成實論

CHAPTER 104: THE THREE KINDS OF KARMIC RECOMPENSE

Question: In the sutras, the Buddha speaks of three kinds of karmic recompense: recompense in the present life, recompense in the next life, and recompense in a subsequent life. What are these three?

Answer: If karma is created through this body and its recompense is experienced through this very body, it is called recompense in the present life. If karma is created in this life and its recompense is experienced in the next life, it is called recompense in the next life. If karma is created in this life but its fruit is not experienced until one or more lives after the next, it is called recompense in a subsequent life, because it occurs after the next life.

Question: At which point is the karmic recompense of the intermediate-existence body experienced?

Answer: It is experienced in two places. Karma pertaining to the intermediate existence immediately preceding rebirth is experienced as recompense in the next life. Because modes of birth differ, an intermediate existence is said to exist. Karma pertaining to other intermediate existences is experienced as recompense in a subsequent life.

Question: Are these three kinds of karma determined with respect to their recompense or determined with respect to the life in which it occurs?

Answer: Some say: “Their recompense is determined: karma determined to bear recompense in the present life will certainly bear recompense in the present life. The other two kinds are likewise.” Although this doctrine exists, its meaning is incorrect. Why?

If that were so, it would not be only the five heinous offenses that are called karma of determined recompense, yet the Six-Pada Abhidharma also says that the five heinous offenses are karma of determined recompense. Moreover, the Sutra on the Measure of Salt also speaks of what is undetermined. There is karma whose fruit should be experienced in hell, yet because a person cultivates the body, morality, mind, and wisdom, he may experience its fruit in this very life.

Therefore, these three kinds of karma must be determined with respect to the life in which they bear fruit, for karma pertaining to the present life does not necessarily bear fruit in the present life. But if it does bear fruit, it must be experienced in the present life and nowhere else. The other two kinds of karma are likewise.

Question: What kind of karma is capable of bearing recompense in the present life?

Answer: Some say that karma which is keen and swift bears recompense immediately. For example, wholesome or unwholesome karma performed toward the Buddha, noble ones, parents, and the like immediately bears its fruit. If karma is not keen but is weighty, its recompense is experienced in the next life, as with the five heinous offenses and the like.

If it is both keen and weighty, its recompense is experienced in a life after the next, as with the karma of a wheel-turning king or the karma of a bodhisattva. Others say that these three kinds of karma accord with one’s aspiration concerning their recompense. If one performs karma while aspiring to experience its result in the present life, it is experienced in the present life.

For example, Lady Mallikā offered her portion of food to the Buddha and aspired to become the king’s queen in that very life. The other two kinds of karma are likewise. Furthermore, whichever karma ripens first is experienced first.

Question: What does it mean for past karma to ripen?

Answer: When the characteristics of weightiness are fully present, it is said to have ripened.

Question: Can karma be produced in one thought-moment and its recompense experienced in the immediately following thought-moment?

Answer: No. It is experienced only after some delay, just as a seed gradually produces a sprout. The law of karma is likewise.

Question: Can those who are still in the womb, deeply asleep, insane, and so forth accumulate karma?

Answer: In such conditions, whenever thought is present, karma can be accumulated, but it is not complete.

Question: After departing from the plane of this Desire Realm, can one still produce karma belonging to this Desire Realm?

Answer: Those who possess the thought of self accumulate such karma. Those who are free from the thought of self no longer accumulate it.

Question: Arhats also pay homage, cultivate merit, and so forth. Why do these actions not accumulate karma?

Answer: Karma accumulates because of a mind that conceives of sentient beings. Since arhats have no thought of self, their actions do not accumulate karma. Moreover, the minds of arhats are undefiled, and those whose minds are undefiled do not accumulate karma. Furthermore, the sutra says: “One who has ended both demeritorious and meritorious karma is called an arhat.” Such a person accumulates neither demeritorious nor meritorious karma, nor immovable karma. Having finished experiencing old karma, he creates no new karma.

Question: Do those who are still in training accumulate karma?

Answer: They too no longer accumulate it. Why? The sutra says: “This person has shattered all karma, neither accumulating nor storing it up, and has extinguished it entirely.” Some treatise masters say that because those in training still possess self-conceit, they also accumulate karma; yet through the power of the wisdom of non-self, they do not necessarily experience its recompense.

Question: Where can these three kinds of karma be created?

Answer: They can be created everywhere throughout the three realms.

Question: Does undetermined karma exist or not?

Answer: It exists. If karma may bear recompense in the present life, in the next life, or in a subsequent life, it is called undetermined. Karma of this kind is abundant.

Question: What benefit is gained by understanding these three kinds of karma?

Answer: If one can distinguish these three kinds of karma, right view will arise. Why? One presently sees some who commit evil yet enjoy wealth and honor, while virtuous people undergo suffering. In response to this, one may give rise to the wrong view that wholesome and unwholesome actions have no recompense. If one understands the distinctions among these three kinds of karma, right view will arise. As the verse says:

“One who does evil may see happiness,

Because the evil has not yet ripened;

When the evil ripens,

He himself sees that he undergoes suffering.

One who does good may see suffering,

Because the good has not yet ripened;

When the good ripens,

He himself sees that he enjoys happiness.”

Furthermore, the Sutra on the Analysis of Great Karma says: “One who has not abandoned killing may be reborn in heaven.” If this person possesses merit from a previous life and, at the time of death, gives rise to a powerful wholesome mind, he can understand this and thereby give rise to right view. Therefore, one should understand the characteristics of these three kinds of karma.

CHAPTER 105: KARMA RECOMPENSED BY THE THREE KINDS OF FEELING

Question: In the sutras, the Buddha speaks of three kinds of karmic recompense: recompense experienced as pleasure, recompense experienced as pain, and karmic recompense experienced as neither pain nor pleasure. What are these three?

Answer: Wholesome karma receives pleasant recompense; unwholesome karma receives painful recompense; and immovable karma receives recompense that is neither painful nor pleasant. Such karma does not necessarily have to be experienced, but if it is experienced, it yields pleasant recompense and not painful recompense or the like. The other two kinds of karma are likewise.

Question: These karmas also yield form as recompense. Why is only feeling mentioned?

Answer: Among all forms of recompense, feeling is supreme. Feeling is the actual recompense, while form and the like serve as its instruments. Furthermore, feeling may be named in reference to an object, as when one speaks of a painful fire or a pleasant fire. Or the fruit may be spoken of as present in the cause, as when one who gives food is said to give five benefits. It is also like speaking of “eating money,” and so forth.

Question: From the Desire Realm up through the third dhyana, can one experience karmic recompense that is neither painful nor pleasant?

Answer: One can.

Question: Through the recompense of what karma?

Answer: It is the recompense of inferior wholesome karma. Superior wholesome karma yields pleasant recompense.

Question: If so, why is it said to occur in the fourth dhyana and the formless concentrations?

Answer: There it belongs to those planes themselves. Why? Because in those states there is only this single kind of recompense and no other kind of feeling, since they are quiescent.

Question: Some say that sorrow is not karmic recompense. What of this?

Answer: Why would it not be?

Question: Sorrow arises solely through anxious conceptual discrimination, whereas karmic recompense is not conceptual discrimination. Moreover, if sorrow were karmic recompense, karmic recompense would be light; therefore, it is not recompense. Furthermore, sorrow is eliminated when one becomes free from desire, whereas karmic recompense is not eliminated when one becomes free from desire. Therefore, it should be understood that sorrow is not karmic recompense.

Answer: You say that sorrow arises from conceptual discrimination and therefore is not retribution. Yet pleasure is also karmic retribution. This pleasure is of two kinds: first, pleasure; second, joy.

But pleasure and joy also arise from conceptual discrimination, so should they not be called retribution? You say that the karmic retribution is slight. This sorrow is more severe than pain.

Why is this? Because sorrow belongs to the foolish; those possessed of wisdom do not sorrow. Therefore, it is difficult to eliminate and can also give rise to profound afflictions.

Moreover, the Treatise on the Four Hundred Contemplations says: “The petty person suffers in body; the noble person grieves in mind.” Furthermore, this grief and anxiety can be ended only through wisdom, whereas bodily pain can also be removed when pleasure arises. Moreover, sorrow can produce painful distress throughout the three periods of time, as when one thinks: “I suffered before, I suffer now, and I shall suffer again.” Furthermore, sorrow is the dwelling place of the afflictions.

As a sutra says, it is the abode of the afflictions. Therefore, eighteen kinds of mental activity are taught, because afflictions do not arise within the five consciousnesses. Moreover, a sutra says: “Sorrow is like two arrows, because one undergoes suffering twice.

It is as though a person were pierced in the same place by two arrows and thus suffered twice as much.” In this way, when a foolish person is oppressed by suffering, he further increases his grief and anxiety; therefore, his bodily and mental anguish is far greater than ordinary suffering. Moreover, the foolish are constantly grieved and anxious. Why is this?

Because they are separated from those they love, brought together with those they hate, and fail to obtain what they seek; therefore, they constantly undergo grief, sorrow, suffering, and distress. Furthermore, this sorrow arises from two causes: first, it arises from joy; second, it arises from sorrow. Losing something one cherishes is sorrow arising from joy.

As stated in a sutra: “The Buddha asked King Prasenajit, ‘Do you cherish the realm of Kasi-Kosala?’” It also says: “The devas delight in form and crave form. If that form perishes, sorrow and suffering arise.” This is called sorrow arising from joy. As for sorrow arising from sorrow: it arises from hateful circumstances and also from jealousy and the like.

