Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Karmic Retribution Is Unavoidable (業力相牽 果報難避 )
Date: January.03.2019
“Time, space, the world, places and directions are all created through sentient beings’ karma. Positive karma has the power to give rise to fruits of joy. Negative karma has the power to give rise to fruits of evil. Though the inconceivable forces of karma may be distant, they still have their effect. When the fruits of our karmic retribution mature, though we may seek to avoid them, they are ultimately inescapable.”
We must mindfully seek to deeply comprehend this. “Time, space, the world, places and directions are all created through sentient beings’ karma.” We all live in this world. This world is so great and vast, but where is the origin of the sound you hear? We are currently in Taiwan. In this world, “Taiwan” is the name of a place; it is the name of a certain place.
How old is our world, planet Earth? In truth, scientists say that Earth is several billion years old. I have no way to verify this; I can only base it off of what current scholars say. How many billions of years old is it? We cannot imagine what it was like back then. However, we can know what Earth is like now. When did Earth come into existence? We do not need to be concerned about that. We just need to speak of its time and space. It has [existed] for a very long time, and the space it [exists in] is our universe, in a place in our solar system. Our Earth both revolves and rotates, and thus there is day and night. The days and nights accumulate. There are minutes and seconds of time, [accumulating into] hours, days and nights. The time of entire days accumulates into a month. Several months accumulate into a year. This is the accumulation of time. So, where we live is in such a space, in “time, space, the world, places and directions.” The world rotates with the passage of time. With [every] minute and second, the world [rotates]. Whether it be a femtosecond or millisecond, it still constantly rotates. As it constantly rotates, seconds, minutes and hours pass by, and the days and nights accumulate. Thus, it is constantly flowing. This is “the world”. “The world” is always flowing and never stopping. Thus, “the world” [is inseparable from] “time”. “Time” does not stop, but continues to flow without end. This is “time”. “Space” [is something that has] boundaries. Within this great space, we have a location; we are on Earth. [Earth’s] position cannot deviate. It does not deviate; [Earth] revolves, but it does not leave its orbit. If it were to deviate from its orbit, this would be disastrous. Thus, it cannot deviate from its orbit. It must ceaselessly revolve in this orbit.
Thus, “time” does not cease, and our position does not deviate; [Earth] will not go off track. However, there is this space and these boundaries. The name Taiwan refers to a location that is set firmly here and is this large. This is its position on Earth and what it covers. The name Taiwan is defined as what is within this boundary. The place where we were born is within this place. We grew up in Taiwan. “All is created through sentient beings’ karma.” We were born in this place and are accustomed to this way of life. We must always be grateful in our daily living.
[Think of places like] Sierra Leone in Africa. Many other countries are located in places different from us and have different ways of life than we do. [People there] live in their space, and their environment is full of suffering, unbearable suffering. They are in entirely different environments. In [Sierra Leone], we provided material supplies for the suffering people and found ways to help them settle down so that they can live peacefully for the long term. There was a group of [people] from humanitarian organizations that came together with Tzu Chi in that place to find a way, amidst the disaster, to provide care and serve [these people]. After encountering [these people], we felt that their [degree of] deprivation and their living conditions were truly of unbearable suffering. This group of people from three or four different organizations hoped to put in the effort to create a plan to help these people survive, to find a way to help them settle down and improve the safety and stability in their lives. Because we traveled to those places, we have a clear understanding of them; we have experienced and seen their suffering. Reflecting upon our own places of birth and our current environment, we must be very grateful.
We live in adequacy, and we even have extra resources to help others. We are in the same time and space, but we are in different places and have different karma. Positive karma can “give rise to fruits of joy”. Our lives are like this, very comfortable; we can live comfortably. In our lives, we are not lacking in clothing, food or transportation. This is living a blessed life. We can also live our days in peace. This is positive [karma]. Thus, with blessed and positive karma, we can live our life in peace and safety. So, since we created positive karma in the past, we can now be in such an environment. Thus, we must cherish our blessings.
This is how “Positive karma has the power to give rise to fruits of joy.” Before we came to [this life], we could not ask to be [born] into a certain place. This is because in our past lifetimes, we had already accumulated causes and conditions. [We already had the conditions] for this life and our future lifestyle. We and our parents had already formed these affinities. So, we came to this family. Depending on these causes and conditions and our parents’ good or bad karma, we were drawn here by this force, born according to our affinities with them. As for us ourselves, it depends on what kind of karma, we created in the past. If it was positive karma, we naturally bring positive karma with us. Even if we were born into an impoverished family, all that is needed is blessed and positive karma. We may come to a certain family and be poor when we are young, but we may have good karmic conditions that give us the chance to build our lives from nothing and become very successful. In our society, many people are like this; it is very common. This is because in their previous lifetimes, they formed good affinities and created blessed karma. So, it is because of these karmic conditions that we were born here with positive and blessed affinities. In this case, if we are able to further develop our wisdom, we will naturally be able to continue forming good affinities and creating blessed karma. In our future lives, it will certainly be like this [as well]. With such causes, there will be such effects and retributions.
