大乘百法明門論開宗義決 1.25

1.25

Regarding the "doctrine of annihilation after death," and so forth: relying on worldly wisdom, they make this thought: if there were a body again for the self after death, one would receive karmic retribution without having done deeds. If the essential nature of the self were entirely and perpetually non-existent, how could the karmic fruit experienced exist? Observing that both of these are logically impossible, they therefore give rise to this view and establish such a doctrine. Now one should ask them: for one who holds the view of annihilation, is it the aggregates that are annihilated, or is it the self that is annihilated? If the aggregates are annihilated: the nature of the aggregates is impermanent; since they are neither permanently existent nor permanently non-existent, cause and effect arise continuously in succession; therefore, to say the aggregates are annihilated is unreasonable. If the self is annihilated: what you previously said—that the coarse material body is annihilated after death—being subsumed under the gods of sensual pleasures, the gods of material form, and the four formless realms, is unreasonable.