In those who have not departed from sensual desire, jealousy and the other fetters constantly torment the mind. Thus it is said that devas and humans possess many fetters of stinginess and jealousy. Moreover, many beings receive the retribution of sorrow and suffering because they have provoked others, just as it is said that fruit arises in accordance with the seed planted.

Therefore, one should know that sorrow is karmic retribution. You say that because it is ended upon departing from sensual desire, it is therefore not retribution. This is unreasonable.

A stream-enterer, though not yet free from sensual desire, has nevertheless put an end to retribution in hell and the other evil destinies. Can it be said that retribution in hell and the other evil destinies is not severe karmic retribution? Therefore, one cannot call something non-retribution merely because it is ended upon departing from sensual desire.

Question: The retribution of karma that is neither painful nor pleasant is called immovable. Since this karma is wholesome, it ought to bring pleasant retribution. Why, then, does it instead bring retribution that is neither painful nor pleasant?

Answer: This immovable feeling is itself true pleasure. Because it is quiescent, it is called neither painful nor pleasant. Moreover, a sutra says: “Within pleasant feeling, craving operates as the underlying tendency.” Since craving for it operates as an underlying tendency within that feeling, one should know that it is pleasure.

CHAPTER 106: THE THREE OBSTRUCTIONS

Question: A sutra speaks of three obstructions: the obstruction of karma, the obstruction of afflictions, and the obstruction of retribution. What is each of these?

Answer: Any karma, affliction, or retribution that can obstruct the path to liberation is called an obstruction.

Question: What Dharma can they obstruct?

Answer: The wholesome practices of generosity and morality, when dedicated toward rebirth in the three realms, can obstruct the Path. Moreover, karma whose retribution is certain to be experienced also constitutes an obstruction. As a sutra says: “If this person is assuredly destined to undergo accumulated karmic retribution, he will not enter the stage of certainty.” This is called the obstruction of karma.

Furthermore, if a person’s afflictions are dense and increasing, constantly abiding in the mind, this is the obstruction of afflictions. Again, when a person’s afflictions cannot be eliminated—as with impotent men and others who nevertheless entertain thoughts of desire—this is also called the obstruction of afflictions. Furthermore, birth in places resulting from evil deeds, such as the hells and the other evil destinies, and birth in any place where one cannot cultivate the Path are all called the obstruction of retribution.

Question: Some people do not fully understand the character of those before them and do not know whether they are virtuous, so they refrain from giving, thinking: “If, because of my gift, that person gains the means to commit evil deeds, then I share a portion of the responsibility.” This applies, for example, to brahmins and other renunciants. Therefore, should one not give to renunciants, since one thereby causes them to create new karma, become bound, and be obstructed from liberation?

Answer: It is not so. Whether another person commits evil or cultivates merit has no bearing upon me. Why?

Because if merely serving as a condition entailed sharing in the resulting merit or evil, many faults would follow. Why is this? Beings serve as a condition for killing; if there were no beings, what could one kill?

If so, the person killed ought to share in the guilt. Likewise, the wealthy serve as a condition for stealing. Beauty serves as a condition for sexual misconduct.

Other people serve as conditions for lying and so forth. False claims and the like serve as conditions for fraud. Would the buyer, then, also be guilty?

Moreover, since the recipient serves as a condition for the donor, should the recipient also gain merit? If someone digs wells and ponds and the like, should all who use the water likewise gain merit? If so, one would have no need to cultivate merit oneself.

But in truth this is not so. Therefore, merely serving as a condition entails neither guilt nor merit. Moreover, the recipient’s share of merit ought then to become exhausted, and that person should not accept gifts from others.

Why? Because he would be exchanging his own share of merit for food and drink. Furthermore, a donor would incur much guilt and little merit.

Why? How many brahmins are truly capable of cultivating goodness? Most have minds defiled by the three poisons, are immersed in the five desires, and do not diligently practice.

Therefore, the donor ought to incur much guilt and gain little merit. Moreover, brahmins and others claim that they are presently cultivating wholesome Dharmas. Yet in truth, these people cannot collect the mind and correctly contemplate the Dharmas of meditative concentration.

Apart from meditative concentration, the mind is difficult to tame. Therefore, should a donor who gives to someone not yet free from sensual desire incur much guilt? Furthermore, if those who make offerings to their parents, provide for their wives and children, relatives, kin, and friends all ought to incur guilt, then no one would gain any share of merit.

But in truth this is not so. Therefore, guilt and merit do not lie in merely serving as a condition. Furthermore, such practices as observing the precepts also benefit others.

Because a person does not kill, he gives life to all beings; should one who observes the precepts therefore incur a great share of guilt? Because he is not killed, another person may live long and commit evil deeds. If the observer of the precepts must share in all those evils, then anyone seeking merit should simply kill rather than observe the precepts.

Again, suppose someone teaches the Dharma and thereby causes others to cultivate merit. Through cultivating merit, they later become wealthy and honored. Because they are wealthy and honored, they become arrogant and heedless; because they are arrogant and heedless, they commit evil deeds.

Must the Dharma teacher share responsibility for all these evils? Furthermore, if one serves as a condition that causes another to become wealthy, and that person commits offenses because of his wealth, should the donor also bear a share of them? If so, brahmins should only receive and never give, nor should they give to anyone.

But since brahmins now only receive and do not give, one should know that theirs is a false path. Furthermore, would kings who govern their people in accordance with the Dharma also incur guilt? Again, if a child commits an offense, must the parents bear responsibility?

If so, they ought not to have children. Likewise, should a skilled physician who cures an illness also incur guilt because the person whose life is saved may commit many offenses? When timely rain nourishes the five grains, should heaven also incur guilt because it saves and sustains many evil beings?

Moreover, one who gives food should also incur guilt, because the recipient might fail to digest the food and die; and because those not yet free from sensual desire are attached to and intoxicated by flavors, the donor should also incur guilt. If so, before giving food, the donor should always require the recipient to swear: “Having now eaten your food, I shall certainly commit no evil,” and only afterward give it. If the donor does not do so, he loses on both counts.

Question: The sutras also say: “If a bhikshu eats the donor’s food, wears the donor’s robes, and enters the immeasurable meditative concentrations, then through these causes and conditions that donor gains immeasurable merit.” If merit can be gained through these causes and conditions, why would one not likewise incur wrongdoing?

Answer: If a bhikshu uses a donor’s food and robes and enters the immeasurable meditative concentrations, it is the merit of the donor’s own giving that increases; the donor does not acquire the merit of the meditative concentration. It is like a good field yielding an abundant harvest, while a poor field yields little. Likewise, when the field of merit is good, it repays the donor with abundant merit; when the field of merit is poor, the merit is slight.

It is not the case that the recipient’s performance of meritorious or wrongful deeds affects the giver. Therefore, one does not incur wrongdoing or gain merit through another’s causes and conditions of wrongdoing or merit. Although that person serves as a cause and condition, wrongdoing and merit must arise from the three kinds of karma one personally performs.

Question: One who has not yet abandoned sensual desire has no mastery over the mind and certainly harbors attachments; therefore, renunciants should not practice giving.

Answer: If that were so, then renunciants also gain merit and virtue from keeping the precepts and all other practices, and these too should be abandoned. Yet one should simply not dedicate them toward the three realms, but should direct them toward nirvana. Moreover, one should only abandon the afflictions and unwholesome karmas. Why is this? While these karmas are still at the causal stage, they can be guarded against; once their fruits have arrived, nothing more can be done. Therefore, all Buddhas always teach and transform beings with the Dharma while causes are being formed. They are unlike King Yama, who waits until the fruit has ripened before teaching through rebuke and punishment.

Question: Of these three karmic obstructions, which is the heaviest?

Answer: Some say that the obstruction of retribution is the heaviest because one who experiences it cannot be taught and transformed. Others say that, depending upon the person, any of them may be heavy.

Question: Which of them can be transformed?

Answer: All can be brought to cessation. If something can be transformed, it is not called an obstruction.

CHAPTER 107: THE FOUR KINDS OF KARMA

Question: In the sutras, the Buddha taught four kinds of karma: dark karma with dark retribution, bright karma with bright retribution, dark-and-bright karma with dark-and-bright retribution, and karma that is neither dark nor bright and has no retribution, because it brings all karma to cessation. What are these four kinds?

Answer: Dark karma with dark retribution is any karma that leads to rebirth in a place of affliction, such as the Avici hell and other painful states in which there is no pleasant retribution, including a small portion of the animal and hungry ghost realms. The opposite of this is the second kind of karma. It is any karma that leads to rebirth in a place without affliction, such as the two realms of form and formlessness, and a small portion of the human and heavenly states in the desire realm.

Karma in which darkness and brightness are intermingled is the third kind. It is any karma that leads to rebirth in a place where affliction and non-affliction coexist, including a small portion of the hell, animal, hungry ghost, human, and heavenly states. The fourth kind is called undefiled because it can bring the other three kinds of karma to complete cessation.

If karma is condemned in both lives—condemned now and condemned hereafter—then the person who commits it incurs wrongdoing and falls into a dark place, without honor or renown; hence, it is called dark. Moreover, it brings suffering in both lives—suffering now and suffering hereafter—and therefore is called dark.

Question: What kind of karma can produce rebirth in a place of unmitigated affliction?

Answer: Continuously committing evil with an unbroken succession of thoughts, without remorse and without any wholesome deed to counteract the evil karma—this is called karma capable of producing rebirth in a place of unmitigated affliction. It also includes committing various evils with a perverse mind; doing evil to persons of great importance, namely one’s father, mother, and other virtuous persons; and doing evil to sentient beings without retaining the slightest compassion, such as killing beings, plundering all their possessions, imprisoning them and withholding food, or severely beating and torturing them so that they have not the slightest happiness.

