Miscellaneous Discourses on the Dharma (Part II)

Chapter 5: Karmic Causes, Conditions, and Retribution (2)

Fifteen: The Retribution of the Karmic Afflictions of Foolishness

The retribution of the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion is this: greed leads to rebirth in the realm of hungry ghosts, anger leads to rebirth in the hell realm, and foolishness leads to rebirth in the animal realm. At the time of death, when the evil karma of greed, anger, and delusion manifests, one must go to the three evil realms to receive retribution, and there is no escape. In order to eliminate karmic afflictions, one should frequently introspect on one's own mental activities in daily life, strive to subdue them with the principles of the Buddha-dharma, and uphold precepts and cultivate meditative concentration; only then can afflictions be subdued relatively quickly. After committing sinful karma, if one wishes to eliminate it, one must repent. For relatively grave sins, one needs to repent before the Buddha until auspicious signs appear, such as lotus flowers appearing in dreams or in meditative concentration, or the Buddha coming to touch one's crown and offer comfort, and so on; for sins that are generally not too grave, sincere repentance before the assembly can eliminate them.

For those with extremely heavy greed, the time of suffering in the realm of hungry ghosts will be extremely long; if one develops serious greed toward the Three Jewels, the offense is simply too grave. For those with relatively severe anger and hatred, the time of retribution in the hell realm will be extremely long; if one develops anger and hatred toward the Three Jewels, that karmic offense is even more serious. Those with severe foolishness will commit great evil karma, and then it is no longer just a matter of the animal realm: they first fall into hell to receive retribution, then the realm of hungry ghosts, and only afterward the animal realm. All afflictions arise entirely from foolishness; foolishness is the root of afflictions. Without foolishness, greed and anger would not arise, and afflictive karma would not be committed. In the future when afflictions are eradicated, greed and anger are eradicated first, and foolishness is eradicated last, because foolishness is very difficult to deal with; therefore the affliction of foolishness is eradicated last.

If a Buddhist practitioner does not wish to subdue his own afflictions, then even if he has studied the theory of the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattvas, after committing afflictive karma and falling into the three evil realms, even the dharma of the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattvas cannot save him. In ordinary times he simply goes along with his afflictive dispositions, without considering the consequences, indulging his own feelings and gratifying his own will, letting others do whatever they like, as long as he himself feels comfortable. But when the retribution arrives, it will be a million times more uncomfortable. Is there any proportion between comfort and discomfort? There is absolutely no proportion. At that time one will think, "Why did I put myself through this back then? It was so not worth it"—all one gained was evil retribution, and nothing else.

Sixteen: Is the Killing Karma of Animals Even Heavier Than That of Humans?

Committing evil karma and killing karma is carried out by the six consciousnesses, with the manas in charge. However, the manas's own solitary mental activity is also a karmic action, called mental karma (karma of intention); it also stores seeds and also has retribution, namely the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra.

Among the three kinds of karmic actions—bodily, verbal, and mental—mental karma is primary and heaviest, because bodily actions and verbal actions are directly commanded and controlled by the mental actions of the manas. Bodily and verbal karma committed when the manas gives rise to greed, anger, and delusion is called deliberate action; karmic actions not committed through the manas's greed, anger, and delusion are called unintentional action. Deliberately committed evil karma is great and deep in its sinful nature, possessing intrinsic sin and intrinsic karma; unintentionally committed evil karma is light in its sinful nature, lacking intrinsic sin and intrinsic karma.

Animals eating one another lies between the deliberate and the unintentional; it is purely out of hunger, without a mind to kill or a mind of hatred, so the karma created is relatively small and the evil karma relatively light, without intrinsic sin or intrinsic karma; the debt owed will simply be repaid in the future. When one period of an animal's evil karma ends, it can be reborn as a human; if the human then commits evil karma, it will again go to the three evil realms to receive retribution. Thus sentient beings transmigrate through birth-and-death in the six realms, and the karmic actions of the human body are the primary determining factor. There is no karmic action without retribution, so everyone must be extremely, extremely careful in speech and action, must not act recklessly or blurt out nonsense—especially regarding the Buddha-dharma, one must not just take things for granted and assume whatever one likes. The Buddha said that before attaining the fruit of arhatship, do not trust your own mind; your own mind is not to be trusted. Once one commits evil karma in matters of the Buddha-dharma, the suffering of the Avīci hell is countless times that of the human world, and cannot be endured.

Seventeen: Cause and Effect Do Not Follow the Mind's Wishes

If there is a serious sense of self in the mind, what one thinks about will not necessarily come true, and what one does not want cannot necessarily be avoided. What humans do is often the exact opposite of what they hope for. For example, everyone hopes for longevity, health, and happiness, yet what they do are all things that make themselves short-lived, unhealthy, and unhappy—such as killing living beings and eating meat—so how could the result possibly be health, longevity, and happiness? Everyone wants freedom and liberation, yet they clutch tightly to a self and refuse to let go—how could they attain freedom and liberation?

