shortcomings of supernatural powers and practice the bodhisattva path well?
Answer: The so-called supernatural powers of modern people are mostly retributive superknowledge (vipāka-abhijñā), the karmic retribution obtained from merit and virtue cultivated in previous lives; when the retribution is exhausted, the powers disappear. True supernatural powers arise after attaining the fourth dhyāna; as long as the meditative concentration does not disappear, the powers remain. Supernatural powers derived from the fourth dhyāna are possessed by bodhisattvas, by arhats and pratyekabuddhas, and also by non-Buddhists. Because bodhisattvas all understand cause and effect, they do not misuse supernatural powers and their conduct is measured; arhats and pratyekabuddhas, because their minds are pure, are not interested in worldly people and affairs, have moral discipline, and understand some cause and effect, also do not misuse supernatural powers; non-Buddhists have the fourth dhyāna, their minds are also pure, and they are likewise not interested in worldly people and affairs, so they also do not misuse supernatural powers. However, since their afflictions are not yet exhausted and not fully subdued, they may occasionally, due to some personal gain, use some supernatural powers, interfere with some cause and effect, and create some evil karma. Therefore, those whose supernatural powers arise from meditative concentration will not easily use them to do anything contrary to the dharma that harms the interests of sentient beings.
But those with retributive superknowledge are all ordinary people whose afflictions are not subdued, whose wisdom is insufficient, and whose cultivation is generally not high; using supernatural powers to interfere with cause and effect and to infringe on others is quite common—I have seen some of this. My advice on using supernatural powers is: before a person has fully subdued his afflictions, and before he has fully understood and recognized the stakes of cause and effect, since he cannot grasp the proper measure and boundaries involved, it is best not to use any powers at all, so as to avoid bearing cause and effect and suffering the retribution of evil karma. If there are people of great resolve who wish to use supernatural powers to benefit sentient beings, they should use them carefully under the guidance of good teachers who understand cause and effect. For example, using supernatural powers to pry into another person's thoughts and past—if not handled well, this can violate the precept against stealing; what others have not permitted, if obtained, counts as theft and is ill-gotten. The scope covered by the precept against stealing is extremely broad and detailed; ordinary people's minds are not meticulous and their considerations are not thorough, so they may violate the precept without knowing it.
Someone might say: the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, because of their supernatural powers, know everything about sentient beings before and after beginningless kalpas, even future events that have not yet occurred—does this not violate the precept against stealing? This of course does not violate the precept against stealing. First, it is because the Buddhas and bodhisattvas know without intent; it is natural knowing, with no thieving mind. Second, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and sentient beings are of one body, with no conflict of interest whatsoever; everything they do is for sentient beings, including the dharma-protecting deities who protect the dharma—also to protect sentient beings, with no selfish personal purpose—so the matter of theft does not arise. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas also know the affairs of sentient beings naturally, without any prying intent; their minds are pure and there is no conflict with the interests of sentient beings, so what they do also does not involve theft. Non-Buddhists' minds are also pure; generally they have no interest in others' affairs. Special cases do exist, but people of virtue who understand cause and effect a little will avoid matters that others taboo, will be selective about what they know through supernatural powers, and will also keep silent.
In summary, people in this life who have retributive superknowledge, lacking meditative concentration to fully subdue their afflictions and lacking sufficient wisdom, can hardly grasp the proper measure, and should try not to use supernatural powers. Except for protecting one's own family—wanting to know the affairs of one's own family members and close ones is barely justifiable.
5. How Does Natural Talent Arise?
In the world, every profession and every field values natural talent. What is natural talent? In plain language, talent seems to be bestowed by heaven, but in fact it is brought from previous lives at birth—it is skilled workmanship; one is born already somewhat familiar with it, and after coming into contact with it, as conditions ripen, one becomes ever more skilled. It grows out of the karmic seeds left from previous lives. If no karmic seeds were left from previous lives and one only encounters it in this life, no matter how hard one works, one remains a novice. So people with talent are those who, in the long kalpas of birth-and-death transmigration, have spent relatively more time in the human destiny, have been conditioned more by human affairs, and are relatively familiar with human matters; having been conditioned more in certain areas and planted seeds there, in later lives they will have talent in those areas. Therefore, if sentient beings in the human destiny accumulate virtue, do good deeds, and cultivate merit more, they will be born in the human destiny more often, accumulate more karmic seeds of human affairs, and will have the opportunity to become people with talent.