Karmas such as these produce rebirth in a place of pure suffering. Bright karma with bright retribution is exemplified by a person who purely accumulates wholesome deeds without any unwholesome deeds. The power of these two kinds of karma is extremely great and cannot be surpassed by other karmas.

When one undergoes the retribution of dark karma, bright retribution is not admitted; when one undergoes the retribution of bright karma, dark retribution is not admitted. Why is this? All sentient beings accumulate both wholesome and unwholesome karma, whose powers obstruct one another, and thus their retributions cannot be experienced simultaneously.

It is like two people pulling the same object in opposite directions: whichever is stronger pulls it away first. The retribution of the third kind of karma is weaker. Because wholesome and unwholesome elements are intermingled, their retributions are experienced alternately, with each prevailing in turn.

Question: Some say: Unwholesome karma that brings retribution in the evil destinations is called the first kind of karma. Wholesome karma bound to the form realm is called the second kind. Karma bound to the desire realm, through which humans and heavenly beings undergo mixed retribution, is called the third kind. The mental volitions of the seventeen stages of trainees on the Path of Uninterrupted Practice are called the fourth kind of karma. What does this mean?

Answer: The Buddha himself explained the characteristics of these karmas. If a person commits offenses through body, speech, and mind, that person is reborn in a place of affliction, experiences bodily suffering, and receives all manner of sensations that do not accord with their wishes. Therefore, whatever causes sentient beings to proceed to a place of unmitigated suffering is called the first kind of karma.

In the form and formless realms, beings experience pure happiness; and among humans and heavenly beings of the desire realm, there are also some who experience pure happiness. As the sutra says: “There are happy people who, through the six kinds of contact, experience sensory objects, none of which fail to accord with their wishes.” This is the second kind of karma. Creating karma in which darkness and brightness are intermingled is the third kind.

All undefiled karma brings all karmas to cessation because it opposes them. It is not merely the mental volitions of the seventeen stages of trainees that are called the fourth kind of karma.

Question: The undefiled is truly bright; why is it called not bright?

Answer: This characteristic of brightness is different and not the same as the brightness of the second kind of karma. This brightness is supremely excellent because it has no counterpart. For example, it is said that a wheel-turning sage king possesses eyes purer and more excellent than those of humans and heavenly beings.

In truth, that person’s eyes surpass those of other people and therefore are called superhuman. This karma is likewise: because it surpasses all other bright karmas, it is said to be not bright. Some also say that it should be called karma with retribution that is neither dark nor bright; stated thus, there is no fault.

Moreover, nirvana should not be called bright. Therefore, this karma should be called not bright. It should also be described as neither bright nor dark.

Why is this? Nirvana is called the unconditioned. Because this karma leads to nirvana, it is called neither dark nor bright.

Furthermore, worldly people prize wholesome, defiled karma and therefore call it bright. Since the fourth kind of karma can relinquish such karma, it is called not bright. Moreover, because this karma has no dark characteristic, no bright characteristic can be established for it either.

Furthermore, karma is called bright because its retribution is bright. Since this karma has no retribution, it is not called bright.

CHAPTER 108: THE FIVE HEINOUS OFFENSES

Because their retribution is experienced in the immediately following life, they are called “without interval.” If their retribution were experienced in the present life, the suffering would be light and the retribution slight. Because these karmas are grave, one quickly falls, in due sequence and without interval, into the Avici hell. They are called the five heinous offenses because they are committed against fields of merit endowed with weighty virtue.

They are: maliciously causing a schism in the Sangha, shedding the Buddha’s blood, killing an arhat, killing one’s father, and killing one’s mother. Because they betray the kindness of those who nurtured and raised one, they are called heinous offenses. These offenses can arise only in the human realm, not in the other realms, because human beings possess distinctive understanding.

Question: Does killing another holy person constitute a heinous offense?

Answer: One who kills a holy person will most often fall into hell, but one who kills an arhat will certainly fall into hell. If a person strikes the Buddha without drawing blood, that person still incurs a grave offense because they deliberately intended to harm the Blessed One.

Question: If a person who commits one heinous offense falls into hell, then if someone commits two or three, are the retributions of all of them experienced in a single body?

Answer: Because the offenses are numerous, that person undergoes severe suffering for a long time. After dying there, the person is born again in that same place.

Question: Why is the offense of causing a schism in the Sangha so grave?

Answer: If one knows a wrong dharma to be wrong and a right dharma to be right, and the mind arises in this way, it is called grave. If one regards what is not Dharma as Dharma and Dharma as not Dharma, this is not as in the preceding case. Furthermore, if someone, while in the presence of the Buddha, causes a schism in the Sangha and proclaims himself a Great Teacher worthy of the highest honor among gods and humans, that too is grave.

Question: If one is not a noble person but an ordinary person, how can causing a schism be called a grave offense?

Answer: Because it obstructs the true Dharma, it is called a grave offense.

Question: How long does the schism in the Sangha last?

Answer: It does not endure for long, not even through a single night. The Brahma kings, the devas, and the great disciples such as Venerable Sariputra immediately reunite the Sangha. Some say that these five hundred bhiksus had, in a former life, created causes and conditions that obstructed others’ wholesome roots for attaining the Path, and therefore now received this retribution.

Furthermore, because the minds of ordinary persons are impetuous, they can easily be disrupted. Even one who has merely realized the worldly contemplation of emptiness and non-self cannot be disrupted, much less one who has attained the unconditioned state free from outflows! It is because evil desire dwells within the mind that one creates the causes and conditions for schism in the Sangha.

Therefore, those who seek merit must abandon evil desires.

CHAPTER 109: THE FIVE PRECEPTS

The Buddha taught that an upasaka observes five precepts.

Question: Some say that only when one undertakes them completely does one acquire the discipline of moral restraint. How is this matter to be understood?

Answer: Whether one undertakes many or few, one acquires moral restraint accordingly. Nevertheless, five have been selected.

Question: Why are freedom from bondage and the like not called precepts, while only abstention from killing and the like are mentioned?

Answer: Because these are their related attendants.

Question: Why is complete abstention from sexual activity not taught, while only abstention from sexual misconduct is taught?

Answer: Because householders still live in the worldly life, it is difficult for them always to abstain from it. Furthermore, sexual relations with one’s own spouse do not necessarily cause one to fall into the evil destinies; stream-enterers and others still practice in this way. Therefore, complete abstention from sexual desire is not taught.

Question: Why are abstention from divisive speech and the like not called precepts?

Answer: These matters are subtle and difficult to guard. Furthermore, divisive speech and the like are included within false speech. If one speaks of “all false speech,” they have already been included collectively.

Question: Is drinking alcohol an offense in itself?

Answer: No. Why is this? Because drinking alcohol does not itself harm sentient beings; it merely serves as a cause for offenses to arise. If a person drinks alcohol, the door to unwholesomeness is opened. Therefore, one who encourages another to drink alcohol incurs a share of the offense, because alcohol can obstruct wholesome dharmas, meditative concentration, and the like. It is like planting various fruit trees and necessarily building a wall or fence to protect them. Thus, the other four acts are actual offenses, and abstaining from them is actual merit. Because this precept serves as a safeguard, the precept against alcohol was established.

CHAPTER 110: THE SIX KINDS OF KARMA

There are six kinds of karma. The six kinds of karmic retribution are rebirth in hell, as an animal, as a hungry ghost, as a human, as a deva, and indeterminate retribution.

Question: What are these kinds like?

Answer: Karma bringing retribution in hell is extensively explained in the Lokaprajnapti section of the Six-Pada Abhidharma. Moreover, the offenses of killing and the like all lead to hell. As a sutra says: “One who delights in killing is born in hell; if reborn as a human, one receives the retribution of a short life. The same applies through to wrong views.”

Question: It is already known that the ten unwholesome courses of action bring retribution in hell and also cause rebirth among animals, hungry ghosts, and humans. Yet you speak only of rebirth in hell and among humans. You should now explain separately which karma brings retribution exclusively in hell.

Answer: With regard to these very sinful karmas, the gravest bring retribution in hell, while the lighter bring retribution among animals and the like. Furthermore, if the three aspects of wrong conduct are complete, the result is hell; if other karmas are incomplete, the result is rebirth as an animal or the like. Furthermore, intentionally committing a grave offense leads to hell.

Those who have destroyed the precepts and right views and then commit evil karma go to hell. Those who do evil with a deeply committed mind, whose minds and conduct are corrupted, go to hell when they create evil karma. Those who perform unwholesome karma in order to support unwholesomeness go to hell.

Those who commit unwholesome karma against noble sages go to hell. Those who initiate unwholesome karma, continue cultivating and accumulating unwholesomeness, and afterward praise and delight in it, unwilling to abandon it, go to hell. Those who commit sinful karma with a mind of hatred and anger go to hell; if they do it for wealth, they also receive further retribution.

Those who undertake unwholesome karma with a mind of wrong view go to hell. Those who have broken the precepts and commit sinful karma go to hell. Those who commit sinful karma without shame or moral dread go to hell.

Those of evil disposition who commit sinful karma go to hell, just as moist earth turns to mud with even a little rain. Those who habitually practice unwholesomeness and commit evil karma go to hell. Those who commit evil karma without being driven by urgent necessity or distress go to hell.

Those who have not attained even a slight realization of emptiness and non-self and, because of their deep attachment, commit sinful karma go to hell. Those who have not cultivated body, morality, mind, and wisdom and commit evil karma go to hell. Ordinary persons who commit sinful karma go to hell.