Everyone hopes to be wealthy, prosperous, and successful, yet they always deliberately or inadvertently do things like stealing and robbing—how could they become wealthy and prosperous? People always hope to be respected and valued by others, yet they are always arrogant and look down on others, disrespecting them—how could they earn others' respect? People always want supreme power, yet they keep depriving others of their rights—how could they themselves possess power?

Eighteen: The Fearfulness of Cause and Effect

Now that we have taken up Buddhist study and practice, we must take cause and effect seriously. Before every word spoken and every deed done, we must consider the corresponding consequences, and must not feel that nothing matters. It is not that nothing matters—there are many very great matters, because in between there is karmic interest, multiplied thousands of times, millions of times, even countless times in karmic retribution. Everyone must be careful, or else they will suffer great losses. Are the countless sufferings within the transmigration of the six realms not a great loss?

Those who have committed bodily, verbal, and mental evil karma against the Three Jewels must repent daily and eliminate their karma—even a single unwholesome thought carries quite serious karmic retribution. Respecting cause and effect and being mindful of cause and effect is what a wise person does. Otherwise, no matter how much Buddha-dharma one studies, it will be of no avail; one will still first receive evil retribution, and after the evil retribution is exhausted, how much of the Buddha-dharma one studied will remain usable? Even such small matters as irreverence and meddling and giving unsolicited criticism count as evil karma. They may look like small matters, but in fact they are very great matters—one only needs to compare the actual cases in the sūtra on cause and effect to know this.

There are quite a few people who have studied the Mahāyāna dharma and practiced the bodhisattva path for decades, yet every day they commit evil karma against the Three Jewels, their bodily, verbal, and mental actions never having been pure. After death, these people first go to hell to receive evil retribution, then the evil retribution of the ghost realm, and finally the evil retribution of the animal realm. Emerging from the animal realm and regaining a human body, the Mahāyāna teachings they studied will probably have been mostly forgotten, and they must start learning from the beginning; in between they commit evil karma again and go to the three evil realms for retribution again, transmigrating in this endless cycle—when will it ever end? The sufferings of the human world already make people grieve deeply; the sufferings of the three evil realms—how have they been endured through beginningless kalpas?

Nineteen: How Should Evil People Be Dealt With Appropriately?

In the secular world there are always people debating whether human nature is fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, arguing endlessly. From the Buddhist perspective, this is not a problem at all. It is obvious: if human nature were fundamentally good, there would be no beings in the three evil realms; if human nature were fundamentally good, sentient beings would not have the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion; society would not have so many major crimes, and prisons would not hold so many people—indeed, many people go to prison repeatedly without repenting. Even devas are not all good in their mental nature; they too have afflictions, especially foolishness, which is an enormous affliction. Beings without afflictions would not transmigrate; as long as there is transmigration, there are afflictions. Human nature is more evil than good, and some people have no goodness at all.

Why is human nature fundamentally evil? Because of ignorance (avidyā). This ignorance is innate from the moment sentient beings exist; it is not generated after birth. Because of ignorance, sentient beings all commit evil karma, and hence there is birth-and-death transmigration through kalpa after beginningless kalpa. Every sentient being spends the vast majority of its eons in the three evil realms; the eons of existing in human form in the human world are one percent, one thousandth, one ten-thousandth of the long river of its life—and some beings in the animal realm have never obtained a human body to this day, never having left the animal realm. These are extremely foolish beings, and foolishness is evil.

Those who have just emerged from the three evil realms and been reborn among humans after beginningless kalpas are extremely foolish and extremely vile, hardly corresponding to human nature at all; their mental nature is very similar and very akin to that of animals. Some of them have only foolishness; some are foolish and also brutal, with a murderous nature by disposition. As long as they live among humans, they will harm people; harming people is their nature—the nature to kill and injure is their animal nature. For such people to acquire human nature and goodness, they can only, within the human realm, through many lives and many kalpas, be continuously steeped in wholesome dharma among humans, gradually removing the evil animal nature and taking on human habits. Although human habits are not that good either, they are still better than animal nature. Only through such saturation over successive lives can they finally develop a complete personality and perfect human nature.

But in this process, many people will be brutally harmed and killed by such people. When good people live alongside evil people, of course it is the good people who suffer and lose out—that is forever the rule in the dharma realm. When good and evil people are mixed together, it is forever the evil people who do evil; good people must endure the evil of evil people. Those who constantly stir up trouble are mostly evil people, people at the bottom; those with problems are forever the uncultivated. Because good people do not commit evil karma or grave evil karma, and do not deliberately harm others, they can only be harmed; evil people are bound to commit evil karma and are bound to harm others, and their original nature cannot be changed. So if these evil people commit extremely grave evil karma, should their lives be taken so that they can no longer continue to harm people, or should their lives be spared so they can continue to be steeped in wholesome dharma among humans?

