Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (182)

The ālayavijñāna is fair and impartial. It will not say that the five aggregates were created by Me and belong to Me, so I must conceal their evil deeds, refraining from recording or outputting karmic seeds no matter what evil karma the five aggregates commit, and not letting the five aggregates suffer evil retribution. The ālayavijñāna has no such mental activity. Like a video camera, it is honest and without deception: all karmic actions performed by the five aggregates are automatically recorded in a mechanical fashion, without any selection, faithfully documenting every deed, down to the smallest detail. After being recorded, they are stored as seeds within the mind-substance. When the causes and conditions are complete, the karmic seeds are output, and the seeds take root and sprout, then bear fruit—the retribution appears.

There are extremely many examples that illustrate how the ālayavijñāna faithfully actualizes the karmic results of sentient beings. For instance, if in a previous life A had an evil karmic affinity with B, and B is reborn into A's family in this life, this counts as the ripening of causes and conditions with the seed sprouting; when the child grows up, it counts as blossoming; and when the time comes, B will harm and take revenge on A, and A's retribution appears. The preceding process is all flower, sprout, branches, and leaves; when the retribution arrives, A may come to understand what this child came to do—turns out he came to collect a debt, to take revenge. The vast majority of people, even after receiving their retribution, do not understand this principle; before it happens they have no awareness at all, utterly unaware of such a special karmic affinity. Because of the evil affinity from a past life, the two people are brought together to settle the karmic seeds, and neither of them knows it.

Once upon a time, a man deliberately beat a mouse to death, and it happened that this mouse was a female mouse. After the female mouse died, she was unwilling to accept it and made a vicious vow to take revenge. In a later life she was reborn as a woman. When the woman grew up, she met this man; the two fell in love at first sight, dated, and married. The two of them had changed their identities, and because of the bewilderment of crossing the intermediate state (antarābhava), neither recognized the other, knowing nothing of their past lives—it was karmic affinity that bound the two together. After marriage, this woman tormented the man for his entire life, but did not take his life. The man suffered terribly from her torment all his life. As long as the karmic seeds were not extinguished and the karmic retribution not fully received, the two could not separate. Why is this so? Their karmic seeds are stored in each one's own ālayavijñāna. When the causes and conditions are complete, the karmic seeds manifest: taking root, sprouting, blossoming, and bearing fruit. The man was tormented by the woman for a lifetime, and when the two met, neither of them ever imagined such an outcome. Who decides these matters? Karmic affinity decides; the seeds stored in the ālayavijñāna decide. Even the tathāgatagarbha does not have the final say—It does not concern itself with this; It merely actualizes the karmic seeds faithfully, that is all.

If sentient beings had deep karmic affinities in past lives, then when they meet in this life and the ālayavijñāna actualizes the seeds, they will have special feelings toward each other. Even without meeting face to face, merely by hearing a voice, or seeing writing or a photograph, one can sense some kind of affinity from past lives—whether a wholesome affinity or an unwholesome one. Without meeting or speaking, there will be a peculiar feeling. Some people feel something special merely upon hearing a name.