Why is this? Because they do not understand the dharmas—the skandhas, dhatus, ayatanas, the twelve links of dependent origination, and the like. Because they do not understand, they do what should not be done and fail to do what should be done; they say what should not be said and fail to say what should be said; they think what should not be thought and fail to think what should be thought.

Even if the sinful karma committed by such persons is slight, it still leads to hell.

Furthermore, one who does not perceive the faults in unwholesomeness can give rise to grave sinful karma and receive retribution in hell. One who commits an offense without relying upon wholesome support goes to hell, just as a debtor who cannot rely upon a king is easily pressed for payment by the creditor. One whose wholesome karma is weak may go to hell for committing even a slight offense, just as a person whose bodily heat is weak cannot digest even a small amount of hard-to-digest food.

One who practices only unwholesomeness without the admixture of even a little wholesome karma goes to hell, just as bandits, whether their crimes are grave or light, are all bound. One who abandons all wholesome roots, like a war elephant entering battle without concern even for its own head, goes to hell upon committing an offense. One who practices an inferior teaching and accepts instruction from an inferior teacher is declared blameworthy and goes to hell, just as an impoverished person in debt is dragged away by the rich.

One who continually nourishes unwholesomeness, like a debt that accrues interest day by day—as in the occupations of butchers, hunters, and the like—goes to hell. One who conceals offenses goes to hell, just as an ulcer festers and discharges pus. When unwholesomeness remains long within a person’s mind and cannot quickly be eliminated, it leads to hell, just as poison, once administered, can immediately kill a person.

One who not only personally commits unwholesome deeds but also teaches others to do so, thereby opening many doors of suffering for sentient beings, goes to hell. Examples include kings and many influential companions who engage in evil and wrong conduct, causing many people to imitate them, as did Purana and others. Those who create karma that harms many sentient beings, such as burning forests, and who instruct many others, causing them to fall into what is contrary to the Dharma, as hunters and the like do, go to hell.

Those who use evil karma as their livelihood, such as leaders of bands of robbers, butchers, hunters, and the like, go to hell. Those who utterly break the precepts and commit sinful karma go to hell. Because they do not abandon this conduct even at death, it is called utter.

As the verse says:

One who utterly breaks the precepts

Is like a tree entwined by vines;

The evil committed by that person’s body

Brings satisfaction to the enemy.

Furthermore, if one becomes angry without cause and, because of this angry mind, creates sinful karma, the result is hell. If there is a cause for the anger, the offense does not reach such a degree. Furthermore, if karma arising from anger becomes a heavy fetter, the result is hell.

As the sutra says: “Anger is a grave offense, yet it is easily eliminated.” Furthermore, if an evil mind has become one’s habitual nature, the result is hell; but if sinful karma arises because of particular causes and conditions, it is comparatively slight. Furthermore, if a heedless person creates evil karma, the result is hell. If one receives the protection of a spiritual friend, one may be reborn in heaven.

For example, when the butcher named Tá-Bà was about to die, Venerable Sariputra came to where he was. The man immediately glared maliciously at Sariputra, but could do nothing, and cried out: “Come a little closer.” He then sighed deeply and saw Sariputra’s radiant form shining brilliantly. Thereupon he thought: “This man is superior to me; I should not kill him.” With a pure mind, he looked Sariputra up and down seven times.

Through this cause and condition, he was reborn in heaven seven times and in the human realm seven times. Later, through cultivation, he realized the fruit of a pratyekabuddha. Furthermore, although Angulimala had committed many sinful deeds and was even planning to kill his mother, because the Buddha was the supreme spiritual friend, he immediately attained liberation.

Likewise, the person who made an offering by means of a fire pit and poisoned food, wishing to poison and harm the Buddha, also attained liberation because the Buddha was his spiritual friend. Although such people possessed evil karma, they did not fall into hell. Therefore it is said: “If a heedless person creates evil karma, the result is hell.” Furthermore, if one has severed one’s roots of goodness so that they can no longer be restored, as in the case of Devadatta and others, one is like a sick person in whom the signs of death have already appeared; when such a person commits an offense, the result is hell.

Furthermore, if a person has not habitually practiced goodness, it will be difficult for a wholesome mind to arise when death approaches. Because this person’s mind is filled with remorse, he falls into hell. Furthermore, if a person gives rise to wrong views at the time of death, then, because previous unwholesomeness is the cause and wrong view is the condition, he falls into hell.

In this way, there are many kinds of karma resulting in retribution in hell. Moreover, one master of the treatise said: “All unwholesomeness is a cause and condition for hell.” As the sutra says: “The Buddha told the bhiksus: ‘You have seen beings who engage in wrong conduct of body, wrong conduct of speech, and wrong conduct of mind. You should know that in seeing them, you are indeed seeing people destined for hell.’”

Question: We now understand the karma resulting in retribution in hell. What, then, is the karma resulting in rebirth as an animal?

Answer: If a person’s goodness is impure and he creates unwholesome karma, he falls into the animal realm. Furthermore, when the fetters are intensely active, one falls into the animal realm. Thus, when lust is intense, one is reborn among sparrows, pigeons, mandarin ducks, and the like; when anger is intense, one is reborn among snakes, centipedes, scorpions, and other venomous creatures; when delusion is intense, one is reborn among pigs, goats, and the like; because of arrogance, one is reborn among lions, leopards, tigers, and the like; when fondness for dancing and leaping is intense, one is reborn among apes, monkeys, and the like; because of jealousy and similar afflictions, one is reborn among dogs and the like.

Likewise, when various other afflictions are intense, one is reborn among many other kinds of animals. If a person has practiced even a small measure of giving, then although reborn as an animal, he may still enjoy pleasure, as do golden-winged birds, dragons, elephants, horses, and the like. Furthermore, the retribution of verbal karma often causes one to fall into the animal realm.

Because people neither understand nor believe in the karmic retribution of actions, they create various kinds of verbal karma. For example, if one says, “That person is as frivolous as an ape or monkey,” one will be reborn among apes and monkeys. If one says that another is as gluttonous as a crow, that his speech is like the barking of a dog, that he is as fearful as a pig or goat, that his voice is like the braying of a donkey, that he walks like a camel, that he is as conceited as an elephant, as fierce as a wild buffalo, as lustful as a sparrow, as timid as a ferret or cat, as fawning as a jackal, as ferocious as a black goat, or as numerous as the hairs of an ox—by creating such evil verbal karma, one must undergo retribution in accordance with that karma.

Furthermore, because beings crave pleasure, they make various kinds of vows. If they delight in lust, they are reborn among sparrows and the like. If they hear that dragons, golden-winged birds, and the like possess great power, they create karma leading to rebirth among those species.

Furthermore, as the sutra says: “If one dies in a confined place and wishes to be in a spacious place, one is reborn as a bird. If one dies of thirst and seeks water, one is reborn in the water. If one dies of hunger and craves food, one is reborn in latrines and the like.” Furthermore, if slight and weak karma arises from delusion and is mingled with goodness, one is reborn among fleas, lice, insects, ants, and the like.

Furthermore, if one instructs others and causes them to fall into false teachings, one is reborn in a state devoid of wisdom: blind from the mother’s womb, blind until death, or as an insect within a corpse. Furthermore, because one creates mixed karma, one is reborn among animals. As the sutra says: “Animals obtain various forms in accordance with their various kinds of minds.” Furthermore, if one creates karma by which one ought to eat grass—for example, if a person speaks falsely and invokes a curse upon himself, saying, “If I have eaten this food, may I be made to eat grass,” or, “May I eat earth,” and so forth—then such karma leads to that result.

Likewise, if a person speaks harshly and reviles another, saying, “Why do you not eat grass or eat earth?” then, in accordance with those words, that person will undergo a rebirth in which he eats grass, earth, and the like. Furthermore, a person who practices impure giving receives the retribution of eating grass and the like. Furthermore, if a person incurs debts and does not repay them, he falls among oxen, goats, barking deer, deer, donkeys, horses, and the like, in order to repay his former debts.

Karma of these kinds causes one to fall into the animal realm.

Question: We now understand the karma resulting in retribution among animals. What karma causes one to fall among hungry ghosts?

Answer: Because one gives rise to miserliness and greed concerning food and drink, one falls among hungry ghosts.

Question: If a person possesses his own property and does not give it to anyone, why should he incur an offense?

Answer: If someone comes to ask this miserly and greedy person for something, he gives rise to anger and hatred because of his greed and stinginess. Because of this offense, he is reborn among hungry ghosts. Furthermore, if someone asks this miserly and greedy person for something, and though possessing it he says that he does not, he falls among hungry ghosts because of his false speech.

Furthermore, because this person has long cultivated and accumulated a miserly mind, he becomes jealous when he sees others obtain benefits and therefore falls among hungry ghosts. Furthermore, when this miserly and greedy person sees another practice giving, he becomes angry with the donor and says: “Because this beggar is accustomed to receiving things, he will surely come again to ask something of me.” Moreover, because he has long cultivated and accumulated miserliness, he not only refuses to give himself but also prevents others from giving.

Furthermore, if there is communal property, such as property belonging to the Sangha in a monastery or property belonging to brahmins in a celestial shrine, and someone monopolizes it, miserly and unwilling to give it to others, he falls among hungry ghosts. Furthermore, if a person plunders or destroys another’s food and drink, he is reborn in a place where there is no food or drink. Furthermore, if a person lacks the merit of giving, then wherever he is reborn he receives the retribution of obtaining nothing at all; moreover, he is reviled because his is the karma of a beggar, and thus he suffers there.