Each of the two choices has its advantages and disadvantages. If their lives are spared, more people will in succession be harmed and killed, and other lives will be threatened. If the evil people's lives are taken, curbing them from continuing to harm their fellow beings, these evil people will lose the opportunity to be steeped in wholesome dharma, will have no chance to correct their evil nature, and their mental evolution will be obstructed—also a great loss. What, then, is the best way to handle this matter? Is there a better way to let good people and evil people each have their proper place and live in peace? In the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), how does Amitābha Buddha govern good and evil people?

The solution is: things of a kind gather together, and people divide into groups. Good people and evil people must be separated; sentient beings of different levels and different natures must all be separated and cannot live mixed together. This is the rule throughout the dharma realm. Just as buddha-lands such as the land of bliss must be separated from buddha-lands like the Sahā world—the mental natures of the beings in the two worlds differ, they cannot interact, cannot live mixed together, so as to avoid trouble. There are many levels of sentient beings; the ideas and views of beings at each level differ greatly, vastly varied, impossible to unify and coordinate. Mixed living means endless disputes; separated, there is no trouble.

The Buddhist precepts also require this: following the principle of shared precepts and shared practice, those who have received different precepts cannot live together; the monastic and the laity cannot live mixed together. Even among the same monastic precepts, those with different practice cannot live together; even among the same lay precepts, those with different practice should as far as possible not live together either; otherwise there is trouble and violation of the Buddha's precepts. In the secular world, groups largely form automatically in this way as well: those with different merit and wisdom, different social status, different cultivation and quality generally live separately and not together. And criminal offenders are locked up in prisons, isolated from those who have not committed crimes. Sentient beings as a whole are divided into the six realms according to differences in their karmic actions and mental natures; wholesome and unwholesome beings do not live together.

Twenty: How Does the Antarābhava Arise and Enter the Womb?

Question: If one encounters sudden situations such as an explosion that shatters the physical body to pieces, or instant vaporization leaving no remains, does the antarābhava (intermediate body) manifest suddenly or gradually? How does the antarābhava grasp the fertilized egg to enter the womb?

Answer: Each arising of the antarābhava occurs because the previous material body has broken down and can no longer be used, and the manas needs another material body for its use; there can be no gap in between, so the antarābhava arises rapidly. The manas needs the activity of the five aggregates to deal with the myriad dharmas of the world, because the manas's mind is not empty: it has the view of self and grasping at self, the view of dharmas and grasping at dharmas. Because of this grasping, it is unwilling to abandon the world and unwilling to abandon the five aggregates. While alive, one has accumulated the karmic seeds of future lives; with these seeds, after death there will be a future life, and there will be no annihilation. When the sudden event of a great explosion occurs and the physical body is blown apart and unusable, at that moment, supported by the karmic seeds, the manas wishes to have another physical body for its own use. The tathāgatagarbha, in response to this wish of the manas and according to the karmic seeds from life, manifests a temporary material body called the antarābhava, to temporarily satisfy the manas's needs.

If a real, solid physical body were to arise, it would require a long time for the four great elements to gradually gather; but the manas cannot wait, so only a non-solid body of the four great elements can temporarily manifest—this is what distinguishes it from the human body. Because it is not an aggregation of real seeds of the four great elements, it lacks the material obstructive quality of a physical body aggregated from real seeds of the four great elements; therefore the antarābhava possesses the five minor superknowledges. Because the manas urgently needs it, the antarābhava cannot arise slowly but arises rapidly.

Because death from sudden accidents comes without psychological preparation, legend says that such deaths cannot take rebirth again, and can only exist in a spiritual form, drifting about like ghosts in the air, with no solid body to rely on, in great distress. To be reborn again, they can only seize another departed spirit as a substitute before they can take rebirth. So such a being will linger at the site of its death, waiting for a chance to create the same kind of accident so that others die and it can take rebirth. That is why in the world we find that wherever an accidental death has occurred, the same kind of accident will occur multiple times over the following years—this is the notion of "seizing a substitute."

For those who die normally, the antarābhava exists for at most seven periods of seven days—forty-nine days. Generally, rebirth is taken by the third seven-day period. The more distinct a person's wholesomeness or unwholesomeness was while alive, the more certain the outcome and the earlier the rebirth. For those whose good and evil are truly hard to distinguish, the limit is forty-nine days, and they too will take rebirth. When the conditions for rebirth appear, the antarābhava rushes to the parents of the next life and enters the womb with the fertilized egg; the antarābhava immediately disappears. Because there is no manas, the antarābhava disperses. Wherever the manas is, there will be a material body.

