Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra: Lecture 83

How Does Retribution Manifest?

Why is Alaya-vijnana considered the master of karma? Because without Alaya-vijnana, there would be no five-aggregate body, and thus no capacity to create karma. When the mental faculty (manas) intends to create karma, Alaya-vijnana perceives this and cooperates with it, projecting various seeds to fulfill the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body. All activities of the five aggregates are realized through the projection of seeds by Alaya-vijnana. Therefore, the five aggregates are Alaya-vijnana—they are the nature of Tathāgatagarbha. The karma created by the five-aggregate body serves as a contributing condition. Together, Alaya-vijnana and karmic conditions form the causes and conditions for the birth of the next life’s five-aggregate body. Once the six consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—of the next life arise, the experience of karmic retribution begins.

For example, when one is destined to be reborn as a human, the six consciousnesses arise again, the five aggregates fully manifest, and sensations emerge. The retribution of being human then appears. When consciousness is absent, one cannot experience pleasure or pain, as if retribution has not yet manifested. In truth, conception in a human womb and the ten months of gestation are retribution. This retribution must be experienced by the mental faculty (manas); Tathāgatagarbha does not experience retribution, remains unconfined, and is not imprisoned in the womb. For the first four to five months in the womb, a human fetus lacks conscious awareness and cannot feel pain or pleasure. Strictly speaking, this period is not considered true retribution—yet it is retribution, for that physical body is itself a karmic retribution body. It merely lacks a mind to perceive pleasure or pain; the sensations experienced by the mental faculty remain unknown to our conscious mind.

If one is reborn in hell, the form of a hell-being appears, and consciousness arises immediately, enabling instant perception of the sufferings of hell—the retribution of pain manifests. If reborn in the animal realm, the moment the animal’s conscious awareness arises, it experiences pleasure and pain—the retribution of suffering appears. Whether reborn in the realm of Yama (ghosts), the Asura realm, the human realm, or the heavens, retribution formally begins only when consciousness arises. Once consciousness emerges, good deeds yield good retribution, and evil deeds yield evil retribution. Celestial beings feel joy upon birth; those reborn in the animal realm, hell realm, or ghost realm feel pain. Yet even when the six consciousnesses are absent and unable to perceive, this too constitutes retribution.