The field of studying Buddhism even more has this notion of talent. In one single life, a few short kalpas, one cannot learn much; no matter how one studies, one seems like a kindergartner, unable to find the doorway to cultivation. But as long as one does not lose heart, there will eventually be a life in which one becomes a skilled practitioner, an experienced cultivator, born with talent, becoming an expert, a long-cultivating bodhisattva. Almost everyone is like this. The opportunities encountered in the transmigration of the six destinies differ, the seeds planted differ, so believing in and studying Buddhism comes early for some and late for others; the difference is merely one of time. Therefore, so that other sentient beings may encounter the conditions of the Buddha-dharma sooner, we who have already believed in and studied Buddhism should make more dedications of merit (pariṇāma) to all sentient beings not yet awakened, planting wholesome causes for them; they will then have the opportunity to encounter the Buddha-dharma in the future and begin to believe in Buddhism, and after believing for a long time they will study Buddhism. People with this breadth of mind also grow quickly themselves; by caring for others more, they come to understand more things, mature quickly themselves, and before they know it become great bodhisattvas.
6. No Matter How Long a Wrong View Is Propagated, It Will Never Become Truth
Question: How does one judge whether a sūtra is genuine or spurious? Among Buddhist mantras, which are in accordance with the dharma and which are not—what is the standard of judgment? The Taishō Canon includes many classics of Tibetan Buddhism; if they are spurious sūtras, why would the Canon include them? If some sūtras and mantras have problems, why have they been transmitted for over a thousand years without dying out?
Answer: Judging the authenticity of sūtras and mantras depends entirely on experience and wisdom; it cannot be taught. If one has no experience and wisdom, one should not make judgments or pronounce verdicts; it is best to be careful and prudent and keep away, lest one create evil karma without knowing it. The Canon was mostly collected, included, edited, and compiled by ordinary beings (pṛthagjana)—but what do ordinary beings understand? If the Demon King saw that the Canon had great utility and went to compile and print it, what content would he add into it?
No matter how long the heterodox evil dharmas are propagated, it cannot show that the dharma being propagated is correct. The reason it has been propagated so long is that sentient beings are foolish and lack the wisdom to discern right from wrong. For example, sentient beings for immeasurable kalpas have believed the five aggregates to be the self and the self to be real; for immeasurable immeasurable kalpas they have believed this, transmitted down to the present—yet this cannot show that the notion that the five aggregates are the self is correct and without error. Sentient beings for immeasurable kalpas have believed that one should grasp the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates, that worldly dharmas are good and cannot be left for even a moment—but in fact it is not so. If the Buddha had not come to tell us that the worldly realm of the five aggregates is empty and not-self, would we not forever continue grasping the worldly realm of the five aggregates? Even with another immeasurable immeasurable kalpas, it would be the same. What can time prove or change, for foolish and ignorant sentient beings?
Likewise, no matter how many people share the same views, a wrong view is not a right view. Truth is not established by the number of people who accept it; it is often at the top of the pyramid, not in the hands of those at the very bottom. Therefore in a defiled land like the Sahā world, truth is often held in the hands of a few, a very few people; sometimes, throughout the whole world there is not a single person who holds the truth—all are foolish, ignorant sentient beings.
7. Can Dharma Teachings and Buddhist Sūtras Written by Individuals on Paper Be Burned?
Writings by individuals that are not Buddhist sūtras or mantras can be burned directly. Buddhist sūtras, mantras, and the names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas that truly cannot be repaired and preserved, and cannot be given away to form connections, should be burned after reciting the mantra for extinguishing offenses. If they can be repaired intact, preserved, or given away to form connections, they must not be burned. Some people, seeing monastics in temples burning damaged Buddha statues and sūtras, think they too can burn sūtras. Watching how others do things is only watching surface phenomena; in fact, how others handle things and with what state of mind is not easy to discern. Sometimes, when others do something, they commit no offense and violate no precept, and nothing comes of it. But when you yourself do the same thing, it is an offense and a violation of the precepts. People's states of mind differ, their merit differs, their spiritual attainment differs, their precepts and duties differ, and so the results and retributions differ. One must not casually imitate what others do.
8. Is the Mind Consciousness with the Power of Introspection the Consciousness Accompanied by the Five Senses or the Solitary Consciousness?
The power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) is precisely self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana)—the mind itself validating itself and its own mental factors. At that time, one's own consciousness and mental factors become the object-aspect (nimitta). This object-aspect has no relation to the five sense objects; it is a subjectively imagined realm, and thus has no relation to the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna); it is the object-aspect corresponding to the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta). Therefore, the introspective power of self-validating cognition belongs to the solitary consciousness, not to the consciousness accompanied by the five senses. The key to distinguishing the two kinds of consciousness lies in whether the mental sense-object they cognize is related to the five sense objects; what is unrelated is the mental sense-object of the subjectively imagined realm, which can only be cognized by the solitary consciousness.