Furthermore, when this miserly person sees someone suffering from hunger and thirst, he has no compassionate thought for that person, and therefore is reborn in a place where he is constantly hungry and thirsty. Just as one is reborn in heaven through loving-kindness and compassion, so, because of anger and resentment, one is reborn in an evil realm. Furthermore, because of attachment to relatives and delight in one’s dwelling place, one falls among ca-lăng-già birds and the like.

Rebirth among hungry ghosts occurs because craving and attachment serve as its causes and conditions. These and similar matters are extensively explained in the Sutra on Karmic Retribution.

Question: We now understand the karma resulting in the three evil forms of retribution. Through what karma, then, is one reborn in the human and heavenly realms?

Answer: If one practices giving, observes the precepts, and cultivates wholesome karma, those of the highest grade are born among the devas, while those of the middle and lower grades are born among human beings. Moreover, those of keen faculties are born among human beings. Because they are capable of cultivating human dharmas, they are called human beings.

Furthermore, because wholesome karma is mixed, one is born among human beings. This karma has higher, middle, and lower grades; it may be performed with a concentrated mind or an unconcentrated mind, and may be pure or impure, and so forth. How is this known?

It is because human beings possess many different qualities and are not all alike. As stated in the sutra: “Killing leads to a short life; stealing leads to poverty; sexual misconduct leads to an unchaste household; false speech leads to frequent slander; divisive speech leads to discord among one’s kin; harsh speech leads to frequently hearing hateful words; frivolous speech leads others to distrust one; covetousness and jealousy lead to abundant lust; anger leads to an abundance of evil dispositions; wrong views lead to great delusion; arrogance leads to birth in a lowly station; self-conceit leads to birth with short stature; jealousy leads to a lack of dignity and virtue; stinginess leads to poverty and deprivation; anger leads to an ugly body; harming others leads to many illnesses;

giving with a mixed mind leads one to crave fine flavors without enjoying them; giving while craving flavors leads to not enjoying those flavors; untimely giving leads to failing to obtain the desired result; doubt and regret lead to birth in a borderland; practicing impure giving leads one to obtain karmic recompense only through hardship; and engaging in sexual intercourse through an improper way leads to a body that is neither male nor female.” Such are the various kinds of unwholesome karma mixed within the human realm.

Wholesome karma produces results contrary to those described above; for example, refraining from killing leads to a long life, and so forth. There are many such differences among those in the human realm; therefore, one knows that their karmic recompense is mixed. Moreover, one may be born in the human realm because of a vow.

A person who does not delight in heedlessness, is not greatly desirous, but delights in wisdom and makes a vow to obtain a human body will be born in the human realm. Furthermore, if one delights in making offerings to one’s parents and honored elders, knows how to make offerings to shramanas, brahmins, and others, takes delight in undertaking useful works, and also delights in cultivating merit and virtue, one will be born in the human realm.

Within the human realm, if one cultivates the causes and conditions of pure karma, one will be born in Uttarakuru. Moreover, if one has grown weary of and disenchanted with fields, gardens, houses, and the various things regarded as belonging to a self, one will also be born in Uttarakuru. Furthermore, if one cultivates right conduct and pure karma, does not afflict or harm others, gives away whatever wealth one obtains without attachment, personally maintains the precepts, and does not violate any of the precepts previously or subsequently undertaken, one will be born in Uttarakuru.

If one performs wholesome deeds of only slight strength, one will be born in Aparagodaniya. If those deeds are still slighter and do not equal the foregoing, one will be born in Purvavideha. Karma with wholesome recompense means that through the highest grade of pure observance of precepts and wholesome giving, one is born among the devas.

Moreover, if one has acquired a measure of wisdom and is able to subdue the various fetters, one will be born among the devas. There are also differences according to mixed karma, as explained in the section concerning the human realm. Moreover, it may occur because of a vow: upon hearing of the causes and conditions for enjoying happiness among the devas, one performs wholesome karma and vows to be reborn there, as explained in the eight meritorious places of birth.

If one cultivates loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, one is born in the Brahma worlds, up to the Realm of the Summit of Existence. Because the grades of meditative concentration therein differ, their karmic recompenses also differ. For example, if one does not skillfully eliminate drowsiness, restlessness, and so forth, the radiance of one’s body will be turbid; if one skillfully eliminates them, its radiance will be clear and bright.

Moreover, through the recompense of the highest wholesome karma, one is born among the devas and obtains all desirable things as soon as one thinks of them. If one becomes detached from material forms, attains the formless concentrations, and is born in the formless realm. Such things are called karma with wholesome recompense.

Karma with indeterminate recompense means lower-grade wholesome or unwholesome karma whose recompense may be experienced among hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, or devas.

Question: In the other four realms, wholesome karmic recompense may be obtained, but how can it be obtained in hell?

Answer: In the lesser hells there are brief intervals of respite. For example, one may escape from a fiery hell and, seeing a forest in the distance, rejoice and run toward it. Upon entering the forest, a cool wind stirs the trees and swords fall down; at that moment, one experiences temporary pleasure. Or one may see a salty river, imagine it to be clear water, and hasten straight toward it, thereby also experiencing a little pleasure. Such things are the portion of wholesome karmic recompense found in hell. This is called karma with indeterminate recompense.

CHAPTER 111: THE SEVEN UNWHOLESOME DISCIPLINES

The seven unwholesome disciplines are killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, divisive speech, harsh speech, false speech, and frivolous speech. Anyone who engages in these seven, whether completely or incompletely, is called a person who observes an unwholesome discipline.

Question: Who fulfills an unwholesome discipline?

Answer: Those who fulfill the unwholesome discipline of killing are butchers, hunters, and the like. Those who fulfill that of stealing are thieves, robbers, and the like. Those who fulfill that of sexual misconduct are those who engage in intercourse through improper ways, prostitutes, and the like.

Those who fulfill that of false speech are actors, dancers, and the like. Those who fulfill that of divisive speech are those who delight in slander and exclusively recite absurd scriptures and writings, fabricate schemes concerning affairs of state, and the like. Those who fulfill that of harsh speech are infernal wardens and the like, as well as those who make their livelihood through harsh speech.

Those who fulfill that of frivolous speech are those who compile words intended to make people laugh and amuse themselves, and the like. Some say that kings and ministers who administer royal affairs continually fulfill these unwholesome disciplines. This is incorrect.

Why? Only one who commits offenses continuously and without interruption is said to fulfill an unwholesome discipline; kings and the like are not necessarily so.

Question: How does one acquire this unwholesome discipline?

Answer: One acquires it whenever one commits evil karma.

Question: Does one acquire this discipline in relation to the killing of a single sentient being, or in relation to all sentient beings?

Answer: One acquires it in relation to all sentient beings. Just as a person who observes the precepts acquires wholesome discipline in relation to all sentient beings, so too is it with unwholesome discipline. When one kills a sentient being, one accordingly acquires two kinds of unmanifest karma: one subsumed under the offense of killing, and the other subsumed under unwholesome discipline.

Question: For how long does one continue to fulfill this unwholesome discipline?

Answer: One continually fulfills it until one has acquired the mind of renunciation.

Question: Suppose a person acquires an unwholesome discipline through a weak and pliant mind, such as a mind in which greed and the like have arisen. Does that person continue to fulfill it in that same manner, or does the person acquire it anew?

Answer: According to one’s mind and the causes and conditions of one’s afflictions, one acquires this unwholesome discipline anew. In each successive thought-moment, one continually acquires the seven kinds in relation to all sentient beings. Because these seven kinds have higher, middle, and lower grades, there are twenty-one kinds in all. Thus, in every thought-moment, one continually acquires them in relation to all sentient beings.

Question: How is this unwholesome discipline relinquished?

Answer: It is relinquished when one undertakes a wholesome discipline, and it is also relinquished at death. Moreover, if one gives rise to the profound resolve never to transgress again from that day onward, it is relinquished at that time as well. Some treatise masters say that it is relinquished when one’s sexual faculty changes. This is incorrect. Why? Those who are sexually incapable can also fulfill it. The Vinaya also states that if a bhikshu’s sexual faculty changes, the discipline is not lost. Therefore, one should know that it is not relinquished because of a change in the sexual faculty.

Question: Among the five realms, in which realm do sentient beings fulfill unwholesome discipline?

Answer: It is fulfilled only in the human realm, not in the other realms. Some say that lions, tigers, wolves, and the like, which continually sustain their lives through evil karma, should also fulfill it.

CHAPTER 112: THE SEVEN WHOLESOME DISCIPLINES

The seven wholesome disciplines are refraining from killing through refraining from frivolous speech.

Question: Can this wholesome discipline be acquired in relation to things not included among sentient beings?

Answer: Nevertheless, it must be based upon sentient beings. This wholesome discipline is of three kinds: the discipline of precepts, the discipline of meditative concentration, and the discipline of samadhi.

Question: Why is it not called the undefiled discipline?

Answer: The discipline of the uncontaminated is included within the latter two kinds, and therefore is not separately mentioned. Some masters of the treatise say: “There is also the discipline of abandonment.” This means that when one becomes detached from the Desire Realm, one acquires the wholesome discipline; because one has abandoned such evils as breaking the precepts, it is called abandonment. In truth, however, all disciplines are included within the three kinds.

Question: Can followers of non-Buddhist paths acquire this discipline of the precepts?

Answer: They can, because through body and mind they also abstain from evil. Therefore, the precept master instructs them: From this day onward, one must not commit killing or any of the other offenses.

