法苑珠林 5.16

5.16

Question: 'Those born in the upper heavens have abandoned evil and accumulated goodness. Why is it that when their retribution is exhausted, they immediately enter the three bad paths?' Answer: 'Ordinary beings have had boundless evil karma since beginningless time. For a single day's greed and anger, they can receive a thousand forms; how much more so when their evil deeds are numerous! They merely temporarily suppress the defilements to be born there. Once the rewarded merit is exhausted, the time for former karma matures, and they fall back into the three bad paths; what cause for doubt is there? Thus the *Tattvasiddhi-śāstra* says: People in the form and formless realms consider it to be nirvāṇa. When approaching the end of life, they see the intermediate state of the desire or form realms, and immediately generate wrong views, thinking that there is no nirvāṇa and slandering the unsurpassed Dharma. One should know that they possess unwholesome karma. Moreover, the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* says: Dying in the heaven of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, one falls into the Avīci hell. Thus we know that transmigration throughout the three realms is entirely suffering. Third, clarifying the suffering of the devas of the desire realm: when they engage in battle in those heavens, they mutually harm one another, suffering both physically and mentally. If their thighs or joints are severed, they grow back again; but if their heads are cut off or their waists severed, then there is the suffering of death. As the *Abhidharma* states, the devas of the desire realm have the ten paths of karma and are free from immoral conduct. Although devas do not harm devas, they harm other destinies. Also, if their hands or feet are severed, they are cut off and grow back again; if their heads are cut off, they die. Mutually dispossessing one another, they even possess all ten paths of karma. Furthermore, when their merit is about to be exhausted, the five signs of decay appear, causing them great sorrow and anguish. Thus the *Nirvāṇa-sūtra* says: Although in the heavens there are no major afflictions or suffering, their bodies are supple, delicate, and smooth; when they see the five signs, they undergo extreme suffering, no different from the sufferings of hell. It is like poison mixed with food, delicious at first but bitter afterward. Therefore a verse in the *Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra* says: