Issue 285

They have created seeds of karma which naturally run their course, like the aksha cluster. Living beings’ ignorance leads them to act in upside-down ways, and their various upside-down acts create every kind of karma. According to their various karmas, they undergo various retributions. This ‘create karma, undergo retribution’ basically comes from ignorance.  A few days ago, didn’t I write the words ‘give rise to delusion, create karma, undergo retribution’ on the blackboard?  Undergo retribution can be said as undergo suffering.  Give rise to delusion is just ignorance. Why do people do evil things? It is because of their ignorance, their lack of understanding, their state of delusion. Their delusion leads to the creation of bad karma, and since they create bad karma they undergo the retribution of suffering. It is three-part process: delusion, leading to the creation of bad karma, which leads to the retribution of suffering. The aksha cluster represents the three fruits of delusion, karma, and suffering.

The Buddha compares the process to the aksha, a shrub found in India which bears three fruits in a cluster on one stem. I have not seen this fruit either. Though you may have never seen an aksha, the sutra makes the meaning clear, and one cannot fail to understand it. The aksha cluster represents the three fruits of delusion, karma, and suffering, which are interconnected as if they were joined on a single stem.

From this ‘beginningless’, where would you say it all started? There is no beginning. It’s an endless cycle on the spinning wheel of the six paths of rebirth. Each of us people born here in the world is like a fine mote of dust which suddenly rises high, suddenly falls low, going suddenly up and suddenly down. When your actions are good and meritorious you are born higher. When you do things that create offenses, you fall. Therefore, we people should do good things and accomplish meritorious deeds. Don’t do things which create offenses because this world runs on the principle of cause and effect, the law of karma. And the seeds of karma naturally run their course: you undergo a retribution for whatever you do.

There is a distinction between “karma” and “cause.” It is said that whenever you plant a cause, you reap its effect. A cause is a particular action which will lead in the future to a particular effect. Karma is the general process by which this inevitably happens. It’s like planting a seed in the ground in the spring: this is the cause which, at the end of the growing season, brings about the effect of the harvest in the autumn. The entire process, from planting through months of growth to maturity and harvest, is karma. The causes you plant will determine what harvest you reap. If you plant good causes, you will reap good results. If you plant bad causes you will reap bad results. What about karma? It depends on what you usually do most; if you plant wholesome deeds then you’ll have more wholesome karma. If you plant evil deeds then you will have more evil karma. Thus, karma is created from the very first ignorant thought, and from karma born of ignorance comes suffering. The three together like an aksha cluster. This is how the Buddha clearly explains the process of karma to Ananda in this passage.

Your karma is made up of whatever you ordinarily do most. For example, when you run a business you engage in “commercial karma.” Your occupational karma can be good karma or bad. If you are a butcher, for example, you have the occupational karma of killing; if you are a thief, your occupational karma is stealing; if you do nothing but engage in illicit sexual affairs, you have the occupational karma of lust. If you never tell the truth, your occupational karma is lying. In general, whatever you do continually is your karma, and your retribution will be in accordance with it. Therefore, karma and cause are not the same. Cause is temporary, karma are deeds that you continually do. Whatever you do continually, if it is good then it is good karma, if it is bad, then it is evil karma.

You may say: “Can it be said as ‘create cause’?”No, you can’t. Why? Because cause is temporary and not daily. Karma is what you do every day. Regarding cause, you can say ‘plant cause’ but not ‘create cause’. Regarding karma, it’s ‘create karma’. You may do good or evil karma but there is no mention of ‘effect’. Hence it is different from cause. You may create karma at any time and it’s possible you may reap retribution at any time too. So,this is the difference between karma and cause.

“The reason those who cultivate cannot accomplish unsurpassed Bodhi, but instead reach the level of a Sound Hearer or of one enlightened to conditions; or become accomplished in outside ways as heaven-dwellers or as demon kings or as members of the retinue of demons is that they do not know the two fundamental roots and are mistaken and confused in their cultivation. They are like one who cooks sand in the hope of creating savory delicacies. They may pass through as many eons as there are motes of dust, but in the end they will not obtain what they want.”

Those who cultivate cannot accomplish unsurpassed Bodhi, includes those of all the outside ways as well as all Buddhists. People cultivate the Way in the hope of obtaining something and accomplishing something. What they wish to accomplish is the unsurpassed enlightened Way. They want to obtain the unsurpassed fruition of enlightenment. “Bodhi” is the accomplishment of Buddhahood. Bodhisattvas are called Surpassed Lords because above them is the Buddha, while Buddhas are the Unsurpassed Lords, and “unsurpassed Bodhi” is the state of having accomplished Buddhahood. However, since one cannot realize Buddhahood, one can still accomplish other fruition!

But instead of reaching the level of a Sound-Hearer or of one enlightened to conditions: Can cultivators reach positions other than Buddhahood? Sound-Hearers are those who hear the Buddha’s sound and awaken to the Way. They cultivate the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths. Those enlightened to conditions cultivate the dharma of the Twelve Causal Conditions. They are content with having less. They stagnate in the fruition of a sound hearer and of one enlightened to conditions and thus turn themselves into ‘fixed nature’.

Or become accomplished in outside ways: What is meant by “outside ways”? The term has been mentioned often. Those who “seek the Dharma outside the mind” are said to follow an outside way. In fact, all commoners and anyone who has not reached enlightenment or realized Buddhahood can be said, in a sense, to be outside the Way.

As heaven dwellers: Perhaps one cultivates and ascends to the realm of various heavens. There are many heavens: Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, Trayastrimsha Heaven, Suyama Heaven…etc. The one closest to us is the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings. It lies halfway up Mount Sumeru on the north, south, east, and west. The Four Heavenly Kings are the Heavenly King of Increase and Growth, the Heavenly King of Learning, the Heavenly King of the Broad Eyes, and the Heavenly King Who Upholds his Country. The lifespan of the inhabitants of the Heaven of the Four Kings is 500 years. However, fifty years among us people are equivalent to only one day and night in that heaven.Above the Heaven of the Four Kings is the Trayastrimsha Heaven where the lifespan of inhabitants is 1000 years. A hundred years among people is equivalent to one day and night in the Trayastrimsha Heaven. Trayastrimsha is Sanskrit for “thirty-three,” since the Trayastrimsha Heaven is made up of thirty-three heavens, eight each on the north, south, east, and west sides of Mount Sumeru, making thirty-two, with the thirty-third, the Trayastrimsha Heaven located on Mount Sumeru’s peak.

The Lord of the Trayastrimsha Heaven was a woman in the past. Once she saw a Buddha-image in a temple which had a leak in its roof. She resolved to repair the leak so the rain would not ruin the Buddha-image. She was a poor peasant woman, but had friends, and convinced thirty-two of her friends to join in her resolve. It was the merit and virtue derived from cultivating this vow which enabled those thirty-three people to be born in the heavens and become rulers of the Heaven of the Thirty-three. In the Shurangama Mantra is the phrase “Na Mwo Yin Two La Ye.” “Na Mwo” means homage to and “Yin Two La Ye” is the heavenly lord of the Heaven of the thirty-three (Indra). The rest of the heavens will be explained in detail later.

In all heavens, there are also beings as demon-kings or as members of the retinue of demons: The demon-kings dwell in the sixth desire-heaven. Not only demon-kings, but an entire population of demons dwell there: demon couple, demon retinues which include siblings, parents, demon civilians, demon-women, demon-children, and demon-grandchildren. Demons, too, have retinues, or followings, and the demon-kings hold court in the sixth desire heaven, where they reign supreme.

Most of the dharmas cultivated in outside ways lead the cultivators to end up as demon kings at best, and more commonly as ordinary demons. At worst they will end up as demon-women. Demon women are particularly beautiful and quite seductive. It doesn’t matter who you are. Ananda, for example, who had accomplished the first stage of Arhatship, didn’t have enough samadhi-power to keep control of himself when he saw a demon-woman. He was ready to try anything. Demon-women are very powerful. You people who cultivate the Way should be careful not to let a demon snatch you.

What do I mean by that? If you don’t have sufficient samadhi power, you won’t be able to maintain your composure when you encounter this situation, and the demon will spin you around and you will find yourself trailing along after a demon-woman into a demon’s hole! (The microphone suddenly shakes and voice cannot be heard clearly) If I say any more, the demons will complain, “You’re saying so much and exposing all our faults,” so I’ll stop talking. In general, just be careful. Develop your samadhi-power thoroughly, and then there will be nothing to fear. This is a most wonderful suggestion I’m giving you.