大般涅槃經集解 69.16

69.16

Sengliang comments: 'Next one should contemplate karma': the eight sufferings have birth as their root. Only after afflictions and karma operate together does one undergo birth. 'Next, contemplating karma: feeling, perception, contact, and desire are afflictions': the nature of delusion is entirely affliction; they differ in their beginning and end, and in their lightness and gravity; contact can differentiate them, having no separate gateway, because it broadly serves as the cause of perception and feeling. 'First, performing karma of birth; second, performing karma of feeling': relying on karma to undergo birth is called birth; being able to obtain the retribution of rebirth is called feeling. 'Good son, the two karmas of body and speech': creating and performing is the meaning of karma. The nature of mind is creative activity; that which does not act but arises in succession—body and speech—possesses both. 'By reason of the cause it attains the name of karma': body and speech do not have an acting nature; they receive their name due to mind. 'The primary karma is mind; the intended karma is body and speech': that whose nature is good or evil is called primary; that which corresponds to another's good or evil is called intended. From 'because it is initiated first it is called mind' down to 'attains the name of primary' is the direct explanation: it means that what initiates first is the master, and what follows another is the response. 'That is, the contact of ignorance': karma can lead to the four [types of birth]; wishing to explain the cause of suffering, he speaks only of ignorance. Baoliang comments: 'Having contemplated desire, the wise person should contemplate karma': this is the fourth gateway, explaining that feeling, perception, contact, and desire are afflictions. That these afflictions can create karma refers to the link of mental formations (saṃskāra) within the twelve links of dependent origination. 'Does not perform karma of feeling': one does not perform karma that moistens rebirth and ties down retribution. Why? When first creating karma, one has definitely not yet changed one's retribution, so one does not yet use the delusion that moistens rebirth. 'Afflictions thus operating together are of two kinds, namely karma of birth and karma of feeling': this aims to clarify that afflictions are never separated from beginning to end; mutually they can serve as causes to create karma, and can also create the karma of undergoing birth, so they return again and again to grasp. Having finished contemplating karma, he then next contemplates the causes: the cause is the contact of ignorance. Due to this ignorance and delusion, consciousness grasps and clings among conditions, ultimately generating karma within the aggregate of mental formations. Having also finished contemplating the causes, he then next contemplates the fruition and retribution obtained from karma. 'The supreme good is born in Jambudvīpa': this treatise regards the aspect of receiving the path as superior, differing from the teachings of past doctrines. Although the two teachings are different, each has its purpose. The principles and models for the other three continents all diverge from their past purports; these will not be separately explained.