Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (110)

The Situation When Karmic Retribution Manifests at the Time of Death

The karmic actions of body, speech, and mind themselves have ceased, and then at the time of death, in the very instant before the last breath, the karmic retribution that should be undergone on this physical body—the karma that has been created—flashes by rapidly like a movie being played. The deeds of an entire lifetime flash past, and one comes to understand the karma one has created: which of it was wholesome, which was unwholesome, and what retribution one should undergo—all becomes completely clear. But at that point one can no longer speak; there is no way to express it, no way to tell one's family members to help eliminate one's karma, to perform deliverance rites, or to make amends for one's transgressions. One cannot tell one's family where one is going to undergo retribution—one simply cannot speak. While one is still able to speak, karmic actions do not manifest. When karmic retribution manifests at the time of death, we will feel that this entire life has been like a dream—it has passed and come to an end. While we are alive in ordinary times, we cannot experience the state of mind of that moment; only then do we feel that this life has ended just like a dream.

When we study Buddhism and cultivate practice, upon reaching the stage of the ten dedications (daśa-pariṇāmana), we will feel that not only is this life like a dream, but past lives were also a dream, and the next life will likewise be a dream. All future lives, until the attainment of buddhahood, will be within dreams—life after life, dreaming through birth and death. When bodhisattvas perform buddha-deeds, delivering themselves and delivering sentient beings, all of it takes place within a dream; it is all as unreal as a dream—all is performing buddha-deeds within a dream.

At present we can only understand this intellectually; without realizing it ourselves, we cannot experience it and thus have no genuine feeling of it. Therefore we do not know that since beginningless kalpas we have been living through one great dream of birth-and-death after another, linked together into a continuous series of dreams, and that until buddhahood is attained we remain within the great dream of birth-and-death. Beings with segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) are dreaming dream after dream, segment by segment. After segmented birth-and-death has passed, there remains transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa), in which one dreams an especially subtle, long dream—likewise not yet fully awakened from the great dream of birth-and-death. Only upon attaining buddhahood does the great dream of birth-and-death come completely to an end.