When the consciousness accompanied by the five senses appears, the solitary consciousness may also appear; the two kinds of consciousness can appear simultaneously. For example, upon seeing a flower, the mental deliberations, recollections, imaginings, and so on about the flower all belong to the solitary consciousness; the consciousness accompanied by the five senses is only responsible for cognizing the flower before one's eyes together with the five sense consciousnesses. Flowers of the past and future can only be cognized by the solitary consciousness—and this past and future includes one minute before and after; in short, anything that is not the present-moment realm. For example, upon seeing the person opposite, the thoughts, impressions, and so on about that person in one's mind all belong to the solitary consciousness. The consciousness accompanied by the five senses has no thoughts or concepts, cannot recollect or anticipate, and the mental sense-object it cognizes cannot depart from the realms of the five sense objects.
9. Today is the Zhongyuan Festival, the festival of ghosts and spirits. When we burn paper money for the beings of the netherworld, after they receive it, they take it to spend, buying daily necessities, or repaying debts, or exchanging courtesies, and so on. Is the external object-aspect (nimitta) of ghosts and humans the same? We burn the paper money so that the human external object-aspect is gone, yet an external object-aspect appears in the netherworld—so what kind of object-aspect does this paper money count as for the beings of the netherworld? What difference is there from the object-aspect we humans see? How is the external object-aspect transformed?
I once burned a hand-written Great Compassion Mantra and Buddhist sūtras for the beings of the nether realm, and then they appeared in my dreams, very happy, holding the sūtras in their hands studying them, even wearing glasses. I have also once contemplated on behalf of ghost-destiny beings, and dreams showed that their health had improved, their spirits were joyful, and their minds were cheerful.
The mental intentions of humans are inconceivable; a single thought can indeed change many dharma-marks, and in the end can change the trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold world). Such a thought requires superb meditative concentration and wisdom, that is, meditative absorption (samādhi). The true fire of samādhi burns throughout the great chiliocosm, making the great-thousand world flourish. The sentient beings of one great-thousand world share common karma and live in roughly the same environment, so their external object-aspects are more or less the same. The more common karma there is, the closer they are, and the more consistent the external object-aspects are. But because individual karma differs, the internal object-aspects each contacts differ, and their enjoyments differ.
10. How Does the Neutrino-Body (Antarā-bhava) Arise and Enter the Womb?
Question: If one encounters sudden situations such as an explosion that shatters the physical body to pieces, or instant vaporization leaving no bones, does the neutrino-body suddenly manifest or gradually manifest? How does the neutrino-body grasp the fertilized egg to enter the womb?
Answer: Each arising of the neutrino-body occurs because the previous material body has broken and can no longer be used, and the manas needs another material body for its use; there can be no gap in between, so the neutrino-body arises rapidly. The manas needs the activity of the five aggregates to deal with the myriad dharmas of the world, because the manas-mind is not empty: it has the view of self and grasping at self, the view of dharmas and grasping at dharmas. Because of this grasping, it is unwilling to abandon the world and unwilling to abandon the five aggregates. While alive, one has accumulated the karmic seeds of future lives; with these seeds, after death there will be a future life, without annihilation. When experiencing a sudden event like a great explosion, the physical body is blown apart and unusable; at this time, supported by karmic seeds, the manas wants another physical body for its own use. The tathāgatagarbha, in response to this wish of the manas, according to the karmic seeds from before death, manifests again a temporary material body called the neutrino-body, to temporarily satisfy the manas's needs.
If a real, solid physical body were to arise, it would take a long time for the four great elements to gradually gather; but the manas cannot wait, so only an insubstantial body of the four great elements can temporarily arise—this is what distinguishes it from a human body. Because it is not an aggregation of real seeds of the four great elements, it lacks the material obstructive quality of a physical body aggregated from real seeds of the four great elements; therefore the neutrino-body possesses the five minor superknowledges. Because the manas urgently needs it, the neutrino-body cannot arise slowly but arises quickly.
Because of death from sudden accidents, there is no mental preparation. Legend says that such deaths cannot reincarnate again, and can only exist in a spiritual form, drifting about like phantoms in the air, with no real material body to rely on—very distressing. To be able to reincarnate again, one can only seize another departed spirit as a substitute before one can enter the womb. So such a being will stay at the site of its death, waiting for a chance to create the same kind of accident so that others die and it can go reincarnate. Therefore in the world we find that wherever an accidental death has occurred, the same kind of accident will occur multiple times over the following years—this is the notion of "seizing a substitute."