How does the manas, within the antarābhava, grasp the fertilized egg to enter the womb? Because the manas has not severed desire, when it encounters the conditions of the parents in the antarābhava, it is attracted by the parents' sexual desire and participates in it. If karmic force dictates a male, desire arises toward the mother; if karmic force dictates a female, desire arises toward the father, taking the parents' sexual act as one's own sexual union with the parents. At the instant the parents' sperm and egg combine into a fertilized egg, it enters the mother's womb along with the fertilized egg. Those who should be male face the mother in the womb; those who should be female face away from the mother in the womb. Thus, when the fetal body grows, a female fetus shows (the belly protrudes) while a male fetus does not.

In a sudden accident, not only does the physical body fall apart, but the conscious mind, terrified by extreme shock, is scared out of its wits—what scatters are the first six consciousnesses, which, without the physical body to rely on, cease and vanish. Only the manas flies out of the body, separated from it, becoming all alone, with the tathāgatagarbha following behind—He is all of its treasure, yet it does not know it. At this point the manas has no choice but to want another material body and five aggregates for its own use, again pursuing worldly dharmas, while the maṇi jewel behind it goes unheard and unseen. In studying Buddhism, once you have mastered the manas, you have mastered all dharmas; not knowing there is a tathāgatagarbha is, for the time being, no problem. From this we can see: is it not childish and laughable for the mind consciousness to realize the fruits or to see the mind? Is it not foolish to place one's hopes on dharmas that can be reduced to ashes in an instant? What wise person would store his treasures in an illusory city, in a castle in the air?

Rebirth in the land of bliss also takes place from within the antarābhava. So without extremely great superknowledge, who could see the antarābhava boarding a lotus flower and flying off to the land of bliss? What worldly people call rebirth in the Pure Land is all speculation and conjecture, none of it direct perception.

Within the antarābhava there are also gender differences, and gender difference is also karma. The manas, at all times and at every stage, always corresponds with karma, karmic seeds, and karmic power; as long as there is male-female karma, there will be male and female genders. The gender of the future life is not fixed and unchanging; it is determined by karmic seeds. Whether one's karmic actions in this life are those of a man or of a woman determines the gender of the next life. These karmic actions also include mental activities and mental nature; karmic actions correspond with mental activities and mental nature, changing in close accordance with mental nature.

Therefore, if a person has the mental nature of a man, he will manifest a male body in the next life; if a person has the mental nature of a woman, she will manifest a female body in the next life—except for those with vow power. In our monastic precepts, the constraints on bhikṣuṇīs are many and heavy, precisely to restrain women's habitual tendencies, gradually distancing them from female habits and bringing them closer to male habits, in preparation for transforming the female body. In real life, we also find that some women are very bold and magnanimous, generous and broad-minded, with a manly spirit and masculine bearing—such a woman was a man in a past life and may become a man in a future life. Conversely, the same applies: some men are born with feminine habits—he was a woman in a past life and may again transform into a female body in a future life.

Gender is also determined by merit. From the form realm heavens upward there is no gender difference, no distinction of male and female; that is supported and determined by the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis—the merit of meditative concentration is very, very great, enabling beings to temporarily escape the three evil realms, escape the human body, and escape the desire-realm heavens. The state of the form realm heavens is simply too enjoyable; the desire-realm heavens cannot compare. When I cultivated to the dhyāna of the first dhyāna, every day I was as happy as an immortal—a joy that cannot be described, inexpressible in words, a happiness unimaginable to worldly people. The joy of dhyāna far exceeds worldly happiness. Before I studied Buddhism, my mood was heavy every day, as if a big stone were pressing on my heart, weighing it down; from the age of thirteen I kept thinking of the word "death." After the first dhyāna, it was like going from hell to heaven.

In the land of bliss there is also no distinction of male and female; that too is supported and determined by great merit. So in studying Buddhism and practicing recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), if one has not developed merit, there are obstacles everywhere—how then could one be reborn in the land of bliss and gather with the supreme good people?

Twenty-One: The Secret of Physiognomy

A person's voice can reflect his character, temperament, disposition, and cultivation; it can also reflect whether a person's mental nature is simple and sincere or hypocritical and cunning, whether bright or dark. A person's facial features and appearance can also reflect his cultivation, character, temperament, disposition, learning, demeanor, and so on; even bones, muscles, physique, skin, and so forth can reflect a person's character, temper, and disposition—whether diligent or lazy, whether rigorous and serious or lax, slack, and undisciplined, whether sunny or gloomy, and so on.

