Resolution of doubts on the division of action (Chapter Five)

CMP 5.1

Just as the manifold rain-clouds, of various shapes and colors, having arisen from the expanse of the sky, go to dissolution there [in that same sky]—

CMP 5.2

—so all the mental factors, caused by the three glows [the three lights], having entered into all their objects, [then] enter into the clear light (prabhāsvara (clear light, luminosity)).

CMP 5.3

Of such a nature, [proceeding] from consciousness [yet] veiled by the film of ignorance, having done good and ill deeds, [beings] wander in the five destinies.

CMP 5.4

Having done the deeds of immediate retribution and the rest, one ripens in the hells; having done the good deed of giving and the rest, one is exalted in the heavens and so forth.

CMP 5.5

Having thus obtained, again and again, an endless thousand births, one grieves out of delusion, [thinking] "This is the ripening of former karma."

CMP 5.6

And those persons who are afflicted, [bound] by the procedure of the natural glow—having known this, the wise are freed from the cage of existence. Thus [it is said].

CMP 5.7

[Objection:] If all this is empty and of unarisen nature, how do karma, and pleasure and pain, operate here in saṃsāra?

CMP 5.8

[Reply:] By the [notions of] "I" and "mine" and likewise by the stains of passion and the rest, [the world] is constructed by the dependent [nature, paratantra]; through suffering the foolish are afflicted.

CMP 5.9

All this is mind-only (cittamātra (mind-only, cognition-only)), arisen like the work of a magician; from that [comes] good and ill karma, and from that [comes] good and ill birth. Thus [it is said].

CMP 5.colophon

[Here ends] the fifth chapter, the resolution of doubts about the integration [of the stages, concerning] the division of action (karman). // 5 //