Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (146)

The karmic retribution of harboring thoughts of terror upon the deterioration of the nose faculty

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。见鼻根坏。起恐怖想。造作痴业。身三语四。意三种业。最初造作。刹那灭谢。是业灭已。不依四方。四维上下。中间而住。最后边际。命根灭尽。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. Foolish ordinary beings (pṛthagjana), upon seeing their own nose faculty deteriorate, give rise to thoughts of terror and create karmic actions of foolishness (moha) — three bodily actions, four verbal actions, and three mental actions. From the very moment these actions are first created, the karmic formations cease and vanish moment by moment even as they are being made. After these karmic formations have ceased, they do not abide depending on the four directions, the four intermediate directions, up and down, or the middle. However, when the final limit is reached and the life faculty is exhausted, the karmic retribution created by oneself in this life all manifests in full, just like waking from a dream and still recollecting the events of the dream.