Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Four Methods of Contemplation Part 6 (四種觀行六)
We cannot trivialize karmic retributions. Everything in the world, with or without form, follows the laws of nature. These ancient and unchanging laws are inseparable from the law of karmic retribution.
You see, when spring arrives, the weather warms up. When summer approaches, the weather becomes hot. When autumn comes, everything slowly wilts. When winter arrives, the cold is severe and the leaves fall off the trees. Every living thing on Earth is subject to the laws of nature. These laws are unchanging. Causes create effects, conditions draw retributions. We have discussed causes and conditions. Next is effects and retributions.
Second, contemplate effects and retributions. All evil karma will bring retributions of endless suffering in the Three Periods of Time. One then sinks into a vast sea of immense darkness.
We can create good or evil. If we plant bad seeds, evil retributions eventually materialize. Similarly, if we plant good seeds, blessed karma will manifest. This is just like planting something in the soil. We reap what we sow. All seeds, good or bad, will grow in the earth. Whichever seeds we sow will manifest when the time comes. This is the natural order of things.
Causes are in the past, conditions are present, retribution is in the future. Past, present and future always exist in the endless cycle of life and death. In the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, it says, “One gives rise to infinity; infinity begins with one.”
From one seed, billions of seeds are born. Of these billions of seeds, each is reborn billions of times, in this way growing into infinity. Sutra of Infinite Meanings, Chapter 3, Virtues.
One single seed continuously multiplies, creating more and more [seeds]. One single bad thought attracts many conditions. Conditions give rise to causes, which attract conditions, always accumulating in this way. “We will suffer endlessly.” As negative conditions continue to accumulate, our karma gets worse and worse. This is very heavy karma and it begins with a single ignorant thought.
Today, we should begin talking about “sinking into a vast sea.” Afflictions are “a vast sea of immense darkness.” Immense darkness is a metaphor for ignorance. We often say ignorance is darkness, a vast and endless night that obscures our luminous minds. So we compare our ignorance to a “vast sea of immense darkness.” With ignorance we are trapped in the cycle of birth and death. This transmigration in the Six Realms is painful beyond words and beyond our control. We cannot decide where to be reborn. We cannot choose our place of birth. Although we cannot choose, we help create those results.
If we are kind and create good affinities, our blessed causes and conditions lead us to good parents and good circumstances. We are born to good parents so we can grow up in a good environment. If we are nurtured under good conditions, we can create more good affinities and do good. So we constantly accumulate good causes, conditions, effects and retributions. If we can create auspicious conditions, we can encounter great teachers and Right Dharma. If we walk the right path, practice Right Dharma and strive for Truth, we can understand the law of cause and effect in life. Then we can constantly remind ourselves of what we can and cannot do. This is the result of good conditions.
If we do not encounter such conditions, we ignorantly live and die without control, transmigrating between the Six Realms. The “vast sea” refers to the endless cycle of birth and death. If we fall into the ocean, we cannot see the shore unless it is really close. Thus, in this vast ocean, rescue is difficult. So “immense darkness” refers to ignorance and “vast sea” is analogous to birth and death. We sink into the vast sea of immense darkness. It represents “all afflictions.” Our afflictions pull us down deeper. That is why we say, “All afflictions are a vast sea of great darkness.” Then, what are afflictions? There is another analogy.
We are devoured by the Raksasa, blind and lost in endless birth and death. If we read this passage in the Water Repentance, we realize how a life of suffering is affected and conditioned by ignorance. We are lost in the cycle of birth and death. We do not know where we are going or whence we came. We do not know why. Here it states, “devoured by the Raksasa, blind and lost in birth and death.” Another name for a Raksasa is a “speedy ghost.”
Speedy means nimble and quick. They are never at rest, even for an instant, so they are like “speedy ghosts.” Ignorance and afflictions are like ghosts or spirits. These “speedy ghosts” always surround us. They are watching us. They wait for an inkling of ignorance to slip right in and cause afflictions to flourish. They are like ghosts that eat people. This is an analogy. What do these ghosts eat? When we are afflicted, they use our ignorance to hurt our Dharma-body and Wisdom-life. Raksasas specialize in damaging our Dharma-body and Wisdom-life. They are like speedy ghosts that follow afflictions into our minds as soon as they arise. They cause our pure and radiant Buddha-nature to quickly become obscured. They damage our pure Dharma-body and Wisdom-life. These Raksasas are truly terrifying. These speedy ghosts cause great damage to our Wisdom-life, trapping us in the cycle of life and death, leaving us in darkness.