So, it says, “Positive karma has the power to give rise to fruits of joy.” This power comes from what we have done in the past. We should do our best and do what we can; this becomes the good and blessed causes that we accumulate, our [virtuous] seeds. Because we are still unenlightened begins, we have no power to choose for our future lifetime which family we want to be born into. We have no power to do so. When we inhale our last breath and never breathe out, our breathing cases at that time. Our spirit drifts away. Then, there will be a [force] that leads us to the place we ought to go. This force that causes us to drift away is due to our everyday actions; it is the power of positive and negative karma. Positive karma is a “positive power”. When this force pulls us forward, we just follow. This is the case for unenlightened begins. If we were sages, if we had the resolve, our future direction would be to go among people and do what we have committed to do. Then our afflictions would naturally be eliminated, and our defilements would be gone. We would become clearer and clearer regarding where our direction leads; we would be very clear ourselves. There is a force that causes us to drift away, that leads us in a direction, but we ourselves possess a force of our free will that directs us.
While we are still unenlightened beings, we will drift with the conditions until we exhale our first breath, which will be our first cry. In that moment, our causes and conditions, the karma forces of our circumstantial and direct retribution have been brought to fruition again, right at that moment. So, good and bad karma are all with this time, space and boundary. In this world, we cannot control [our retributions]. This is how sentient beings are. We were born in Taiwan, but are we content? If we were born in Sierra Leone, would we resent our lives? Even if we resented our lives, what could be done? If we are born in [Taiwan] and are still dissatisfied, what are we going to do? These are karmic forces beyond our control. So, we ought to clearly understand these karmic forces. We must [understand] how we create karma. If we do not understand the principles, we will never know how we create karma. After we understand these principles, we will then know how we should create positive and blessed karma. If we do not know the principles, we do not know what is good or what is bad. We will just do as we wish, doing anything that makes us happy, mixing positive and negative [karma]. If we know the principles, we will choose a good direction and willingly follow it. We will willingly do good deeds and sincerely give help to others. People with clarity are willing. People without clarity act out of pleasure; they will do anything that they want.
Sentient begins who are lost and confused do not know their own position or direction. Human relationships and worldly matters are not of their control. They only listen to what people say [and think], “Wow, this is so sublime. I truly revere it!” They only blindly revere it. They do not know what they ought to do. We must know how to set our direction. We must all be clear on this. We must not blindly follow others but should set our own direction. If we just follow other people, in fact, “Negative karma has the power to give rise to fruits of evil”. Both positive and negative karma have their own directions. So, we say that positive and negative karma are what each person personally experience. We must bear the karma we created ourselves. However, as we individually create karma, we also create collective karma. The collective karma is formed by the accumulation of individual [karma]. We have the power to accumulate good while simultaneously creating virtuous blessings. Through creating goodness and blessings, we can all move in the direction of goodness. This goodness can make every place very harmonious, peaceful and joyous.
Take for example Sierra Leone, a place with so much suffering. If no one goes to show concern for their suffering, then with such suffering, they themselves cannot identify what joy is. For their entire lifetime, they will be in suffering, be wearing down, be in illness and in pain like this and be in such poverty and harsh environments. They have no other possible choice and no opportunities to [experience joy]. This is also [the result of] collective karma. This collective karma was certainly created by them together in their previous lives. When we look in their direction, it is like a very concentrated force that draws them to end up in that place.
There are also manmade calamities. Why are there manmade calamities? Opposition leads to action, which in turn creates these evils. These thoughts and these views can influence the surrounding people. The response of the people around brings this power together. If something does not follow their wishes, then they will begin causing harm. This type of harm to the world, destruction of families and death of people creates so much suffering in the world. This suffering, the suffering caused by that collective force, the suffering that people share together in those places, is all due to collective karma. There are negative causes, negative effects and negative retributions. These types of negative states of mind and suffering due to the damage of negative thoughts are all forms of suffering. All of these are not joyous, and all, in this way, continue to entangle people. So, people continuously go through cycles and continuously accumulate [karma]. This there by becomes the evil world of turbidities. This is collective karma, sentient beings’ collective karma. This type of collective karma is very frightening.