Question: Can beings in other destinies acquire this discipline of the precepts?

Answer: The sutras state that dragons and other kinds of beings are also able to receive and observe the precepts for one day. Therefore, it should be understood that they can.

Question: Some say that impotent persons cannot acquire this discipline of the precepts. What of this?

Answer: This discipline of the precepts arises from the mind. Impotent persons also possess wholesome minds, so why should they not acquire it?

Question: Why, then, are they not permitted to become bhiksus?

Answer: Because their defilements are deep and dense, making it difficult for them to attain the Path. Moreover, such persons belong neither among bhiksus nor among bhiksunis, and therefore they are not permitted. There are also other persons who are barred from admission, such as those with crossed eyes and the like. Yet such persons can also acquire this wholesome discipline.

Question: Among those barred from becoming bhiksus are persons who have committed heinous offenses, those who have lived among the Sangha as thieves, and those who have defiled bhiksunis. Nevertheless, can such persons also possess wholesome discipline?

Answer: If those persons remain in the world, they may acquire wholesome discipline, just as they are not barred from practicing generosity, loving-kindness, and other wholesome dharmas. Likewise, what fault would there be if they possessed the worldly discipline of the precepts? Yet because they have been defiled by evil karma, which also obstructs the Noble Path, they are not permitted to leave the household life.

Question: Is wholesome discipline acquired only in relation to beings whom one is capable of killing and so forth, or is it acquired in relation to all beings?

Answer: It is acquired in relation to all beings. If this were not so, the discipline would be limited, and being limited, it would be incomplete. Moreover, such discipline could increase or decrease.

It would then be identical to the doctrine of the Nirgranthas, according to which one should not kill and so forth only within a radius of one hundred yojanas. This would entail such faults. Therefore, discipline makes no such distinctions.

If someone says, “I abstain from killing this person, but I do not abstain from killing that person,” that person does not acquire this discipline. Some masters of the treatise say: If one practices generosity or cultivates loving-kindness selectively, one still acquires merit. The precepts are likewise: by observing one precept, one acquires the merit of that one precept.

In the same way, one may acquire discipline in relation to a single being.

Question: This discipline of the precepts is of two kinds: one lasting for life and the other lasting for one day and one night. That lasting for life includes the precepts of bhiksus and upasakas. That lasting for one day and one night is the observance of the eight precepts for one day and one night. What of this?

Answer: This is not fixed. It may be for one day and one night, only one day, only one night, half a day, or half a night. One may receive them for whatever period one is capable of observing them. In leaving the household life, however, one should undertake them only for life. If someone says, “I shall receive them for only one or two months, or only one year,” this cannot be called acquiring the Dharma of leaving the household life. The five precepts are likewise.

Question: If one acquires wholesome discipline and later violates it, does one lose that discipline?

Answer: It is not lost. It is merely defiled by unwholesome dharmas.

Question: Is the discipline of the precepts acquired only in relation to beings presently existing, or in relation to beings of all three times?

Answer: It must be acquired in relation to beings of all three times. Just as one who makes offerings to past Supremely Honored Ones also gains merit, so it is with discipline. Therefore, all Buddhas possess the same category of precepts. This discipline is immeasurably manifold. In relation to a single being, seven kinds may arise. They may arise from such wholesome roots as non-greed, and may also arise from minds of superior, middling, or inferior degree; hence there are many kinds. What applies to one person in relation to all beings is likewise. Since it is constantly acquired in every thought-moment, it is immeasurable.

Question: How long does it take to acquire the discipline of the precepts?

Answer: A person who receives the precepts for one day acquires the first discipline. On the day that person receives the upasaka precepts, the second discipline is acquired. On the day that person leaves the household life and becomes a sramanera, the third discipline is acquired.

On the day that person receives full ordination, the fourth discipline is acquired. On the day that person attains meditative concentration, the fifth discipline is acquired. On the day that person attains a formless concentration, the sixth discipline is acquired.

On the day that person attains the uncontaminated, the seventh discipline is acquired. According to the fruit of the Path attained, one acquires yet another discipline, while the disciplines previously acquired are not lost. One is designated according to whichever is superior.

Thus merit continually increases, because this discipline of the precepts is constantly acquired in every thought-moment in relation to all beings. Therefore, it is said: Even four great treasure stores cannot equal one-sixteenth part of the discipline of the precepts observed for a single day. The discipline of meditation and the uncontaminated discipline accompany the activity of the mind, whereas the discipline of the precepts does not accompany the activity of the mind.

Question: Some say that the discipline of meditation exists when one enters concentration, but does not exist after one emerges from concentration. What of this?

Answer: It exists continuously, whether one has entered or emerged. This person has truly attained the state of not committing evil dharmas and is opposed to breaking the precepts. Because such a person continually refrains from evil and the wholesome mind becomes increasingly excellent, it should always be present.

Question: In the meditations of the Formless Realm there are no dharmas that violate the precepts. Against what, then, is this discipline opposed such that it is called wholesome discipline?

Answer: It must indeed be so. All sages and noble ones acquire wholesome discipline. If such discipline existed only because it was opposed to breaking the precepts, then wholesome discipline would be acquired solely by refraining from harming beings. This would entail such faults, and therefore that position is unreasonable.

CHAPTER 113: THE EIGHT FASTING PRECEPTS

The eight fasting precepts are called upavasa, which in the language of Qin is translated as “wholesome abiding.” Because for one night the activity of this person’s mind is able to abstain from breaking the precepts, it is called wholesome abiding.

Question: Why is abstention from only these eight things taught?

Answer: These are eight gateways. Through these eight dharmas one abstains from all evil. Among them, four are intrinsically evil; drinking alcohol is a gateway to evil; and the other three are causes and conditions of heedlessness. Abstaining from the five evils is a cause and condition of merit; abstaining from the other three is a cause and condition of the Path. The wholesome dharmas of worldly people are generally weak, and they can initiate causes and conditions of the Path only through these eight dharmas, thereby fulfilling the Dharma of the Five Vehicles.

Question: Must the eightfold fasting precepts be received in full, or may one receive whatever portion one is able to observe?

Answer: One may observe them according to one’s ability. Some say that this Dharma consists solely of fasting precepts for one day and one night. This is unreasonable.

According to the greater or lesser number of precepts received, one may observe them for half a day or for as long as a month. What fault would there be in this? Some say that they must be received from another person.

This too is not fixed. If no one is present to transmit them, one may simply bear them in mind and say aloud: “I observe the eight precepts.” These precepts have five kinds of purity: 1. Practicing the path of the ten wholesome actions; 2.

Ending former and subsequent sufferings; 3. Not being harmed or afflicted by evil intentions; 4. Diligently remembering and maintaining them; 5.

Dedicating the merit toward nirvana. If one is able to observe the fasting precepts in this way, even four great treasure stores cannot equal a single portion of the merit, nor can even the heavenly reward of a deva king equal it. Sakra spoke a verse, but the Buddha reproved him, saying that only one whose mind still has contaminants should recite this verse.

The verse says:

“On the six fasting days of the month endowed with spiritual power,

Reverently observing the Dharma of the eight precepts,

The merit acquired by such a person

Is then equal to my own.”

If on a fasting day someone receives and observes the fasting precepts, that person’s merit is like that of Sakra. Since one who undertakes this fasting practice should transcend the resultant reward of nirvana, only those who have exhausted the contaminants should recite this verse. In the rite for receiving the fasting observance, those who are bound, fettered, or shackled are all released; all unwholesome causes and conditions are also cut off. Therefore it is called purity.

Question: If a Wheel-Turning Noble King wishes to receive this fasting practice, from whom should he receive the instruction?

Answer: The Venerable Deva was one who had previously had an audience with the Buddha, who instructed him and caused him to accept it.

CHAPTER 114: EIGHT KINDS OF SPEECH

There are eight kinds of speech: four impure kinds and four pure kinds. The four impure kinds are: when a person has seen something but says that he has not seen it; has not seen something but says that he has seen it; has not seen something and tells himself that he has seen it, but when questioned says that he has not seen it; has seen something and tells himself that he has not seen it, but when questioned says that he has seen it.

In these cases, the facts are contrary and the mind is also contrary; therefore, they are called impure. The four pure kinds are: when one has seen something and says that one has seen it, or has not seen something and says that one has not seen it; has seen something but tells oneself that one has not seen it, and when questioned says that one has not seen it; has not seen something but tells oneself that one has seen it, and when questioned says that one has seen it.

The facts are true and the mind is also truthful; therefore, they are called pure. The same applies to hearing, comprehending, and knowing.

Question: What differences are there among seeing, hearing, comprehending, and knowing?

Answer: There are three kinds of confidence. Seeing is called confidence in what is presently manifest; hearing is called confidence in the words of sages and noble ones; knowing is called inferential knowledge; and comprehending is called discernment. These constitute three kinds of confidence and wisdom. These three kinds of wisdom may all accord with reality, or they may all be contrary to it. Superior persons do not give rise to impurity; they speak only pure words. Thus, the speech employed by inferior persons is called impure, while that employed by superior persons is called pure. Some say that, in this context, all persons of right wisdom are called superior, because pure speech is found not only among those who have attained the Path but also among ordinary beings.

CHAPTER 115: NINE KINDS OF KARMA

There are nine kinds of karma. Karma bound to the Desire Realm is of three kinds: action, non-manifest action, and that which is neither action nor non-manifest action. Karma bound to the Form Realm is likewise.

