俱舍論疏 18.16

18.16

[On] the treatise's [statement], "According to the increase of those offenses ... fivefold heavier suffering": An answer. The Nyāyānusāra says: "If one commits multiple offenses of immediate retribution, the first one already projects birth in the Avīci hell; the rest would then have no fruit. [Yet] there is no flaw of having no fruit. For a person who commits multiple offenses of immediate retribution, only one is able to project [the life], while the others assist in completing it; thus, in accordance with the increase in those offenses, the suffering increases in intensity. That is, due to multiple offenses of immediate retribution, one is caused to experience a body in hell that is large and soft, with many violent instruments of torture, undergoing two, three, four, or five times the heavier suffering; or without premature death, experiencing suffering for a long time. How could one say that the rest would have no fruit?" Now, upon detailed consideration, cause and fruit of retribution extend across the three times, and therefore we know that the mutual correspondence of cause and fruit has a fixed nature. The fruit-substances of the five offenses of immediate retribution are each distinct and different: if they produce a physical body, all sense faculties are equally projected with augmenting power, causing the projected fruit-body to be large and soft, and the feelings of suffering produced to be shortened in duration but intensified in grade, arising equally in continuity for the duration of a kalpa or the like. If we rely on the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra, whether suffering is undergone for one kalpa or, if one commits five offenses of immediate retribution, undergone together for five kalpas, the remaining four kalpas are named after the first as retribution in the immediately following life (upapadyavedanīya). This mostly agrees with the Sautrāntika view that one karma projects multiple bodies and multiple karmas project one body. If we rely on the Saṃmatīya school, if one commits up to five offenses of immediate retribution, one undergoes suffering for five kalpas, among which the first is retribution in the immediately following life and the latter four kalpas are retribution in subsequent lives (aparaparyāyavedanīya), each projecting separately. If we rely on the Mahāyāna, the eighth fascicle of the Abhidharmasamuccayavyākhyā says: "Question: If one commits multiple karmas of immediate retribution, how does one experience their retribution within a single birth in the Avīci? Answer: Within a single life, one suddenly experiences all acquired retributions without fault. Why is this? If one commits multiple karmas of immediate retribution, the physical form that is produced is exceedingly soft, and the instruments of suffering are numerous and intense; thereby one suddenly experiences all kinds of great suffering." Furthermore, the subsequent text states: "Among these karmas, the designation 'experienced in the present life' and so forth is established from the initial stage of ripening; it is not that one only experiences retribution at this single stage. Up to: if one explains it thus, it accords well with the Sūtra on Scolding the Malicious Mind. As that sūtra states: 'Due to karmas of immediate retribution, one repeatedly dies and is born within Naraka, experiencing the retribution of great suffering.' (According to this text, it agrees with the explanations of the Sautrāntika and Saṃmatīya schools. The Mahāyāna also admits that one karma projects multiple lives and multiple karmas project one life)." Question: According to this Abhidharmasamuccayavyākhyā, the earlier and later passages contradict each other. Answer: There are two explanations. First explanation: The earlier passage follows the provisional method of reasoning (yuktivāda), speaking in accord with the Sarvāstivāda system; the later passage relies on the Mahāyāna. If this were not so, since the earlier passage speaks of experiencing suffering multiplied many times in a single life, how could the later passage speak of passing through multiple kalpas? Second explanation: According to this, if one commits multiple offenses of immediate retribution, one experiences suffering multiplied many times across multiple kalpas; because they mutually assist each other to produce great suffering, it is not simply that it is experienced fivefold and finished in one life. Question: If so, why does the Lokasthiti-śāstra say: "The Tathāgata Śākyamuni appeared in the world during the ninth kalpa of abiding. Devadatta committed three offenses of immediate retribution and entered hell. When the tenth kalpa decreases to forty thousand years, he will come to be born among humans and realize pratyekabuddha-bodhi." Since Devadatta committed three offenses of immediate retribution, according to the Sūtra on Scolding the Malicious Mind, he ought to undergo the retribution of three kalpas. Why then does he attain the pratyekabuddha state without completing even one kalpa? If one says that the Lokasthiti-śāstra accords with the Sarvāstivāda and is therefore a Hīnayāna sūtra, while the Sūtra on Scolding the Malicious Mind accords with the Saṃmatīya and others, why would it not also be a Hīnayāna sūtra? The two texts contradict each other. The statement of the Lokasthiti-śāstra is extremely clear and cannot be harmonized away, whereas the Sūtra on Scolding the Malicious Mind can be interpreted. The "repeated death and birth" in hell is called birth-and-death because it resembles death and birth, as in the Saṃjīva hell. Furthermore, according to the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa, Devadatta's entering hell was like bouncing a ball; how could he enter hell for three kalpas? That school should reflect on this. Now, on detailed consideration of the Sarvāstivāda doctrine: if one has already committed karma that is definitely to be experienced in the immediately following life in another destiny, one does not commit the five offenses of immediate retribution. If one has committed other offenses of immediate retribution that lead to birth in other hells, one does not commit schism in the Saṅgha. If one first commits schism in the Saṅgha and afterwards commits other offenses of immediate retribution, all lead into Avīci.