So, “Negative karma has the power to give rise to fruits of evil”. Are the forces of good relatively stronger? Or are forces of evil stronger? When the forces of good are strong, naturally, this turbidity will slowly diminish, and harmony from goodness will expand. That which people create and their state of mind are all within this space and time. Space and time converge together, so there is both good and evil. Good and evil create places in society where people enjoy blessings and places where people experience suffering. There ae so many; this is inconceivable. “Though the inconceivable forces of karma may be distant, they still have their effect”. Although [forces of karma] may be far, they still have slight connections [to us].
Take Houston in the US for example. They were originally enjoying the developed technology. Many technological advancements were made there, and there were many science [companies] and industries. Yet, in an instant, [a hurricane] occurred [in 2017]. People experienced [tremendous] damages and suffering during this period of time. There was so much suffering, but why were there [people] from outside who were still willing to go there to support and constantly help them? This was also due to causes and conditions.
Without these causes and conditions, [these people] lived in two extremes in life, [in blessing and in suffering], and lived very far apart. So, how could they be brought together? The spiritual training ground of Bodhisattvas is among suffering sentient beings. However, this also requires causes and conditions. There are also other countries experiencing utmost suffering, but Bodhisattvas just have no way to go to them. Suffering sentient beings in those places experience endless karmic forces and disasters. However, they have a barrier of karmic forces; we really want to go in [and help them], but we are obstructed by their karmic forces. They are helpless when it comes to the living situation there.
People in Houston have these causes and conditions because they do not have this barrier; we were not obstructed by these karmic forces, so naturally, Bodhisattvas arose because of suffering sentient beings and advanced in this spiritual training ground. Because of these karmic conditions, these suffering sentient beings formed affinities with Bodhisattvas. These causes and conditions are inconceivable. So, we must be very mindful.
In this world, within space and time, we must always earnestly pay attention. Principles and matters converge in this way. Every matter has its principles, and every principle has its matters and appearances. We must mindfully connect them. So, no matter how far away our karmic conditions are, once these conditions mature, “Though they may be distant, they still have their effects”. The effects will still take place like this. These karmic conditions are inconceivable. There are many [volunteers] now spread over various places, exercising [their strength] in different countries. This is their power and good affinities. This is how the power of goodness comes about from the convergence of causes and conditions.
“When the fruits of our karmic retribution mature, though we may seek to avoid them, they are ultimately inescapable.” For those with karmic forces and karmic obstacles, when severe karma comes upon them, they may wish to avoid it, but it will be difficult. They can only suffer these karmic retributions, but it cannot be helped. There are many such people; sentient beings in these situations are numerous.
In summary, everything in the word is inseparable from karmic forces. Karmic forces are [the results of] our actions, the thoughts we give rise to, the words we say and the things we do. All of these are accumulated little by little in our daily living. They are all created by our minds. This power is called “karmic forces”.
Karmic forces are accumulated bit by bit. [The world is made up of] the flow of time] and places and directions. We must know this. “You should know [this]. “We must know” that this world is the converhence of time and space.
[The world is made up of] the flow [of time] and places and directions. You should know by now that east, west, south, north, southeast, northwest above and below are the directions. Past, future and present are the time of the world, along with its places and directions. Time and space are ever-changing and impermanent; they are defined by finite and infinite boundaries.
As for places and directions, we must clearly know where our position is located and where our directions is leading to. So, we must know “east, west, south and north. We must be clear about these directions as well as “above and below. We must be clear on all these. “Past, future and present are the time periods of the world. Past, present and future are all called “time”. What is the position where we currently live? We are all in positions with names in this world. “Time and space are ever-changing and impermanent”. Time is never set in a place, it is always shifting, and this shifting is impermanent. However, there is ceaselessly a “past,” ceaselessly a “present” and ceaselessly a “future”. It does not stop. This is “finite and infinite boundaries”. There is only one division, which is where you are and where I am. This is [a division] in space. When we travel across spaces, we can transcend time.
When we take a plane from Taiwan to it will still be morning in the Unites States. This is because our morning is their evening. So, when we fly for more than 10 hours and arrive in the US, it is then morning there. This is traveling through space; the bounds of time and space are all merely names. Time is truly passing in this way, and truly, there are a lot of things we need to know. So, we must put effort into knowing these numbers. From the past, present and future, how [long] and how great is time and space? They are extraordinarily great. The universe of this Dharma-realm is immense.