There are two kinds in the Formless Realm, together with uncontaminated karma. What is performed through body and speech is called action. Because of action, accumulated demerit and merit continually adhere to a person; this is a dharma dissociated from mind, called non-manifest action.

There is also non-manifest action produced solely by the mind. That which is neither action nor non-manifest action is intention; intention is volition, and volition is called karma. Therefore, if the mind seeks a subsequent body, this is called mental karma and is also called volition.

Because it volitionally keeps the subsequent body in mind, it is called karma.

Question: If so, is there no uncontaminated volition?

Answer: If this is regarded as volition, then there is uncontaminated volition.

Question: Although this non-manifest action arises from bodily action, must there not be differences in its quantity?

Answer: When all parts of the body perform active karma, many non-manifest actions are thereby accumulated, bringing about a great karmic result.

Question: Where does this non-manifest action abide?

Answer: The essential nature of a karmic path definitely accumulates non-manifest action. With other kinds of action, it may or may not arise, depending upon the mind. If the mind is strong, it arises; if the mind is weak, it does not. Moreover, this non-manifest action also arises from vows. For example, when a person makes a vow, saying, “I must practice generosity,” or, “I shall build stupas and establish monasteries,” that person definitely acquires non-manifest action.

Question: For how long is this non-manifest action acquired, and when is it lost?

Answer: It persists for as long as the thing that was made continues to exist, as when one establishes gardens, stupas, monasteries, and the like. In the case of giving, it continually remains for as long as the donated object has not perished. It also persists for as long as the intention remains unbroken, as when a person resolves, “I should always perform this deed,” such as holding assemblies or offering robes. For as long as the intention toward such deeds remains unbroken, the non-manifest action is continually acquired. It also persists for as long as one’s life has not ended, as in the case of a person who receives the precepts and goes forth into homelessness; during that time it is continually acquired.

Question: Some say that non-manifest action produced by action exists only in the Desire Realm and not in the Form Realm. What of this?

Answer: It exists in both realms. Why? The devas of the Form Realm are also able to expound the Dharma and pay reverence to the Buddha and the Sangha.

How could such beings not produce non-manifest action through active karma? Some also say that because obscured-neutral states are involved, there is no non-manifest action. This is unreasonable.

Obscured-neutral states involve strong afflictions. When such afflictions accumulate, they are called latent tendencies. Nevertheless, within obscured-neutral states there is no non-manifest action.

Why? Because such a mind is weak and pliant and cannot produce accumulation, just as flowers can perfume sesame oil, whereas trees and the like cannot. Some say, “Above the Brahma Realm there is no mind capable of initiating active karma.

Why? Because only initial and sustained thought can initiate verbal karma. Those realms have no initial or sustained thought; only by using the mind of the Brahma Realm can verbal karma be initiated.” This is unreasonable.

Sentient beings receive bodies according to their karma. If they are born in a higher level, they cannot employ the karmic result of the Brahma Realm. Therefore, it should be understood that they can initiate verbal karma by means of the mind of their own realm.

Moreover, some say that those beings have no initial or sustained thought, but it will be explained later that they do.

Question: Can noble ones who have not yet completely severed the fetters initiate active karma?

Answer: Noble ones cannot initiate karma that is truly blameworthy.

Question: Are the vocal sounds of sentient beings such as dogs considered verbal karma?

Answer: Although they lack differentiated words, because they arise from the mind, they are also called karma. Likewise, manifest signs, commands, and the sounds of stringed instruments, flutes, and the like are all called verbal karma. This bodily and verbal karma can be initiated only by mental consciousness, not by the other consciousnesses. Thus, a person may see his own bodily karma and hear his own verbal karma because mental consciousness initiates a continuous, unbroken succession of karma; therefore, he himself sees and hears it.

CHAPTER 116: THE TEN UNWHOLESOME PATHS

In the sutras, the Buddha taught that the ten unwholesome paths of karma are killing living beings and the others. The conjunction of the five skandhas is called a sentient being. Because one terminates its life, this is called killing a living being.

Question: If those five skandhas continually cease in every moment, what is there to kill?

Answer: Although the five skandhas cease in every moment, they arise again in an uninterrupted succession. Because one terminates this succession, it is called killing a living being. Moreover, because that person deliberately intends to kill, he incurs the offense of killing.

Question: Is it because one terminates the presently existing five skandhas that it is called killing?

Answer: Within the succession of the five skandhas, the designation “sentient being” is established. It is because one destroys this succession that the act is called killing a living being, not because the designation “sentient being” exists within the cessation of each individual moment.

Question: Some people kill sentient beings in accordance with long-established official law, while others kill sentient beings under coercion by a powerful person, and they tell themselves that they incur no offense. What of this?

Answer: They still incur an offense. Why? Because such persons fulfill the conditions for the offense of killing. The offense of killing a living being is incurred through four conditions: first, there is a sentient being; second, one knows that it is a sentient being; third, one has the intention to kill it; and fourth, one terminates its life. Since such a person fulfills these four conditions, how could there be no offense?

WHAT IS CALLED STEALING: If an object truly belongs to another person and one takes it by force or stealth, this is called stealing. This also involves four kinds of conditions: first, the object truly belongs to another; second, one knows that it belongs to another; third, one has the intention to take it by force or stealth; and fourth, one completes the act of taking it.

Question: Some say that concealed treasure belongs to the king; if one takes such treasure, one commits an offense against the king. What of this?

Answer: Whatever may be within the earth does not belong to the king; only things upon the surface of the earth belong to him. Why? Noble ones such as Anathapindika also took such treasure; therefore, it should be understood that there was no offense. Moreover, what one obtains naturally is not called taking by force or stealing.

Question: If all things are produced by collective karma, why does one incur an offense by taking them by force or stealth?

Answer: Although they arise through collective karmic causes, those causes vary in strength and weakness. For example, when a person’s karmic cause is powerful and he also applies himself diligently, that object then comes under his ownership.

Question: If a person forcibly seizes fields, houses, possessions, and the like belonging to a stupa, monastery, or the Sangha, against whom does he commit the offense?

Answer: Although the Buddha and the Sangha have no thought of personal possession regarding such objects, one nevertheless incurs an offense on account of them, because these objects definitely belong to the Buddha and the Sangha. Furthermore, if one gives rise to an evil intention toward them and either forcibly seizes or steals them, this is called incurring an offense.

WHAT IS CALLED SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: If one engages in sexual intercourse with someone who is not one’s wife, this is called sexual misconduct. Furthermore, even if she is one’s wife, engaging in intercourse through an improper passage is also called sexual misconduct. Moreover, all women have guardians, such as their parents, brothers, husbands, parents-in-law, children, and so forth. Women who have gone forth are under the guardianship of the king and others.

Question: If one engages in intercourse with a courtesan, who is not one’s wife, is this sexual misconduct?

Answer: She is a wife for a short time. As stated in the Vinaya: “She is a wife for a limited time, even to the extent of being separated by a single strand of hair.”

Question: If a woman has no guardian and comes of her own accord asking to become one’s wife, how should this be understood?

Answer: If she truly has no guardian and, before the assembly, comes to make the request in accordance with the Dharma, this is not called sexual misconduct.

Question: If one who has gone forth takes a wife, is one exempt from sexual misconduct?

Answer: One is not exempt. Why is this? Because no such Dharma exists. The Dharma of one who has gone forth is always to abstain from sexual desire. Nevertheless, the offense is lighter than violating another man’s wife.

FALSE SPEECH: If through body, speech, or mind one deceives other sentient beings, causing them to form a false understanding, this is called false speech. Because the Buddha regarded the offense as grave, he spoke of false speech in the context of being questioned before the assembly. Yet even when questioned by a single person, it is still called false speech; why would many people be required?

Furthermore, one incurs an offense in relation to whomever one intends to deceive. If one tells another person, “I told such-and-such a person this matter,” although this is untrue, it is not called false speech. Moreover, false speech depends upon one’s perception.

If one sees something but perceives that one did not see it and, when questioned, says that one did not see it, one does not incur the offense of false speech, as explained in the Vinaya.

Question: If a person, through an inverted perception, did not see something but says that he saw it, why is this not false speech?

Answer: All offenses and merits arise from the mind. Regarding something he did not see, that person gives rise to the perception that he saw it; therefore, there is no offense. Similarly, if with regard to an actual sentient being one perceives that there is no sentient being, or with regard to what is not a sentient being one perceives that it is a sentient being, one does not incur the offense of killing.

Question: If there truly is a sentient being and one perceives it as a sentient being, one incurs the offense of killing. Likewise, if one sees something and gives rise to the perception that one saw it, there should be no offense. But how can one perceive that one saw what one did not see and yet incur no offense?

Answer: The arising of an offense depends upon the mind and upon the sentient being. Therefore, although a sentient being is present, if one perceives that there is no sentient being, one does not incur an offense because there is no intention. If there is no sentient being but one perceives that there is a sentient being, one likewise incurs no offense because no sentient being is present.

If there is a sentient being and one perceives it as a sentient being, then, because all causes and conditions are complete, one incurs the offense of killing. If, regarding something one saw, one gives rise to the perception that one did not see it and, when questioned, says that one did not see it, that person’s perception is inverted, and so he does not deceive the sentient being. Although the matter is inverted, the statement is nevertheless called true.

If, regarding something one did not see, one gives rise to the perception that one saw it and, when questioned, says that one did not see it, that person, through an inverted perception, deceives the sentient being. Although the statement is not contrary to the fact, it is nevertheless called false speech.

