金剛經纂要刊定記 1.39

1.39

Regarding 'retribution and response' (baoying): 'response' is simply retribution. Once the karmic seeds are stored in the ālayavijñāna, when conditions coalesce, retribution must inevitably be experienced. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'Not in the sky, nor in the sea, nor entering the clefts of the mountains—there is no place in the world where one can escape and not receive retribution.' The Book of Documents says: 'Calamities sent by Heaven may still be avoided; calamities brought on by oneself cannot be escaped.' Hence, where there is karma, there must be retribution and response. Yet, if one investigates karma, its substantial characteristic is entirely nonexistent; but when retribution is received, there has never been the slightest error. Evil causes bring painful fruits; good causes bring pleasurable fruits—just as shadow and echo, there is strictly no error. Speaking broadly, the retributions across the six destinies differ, but grouped by type there are only three kinds: suffering, pleasure, and equanimity. With the aforementioned evil karma as cause, the painful retributions of the three bad paths are induced—namely, hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals. With the aforementioned good karma as cause, the pleasurable retributions of humans and gods are induced—namely, the four continents and the six desire heavens. With the aforementioned unmoving karma as cause, the distinct retributions of the higher realms are induced—namely, the form and formless realms. Furthermore, within the three realms, the bodies of suffering and pleasure experienced are the direct retribution of individual karma; the superior or inferior container-worlds inhabited are the dependent retribution of collective karma. Direct retribution has birth, aging, illness, and death; dependent retribution has formation, abiding, destruction, and voidness. The container-world becomes empty and forms again; sentient beings die and are born anew, continuing without break from beginningless time down to the present, deluded and attached—truly pitiable! Thus the Lotus Sūtra says: 'The three realms are without safety, just like a burning house.' Hence retribution is induced by karma, karma is accomplished through afflictions, afflictions stem from ignorance, and ignorance is the beginningless single thought of false existence. One thus knows that all sentient and insentient beings in the three realms and six destinies, when their origin is investigated, exist entirely due to the dreamlike consciousness. As for 'inherited habituation and continuous turning' (xixi lunlun): xi (inheritance) means transmitting, which is the sense of continuity; because afflictions prompt karma, and karma can invite suffering, they continue in succession. Xi (habituation) means perfuming, which is the sense of mutual imitation; it means that afflictions and karma are imitated in thought after thought and perfumed in thought after thought. The Vijñaptimātratā says: 'Because the habit-energies of various karmas and the habit-energies of the two graspings are present together, it is called habituation.' These two senses necessarily assist each other: because there is continuity there is mutual imitation, and because there is mutual imitation there is continuity; hence it is called 'inherited habituation.' Thus the Vijñaptimātratā says: 'When the previous maturation is exhausted, another maturation is produced again.' For example, if someone inherits Confucianism and studies literature: precisely because he inherits Confucianism, he is able to study literature; and precisely because he studies literature, he is able to inherit Confucianism. Is not the meaning of mutual assistance entirely clear? Lun means a thread of silk (sequence). Although the karmic seeds of sentient beings are boundless, they never experience the retributions of the six destinies all at once. Retribution has an orderly sequence; hence it is called a thread. This has two senses: first, as when a person owes debts, the strongest creditor drags him first; second, as when a person sows seeds, the most moist sprout first. Lun means turning like a wheel: having been born one dies again, having died one is born anew; because birth and death do not cease, it is called turning like a wheel. Or one dies in heaven and is born among humans, dies among humans and is born among animals, and so on. Thus the Anityatā Sūtra says: 'Circulating within the three realms is just like the pulley-wheel drawing water from a well.' These two senses also mutually assist each other: due to the thread of sequence there is wheel-like turning, and due to the wheel-like turning there is a thread of sequence. It is together like boiling cocoons and drawing silk: because the silk reel turns without stopping, the threads of silk emerge without cease; and because the threads of silk emerge without cease, the silk reel turns without stopping. Alternatively, the graph 'to submerge' (lun) also fits the meaning—namely, drowning. This means that in the great river of birth and death, one is submerged for a long time; hence it is called drowning. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'If there are sentient beings who delight in conditioned things and perform various karmas, such people lose true permanence; this is called emerging briefly only to drown again.' The commentary provisionally uses the word 'wheel' (lun) as explained above: regarding afflictions and karma, it speaks of their inherited habituation; regarding retribution and response, it speaks of their threaded wheeling. These two pairs also assist each other: because afflictions and karma are inherited and habituated, they cause retribution and response to be threaded and turned like a wheel. In reality, because retribution and response are threaded and turned like a wheel, they cause afflictions and karma to be inherited and habituated. Thus one mounts the cause to induce the fruit, and relies on the fruit to create causes; causes and fruits mutually assisting each other, so that they never cease. This is the meaning of the twelve links of dependent origination, where each preceding link is the cause and each subsequent link is the fruit. Thus the Triṃśikā verse says: 'Due to the habit-energies of various karmas, together with the habit-energies of the two graspings, when the previous maturation is exhausted, another maturation is produced again.'