So, the precious passage states, “By way of analogy, suppose someone were to take 500 quadrillion nayutas of asankyas of great trichiliocosms and grind them into dust”.
“By way of analogy, suppose someone were to take 500 quadrillion nayutas of asankyas of great trichiliocosms and grind them into dust. Then, passing over 500 quadrillion nayutas of asankyas of lands to the east, they were to drop one particle of dust.
This incalculable number is incalculable quadrillions of worlds. These incalculable worlds [are expressed as] ”great trichiliocosms”. Small chiliocosms and medium chiliocosms [make up] a great chiliocosm. This is what is called a “great trichiliocosm”.
Each of these worlds’ living conditions are different. There are the Three Realms, the desire, form and formless realms that exist throughout the great trichiliocosms. We spoke of all of this previously. So, “suppose someone were to grind them into dust. Then passing over 500 quadrillion nayutas of asankyas of lands to the east, they were to drop one particle of dust”. [Imagine] we were to take all things and grind them into dust, then drop a dust particle after a great distance, and then again after another great distance. After continuously doing this, how large would this space [be]? It would be truly large. We have also talked about this before.
So, we have no way of forming an analogy, and so we use these incalculable figures. “Neither a mathematician nor his disciples” could calculate this amount. We use this way to express the enormous [number of] these worlds. It is incalculable.
The following sutra passage states, “They would continue eastward like this until all the dust particles were gone. All you good men, what do you think? Could the total number of all those worlds possibly be contemplated ot calculated?”
So, [in this analogy]. In this world, someone would move eastward and drop a dust particle. After traveling further, they would drop another. They drop these dust particles until they run out. The Buddha then asked, “All you good men, have you been mindful? With your mindfulness, could you calculate the amount of these worlds? Is [the number of] these worlds conceivable? These worlds are so large. With such large [numbers of] worlds, if you were to calculate them, would you be able to calculate their space?” So, “They would continue eastward like this until all the dust particles were gone”. They would continuously go forward from here, continuously winding their way. They would continuously go [until] “all the aforementioned dust particles were gone”. Continuously, bit by bit, they would drop all the dust particles of all those worlds. How many worlds are there? There is no way to calculate this.
So, “all you good men, everyone, should think about this”. We should mindfully seek to contemplate this; is there any way to calculate this? “Could the total number of all these worlds possibly be contemplated or calculated?” could they be? Is it possible to contemplate or calculate them? For the earlier mentioned worlds in the travel toward the east, could [their number] be contemplated? Could they be counted?
In the past, we discussed the Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City, where there was also an analogy like this. “Dust-inked kalpas” [were calculated in a similar way]. We must be very mindful.
Continuing on, the sutra passage states, “Maitreya Bodhisattva and the others all said to the Buddha…”. The Buddha said, “There are so many [worlds]. You all can try to calculate this”. Now, Maitreya Bodhisattva and the others responded to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, those worlds would be infinite and boundless, impossible to know through calculation and beyond the reach of the power of the mind”.
This was Maitreya Bodhisattva’s response. We can very easily understand this. “The worlds the World-Honored One speaks of are very many. They are countless and boundless; they are not something that could be calculated by counting or by powers of the mind. No powers of the mind of anyone can reach so many lands and understand their number. The bounds of this space is something we cannot even imagine”. The Buddha responded in this way when everyone asked the Buddha. So, the number expressed by the Buddha is something that they had no way of comprehending or understanding. So, “The Bodhisattvas asked about His causes and conditions of attaining Buddhahood”.
The Bodhisattvas all asked about His causes and conditions of attaining Buddhahood. They answered Him all at once, “Those worlds would be so numerous that they would be incalculable”.
The Bodhisattvas wanted to ask about His karmic conditions for attaining Buddhahood. “Sakyamuni Buddha! How were You able to transform so many people after attaining Buddhahood not too long ago? What were Your past karmic conditions?” This was what the Bodhisattvas wanted to ask. Since the Buddha used such large numbers as analogies, was everyone able to answer Him? They responded to Him, “There are so many worlds. How could we have any way of calculating them?” Compared to the question they wanted to ask the Buddha, “How did Your causes and conditions come about?” The [answer the Buddha gave] did not seem to match. So, the Bodhisattvas’ response was, “We cannot [calculate] such a large number. In truth, we only wished to ask about Your causes and conditions. Everyone was anticipating the Dharma, the Dharma that the Buddha would teach; they earnestly sought it. However, the Buddha still [said], “Let me speak slowly and in detail. From such a distant time and such a vast space, how did I arrive here?” The Buddha spoke from the beginning and took His time.