Everyone should take responsibility for his own appearance. External appearance is also part of cause and effect; it is the direct retribution of karmic actions, all cultivated by oneself through life after life, reflecting the wholesome and unwholesome qualities within. When one's appearance is unsatisfactory, do not blame your parents or heaven; you should reproach yourself. If one was so arrogant in a past life, one will be short in this life. If a person's muscles are so flabby, that person is probably slack and lazy, with an undisciplined mind, the muddling-through type. People with crooked, asymmetrical bodies often have crooked minds too. Upright people have upright minds and upright bodies, regular features, firm skin, and serious countenances. Even their gaze is upright, never glancing sideways, with a bright and open heart. From the face one can also discern which realm this person came from in a past life—the younger, the more accurately one can see—and which realm they will go to in the future; the older they are, the more accurately one can see.

Twenty-Two: The Power of Saturation and Influence

There is a mutual saturating influence among sentient beings. Whoever you associate with, you will imperceptibly be saturated by their habits, character, disposition, wholesome and unwholesome mental activities, and so on. If a person keeps a dog and is always with the dog—dogs have dog habits, humans have human habits—over time, constantly watching the dog's eyes, movements, eating, and habits of walking, sitting, and lying down, one will imperceptibly be saturated by the dog's habits and mental nature, without being aware of it; even one's appearance may be very subtly influenced. But dogs are even more susceptible to being influenced by humans, because human power is stronger than that of dogs; in mutual influence, dogs receive more and heavier saturation. Therefore dogs' habits are close to those of humans, making it easy for them to be reborn in human bodies in future lives; having obtained a human body, they are understanding, clever, and intelligent.

A dog being influenced by humans is of course a good thing; but what is the result of a human being influenced by a dog? Things of a kind gather together. If a person constantly watches a dog, his appearance will also quietly change, though not easily noticed. In this life it may not change, or change only a little, but when the seeds of saturation ripen in a future life, the change will come. If you have become accustomed to being with dogs, with deep affection and a very close relationship, then at the time of the antarābhava, the realm of dogs will manifest, and you will unknowingly follow the dogs and be reborn into a dog's womb.

For example, if you are always with a stutterer, someone whose speech is halting and stammering—at first you may feel it doesn't matter, and you won't become a stutterer, but over time your speech will develop impediments; the longer the time, the greater the impediment. This is being slowly saturated. The aspects of being influenced include appearance, manner of speaking, tone of voice, habits—including eating habits and habits of walking, sitting, and lying down.

At our current stage of practice, we are easily influenced. Unwholesome dharma is easier to be saturated by than wholesome dharma, because in our minds affliction far exceeds goodness; we are accustomed to affliction and unaccustomed to goodness; we have resistant emotions toward wholesome dharma, yet readily accept unwholesome dharma. For example, when we encounter people gossiping and discussing others' faults in a crowd, we easily become interested and join in the disputes; but when we encounter praise of others' good points, we are unwilling to follow along and often keep silent—except for those we are close to or those we can use. Those who kick people when they are down are common; those who offer charcoal in the snow are rare. Therefore, if you want to practice and change yourself, you must choose to draw near to good people and stay away from those heavy with afflictions; you must stay away from gossipy people and places of gossip. In this way the mind will gradually draw toward goodness and away from evil, afflictions can be subdued, afflictive karma will not easily be committed, no seeds of evil karma will be left, and future lives will be easy, without afflictive obstructions.

Twenty-Three: Cause and Effect Bring Temporary Cessation of Disputes

Worldly beings have the suffering of transmigration through the six realms because they have evil karma, evil minds, and afflictive mental factors. After eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), there is no more suffering of the three evil realms, because the evil karma and evil minds of the three evil realms have been eliminated and a portion of afflictive mental factors extinguished. So whether eradicating the view of self requires eradicating afflictions is an obvious question—no need to argue. Then, does eradicating the view of self require meditative concentration, with preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) fully attained? This too is an obvious question—no need to argue, for without meditative concentration, how could afflictions be eradicated?

Now a large portion of the disputes have, due to various internal and external reasons, finally been compelled to stop—but this is by no means a final stop, nor an eternal stop; it is a temporary stop because karmic retribution no longer supports further arguing. Future lives are hard to say; after all, beings' karmic obstructions are deep and heavy, and afflictions never cease. Watching many people commit evil karma, watching many people receive evil retribution, watching many beings transmigrate through birth-and-death—what can be done? Beings are just like this, and no one can control them; so cause and effect had to step forward and speak.

Twenty-Four: The Retribution of Wrongly Grasping Emptiness

In the world there are two kinds of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), or wrongly grasped emptiness, which do people great harm, directly causing beings to fall into the three lower destinies and transmigrate through the six realms. One is the non-relational emptiness of the non-Buddhists, who believe there is no past life or future life, that death ends everything, that there is no cause and effect, no retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma, that whatever one does does not matter—as long as one is free and has a good time to the fullest.

