Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (Lecture 190)

Nothing can be taken along except karma.

The Buddha taught that no phenomenon whatsoever can be carried from this world to the next. Trusting the Buddha's words, we know that nothing from this life can be taken along except the karma that accompanies us. Since this is so, we must carefully consider how we should live this very life in order to accumulate more wholesome karma and avoid carrying unwholesome karma. Having encountered the Buddha Dharma and engaged in Buddhist practice, we must cherish this opportunity to study the Dharma, perform more meritorious deeds, cultivate wholesome dharmas, and wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the Buddha Dharma. Worldly affairs need only be passable; the focus should be on carrying more seeds of wholesome karma to future lives, ensuring abundant virtuous retribution in the future.

However, whether wholesome or unwholesome, the nature of karma is fundamentally empty. It cannot act as an independent controller; it arises and ceases, being born without an origin and perishing without a destination—illusory and unreal. For example, when I kill someone with a knife, prior to this act, the karma did not exist and had no source. The act itself has no real agent; the apparent phenomenon is like an illusion conjured by a magician, with no actual creator of karma. The act of killing arises from the combined functioning of the physical body and the conscious mind, yet the physical body is illusory, and the conscious mind is illusory—neither is truly existent. Thus, actions performed by the five aggregates are not real. Moreover, once the act of killing occurs, it vanishes without a trace in an instant. Therefore, the act itself is empty, yet it leaves behind a karmic seed.

The karmic seed itself is also empty. It comes from nowhere and ceases to nowhere—from nothingness to nothingness. After the retribution is experienced, the karmic seed vanishes without a trace. The karmic seed is also empty and illusory. If the karmic seed were not illusory, it should not vanish after retribution is experienced or after repentance. If karmic seeds could not vanish, sentient beings would suffer retribution endlessly, forever. A murderer should remain in hell forever, should be slaughtered perpetually without end. Therefore, it can be said that all karmic retribution, whether sinful or meritorious, is illusory—coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Nevertheless, all meritorious karma will ultimately lead sentient beings gradually toward Buddhahood, culminating in the attainment of Buddhahood. All sinful karma will ultimately cause sentient beings to suffer endlessly, lamenting without cease. Upon thorough analysis, only the alaya consciousness is true and unchanging, neither arising nor ceasing, eternally existent. All other dharmas are empty, illusory transformations, arising and ceasing moment by moment, faster than a flash of lightning.