So, in the following passage, [Maitreya] continues to say, “All the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas, in their flawless wisdom, would be unable to contemplate or conceive of their limit or number. We who abide at the stage of avaivartikas would also be unable to comprehend this matter.”
These were these Bodhisattvas’ honest words. “We do not comprehend these numbers. We have no way to calculate them”. These Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas had no way of calculating and understanding it.
All the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas, in their flawless wisdom, would be unable to contemplate or conceive of their limit or number: Even Two Vehicle practitioners with their flawless wisdom that eliminates afflictions would be unable to contemplate their limit, amount and number.
“Two Vehicle practitioners” refers to Hearers and Solitary Realizers. Hearers constantly listen to the Buddha, yet they only comprehend what they listen to. They are all within this scope. As for Solitary Realizers, after listening, they further contemplate what they know. But they can only comprehend the impermanence of all things in this world. When it comes to the principles of impermanence, including life’s suffering and emptiness, they are able to comprehend them. Other principles are still unclear to them. So, [they] “would be unable to contemplate or conceive of their limit or number”. These were the thoughts they responded with. Maitreya said, “We who abide at the stage of avaivartikas…. Two Vehicle practitioners have no way of understanding this. As for us, we have already formed Bodhisattva-aspirations and walk the Bodhisattva-path”. These Bodhisattvas already had some achievements in the Buddha-Dharma. [They were at the stage of] “avaivartikas”. They were already at the ground of non-retreating. Their minds were already very firm, and they were non-retreating Bodhisattvas. Yet even these people could barely understand it, to say nothing of Two Vehicle practitioners.
So, “[They] would be unable to contemplate their limit, amount and number”. Two Vehicle practitioners certainly had no way of understanding [this]. So, “We who abide at the stage of avaivartikas” [refers to] these great Bodhisattvas. “Those great Bodhisattvas all abided in the state of non-retreating”. Two Vehicle practitioners would obviously have no way of understanding. But even these great Bodhisattvas who had already reached the state of non-retreating may not be able [to understand it] either. So, if these Bodhisattvas in this state could not understand it, how could anyone else do so? Because the number of these dust particles was truly enormous, there was truly no way to comprehend it.
Everyone, we know that life is painfully short. The time we have to learn the Dharma is also very limited. We must use our brief lifetime to understand infinite [Dharma]. This is just like the Buddha’s analogy. This infinite number is so large that we have no way to calculate it. If we wanted to calculate this amount, it would be very difficult. Think about it; is calculating an amount very difficult? This all has to do with mathematics. Regarding mathematicians, scientists must be very accomplished in mathematics in order to do scientific research.
Actually, numbers are also very important in the Buddha-Dharma. They are extremely necessary. Within every sutra, there are always numbers mentioned, [like] “the sands of the Ganges River, infinite, boundless and inconceivable”. These are all numbers. Such an “infinite, boundless and inconceivable [number]” is meant to test us; of the principles of the Buddha-Dharma, how many have we experienced and put to use? We have not made use of them. There are so many teachings of the Buddha-Dharma, countless teachings of the Buddha-Dharma. In terms of numbers, if we were to consider every teaching as a number, [the amount] would be incalculable.
For us Buddhist practitioners, if we are not very mindful of the Dharma, we merely listen and remain at the state of Hearers. We only understand as much as we hear. What we hear are teachings in sequential order. Moreover, with this order, the speed of our speech is limited. Time is limited. How much can we teach in a single day? If we are to explain each line very clearly, how many principles can [we convey]? We must not [explain it] incoherently; we must explain each word and sentence clearly. Regarding that which we listen to, in truth, every principle contains a great deal more. The sound of every sentence contains many principles. This is just like how in the process of speaking, many principles have to come together in order for us to make different sounds. It also requires many principles of biology and of our organs coming together for us to hear [the sounds] and take them in. Every time we perform an action, even the raising of a hand, we need our body, which has its own principles as well as physics. This is what we must know. We must apply these principles in response to the conditions we face. It is not that just by constantly listening to many teachings we [attain] the principles. Only when we can employ what we have heard can it be considered true principles. So, the principles are countless. The methods we should employ, in truth, also have their limitations. There is a limit to their use, so we must gather many principles and let our knowledge converge with them, so that we can give of ourselves at the right time. This is [why it is] “countless.”
In summary, if we take all Dharma into our hearts and make it our own, when we grasp one principle we will understand all principles. Thus, we will understand many matters and will be able to freely apply [the principles] in dealing with matters. Everyone, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
首頁 
