大乘百法明門論開宗義決 1.19

1.19

說苦樂等宿因作等者。彼見世間。雖具正方便而招於苦。雖具邪方便而致於樂。故起是思立如是論。說苦樂因定皆宿作。若現受苦由宿惡業。若勤精進極修苦行。能吐舊業現在惡因。由不作因之所害故。如是於後不復有偏宿因所感。及現苦行所招苦惱一切皆盡。能證後身苦盡涅槃。應問彼曰。若說現苦皆用宿作惡業為因。汝於現法所修苦行。為用宿作惡業為因。為用現法方便為因。若用宿作惡業為因者。說是現在新修苦行能吐舊業不應道理。若用現法方便為因。汝先所說世間苦樂皆由宿因不應道理。故知世間所受苦樂亦由現法非定宿作。或由現身聽聞正法。於現身中而得證悟。

Regarding "stating that suffering, pleasure, and the rest are caused by past actions," and so forth: they see that in the world, even though one is endowed with right means, one incurs suffering, and even though one is endowed with wrong means, one attains pleasure. Therefore, they give rise to this thought and establish such a doctrine, stating that the causes of suffering and pleasure are all definitively caused by past actions. If one currently experiences suffering, it is due to past evil karma; if one is diligently energetic and thoroughly cultivates ascetic practices, one can expel old karma and present evil causes, because they are destroyed by not creating causes. In this way, afterwards one will no longer have any bias toward what is induced by past causes, and both the suffering brought about by past causes and the suffering incurred by present ascetic practices are completely exhausted, enabling one to realize the nirvāṇa of the exhaustion of suffering in a future body. One should ask them: if you say present suffering all takes past evil karma as its cause, do the ascetic practices you cultivate in the present life take past evil karma as their cause, or do they take present means as their cause? If they take past evil karma as their cause, saying that these newly cultivated present ascetic practices can expel old karma is unreasonable. If they take present means as their cause, what you previously said—that worldly suffering and pleasure are all due to past causes—is unreasonable. Therefore, one knows that the suffering and pleasure experienced in the world are also due to the present life and are not definitively caused by the past; or through the present body hearing the true Dharma, one attains awakening in the present body.