Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (178)

How do ignorance and delusion lead to karmic formations and karmic retribution?

Original text:佛言大王。如是如是。愚痴异生。寡闻无智。于可意触。而生爱乐。心生染着。造如是业。身业三种。语业四种。意业三种。造作彼业。刹那迁谢。是业灭已。不依东方。南西北方。四维上下。中间而住。至命终时。见先所作。心想中现。如彼睡觉。忆梦中事。最后识灭。自业现前。

The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. Ignorant ordinary beings (pṛthagjana), of little learning and without wisdom, give rise to craving and delight in agreeable contact (agreeable contact), and their minds become defiled and attached; they thus create such karma—three kinds of bodily karma, four kinds of verbal karma, and three kinds of mental karma—and these evil karmas arise. After creating these karmas, the karmic formations cease and pass away moment by moment. After the karmic formations cease, they do not abide in the east, south, west, or north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or the middle. However, at the time of death, one sees the deeds one has done in the past manifesting in the mind, just like a person waking from sleep yet still recollecting the events of a dream. Finally, when the six consciousnesses cease, the karmic retribution manifests.

Ignorance and delusion mean not understanding anything: not understanding what the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are, not understanding that the five aggregates are illusory, not understanding that all dharmas are illusory, not understanding that this false self is a composite assembly, not understanding how to break through it, not understanding how to escape the cycle of the six realms of rebirth, not understanding how to realize the bodhisattva's fruits, not understanding how to realize one's original face—the self-natured pure mind—and even not understanding how to become a Buddha. None of it is understood; this is called ignorance and delusion.