釋氏稽古略 1.486

1.486

The Nineteenth Patriarch, Mahāsattva Kumāralata. He was the son of a brāhmaṇa in the kingdom of the Great Yuezhi. After attaining the Dharma-eye, he arrived in Central India. There was a mahāsattva named Jayata who asked him, saying, "My parents have always had faith in the Three Jewels, yet they are constantly entangled in sickness and decline, and whatever enterprises they undertake turn out contrary to their wishes. My neighbour, on the contrary, has long engaged in the actions of a caṇḍāla, yet his body is always robust and healthy, and whatever he undertakes is harmonious and successful. Why are they so fortunate, while I am so blameless yet afflicted?" The Patriarch said, "Why should there be any doubt? The retribution for good and evil spans three periods of time. Worldly people only see that the benevolent die young while the cruel enjoy long life, or the rebellious meet good fortune while the righteous suffer calamity, and so they claim that there is no cause and effect, that sin and blessing are baseless. Little do they know that retribution follows deed like an echo or shadow, without an error of a hair's breadth; even after hundreds of thousands of ten thousands of kalpas, it is never obliterated. When the Buddha spoke of karma spanning the three periods, it is because good karma created in a past life yields its retribution in this present life; if one does what is not good in this life, the response will appear in a future life. Therefore, when people in this life do good yet do not obtain its blessing, it is because the retribution for prior evil outweighs it; when in the present life they do evil yet do not suffer its calamity, it is because the good of prior lives outweighs it. If, because one does not receive a blessed reward in this life, one turns again to doing evil, in the future life one will sink all the more into the evil realms. If, because one receives a blessed reward in this life, one applies oneself further to doing good, in the future life one will gain all the more an auspicious realm. Furthermore, if in a past life one did good, but when the merit was only halfway accomplished one changed one's mind to do evil, then upon reaching this life, one will first experience blessing and later misfortune; if in this life one does evil, but when the deed is only halfway done one alters one's conduct to do good, then upon reaching the next life, one will first experience misfortune and later blessing. Now as for your father and your neighbour, the response to their good and evil does not arrive according to their present deeds because it is brought about by prior karma. How could you evaluate it on the basis of a single life?" When Jayata heard these words, his doubts were instantly dispelled. The Patriarch said, "Although you have faith in the three modes of karma, you have not yet realized that karma arises from delusion, delusion exists on account of consciousness, consciousness relies on non-enlightenment, and non-enlightenment relies on mind. The mind is fundamentally pure: it has neither arising nor ceasing, neither creation nor action, neither retribution nor outcome, neither superiority nor inferiority; it is tranquil and luminous. If you enter this Dharma gate, you can be equal with all the Buddhas. All good and evil, conditioned and unconditioned, are like dreams and illusions." Jayata received these words and grasped their import; his past wisdom immediately awakened, and he earnestly requested to leave the household. After he received the full precepts, the Patriarch said, "You must carry on the traces of conversion." He then transmitted the Dharma-eye to him with a verse: "In the nature itself there is originally no arising; / For the sake of those seeking, it is spoken of. / Since in phenomena nothing is ever attained, / Why harbor doubts over whether it is determined or undetermined?" He also said, "These are the words of the Tathāgata Wonderful Sound regarding seeing the nature as pure. You should propagate them to future learners." Having spoken, he sat upon his seat, scratched his face with his fingernails until it resembled a red lotus flower, emitted great brilliant light that illuminated the four assemblies, and entered cessation. Jayata erected a stūpa to make offerings to him. This was in the era of the House of Xin under Wang Mang. (Zhengzong ji).