Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (190)

Nothing Can Be Taken Away; Only Karma Follows Along

The Buddha said that there is not the slightest dharma that passes from this world to another world. We trust the Buddha's words and know that we can take nothing from this life with us—only karma follows us along. Since this is so, we must think carefully about how we should conduct ourselves in this lifetime so as to carry more wholesome karma with us and not take unwholesome karma along. Now that we have encountered the Buddhadharma and are studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, we should cherish this opportunity to learn the Buddha's teachings, do more meritorious deeds, cultivate more wholesome dharmas, devote our minds single-pointedly to the Buddhadharma, and be content with merely getting by in worldly matters, so that we carry more seeds of wholesome karma into future lives and receive more wholesome retributions in the future.

However, whether wholesome or unwholesome, karma is by nature empty; it cannot act as a master, it is constantly arising and ceasing—when it arises there is no place it comes from, and when it ceases there is no place it goes; it is illusory and unreal. For example, if I take a knife and kill someone: before I do this deed, this karma does not exist and has no place of origin; this action of deed-making also has no one who performs it—the surface phenomenon is like something conjured by a magician, with no creator of karma. The act of killing is produced by the combined operation of the material body and the conscious mind, yet the material body is illusory and the conscious mind is illusory; neither truly exists, and thus the actions of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are not real. Moreover, once the act of killing has occurred, it vanishes without a trace in an instant. Therefore the action of deed-making is itself empty, yet it leaves behind karma seeds.

And the karma seeds themselves are also empty: they come from nowhere and cease without going anywhere—from nothing to nothing. After the retribution has been received, the karma seeds will also vanish without a trace. Karma seeds are likewise empty and illusory. If karma seeds were not illusory, then after the retribution has been received, or after repentance, the karma seeds should not be able to disappear; and if karma seeds could not disappear, then sentient beings should receive retribution forever, endlessly—the killer should receive retribution in hell forever, should be slaughtered by others forever, without end. Therefore it can be said that all karma of sin and merit is illusory, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Even so, all meritorious karma will in the end gradually lead sentient beings toward buddhahood, until they ultimately attain the fruit of buddhahood; all sinful karma will in the end cause sentient beings to suffer without end and lament without cease. Analyzing it over and over, only the Ālayavijñāna is real and unchanging, unborn and unceasing, existing forever; all other dharmas are empty and illusory, arising moment by moment and ceasing moment by moment, arising and ceasing faster than a flash of lightning.