If there isn't continuation of our karmic record (cause & effect)in future lives then this would have to be a grave injustice as there would be no accountability. We have law, rules, regulations, punishments everywhere throughout life in this world why should we be absconded in future lives. I find that the correlation between the 3 realms, 5 components & the 9 consciousness's serves as a good description of how this occurs.(4) Volition is the will that acts on the conception and motivates action.
8. Alaya- consciousness : Alaya is a Sanskrit word, which means 'store house'. Whatever we do with our body, mouth and body and thought through the above seven consciousness is referred to as "karma' and they all are stored in the Alaya-consciousness.
When one dies, the consciousness, from the first to the seventh, will cease to function, but not the eighth consciousness. It will still function in the three existences of past, present and future. It is this consciousness which continues to exist, retaining all karma. The common mortals may not believe in the existence of the eighth consciousness. It exists below the seventh consciousness. All good and bad are engraved in the eighth consciousness. The effect will be manifested in future existence.
Nichiren Daishinin explains it in the Gosho "Letter from Sado": "Both the crow's blackness and the heron's whiteness are actually the deep stains of their past karma." Our present life is the result of our eighth consciousness. The Buddha consciousness or Namu Myoho renge kyo resides deep in the depths of our life and is called Amala-consciousness. That is the ninth consciousness.
Three realms of existence ［三世間］ ( san-seken): The realm of the five components, the realm of living beings, and the realm of the environment. This concept originally appeared in The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, and T’ien-t’ai (538–597) adopted it as a component of his doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life. The concept of three realms of existence views life from three different standpoints and explains the existence of individual lives in the real world. The five components, a living being as their temporary combination, and that being’s environment all manifest the same one of the Ten Worlds at any given point in time."
Good times can be hard to have, in this sometimes stressful world. They are worth it! Showing love and compassion are the most rewarding and positive things on earth! I hope you are having many good times! I will chant for you to have positive vibrations!
ReplyDeleteThe Onko Kikigaki purportedly the oral teachings of Nichiren written down by Niko Shonin for Noel"
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark, much appreciated.
Excerpts from "Lectures Heard and Recorded"
(Onko kikigaki)
"The Dharma rain that falls equally" (55) [STN 3:2571]
Our teacher said: This time the Dharma rain--the true aspect that is the Wonderful Dharma--fills with the merit of the Wonderful Dharma the three thousand aspects of the ten realms, from hell at the bottom to the heaven where there is neither thought nor no thought (56) at the top, horizontally throughout the ten directions and vertically throughout the three time periods. This is called "equally." "Falls" means that the body and mind of all living beings "falls" as Myo-ho-renge-kyo, constantly abiding throughout the three time periods.
In another sense, the rain of the Wonderful Dharma is the Dharma essence of the fundamental Dharma that is the ninth consciousness. Because a Buddha appeared and spoke forth this Wonderful Dharma, one says, "Sends down the Dharma rain." "Sending down" implies fallinq from high to low. Thus it indicates proceeding from effect to cause. [When this passage is interpreted] in terms of the Buddha, the Dharma rain is sent down from the tenth realm, that of Buddhahood or "effect", to the nine realms. [when it is interpreted] in terms of the essence of the Dharma, those on whom the rain falls and he who sends it down are both the single principle of true suchness. In terms of the divisions of consciousness, it falls [from the ninth] to the [other] eight consciousnesses. This being the case, Nichiren and his followers sending down Namu-myoho-renge-kyo upon the heads of all beings in Japan is called "sending down the Dharma rain."