The other kind of wrongly grasped emptiness belongs to those who study the Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha dharma. Although they acknowledge cause and effect and karmic retribution, acknowledge past and future lives, and acknowledge that there is an imperishable tathāgatagarbha within the body, they crave the pleasures of the five desires, are unwilling to cultivate diligently and practice genuinely, unwilling to uphold precepts and cultivate concentration; so they deny all the illusory functions and operations of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, pushing everything onto the tathāgatagarbha, substituting the tathāgatagarbha for all the functions of the five aggregates, leaving the five aggregates with nothing to do—no need to study Buddhism and become a Buddha, for the tathāgatagarbha is already a Buddha. Or they let the five aggregates run wild, saying that whatever the five aggregates do is done by the tathāgatagarbha; and if it is done by the tathāgatagarbha, then the body of the five aggregates has no cause and effect, no karmic retribution, so the body of the five aggregates can be free according to conditions, needing neither precepts nor concentration—the tathāgatagarbha fundamentally transgresses no precepts and fundamentally possesses concentration. Although these two kinds of annihilatory emptiness and wrongly grasped emptiness differ in nature, their results are similar: denying cause and effect, indulging in dissolute behavior, unable to cease evil and cultivate goodness.

Because they grasp the tathāgatagarbha as self, they also grasp at signlessness, rejecting everything that has marks, as if they had already transcended the marked and reached the unmarked. In fact, what is without marks is the tathāgatagarbha; the body of the five aggregates still falls entirely within the marked and, at present, fundamentally cannot transcend it, because without precepts and without dhyāna, prajñā wisdom is severely insufficient, and every thought dwells within marks. If one insists on covering up these marks, one can only wrongly grasp emptiness; when the retribution arrives, one must face it directly, and the marks of evil retribution can no longer be avoided.

But those who claim to have transcended the marked and reached the unmarked—why do they still choose to eat meat without attaching to the mark of eating meat, rather than choosing to eat vegetarian, accepting leftovers as conditions arise? Since there are no marks, everything should follow conditions and be kept simple—just staying alive to practice is enough—so why still be so picky and particular about protecting the body and preserving health? Not upholding the precepts with marks, exclusively upholding the precepts without marks—isn't choosing food, clothing, housing, and transport a matter of marks? Why choose the mark of enjoyment rather than the mark of enduring hardship? Clearly, signlessness is false, and the marked is real. Studying the Mahāyāna is very good, but if not studied properly, the Mahāyāna dharma can also become poison; those who consume it without letting go will surely die. When good medicine turns to poison, whose fault is it?

Twenty-Five: Why Did Chan Master Danxia Burn the Wooden Buddha?

After Chan Master Danxia became enlightened and realized the self-nature Buddha, his mind not only broke through the four marks—the mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of sentient being, and the mark of life span—but also broke through the mark of the Buddha, recognizing only the true Buddha and not the false Buddha. Those wooden and stone Buddha statues were of course even less the true Buddha—what harm in burning them? But those who have not realized the true Buddha must absolutely not imitate him, because without realizing the true, the false marks still remain, and burning the false marks is the same as burning the true marks—this is a great offense, and the retribution for destroying and insulting the Buddha is very bad. In ancient times there was once an ordinary bhikṣu who imitated an enlightened bhikṣu by writing the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on his underwear; within a day or two he vomited blood—whether he died, I do not remember. There is also a modern person who threw a statue of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva into a river; after returning home, for many years his whole body was cold and damp, and only after repenting his offenses and taking some remedial measures did his grave illness heal.

Chan Master Danxia had deep wholesome roots from past lives; after enlightenment his practice of the Path was considerable, his mind empty and without marks. He often lay on a bridge, leisurely and carefree, with nothing to do, and people often found him strange. For one who has attained the Way, what matters remain? The world of the five aggregates is all empty—without marks, without wishes, without seeking; life is just eating and sleeping. Stretching out one's legs and lying down is perfectly normal. What is there to busy about, seeking east and west, rushing here and there, bustling inside and out? What is there to scheme for? Only when the mind is thoroughly empty do all dharmas operate naturally of themselves, and the Buddha will naturally come to confer the prediction of buddhahood. If even one dharma is not empty, if there is still one thing to seek, if one still wants to become a Buddha or patriarch, then don't hope for the Buddha's prediction. As for those who, in the name of saving sentient beings, pursue their own selfish interests and fill Buddhism with smoke and miasma, they will probably not only fail to receive the Buddha's prediction but will also incur the sanctions of cause and effect—cause and effect is fearsome.

Some will say, "I also believe that wooden and stone Buddha statues are not the true Buddha; if I burn one, nothing will happen." Then go ahead and burn one and see whether you incur the retribution of all five viscera burning, with unbearable agony. What you yourself think does not count; what the mind consciousness feels is useless. If the manas does not accept it, cause and effect will not fail. Those who consider themselves to have realized the fruits, those who consider themselves to have seen the mind and become enlightened—go write the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on your underwear and see; go burn a wooden Buddha or smash a stone Buddha and see. If nothing happens, it can be regarded as a true enlightenment that has broken through marks. Is there anyone who dares to do this, like Chan Master Danxia?

