Knowing the Suffering Nature of This Five-Aggregate Body-Mind Is the Very Virtue of the Dharma Body

“With each passing thought, impermanence holds sway; deluded feelings grow ever coarser—this is what we call sudden collapse.” Once the wheel of rebirth turns with a single deluded thought, and that momentum carries forward unbroken over time, delusion only grows deeper: “deluded feelings grow ever coarser.”

When we say “deluded feelings grow ever coarser,” this is what we mean: this delusion is confusion about the nature of suchness itself, not a misunderstanding of cause and effect. The more deeply you are deluded about your inherent suchness, the stronger your clinging to self and dharmas grows, and the heavier the karmic conditions for your downfall become.

This deluded feeling is confusion about the one mind, which is the pure, empty mind. It only grows heavier. In other words, our ordinary conscious mind drifts further and further from the mind-nature of any single moment, and so it collapses abruptly. This is how it unfolds: it begins with the first stirring of a single deluded thought, continues through the unbroken momentum of deluded feelings, and ultimately, all karmic conditions and effects arise solely from mind.

So what can we do? Master Ouyi points us to a crucial method. “If you can observe each passing moment, you will see that the suffering nature of this five-aggregate body-mind is none other than the virtue of the Dharma body; all deluded defilements are none other than the virtue of prajna; all karmic activity is none other than the virtue of liberation.” When you face harsh karmic effects, first turn the light inward. You cannot confront karmic cause and effect head-on. The moment you try, you get caught in a vicious cycle: the storm of karmic effects is far too powerful to face directly.

Friends! This lifetime, we are not just facing the karma from this life alone. If our existence had started only in this life, it would be easy enough to work with. But the karma we carry in this life is the accumulated karmic potency and delusive seeds stored in the alaya consciousness across beginningless eons. In truth, none of us can withstand the storm of our accumulated past karma head-on. No one can.

So what can we do? First, turn the light inward: observe that a single thought is empty by its very nature, and rest in the pure mind-nature of that one thought. Once your mind-nature is settled in a single moment, what good comes of observing conditions and effects from there? You face cause and effect from the vantage of an all-encompassing mind-nature. At that point, the cause and effect you see—your very life included—matches what the Shurangama Sutra describes: “Emptiness arises within the Great Awakening, like a single bubble rising on the sea.” When you rest in the mind-nature of a single moment and look upon cause and effect, it is just a bubble on the ocean. You realize: ah, this life I am living is only a tiny fragment of my immeasurable existence. This is so important! It is seeing the bubble from the ocean’s point of view.

Friends! When many of us feel our karma is impossible to turn around, it is not because our karmic obstacles are especially heavy. In truth, everyone’s obstacles are about the same by now: the wheel of rebirth has been turning for far too long. Even if you were a little careless in this life, when you weigh the wrongs of this single lifetime against the accumulated karma of countless eons, everyone ends up roughly equal.

So if everyone carries equally heavy karmic obstacles, why do some people find it easier to turn their karma around? Because after turning the light inward to look at their karma, they understand that this life’s body and world are only a tiny part of their immeasurable existence. If you do not practice the contemplation of suchness, you may assume that your body and world make up the entirety of your life—and at that point, you’re lost, crushed by frustration. You look at yourself and think: My body in this life is frail, and my mind has no wholesome roots to speak of! But you do not realize that your life has another dimension to it. You also carry the virtue of the Dharma body, the virtue of prajna, and the virtue of liberation. What manifests in this life is only a small fraction of your entire existence. Friends! You have immeasurable inherent virtues yet to be revealed.

So when you turn the light inward, you realize: performing poorly in this life is no big deal—it is just a small bubble in the vast ocean. Even amid all kinds of suffering, their essence already holds the virtue of the Dharma body. Even with countless afflictions, their essence already holds the virtue of prajna. Even under the weight of immeasurable karmic forces of birth and death, their essence is also the virtue of liberation. It’s just that I have not yet brought these virtues to light. Let me put it this way: imagine you are the son of a great, wealthy elder. Your family has vast riches; you have only wandered away from home for a time. You may have no money to your name right now, but having no money now does not mean you are truly destitute. Your family is incredibly wealthy! One day, when you return home, you will be able to manifest all those virtues.

So, friends! Once you turn the light inward, you will understand this truth: the body and world of this life are only a tiny part of your whole existence—like a single bubble on the sea. What good comes of seeing things this way? You take your place as a name-stage elder—you have already activated the power of virtue inherent in your suchness. From the name-stage elder, to the contemplation stage, to the similarity stage, to the stage of partial realization, and finally to the stage of ultimate fulfillment: you enlighten yourself and others, reaping benefits that know no end.