宗鏡錄 71.33

71.33

Answer: The similar [cause] pervades the three natures and applies to both the defiled and undefiled; the omnipresent [cause] is distinguished by being exclusively defiled. The fruits attained by these two kinds of causes are both similar to their causes, and thus are called fruits of equal outflow. Now, the four conditions, six causes, ten causes, and five fruits encompass the entire path of both the ordinary and the holy, and are able to establish the portals of the teachings. If these are lacking, then not a single dharma is complete; if one is ignorant of them, one will ultimately remain an outsider. Regarding the four conditions: the cause condition directly produces its own fruit in the realm of the conditioned; the immediate [condition] carries the meaning of opening and guiding, through which all existents are produced; the object-condition is established only through mindful reliance, and is posited in terms of both proximate and remote [aspects]; and the prevailing [condition] possesses superior power and does not obstruct other conditions. Regarding the six causes: the acting cause accomplishes karmic function; the co-existent cause is mutually simultaneous; the similar cause is similar from beginning to end; the associated cause definitely shares a single object; the omnipresent cause is identical in its defiled class; and the maturation cause matures the subsequent fruit. Regarding the ten causes: the discursive cause is the portal that guides all dharmas; the dependent cause discerns the affairs of manifest functional activity; the pulling cause causes its own fruit to be achieved; the receptive cause can gather all conditions; the generative cause enables all kinds to be born; the initiating cause causes all fruits to be accomplished; the determinant cause makes categories distinct; the co-working cause unifies substances into oneness; the contradictory cause can initiate the portal of obstruction; and the non-contradictory cause complies with the principle of conditioned arising. Regarding the five fruits: the maturation fruit is where the cause arises and the fruit ripens, being completed at a different time; the equal outflow [fruit] has a nature identical between cause and fruit, without confusion of classes; the prevailing [fruit] has superior functional power and can assist other conditions; the person-operated [fruit] is accomplished through effort and action, being able to obtain wealth and profit; and the disconnection [fruit] severs obstructions and realizes the real, transcending all defiled bondages. In summary, the causes and conditions described above yield the five fruits, which all return to the eighth consciousness of true maturation. This portal of the maturation fruit matures at a different time: if a single thought of goodness arises, it is like planting a sweet seed in fertile soil; if a single thought of evil is born, it is like planting a bitter seed in barren land. When the conditions and seasons of water and earth converge, sprouts emerge and leaves unfold in sequence; blossoms burst forth, fruits mature, and they gradually ripen. The same applies to the maturation of these defiled and pure seeds. If one creates a good cause, one plants the seed of bliss in the human and heavenly realms; or if one initiates evil deeds, one takes birth in the bad fields of the four lower destinies. If neither good nor bad causes are initiated, there will ultimately be no retribution of suffering or bliss; without planting coarse or fine seeds, how could flowers and fruits ever grow? Thus we know that causes and fruits correspond to one another, definitively determined by the transformations of consciousness alone. They are like images appearing in a mirror, or shadows following a form. There is no shadow that does not follow its form, and no mirror that does not reveal an image. Likewise, there is no action that does not receive retribution, and no fruit that does not repay its cause. The nature of dharmas is inherently so; it is known to all the world. Only for one who does not act is it hard for karmic fruits to bind them; if one simply understands the source of the one mind, all these conditions suddenly cease. Therefore, when one understands the principle of consciousness-only, there is nowhere to apply the mind, and one will never falsely initiate the karmic fruits of the three realms. Because things are definitively determined by the transformations of consciousness, only those who fear karma can believe and accept this. As the Qianding lu states: In the past, when Duke Han Huang served in the Grand Secretariat, he once summoned an official clerk, who failed to arrive on time. Angry, he was about to flog him. The clerk