If the death is a normal one, the neutrino-body exists for at most seven periods of seven days—forty-nine days. Generally one goes to reincarnate by the third seven-day period. The more distinct a person's wholesomeness or unwholesomeness was while alive, the more certain the outcome and the earlier the rebirth. For those whose good and evil are truly hard to distinguish, forty-nine days is the limit, and they too will go to reincarnate. When the conditions for rebirth appear, the neutrino-body rushes to the parents of the next life and enters the womb with the fertilized egg, and the neutrino-body immediately disappears. Because there is no manas, the neutrino-body disperses. Wherever the manas is, there will be a material body.
How does the manas, within the neutrino-body, grasp the fertilized egg to enter the womb? Because the manas has not severed desire, upon encountering the conditions of the parents within the neutrino-body, it is attracted by the parents' sexual desire and participates in it. If the karma dictates a male, lust arises toward the mother; if the karma dictates a female, lust arises toward the father; it takes the parents' sexual act as its own sexual union with the parents. At the instant the parents' sperm and egg combine into a fertilized egg, it enters the mother's womb along with the fertilized egg. One who should have a male body faces the mother in the womb; one who should have a female body faces away from the mother in the womb. Thus, as the fetal body grows, a female fetus shows its bump while a male fetus does not.
When encountering a sudden accident, not only does the physical body fall apart, but the consciousness-mind, due to extreme fright, is scared out of its wits—what scatters is the first six consciousnesses; without the physical body to rely on, they cease and disappear. Only the manas flies out of the physical body, separated from it, becoming all alone, with the tathāgatagarbha following behind—He who is all its treasures, though it does not know it. At this point the manas has no choice but to want another material body and five aggregates for its own use, again pursuing worldly dharmas, while the maṇi jewel behind it neither hears nor sees. In studying Buddhism, as long as one has grasped the manas, one has grasped all dharmas; not yet knowing of the tathāgatagarbha is temporarily no problem. From this we can see: is realizing the fruit and seeing the mind with the mind consciousness not childish and laughable? Is placing hope on a dharma that can be reduced to ashes in an instant not foolish? What wise person would store his treasures in a conjured city, in a castle in the air?
Rebirth in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) also takes place from within the neutrino-body. So without extremely great superknowledge, who could see the neutrino-body mounting a lotus flower and flying off to the land of bliss? What worldly people call rebirth is all conjecture and speculation, not what is seen in direct perception.
Within the neutrino-body there are also gender differences, and gender differences are also karma. The manas, at all times and in all stages, always corresponds with karma, karmic seeds, and karmic power; as long as there is male-female karma, there will be male and female genders. The gender of the future life is not fixed and unchanging; it is determined by karmic seeds. Whether one creates the karmic actions of a man or of a woman in this life determines the gender of the next life. These karmic actions also include mental actions and mental disposition; karmic actions correspond with mental actions and mental disposition, changing closely along with mental disposition. Therefore, if a person has the mental disposition of a man, he will manifest a male body in a future life; if the mental disposition of a woman, she will manifest a female body in a future life—except for those with the power of vows. In our monastic precepts, the restrictions on bhikṣuṇīs are many and heavy, precisely to restrain women's habits and tendencies, gradually distancing them from female habits and bringing them closer to male habits, in preparation for transforming the female body. In real life, we also find that some women are very bold and magnanimous, generous and broad-minded, with a manly spirit and masculine bearing—she was a man in a previous life and may become a man again in a future life. Conversely, the same applies: some men are born with female habits—he was a woman in a previous life and may again transform into a female body in a future life.
Gender is also determined by merit. From the form realm heavens upward there are no gender differences, no distinction of male and female; that is supported and determined by the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis—the merit of meditative concentration is very, very great, able to let sentient beings temporarily escape the three evil destinies, escape the human body, and escape the desire-realm heavens. The state of the form realm heavens is simply too enjoyable; the desire-realm heavens cannot compare. When I cultivated to the first dhyāna, every day I was as happy as an immortal—a joy that cannot be described, inexpressible in words, a happiness unimaginable to worldly people; the joy of meditative concentration far surpasses worldly happiness. Before I studied Buddhism, my mood was heavy every day, as if a big stone were pressing on my heart, weighing it down; from the age of thirteen I thought about the word "death." After the first dhyāna, it was like going from hell to heaven.
In the land of bliss there is also no distinction of male and female; that too is supported and determined by great merit. So in studying Buddhism and recollecting the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), if one has not cultivated merit, there are obstacles everywhere—how then could one be reborn in the land of bliss and gather with the multitude of excellent good people?