Some will say, "The person who confirmed my realization is quite accomplished in the Way; I simply believe him." But I say the Buddha is the most accomplished of all. If the Buddha's confirmation did not match the facts, the tathāgatagarbha would not accept it, and cause and effect even less so. Of course this is only a hypothesis; what the Buddha confirms certainly absolutely matches the facts and matches the tathāgatagarbha. Some people are very stubborn, refusing to listen to anything, trusting only their own feelings. But the tathāgatagarbha is even more stubborn, attending only to facts; and cause and effect is especially stubborn, daring to lock horns with everyone. Those who refuse to bow before the facts—cause and effect will lock horns with them.

Twenty-Six: What Karmic Conditions Do Sentient Beings Have?

Karmic conditions, as the name implies, are the conditions produced by bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions, and are also the conditions by which the body of the five aggregates receives the retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma. With these karmic conditions, the body of the five aggregates can live, create karma, and receive retribution amid all dharmas. All dharmas include all the surrounding people, events, things, and principles, including other bodies of the five aggregates and the living environment—all the natural phenomena of the universe's receptacle-world. Sentient beings rely on these to create karma and receive retribution. Modes of living, conditions of living, and the necessities of living are karmic conditions; family members, relatives, friends, and colleagues are karmic conditions. With these conditions, the retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma can be received.

Among these, the material body is the karmic fruit of direct retribution, and can also be the karmic cause and condition for the body before death and the body of future lives; the environment is the karmic fruit of circumstantial retribution, and can also be karmic cause and condition. A dharma can be a cause, can be a condition, can be a fruit; the dharma is not fixed, and neither is the fruit.

Twenty-Seven: Can a Non-Vessel Become a Vessel?

The so-called vessel refers to a container that holds things; the thing can be material, or it can be wisdom, thought, and ideas. In the Buddha-dharma, "vessel" refers to the latter—that is, a suitable vessel for the Path, meaning the capacity to receive the Way of the Buddha-dharma. Many people, due to insufficient merit accumulated over beginningless kalpas, have insufficient accumulated experience and cannot accept dharmas beyond their own cognition; hence it is said that such people have poor indriya (spiritual faculties) and are unsuited to studying deeper dharmas.

So is a non-vessel truly a non-vessel, incapable of being transformed into a vessel? The dharma has no fixed dharma; no dharma is forever unchanging. When causes, conditions, and the season arrive, any dharma will change. Some non-vessels conceal great vessels within; as long as the obstructions are skillfully removed and the causes and conditions gathered, a non-vessel will become a great vessel. Even stone can be turned into gold—let alone non-vessel people. How could the capacity and mental nature of the mind be fixed and unchanging?

To tell the truth, sentient beings are originally all non-vessels. For beginningless kalpas they have willingly sunk in the sea of suffering of birth-and-death, not wanting to awaken at all, unable to accept any dharma. It is the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who secretly planted dharma seeds in beings and further hastened the ripening of causes and conditions, so that beings gradually became vessels capable of receiving the Buddha-dharma. Beings initially all grasp the five aggregates as self, so solid that it cannot be loosened. With respect to the Small Vehicle dharma of non-self, all sentient beings are non-vessels; but can one refrain from teaching the Small Vehicle principle of eradicating the view of self just because beings are non-vessels? Of course not. The Buddha spent twelve years forging beings into vessels, and countless beings realized the fruit of the great arhat of the fourth fruit—including the non-vessel non-Buddhists. So whether one is a vessel or non-vessel also depends on the wisdom and polishing skill of the polisher. One who does not understand the method of polishing will often polish a vessel into a non-vessel, destroying the vessel.

There is a saying in the Buddha-dharma that teaching profound dharma to non-vessels will cause the other party to be unable to believe and accept it, giving rise to slanderous words and deeds. This saying was originally spoken by the Buddha, who worried that beings would slander the dharma and commit evil karma, receiving the evil retribution of hell for long kalpas. The Buddha is compassionate toward beings, but the Buddha also has great wisdom; so this saying of the Buddha is not a dead dogma but is applied flexibly according to the person and the time.

Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva of great wisdom was extremely adept at flexible application. He once taught the great prajñā dharma to five hundred bhikṣus of Small Vehicle indriya, and because these five hundred bhikṣus did not believe this great dharma, upon death they all fell into hell. Someone asked Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva: "You clearly knew this would be the outcome—why did you still teach the great prajñā dharma to these five hundred bhikṣus?" Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva replied: "Because I knew that after they entered hell, they would reflect on the reason they fell into hell—that it was because they did not believe the great prajñā dharma. From this they would know how powerful the great prajñā dharma truly is, and their hearts would be filled with awe and respect; with sincere repentance, they would emerge from hell. After emerging from hell, they would first ascend to the heavens, then return to the human world, encounter the great prajñā dharma, and then have the opportunity to study and practice prajñā; their wisdom would advance rapidly, and before long they would realize Mahāyāna bodhi, shortening the kalpas of practice and attaining buddhahood ahead of time."

Truly worthy of a bodhisattva of the stage of equality (samāyukta-āśraya): with great wisdom, he forcibly forged a non-vessel into a great vessel. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva is a master craftsman at polishing non-vessels, with extraordinary wisdom; his dharma eye pierces the causes and conditions of beginningless kalpas—first destroying the non-vessel, and after melting it down, directly forging it into a great vessel, equivalent to dismantling an unusable non-vessel object and reassembling it into a usable vessel. How fortunate the five hundred bhikṣus were to encounter Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva! Without great merit, how could one encounter such a great cause and condition? Had they met an ignorant teacher who kept silent about the Mahāyāna prajñā, the fate of the five hundred bhikṣus would not have had such a great turning point. In summary: vessel or non-vessel—the dharma has no fixed dharma; if one encounters wholesome conditions, even a non-vessel becomes a vessel.

Twenty-Eight: On the Principles for Using Superknowledge

Question: When using superknowledge, does one directly plant all of one's motives and traces in the other person's home? Must one bear the cause and effect? How should superknowledge be viewed? How can one avoid the shortcomings of superknowledge and practice the bodhisattva path well?

Answer: What modern people call superknowledge is mostly retributive superknowledge (vipāka-abhijñā), the karmic fruit obtained from merit cultivated in past lives; when the retribution is exhausted, the superknowledge disappears. True superknowledge arises after attaining the fourth dhyāna; as long as the meditative concentration does not disappear, the superknowledge remains. Superknowledge derived from the fourth dhyāna is possessed by bodhisattvas, by arhats and pratyekabuddhas, and also by non-Buddhists.

Because bodhisattvas all understand cause and effect, they do not misuse superknowledge and are measured in their conduct. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas, because their minds are pure and they are not interested in worldly people and affairs, have precept-conduct and understand some cause and effect, also do not misuse superknowledge. Non-Buddhists have the fourth dhyāna, their minds are also pure, and they are likewise not interested in worldly people and affairs, so they too do not misuse superknowledge. But because their afflictions are not yet exhausted and not fully subdued, they may occasionally, out of some private interest, use some superknowledge, interfering with some cause and effect and committing some evil karma. Therefore, those whose superknowledge arises from dhyāna will not easily use it to commit any improper acts that harm the interests of beings.

But those with retributive superknowledge are all ordinary people whose afflictions are not subdued, whose wisdom is insufficient, and whose cultivation is generally not high; using superknowledge to interfere with cause and effect and infringe on others is actually quite common—I have seen some of this. My advice on using superknowledge is: before a person has fully subdued his afflictions, and before fully understanding and recognizing the stakes of cause and effect, since he cannot grasp the proper measure and boundaries, it is best not to use any superknowledge at all, so as to avoid bearing cause and effect and suffering the retribution of evil karma. If there is someone of great resolve who wishes to use superknowledge to benefit beings, he must use it carefully under the guidance of a good teacher who understands cause and effect. For example, using superknowledge to pry into another person's thoughts and past—if not handled well, this violates the precept against stealing; what is obtained without the other's permission counts as theft, ill-gotten gain. The scope covered by the precept against stealing is extremely broad and detailed; ordinary people's minds are not meticulous and their considerations incomplete, so they violate the precept without knowing it.

Some will say: "The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, through superknowledge, know everything about beings before and after beginningless kalpas, even future events that have not yet occurred—does this not violate the precept against stealing?" This of course does not violate the precept against stealing, because first, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas know it without intent; it is knowing that arises naturally, without a thieving mind. Second, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and sentient beings are of one body, with no conflict of interest whatsoever; everything they do is for beings—including the dharma-protecting deities, who also protect beings—without any selfish personal purpose, so it does not involve stealing. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas also know beings' affairs naturally, without any prying intent; their minds are pure, and there is no conflict with beings' interests, so what they do does not involve stealing. Non-Buddhists' minds are also pure; generally they have no interest in others' affairs. Special cases do exist, but people of virtue who understand cause and effect a little will avoid matters others taboo, will be selective about what they know through superknowledge, and will also remain silent.

In summary, those in this life who have retributive superknowledge, lacking dhyāna to fully subdue afflictions and lacking complete wisdom, can hardly grasp the proper measure, and should try not to use superknowledge. Except for protecting one's own family: wanting to know the affairs of one's own family and close ones is barely acceptable.