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

Original text: 大王。彼识起时。无所从来。灭无所至。其缘生时。无所从来。灭无所至。彼业生时。无所从来。灭无所至。大王。无有少法。从于此世。得至他世。何以故。自性空故。

However, whether it is wholesome karma or unwholesome karma, its nature is empty; it cannot exercise any mastery, it is constantly arising and ceasing—arising with no place of coming from, ceasing with no place of going to—illusory and unreal. For example, if I take a knife and kill someone: before I do this deed, this karma does not exist and has no place of coming from; this action of deed-making likewise has no person who performs it. The surface phenomenon is like something conjured by a magician—there is no maker of the karma. The act of killing is produced through the combined operation of the physical body and the conscious mind, yet the physical body is illusory and the conscious mind is illusory; neither truly exists. The actions of the five aggregates are therefore not real. Moreover, once the act of killing has issued forth, it vanishes without a trace in an instant. Thus the action of deed-making is itself empty, and yet it leaves behind karmic seeds.

And the karmic seeds themselves are also empty: they come from nowhere and go nowhere, from nothing to nothing. After the retribution has been received, the karmic seeds will likewise vanish without a trace. Karmic seeds are also empty and illusory. If karmic seeds were not illusory, then after the retribution has been received, or after repentance, the karmic seeds should not be able to disappear; and if the karmic seeds could not disappear, then sentient beings should receive retribution forever, endlessly—one who has killed should receive retribution in hell forever, should be slaughtered by others forever, without end. Therefore it can be said that all karma of sin and merit is illusory, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Even so, all meritorious karma will in the end gradually lead sentient beings toward buddhahood, until they ultimately attain the fruit of buddhahood; all sinful karma will in the end cause sentient beings to suffer feelings of suffering without end, lamenting without cease. Analyzing it over and over, only the ālayavijñāna is real and unchanging, unborn and unceasing, existing forever; all other dharmas are empty and illusory, arising instant by instant and ceasing instant by instant, arising and ceasing faster than a flash of lightning.