Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (157)

The Karmic Retribution of Feeling Anger and Distress in a Dream over Bitter-Tasting Food and Drink

Original text: 佛言大王。如是如是。愚夫异生。梦为饥逼。啖其苦味。心生恚恼。造是业行。身三语四。意三种行。造彼业已。即便灭谢。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. The foolish ordinary beings (pṛthagjana), in a dream, being oppressed by hunger, eat bitter-tasting food and drink, and their minds give rise to anger and distress, creating unwholesome karmic actions — three kinds of bodily actions, four kinds of verbal actions, and three kinds of mental actions. From the very moment these actions are first created, the karmic formations cease moment by moment as they are being performed. After these karmic formations cease, they do not abide in the east, west, south, or north, the four intermediate directions, up or down. However, when the final limit is reached and the life faculty is about to perish, the karmic retribution created by oneself in this life all manifests in full, just as after waking from a dream, one still recollects the events within the dream.