Darkness is like blindness. The Raksasas in our lives always damage our Dharma-body and Wisdom-life, so we constantly produce ignorance and afflictions and are submerged in evil causes, conditions, effects and retributions. We have no respite in the Six Realms. So, we are “blind and lost in the endless cycle of birth and death, as if we were at sea.” So, without our Dharma-body and Wisdom-life, we cannot comprehend causes and conditions or closely examine retributions.
That is how ordinary people are. If we do not know better, we repeat mistakes and then suffer painful retributions. We do not know to reflect on our situation, so we are already lost. Then we moan and complain. Complaints beget enmities and hatred, which produce ignorance. This happens when we lack the view of cause and effect. If we lack the wisdom for minute observations, we will sink into the vast ocean of immense darkness.
Because of ignorance and afflictions, we are lost in the cycle of birth and death. We should contemplate this passage very carefully. It is truly frightening. The next section says, “Even if one becomes a Wheel-turning Sage King, who presides over the world, can fly with ease and possesses the Seven Jewels, one still cannot escape an evil destiny.” The previous passage talked about our ignorance. Trapped in bad causes and effects, we are lost in a vast ocean of immense darkness and cannot escape. That is the previous passage.
This passage explains that if we created many blessings and did good deeds in the past, we can accumulate blessed retributions. What is the best, most blessed retribution? To become a Wheel-turning Sage King who “presides over the world, can fly with ease” and “possesses the Seven Jewels.” This is a tremendously blessed retribution. What kind of blessing is this? One is born in the era with the longest human lifespan. How long is this lifespan? 84,000 years, a very long time. During that lengthy period of time, everything in the world is harmonious and peaceful. To become a Wheel-turning Sage King is a tremendous blessing because one presides over the world; he is the King of the Four Continents of the World. The Four Continents are immense. He can also attain four kinds of wheels.
What kind of wheels? Gold, silver, bronze and iron [Dharma-wheels]. They turn smoothly and easily. He is protected by armies, generals and guards. Wherever a Gold Wheel King wants to go, he just needs to think it and the wheels will go there, whether west, south, north, or anywhere.
In summary, he is free to comfortably travel anywhere in the Four Continents. He also possesses many treasures, the Seven Jewels, elephants, horses, gold, silver, etc. He is surrounded by the most precious treasures in the world. He flies around freely and possesses the Seven Jewels, so he is truly blessed.
But as practitioners, we do not seek these things. We must thoroughly understand cause and effect at a very high level. Although he enjoys such great blessings, lives such a long life, is the wealthiest in the world, and gets everything he desires, such fortune will end when his blessings are depleted because “one cannot escape an evil destiny after death.”
In the same way, once blessings are depleted, a single bad seed will attract evil conditions. If bad effects result from the meeting of those bad causes and conditions, retributions will manifest.
So we often say, an ignorant thought causes the Three Subtleties. With the slightest impulse, a cause arises, and then conditions follow. When causes and conditions meet, retributions come into fruition and we suffer indescribably. So, we should not think that if we have created many blessings, we can just lie back and enjoy them; they will fade with time.
So, this is also a law of nature. Even with great blessings, there is a natural element of karmic retribution. So, we should pay heed to this passage. “Even if one becomes a Wheel-turning Sage King, who presides over the world, can fly with ease and possesses the Seven Jewels, one still cannot escape evil destiny after death.” We should take this as a constant warning. Do not assume you will always be this healthy. If we stop taking care of ourselves, we become unhealthy and are tormented by illness. Do not assume you can wantonly enjoy yourselves and disregard the impermanence of life. When retribution manifest, it is frightening. If it is frightening in this life, how much worse will it be in the next? So, we must always be vigilant. Please always be mindful.
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