Selected Lectures on the Sutra of the Father and Son Collection (102)

The ten karmic acts consist of three bodily, four verbal, and three mental actions, with body, speech, and mind mutually aligned and following one another. After these ten karmic acts are committed, the karmic actions themselves perish instantaneously. Once the seeds of karmic action are delivered to produce their effect, that particular moment's karmic action ceases to exist, and ultimately the entire act of creation vanishes. However, the karmic seeds remain, recorded and stored. Who records them? It is our most intimately connected Alaya consciousness that records them, for it delivers the seeds and later retrieves them, simultaneously storing the karmic actions created by these seeds within itself. The Alaya consciousness is utterly impartial. It does not claim that the five aggregates were created by itself or belong to itself, nor does it seek to conceal their misdeeds. It does not refrain from recording or delivering karmic seeds for any evil acts committed by the five aggregates to prevent the five aggregates from suffering evil consequences. The Alaya consciousness lacks such mental inclination. Like a camera, it is honest and without deception, automatically recording all karmic actions performed by the five aggregates as mechanically as a machine, making no selections whatsoever, and faithfully documenting every detail of all behavioral acts. Once recorded, these are stored as seeds within the mind-body. When conditions and causes mature, the karmic seeds are delivered, take root, sprout, bear fruit, and the karmic retribution manifests. There are numerous instances demonstrating how the Alaya consciousness faithfully realizes the karmic results of sentient beings. For example, if person A had an evil karmic connection with person B in a past life, and B is reborn into A's family in this life, this signifies the maturation of causes and conditions—the seed has sprouted. The child growing up represents the flowering. When the time arrives, B will harm and take revenge on A, and A's karmic retribution will manifest. The preceding processes—the flower, sprout, branches, and leaves—lead to the fruition of retribution. At this point, A may realize why this child came: to collect a debt, to exact revenge. Yet the vast majority, even after receiving retribution, fail to understand this principle. Prior to this, they remain completely unaware, utterly ignorant of such a special karmic connection—that an evil karmic bond from a past life brought two people together to settle karmic seeds, with neither party knowing.