Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (83)

How Does Retribution Manifest?

Why is the Ālayavijñāna the master of karma creation? Because without the Ālayavijñāna there would be no five-aggregate body, and thus no karma could be created. When the manas wishes to create karma, the Ālayavijñāna knows this and cooperates with the manas, outputting various seeds to complete the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body. All activities of the five aggregates are realized through the seeds outputted by the Ālayavijñāna; therefore the five aggregates are the Ālayavijñāna, and are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The karma created by the five-aggregate body serves as a contributing condition; together with the Ālayavijñāna, these two—karma and its conditions—serve as the causes and conditions for the birth of the next life's five aggregates. When the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind arise in the next life, the retribution of karma begins to be experienced.

For example, for one who is due to be reborn as a human, the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind arise again; with the five aggregates complete, there is feeling, and human retribution manifests. When there are no consciousnesses, feelings of suffering and happiness cannot be experienced, as if retribution had not yet been received. In fact, being conceived in a human womb and dwelling in the womb for ten months is itself a form of retribution, and this retribution must be received by the manas; the tathāgatagarbha does not receive retribution, is not sealed off, and is not confined within the womb. Before the fourth or fifth month in the mother's womb, a human has no mind consciousness and cannot feel suffering or happiness; strictly speaking, at that time it does not count as truly receiving retribution—yet saying it does not count as receiving retribution, it actually does count, because that material body is itself the retributive body; it merely lacks a mind and does not know feelings of suffering or happiness. As for the feelings of the manas, our mind consciousness does not know them.

If one is reborn into hell, once the bodily form of hell manifests, the mind consciousness immediately arises and instantly experiences the suffering of hell—the retribution of suffering has appeared. Or if one is reborn among animals, as soon as the perceiving mind of the animal arises, it feels suffering and happiness—the retribution of suffering has appeared. Or if one is reborn into the realm of Yama or the realm of ghosts, reborn into the asura realm, or born among humans, or born in the heavens, only when the mind consciousness arises does one formally begin to receive retribution. Once the mind consciousness arises, wholesome actions bring wholesome retribution and unwholesome actions bring unwholesome retribution: a deva, upon birth, feels happiness; one reborn into the animal realm, the hell realm, or the ghost realm feels suffering. But even when there are no six consciousnesses to feel, it still belongs to retribution.