3) Extinction of karma committed by the substance of soul and Buddha's cosmic power of deliverance

 3) Extinction of karma committed by the substance of soul and Buddha's cosmic power of deliverance

 

 

The evil karma or kiarmic sin committed by us functions as a great obstruction in our whole life. If something does not work well or things get entangled regardless of your great effort, or you have to live an unhappy life, the causes could be the obstruction of karma.

If we see them with a broader view, they are the obstructions that block the path of enlightenment. That is the reason why the karma is frequently called the karmc obstruction. Once the evil deed we have committed is transmitted to the substance of soul, the karma never cease to exist by itself unless the retribution is carried through.

Evil deeds also cannot be offset by good deeds. It is extinguished only by retribution. For example, suppose I have killed a man, then I will go to prison in this life. However, if the crime is not detected in the present life before my death, then I will go to hell in the next life and receive unimaginable punishment. Such is the only way the karmic obstruction could be extinguished.

However, there is one exception. It is through Buddha's cosmic power of deliverance. It is only Buddha who could extinguish the karmic obstruction. It is only Buddha who could cut off the retribution of sin which leads to hell and extinguish the karmic obstruction that leads to be reborn as an animal. However, the extinction of karmic obstruction is limited to a person who has a good affinity or merit that deserves such forgiveness according to the cosmic law.

In this respect, the Buddhist ceremony for the spirit of the dead must be managed by Buddha to have a good result without fail. It is Buddha's power which not even the founder or the saint of the other religions does not posses.

Such is the greatness of Buddha. Buddha is the Dharma King who possesses the awesome and miraculous spiritual power of the creator of the universe--Buddha's cosmic great power of extinguishing the karmic obstruction. This is the proof that Buddhism is the only religion that could actually deliver the sentient beings in affliction, and this is the reason that we must believe in Buddha and hang on to the Lord.

 

I want to explain briefly the process of deliberation by Buddha through extinction of karmic obstruction. The World-honored picks out the substance of soul of the practitioner and cleanses it which is affixed to the sticky birdlime with the immeasurable light, then separates the four substances of soul from each other. This work is done only by Buddha not by any personality or even by the founder of other religion.

After the cleansing and separation of the four substances of soul, the Lord climbs up to the body and then up to the top of the head of the four substances of soul and pour down the eons of immeasurable light. And then the infinitely dark dregs of the karmic obstructions issue like a stream and then disappear.

Such cleansing process will prevent the substance of soul from falling into hell. Besides, there are so many such processes to be reborn in the heavenly realm, to be free from transmigration, to become a Buddha and Bodhisattva.

This is entirely different from the ritual of pouring down the light on the top of the head of a beloved disciple in Judaic mysticism. From this kind of ritual, we come to understand the reason why the ‘other power (他力)’, reciting the name of Buddha, which invokes the empowerment of Buddha is so important.

Such is the saving power of Buddha, and this is also the logic and reason why Buddha must stay alive as a personal entity. In truth, the Lord Buddha who transcends existence and non-existence and also time and space abides forever and ever as a living personality of light in the realm of ultimate reality.

This personal substance of Buddha is exactly the Sambhogakaya, or the body of the manifestation of the universal Buddha-essence in symbolic form, one of Trikaya, or the triple body of the Buddha, which is discussed in the Treatise of Buddha-body.

Sambhogakaya is a personality of light and unification of the Buddha-body of the Lord, the substance of soul of the Buddha, and the ultimate or original nature of the universe. If we acknowledge the existence of the substance of soul, we come to believe the real subsistence of Buddha, and this is another message that I wish to transmit to all the readers.

 

 

4) The immaculate path of the substance of soul, the path of separation, and the realm that each substance of soul goes.

 

As sentient beings commit numberless karmas, their substance of soul is heavily defiled. It is like something just picked out from the container of sewage, very dirty and stinking. It is just like a black charcoal soot.

The substance of soul turns out to be whiter the purer it becomes. Therefore, the colors of the substances of soul that are destined to go to the three evil paths, such as hell, the hungry ghosts, and animals, are black.

There are six heavenly realms (fifty-four stages of the six heavenly realms) from the heavenly realm one to the heavenly realm six, and the color of the substance of soul that goes to the lowest realm of six is grey. The colors from the heavenly realm one to the heavenly realm five are clean and white.

Above the six heavenly realms is the heaven of arhat (the twenty-seventh stages of the third heavenly realm), and the substance of soul that goes to this realm emanates light. The top stages (from the stage one to the stage three) in the first heaven of arhat are the stages of arhat free from transmigration, and its substance of soul shines like the bright full moon.

And the forms of four substances of soul reveal their form more clearly and separate themselves from each other more distinctly as they become purer. The most of the substances of the sentient beings are tightly stuck together. The substances of soul of the heavenly beings in the heavenly realm are also all closely stuck together, but each of their forms reveal themselves as five fingers. When one becomes an arhat who is qualified to be released from transmigration, his substance of soul gets separated to the form similar to the hands of a duck.

When one becomes a Bodhisattva of the Pure Land, his substance of soul attains the state of complete separation, and when he becomes a Buddha, the four substances of soul attain the freedom to act freely as a separate entity.

Such degrees of purity and separation become the standard of qualification for the substance of soul to live in what level of the world, and according to the level, one of the four substances of soul becomes the subject of its transformation to move on.

The No. 4 substance of soul (the surface part of the substance of soul) goes to the realm of the intermediate state of the dead spirit between heaven and hell (中陰) as a wandering lonely spirit (無住孤魂) of the deceased. When one dies a tragic death, or too greedy with strong infatuation, the spirit of such person sometimes could not even go to the nether world with the No. 4 substance of soul as its subject or master, and the No. 1 to No. 3 substances of soul enter into the substance of soul No. 4 overlapping with it.

When the substance of soul falls into hell, it falls in the form of the substance of soul No. 3. At this time, the surface of the substance of soul No. 4 falls off and only the inner part falls into hell with the substance of soul No. 3. Of course, the substances of soul No. 1 and No. 2 overlap with the substance of soul in the body of No. 3.

When the substance of soul enters into the heavenly realm, it enters in the form of the substance of soul No. 3 casting off both inner and outer parts of the substance of soul No. 4. In the case of arhat who has attained enlightenment free of birth and death, it enters the heavenly realm in the form of the substance of soul No. 2, and the rest of the substances, the substances of soul No. 1 and No. 3, overlap in the substance of soul No. 2. Of course, the substances No. 1 and No 2 overlap in the substance of soul No. 3.

If anyone wishes to be reborn in the Utmost Bliss of the Pure Land where Amitabha Buddha abides, he must become a Bodhisattva of the Pure Land, and he will be reborn in the substance of soul No. 1. At this time, the substances of soul No. 2 and No. 3 overlap in the substance of soul No. 1.

If anyone wishes to be reborn in the absolute realm of the Buddha, all the four substances of soul must become completely a ball of light. The four substances of soul act individually, still they are able to display their great power. Of course, if they all get to gather, the power will be beyond imagination.