Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (138)

The Faults of Delighting in Wonderful Fragrances

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。初闻妙香。便生爱乐。心起染着。造如是业。身三语四。意三种业。造彼业已。即便灭谢。是业灭已。不依四方。四维上下。中间而住。乃至最后识灭。自业现前。犹如梦觉。念梦中事。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, it is indeed so. When foolish ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) first smell a wonderful fragrance, they give rise to delight, and their minds become tainted and attached, creating karma of afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. After the unwholesome karma is created, it vanishes in an instant; after it vanishes, the karmic formations do not abide in the four directions, the four intermediate directions, up and down, or the middle—they disappear without a trace. But at the moment when the life faculty finally perishes, all the karmic retributions created in this life manifest in full, just like waking from a dream and still recalling the events of the dream.

When one smells a fragrance and feels great joy and comfort, giving rise to a mind of delight, the mind becomes tainted and attached. If the mind does not crave the fragrance, one will not feel joy; one can only feel indifferent. Once the mind gives rise to delight, it becomes tainted and stuck; the mind loses its ease and freedom, is locked in by the realms of the six destinies, and thus transmigrates through birth and death, unable to attain liberation. The tainted mind, the clinging mind, and the delighting mind are the ropes and locks that can firmly lock the five-aggregate body within the great prison of the three realms.