Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (118)

Original text:佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。闻其恶声。则生忧恼。起于嗔心。造作嗔业。所谓身三。语四意业三种。造彼业已。刹那灭谢。是业灭已。不依东方。南西北方。四维上下。中间而住。最后边际。命根灭时。自分业报。皆悉现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. When foolish ordinary beings hear an evil report, sorrow and distress arise in their minds, and once anger arises, they create karmic actions of anger. These karmic actions manifest through body, speech, and mind as three kinds of bodily karma, four kinds of verbal karma, and three kinds of mental karma. After these karmic actions are created, they cease and pass away in an instant. After the karmic actions have ceased, they do not abide in the east, south, west, or north, the four intermediate directions, above, below, or in between. When the final limit is reached and the life faculty ceases, the karmic retributions one has created oneself all manifest in full, just like waking from a dream and still recollecting the events of the dream.

When sentient beings create karma, they all feel that no god or ghost knows of it, as if no one knew—but in fact it cannot be hidden from anyone; otherwise there would be no retribution. First of all, one's own mind knows it and makes a record of it; then the ghosts and spirits in the surroundings all know of it, and there are records in King Yama's court as well; the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Dharma-protecting deities all know of it, and sentient beings with supernatural powers at the time know of it too. Later, when one encounters sentient beings with supernatural powers again, they will know of it as well. As long as a karmic action has been created, it becomes a dossier, and this dossier is preserved until after one attains buddhahood and will never disappear; even after the retribution has been fully received and the karmic seeds have vanished, the dossier still does not disappear—all sentient beings with supernatural powers can look it up.