An Explanation of the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Revelation of Consciousness

Original text: 贤护白佛言。世尊。众生虽知有识。如宝闭在箧中。不显不知。世尊。不知此识。作何形状。何故名识。众生死时。手足乱动。眼色变异。制不自由。诸根丧灭。诸大乖离。识迁于身。去至何所。自性如何。作何色相。云何舍离此身。更受余身。

Although there are many people who study Buddhism, those with truly great wholesome karma are extremely few; eighty percent or even more will fall into the three evil destinies—even though they study Buddhism in this very life, they still cannot escape the three evil destinies. This is because the wholesome karma they create in this life is very small, while their unwholesome karma from past lives and the present life is abundant and heavy. For example, if there is greed in the mind, heavy greed and stinginess will necessarily lead to rebirth in the hungry ghost destiny. There are also heavy karma of hatred and karma of delusion—one leads to rebirth in hell to undergo retribution, the other leads to rebirth as an animal to undergo retribution. Among those who study Buddhism, these unwholesome karmic afflictions have almost never been eliminated or subdued; the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion only begin to be eradicated when one attains the third fruit—even attaining the first fruit does not yet eradicate them. However, after attaining the first fruit, the three fetters are severed, and thus there is no longer the bondage of karma leading to the three evil destinies, so one will not be reborn into the three evil destinies.

Some might say that the Buddhist sutras teach that upholding the five precepts can secure a human rebirth, and since they uphold the five precepts, they will surely attain human rebirth. But this is not necessarily so. First, one cannot correctly judge whether one has truly upheld the five precepts well. Second, even if one has genuinely upheld the five precepts, if the unwholesome conditions from past lives happen to ripen, then one must follow those unwholesome conditions into the three evil destinies and transmigrate through birth and death, with no choice in the matter. As for the merit of upholding the five precepts, one can only receive the wholesome retribution when wholesome conditions ripen. Heavenly beings also uphold the five precepts—beings of the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm all do not violate the five precepts and have never committed any unwholesome karma—yet after death, many of them fall directly into hell. This shows that the unwholesome conditions for hell have ripened, and there is no escaping it. When the merit of heavenly beings is exhausted, they descend into hell, because the seeds of their unwholesome karma from beginningless kalpas still exist; if the conditions for wholesome karma are small, not yet ripened, and their force insufficient, they will still fall into the evil destinies. Where a sentient being is reborn at the time of death depends on which projecting karma has the greater force and which karmic condition ripens first.

Some people, although they have committed unwholesome karma, can sincerely make pure and great vows. If, at the time of death, the power of their wholesome vows is greater than the karmic force of their unwholesome karma, they can rely on this great power of vows to be reborn in a wholesome destiny. Therefore, for those who study Buddhism, attaining the first fruit is a matter of the utmost urgency. If one attains the first fruit in this life, and in the next life attains the first fruit again, or can attain the second fruit, then life after life one will not fall into the three evil destinies to suffer. Later, by continuing to attain the third and fourth fruits and eradicating afflictions, one can achieve liberation of mind and liberation through wisdom. The third fruit involves eradicating two kinds of afflictions: greed/desire and hatred. This requires cultivating to the level of first dhyāna. Attaining the first dhyāna is of course somewhat more difficult, but after the first dhyāna, eradicating afflictions is no longer so difficult.

Yet quite a few people claim they have eradicated greed/desire, feeling as if they are not greedy for the dharmas of the human world and are uninterested in everything in the human world. But in reality they have not eradicated even a trace of it—that is a state of suppression, not a state of eradication. Because they have not eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), have not attained the first dhyāna, and have not cultivated away the five hindrances, it is impossible for them to eradicate the affliction of greed/desire. There are also some people who, on the surface, no longer engage in sexual activity, and so claim they have already eradicated the affliction of sexual desire. In fact, that is merely a surface-level suppression and restraint; mentally it has not been severed. In the antarā-bhava (intermediate state), they will still take rebirth because of desire. As long as one takes rebirth because of male-female desire and acquires the physical body of the next life, greed/desire has not been severed. Those who can truly eradicate greed/desire will no longer take rebirth—with the exception of bodhisattvas who have attained the first dhyāna.