Why Is the Power of Questioning Doubt So Great?

Doubting thoughts can be deep or shallow. If the doubting thought is very deep, its power is relatively great and hard to extricate oneself from; this certainly means that the manas deep within the mind has already given rise to doubt, so both body and mind are unsettled. If only the mind consciousness doubts while the manas does not, this kind of doubt is relatively shallow, and body and mind will remain as usual, without much change. If the manas gives rise to doubt and disbelief, the tathāgatagarbha, discerning the manas's mental factor of deliberation (manana), will cancel out all previous mental conduct, including the wholesome dharmas and merit that have been created, and so heavy doubt is not good.

Doubt is an affliction that we need to resolve and overcome. Doubt and disbelief belong to afflictions and fetters; they are an obstruction that must be gradually removed through practice. If doubt remains unresolved, birth and death cannot be ended, so we must find ways to resolve the doubts in our minds. If we have already performed merit and then doubt ourselves, the quantity and degree of that merit will be reduced. Once we have truly created wholesome karma, we should not doubt our own merit; we should acknowledge it as wholesome karma, and it will certainly be wholesome karma bearing wholesome retribution. Because behind the manas there is the tathāgatagarbha working in concert with it, the tathāgatagarbha knows all the mental conduct of the manas. If the manas doubts and disbelieves that merit, the tathāgatagarbha will cancel the record of that merit, and the nature of the merit will be diminished.

It is like the time of our death: if our every thought is of the unwholesome karma created in this life, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and manifest that unwholesome karma, and we will have to undergo its retribution accordingly. But we can control such thoughts. For the unwholesome karma created over a lifetime, before death we should try our best to repent of it. If it truly cannot be repented, then before death we should not let it form a strong thought in the mind; we should let it fade and forget it, and at the time of death it is best not to recall it. Then the tathāgatagarbha may not let that karma manifest, because the conditions for the karma to manifest will not ripen.

The thoughts at the time of death determine our destination in the next life. Whatever the manas is mindful of, the tathāgatagarbha will always try its best to accord with it; whatever one thinks of is almost what one gets—thinking of the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī), one goes to the land of bliss; being mindful of Sahā, one remains in Sahā. All dharmas are born from mind and thought. Whatever thought the manas holds at death, whatever power of vow it has, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate as much as possible, striving to realize that power of thought and power of vow. Therefore, at death, as long as we have a wholesome vow—a vow aspiring to the land of bliss—the tathāgatagarbha will certainly cooperate with us in rebirth in the land of bliss. But if our thoughts at death are not good and correspond to the unwholesome karma of this life, then the retribution of that unwholesome karma will manifest, and we may go to the three evil destinies. So the thoughts at the time of death are the most important: having done wholesome karma, do not doubt your own wholesome karma; being mindful of and thinking about that wholesome karma, there is a great likelihood of following that wholesome karma to receive a wholesome retribution.