Selected Discourses from the Sutra of the Father and Son

King, that King Immeasurable Praise further contemplated: "By the power of my virtuous roots, may golden rain fall throughout the four continents." Having conceived this thought, golden rain indeed fell upon the four continents. Why was this so? It was entirely due to the virtuous karma that King Immeasurable Praise had cultivated together with sentient beings in past lives, which resulted in this attainment.

Parents and children also share karma. If parents and children did not share karma—for example, if the parents were destined to experience the karmic result of poverty while the child was destined to enjoy the karmic result of wealth and nobility—then when the child grew up, left home, and prospered elsewhere in wealth and honor, the parents would not be able to share in it. This illustrates that they did not share karma. Sentient beings live together on Earth; all humans on Earth share collective karma. Similarly, those living in a small city also share collective karma within that city. Therefore, if we wish to attain the karmic result of wealth and nobility, we need not seek it externally; we only need to genuinely practice generosity and cultivate blessings. Whoever practices will attain; those who do not practice will not attain. Virtuous karma is boundless and immeasurable. It is not that if you cultivate the karma for wealth, then I will have none. Whoever practices will attain it; if all people practice, all will attain.

Thus, shared karma causes sentient beings to gather together in one place, while individual karma causes sentient beings to separate from each other. The sentient beings in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, through their shared karma, experience celestial garments and food appearing naturally, with the seven treasures spread everywhere and the ground paved with gold. That is the shared karma of the sentient beings in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. In contrast, people on Earth regard gold as a treasure to wear on their bodies. When the people of Earth have nearly exhausted their blessings, the best thing on Earth will be iron. At that time, humans will obtain a piece of scrap iron and regard it as a treasure to wear, because sentient beings will lack blessings. The shared karma of having no blessings will attract inferior things; there will be no precious objects.

When Earth first formed, it was covered with sweet springs, and the earth's essence grew naturally. At that time, humans descended from the Second Dhyāna Heaven, possessing great blessings and virtue. Later, as sentient beings developed greed, their blessings and virtue diminished, causing the sweet springs and earth's essence to disappear. Only then did natural, unhulled rice begin to grow. Later, as blessings diminished further, even the natural unhulled rice ceased to grow, and humans had to cultivate the five grains. This has continued up to the present day, with humans laboring to grow crops. The highly nutritious grains and plants that once existed on Earth are now unheard of to us. This is the result of our having consumed our blessings. We now belong to the category of beings with meager blessings. Sentient beings in the future will have even fewer blessings than we do; the delicious grains and rice will completely vanish. They will neither taste nor see them. Therefore, everything in our lives stems entirely from our blessings.

Where are these blessings stored? They are all stored within the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha is our bank. If we deplete all the deposits in the bank, we become poor and lowly individuals. If we do not withdraw or seldom withdraw the blessings stored in the bank for enjoyment, we are wealthy and noble elders. Practitioners should aim to make more deposits and use less. When we withdraw blessings, we should then use them to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings. In this way, we deposit the blessings back in, causing the deposits in the bank to grow ever larger, with interest compounding upon interest. When the cultivation of blessings is complete, we can attain Buddhahood.