廬山蓮宗寶鑑 1.73

1.73

If one intends to tread the profound path and cleanse the mind in the Great Way, one must have deep faith in worldly cause and effect and thoroughly clarify the source of world-transcendence. Wishing to fathom that source, one must preserve its essential point; and as for the essential point in practical function, does it not lie in the phenomena of the mind? As for the mind, it encompasses myriad practices and comprehends all categories. Because the mind has no permanent phenomenal nature, it is employed alternately by mounting good and evil, and it takes sin and merit as its shadows and echoes; thus cause and effect do not contradict one another. Know therefore that contact with objects that results in movement is called a cause; movement that gives rise to consciousness is called a condition; when conditions arise, there are marks of karma; and corresponding to karma, the retribution of the fruit is fixed. For this reason, good actions and evil actions are worldly causes; the three realms, the six destinies, the nine states of existence, and the four modes of birth are worldly fruits. The dharma gate of buddhānusmṛti is a world-transcending cause; being born by transformation in the nine grades of the Pure Land to become a buddha is a world-transcending fruit. When one is clear in one's mind about the causes and fruits above, one does not delight in or cling to worldly phenomena; in world-transcending phenomena, one's mind and actions do not run contrary: thought after thought, one does not forget the Pure Land, and mind after mind, one does not depart from Amitābha. How does one know this is so? The present is the cause; the moment of death is the fruit; know that when the cause is real, the fruit is not in vain. Now, the two wheels of good and evil and the two retributions of suffering and joy are all created by the three karmas, produced by the four conditions, formed by the six causes, and subsumed by the five fruits. If in a single thought-moment the mind harbors anger and wrongful lust, this is hell karma; if stinginess, greed, and insincerity, this is hungry ghost karma; if ignorance and dark delusion, this is animal karma; if arrogance and self-aggrandizement, this is asura karma; if firmly upholding the five precepts, this is human karma; if diligently cultivating the ten virtues, this is heavenly karma; if realizing and awakening to the emptiness of the person, this is śrāvaka karma; if knowing that the nature of conditions is detached, this is pratyekabuddha karma; if cultivating the six perfections together, this is bodhisattva karma; if true compassion and equanimity, this is buddha karma. If the mind is pure, one is born by transformation in a pure realm with fragrant terraces and jeweled trees; if the mind is defiled, one receives form in an impure land of mounds, hills, pits, and hollows: these are all fruits of equal category, which can induce sovereign conditions. Therefore, apart from the source of one's own mind, there is no other substance. The Vimalakīrti-sūtra says: 'If one wishes to attain the Pure Land, one must purify one's mind.' Thus we know that all things return to the mind, and the myriad phenomena proceed from oneself. If one wishes to accomplish the pure fruit, one need only practice pure causes. One should also know that icchantikas of wrong views are bound to fall into the Avīci hell for a thousand kalpas; those who slander and repudiate [the teaching of karma] are the very kin of māras and demons. Observing that retribution is like a shadow [following the form] or an echo [following the sound], and believing that cause and effect are distinctly clear, one should be startled and fearful: as the saying goes, 'a bitter gourd is bitter right to the root; a sweet melon is sweet right to the stem.'