said, 'I belong to another office, so I could not come immediately.' Duke Jin asked, 'As a clerk under the Prime Minister, to whom else could you belong?' The clerk replied, 'Unfortunately, I am also assigned to the subterranean bureaucracy.' Duke Jin, considering him dishonest, angrily asked, 'Since you belong to the subterranean administration, what are you in charge of?' The clerk said, 'I am in charge of the food and rations for officials of the third rank and above.' Duke Jin said, 'If so, what will I eat tomorrow?' The clerk replied, 'Though this is a minor matter, it cannot be openly spoken. I beg to write it down on paper, to serve as proof after the fact.' It was done accordingly, and the clerk was detained. Early the next morning, there was suddenly an imperial summons. After Duke Jin's audience, it happened that the Grand Provisioner presented food: a bowl of rice porridge and pastries. His Majesty bestowed half of it upon Duke Jin. Duke Jin found it delicious, and the Emperor bestowed the rest upon him. After retiring, he had abdominal distension and returned to his private residence, where he called a physician to examine him. The physician said, 'This is caused by food blockage; it is appropriate to take a little tangerine-peel decoction, and by nightfall you may drink thin rice gruel.' The next morning his illness was cured. Remembering the former clerk's words, he summoned him and looked at what he had written, which said: 'Tomorrow morning, the Prime Minister will eat only one serving and a half of pastries and porridge, one bowl of tangerine-peel decoction, and one cup of thin rice gruel.' It was entirely as he had said. The Duke firmly questioned him further: 'Does the food of the human world always have a register?' He replied: 'For the third rank and above, it is allotted daily; for the fifth rank and above with executive power, it is allotted every ten days; without executive power, monthly; for all from the sixth rank to the single commission, quarterly; for those who do not draw an official salary, it is allotted annually.' Therefore we know that eating and drinking have their allotments; abundance and scarcity have no error. What are called jade delicacies and brocade robes, quail-feather rags and coarse greens, mat doors and golden mansions, a team of a thousand horses and a single gourd-cup—all are created by an initial single thought. The moment the traces of mind appear, karmic retribution cannot be escaped. Taking past good and evil as causes, present suffering and bliss as fruits, there is not the slightest discrepancy; who can escape it? It is like an echo responding to a sound, or a shadow following a form: this is an inevitable principle. None can escape it unless they awaken to the Way and are shielded by the power of concentration. If one abides within the worldly illusion, how could anyone be freed? Therefore a verse from a sūtra says: 'Even after hundreds of thousands of kalpas, / The karma that was done is not forgotten; / When causes and conditions converge, / The retribution is returned to oneself.' Hence the Caiming lun states: 'The poor have not even land enough to insert an awl, / Yet Dao Yi possessed fields exceeding ten thousand qing; / The starving lack even a single picul of stored grain, / Yet Li Heng owned trees named a thousand slaves.' Thus the Shiji records that Sun Shu'ao, Prime Minister of Chu, gave his utmost loyalty to the state, yet when he died, his son was so poor he had not enough land to insert an awl. The Hanshu says that Dao Yi served as a Secretarial Imperial Clerk, did not pursue virtuous conduct, made farming his business, and owned ten thousand qing of fields and a thousand slaves. The Weizhi says that Hua Xin served in office cleanly and poorly, without even a picul of grain stored at home. The Jinshu says that Li Heng planted a thousand tangerine trees, which were called 'a thousand tree-slaves.' Moreover, not only are poverty and wealth definitively determined by the transformations of consciousness, but lifespan is also the same. Because of the causes of compassion or killing previously performed by the mind, one definitively receives the subsequent retribution of a long or short lifespan, which is not directly dependent on the good or evil deeds of the present life. Hence it is said: 'Those without propriety must perish, yet why did Zhi alone live long? Practicing goodness brings fortune, yet why did Tuo meet an early death?' As Zhuangzi says, the Robber Zhi led nine thousand followers, rampaging across the world and terrorizing the feudal lords, yet lived to an advanced age. The commentary to the Lunyu says that Xiang Tuo was teacher to Confucius at the age of seven, yet died prematurely.