DIVISIVE SPEECH: If a person, wishing to separate others, initiates verbal karma, this is called divisive speech. If one does not deliberately intend to separate them, but upon hearing one’s words they break apart of their own accord, one does not incur an offense. If, with a wholesome mind, one teaches and transforms someone so that the person leaves an evil companion, although this brings about separation, one does not incur an offense. If one does not speak from a defiled mind governed by fetters, then even though words are uttered, one does not incur an offense.

HARSH SPEECH: If a person uses painful words that provide no benefit and merely wishes to distress and harm another, this is called harsh speech. If, out of compassion and a wish to benefit someone, painful words must be spoken, there is no offense. If one inflicts harm without cause, there is an offense.

When acupuncture and moxibustion are properly employed to cure an illness, although they cause pain, they are not offenses. Painful words are likewise. For this reason, the Buddhas, sages, and noble ones also say such things as, “You are a foolish person!” Furthermore, if one’s mind is not defiled by the fetters, then although the words are painful, they are not called an offense, as in the case of those free from desire and others.

If, despite an initially wholesome intention, one gives rise to affliction while speaking painful words, one immediately incurs an offense.

FRIVOLOUS SPEECH: Speech that is untrue and whose meaning is improper is called frivolous speech. Furthermore, even if speech is true, if it is spoken at an improper time, it is also called frivolous speech. Again, even if it is true and timely, if it accords with distress and provides no benefit, it is also called frivolous speech.

Again, although the speech may be true, timely, and beneficial, if its meaning has neither beginning nor end and lacks proper sequence, it is also called frivolous speech. Moreover, speech uttered from a distracted mind because of delusion and other afflictions is called frivolous speech. Improper bodily and mental conduct is also called the karma of embellishing speech, but because it is mostly performed by the mouth and is so designated according to worldly convention, it is called frivolous speech.

Frivolous speech is intermingled with the other three verbal karmas and cannot be separated from them. For example, if there is false speech that is neither harsh nor intended to divide, there are two kinds: false speech and frivolous speech. If false speech is also intended to divide but is not harsh, there are three kinds: false speech, divisive speech, and frivolous speech.

If speech is false and harsh and is also intended to divide, all four kinds are present. If speech is neither false, harsh, nor divisive, but is untimely, unbeneficial, or meaningless, it is frivolous speech alone. This frivolous speech is subtle and difficult to abandon; only the Buddhas can completely eradicate it at the root.

Therefore, only the Buddhas are uniquely called World-Honored Ones, for whatever they say is believed and accepted, and no one else can equal them.

Question: Since the seven courses of karma have already been explained, why is it necessary to speak further of the three mental karmas?

Answer: Some say that offenses and merits arise only from body and speech, not from the mind. Therefore, it is explained that the mind is also a course of karma. Furthermore, these three kinds of mental karma possess great power, and because of them evil bodily and verbal karma arises.

Although all three are important, mental karma is subtle and must therefore be explained last. Although all afflictions are capable of giving rise to evil karma, these three cause the greatest distress and harm to sentient beings; therefore, they are called unwholesome courses of karma. Covetousness of medium or lesser degree is not called a course of karma.

When this covetousness becomes predominant, deeply clings to what belongs to others, and seeks a means to harm them, it can give rise to bodily and verbal karma; therefore, covetousness and jealousy constitute a course of karma. Anger and delusion are likewise. Moreover, if delusion is mentioned, all afflictions are thereby included.

Here, however, these three alone are taught because they can give rise to bodily and verbal karma that injures sentient beings.

Question: Why is delusion called wrong view?

Answer: Delusion has many different varieties. Why is this? Because not every form of delusion is unwholesome. If delusion increases and develops into wrong view, it is called an unwholesome course of karma. All unwholesome actions arise through these three gateways. For example, a person may initiate unwholesome karma for the sake of material gain, as when someone kills sentient beings for gold and money. Or one may kill out of anger, as when killing an enemy or robber. Or one may act neither for profit nor from anger, but solely through the power of delusion, not knowing right from wrong, and thus kill sentient beings.

Question: The sutra says that the causes and conditions for the evil destinies comprise four kinds of conduct: through greed, through anger, through fear, and through delusion, beings fall into the evil destinies. Why, then, is evil karma arising from fear not mentioned here?

Answer: Fear is included within delusion. If an action is said to arise from fear, it thereby arises from delusion. Why is this? Because even when a wise person encounters causes and conditions that threaten the loss of life, that person still does not initiate evil karma. Furthermore, this matter has already been answered above: when afflictions increase to the point that they can give rise to bodily and verbal karma, they are then called unwholesome courses. These three are taught because unwholesome conduct most often arises from them.

Question: Why are they called courses of karma?

Answer: Mental activity itself is karma; because it travels within these, they are called courses of karma. The first seven travel within the latter three, while the latter three travel within the first seven. The three mental karmas are courses but are not themselves karma; the seven are both karma and courses.

Question: There are also such unwholesome karmas as using whips and clubs and drinking alcohol. Why are only these ten taught?

Answer: These ten offenses are grave and therefore are taught separately. Moreover, such things as whips and staffs are all subsidiary to what precedes or follows. Drinking alcohol is not in itself an actual offense, nor does it harm others; even if it does harm others, the harm is not caused by alcohol alone.

Question: In which realms do these unwholesome courses of action occur?

Answer: They occur in all five realms. Only in Uttarakuru is there no sexual misconduct. The three actions arising from craving are accomplished through craving, while each of the remaining three arises through all three causes.

Question: Can noble ones give rise to unwholesome karma?

Answer: They may give rise to unwholesome mental karma, but not bodily or verbal karma. Moreover, within mental karma they give rise only to thoughts of anger, not to thoughts of killing.

Question: A sutra says that a trainee cursed someone, saying, “May you perish and may your lineage be cut off.” How is this to be understood?

Answer: There is also a sutra saying that an arhat uttered a curse. Yet one whose taints are exhausted and who has severed the roots of the afflictions does not even conceive such a thought, much less utter a curse. The statement that a trainee cursed someone should be understood in the same way. Moreover, noble ones have attained the discipline of abstention regarding unwholesome karma; how, then, could they still commit unwholesome deeds? Furthermore, noble ones do not fall into the evil realms. If they could give rise to unwholesome karma, they ought to fall into them.

Question: Noble ones in the present life do not create unwholesome karma that would cause them to fall into the evil realms, but since they created unwholesome karma in past lives, why do they not fall into them?

Answer: When true wisdom arises in the mind of such a noble one, all karma leading to the evil realms is weakened, like damaged seeds that can no longer sprout. Moreover, the three poisons are of two kinds: those capable of producing rebirth in the evil realms and those incapable of doing so. Noble ones have completely severed the former.

Because of karma and afflictions, one receives a body; although noble ones still have certain karma and afflictions, these are incomplete, and therefore they do not fall into the evil realms. Furthermore, such persons rely upon a great power, namely the Three Jewels, which can eliminate great evils, just as when a person relies upon a king, creditors dare not harass him. Their wisdom is also keen and luminous and can dissolve evil karma, just as when the heat within a person is strong, it can digest food that is difficult to digest.

Moreover, such persons possess many skillful means: they may recollect the Buddhas, or they may recollect loving-kindness, compassion, and other wholesome deeds, and thus escape from evils, just as cunning thieves with many schemes take refuge in dangerous and inaccessible places where nothing can be done to them. Furthermore, because these noble ones have attained the path of liberation, they proceed like the calf following the king of oxen, or like a bird relying upon the open sky.

Moreover, because they cultivate wholesome dharmas throughout the night, they do not fall into the evil realms. As a sutra says: “If a person constantly cultivates body, morality, mind, and wisdom, then the karmic result of hell may be lightly endured in the present life.” A verse likewise says:

Cultivating loving-kindness and compassion,

Immeasurable and unobstructed,

One has heavy karmic deeds

That cannot overtake one.

Furthermore, the unwholesome mental karma of such noble ones cannot remain firm, just as a drop of water falling upon a red-hot iron plate cannot remain. Their wholesome karma is also deep-rooted, like the roots of the huan-thu-la tree. Moreover, these noble ones have much good and little evil.

When little evil is surrounded by much good, it has no strength, just as throwing one measure of salt into the Ganges cannot spoil the taste of its waters. Furthermore, these noble ones are rich in the wealth of faith and the other virtues, just as a destitute person may be convicted over a single coin, whereas a wealthy and honored person may receive hundreds of thousands without being convicted. Moreover, because they have entered the noble path, they have attained an exalted status, just as an honored person, though guilty of an offense, is not cast into prison.

It is also like a tiger, leopard, dog, goat, and pig contending with one another: the larger animal prevails. Furthermore, the minds of these noble ones lodge and rest upon the noble path, so offenses leading to the evil realms cannot harm them, just as when a king sleeps in an empty house, his enemies cannot enter. These noble ones also proceed along the path they themselves ought to follow, and therefore sinful karma leading to the evil realms can do nothing to them, as in the analogy of the pigeon and the hawk.

Furthermore, because the minds of noble ones are bound to the four foundations of mindfulness, karma leading to the evil realms can do nothing to them, just as a round vessel remains steady once placed within a supporting ring. Moreover, both kinds of fetters must be present before one can enter an evil realm and undergo karmic retribution. Noble ones have severed one kind and therefore do not fall into the evil realms.

Furthermore, such persons constantly experience the results of wholesome karma, and therefore karma leading to the evil realms can do nothing to them. Moreover, the characteristics of karma leading to hell have already been explained in the preceding Chapter on the Six Kinds of Karma. Noble ones lack the causes and conditions for falling into the evil realms and therefore do not fall into them.

End of Fascicle Eight of the Satyasiddhi Shastra.