Wooden Wheels for an Age of Doubt
This page opens Ru-Yi's translation of the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effects of Good and Evil Karma (占察善惡業報經), translated into Chinese by Bodhidīpa in the Sui dynasty. It carries the sūtra's opening: the bodhisattva Firm and Pure Faith's question about how beings of a degenerate age, thick with doubt and hindrance, are to find their footing at all; the Buddha's charge to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva to answer it; and the first of the three wooden wheel-marks Kṣitigarbha teaches — a method of divination the sūtra itself insists, in the same breath it introduces it, is not to be confused with worldly fortune-telling.
Translation Method
The Chinese source is Bodhidīpa's translation (菩提燈, "Lamp of Awakening"), a monk from India about whom almost nothing else is recorded; the sūtra survives only in this single Chinese rendering, with no Sanskrit or Tibetan witness ever having surfaced. Two fascicles, a little under 13,200 Chinese characters together, present a single teaching in two movements: the first fascicle teaches a method of divination by cast wooden wheels, paired with a rite of repentance, for beings too doubt-ridden and obstructed to take up meditation directly; the second turns to the sūtra's real center of gravity, the "one real realm" (一實境界) — the teaching that a single, unproduced, unconditioned mind-nature underlies every one of the ten dharma-realms — and the two contemplations built on it.
This collection reads it throughout with the Ming-dynasty monk Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭, 1599–1655), one of the four great masters of late-Ming Buddhism and the compiler of the Nanshan Vinaya for Laypeople. Zhixu wrote three separate works on this sūtra, and by his own account at the end of the commentary this collection draws on most heavily — the Zhancha Jing Shu (占察經疏, X0371) — he had wanted to write it for fifteen years, ever since first hearing the sūtra described by a lay friend in 1631, performing its repentance rite himself in 1633, and lecturing on it in 1635, before finally completing the commentary in 1650, three years before his death, remarking that he had by then already written on the Brahma Net Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Cheng Weishi Lun, and the Lotus Sūtra, and this alone remained undone. Alongside the line-by-line commentary, this collection also draws on his Zhancha Jing Xuanyi (占察經玄義, X0370), a doctrinal overview in Tiantai's classical "five profound meanings" format, and his Zhancha Jing Xingfa (占察經行法, X1485), a ritual manual he compiled for actually performing the repentance rite this sūtra teaches. Classical text is set in the left-hand column below, our English in the right. See also this site's note on translation method.
An Age That Has Lost Its Nerve
如是我聞：一時，婆伽婆一切智人，在王舍城耆闍崛山中，以神通力，示廣博嚴淨無礙道場，與無量無邊諸大眾俱，演說甚深根聚法門。
爾時，會中有一菩薩名堅淨信，從坐而起，整衣服，偏袒右肩，合掌白佛言：「我今於此眾中，欲有所問，諮請世尊，願垂聽許。」佛言：「善男子！隨汝所問，便可說之。」堅淨信菩薩言：「如佛先說：『若我去世，正法滅後，像法向盡，及入末世。如是之時，眾生福薄，多諸衰惱，國土數亂，災害頻起，種種厄難，怖懼逼擾。我諸弟子失其善念，唯長貪、瞋、嫉妬、我慢。設有像似行善法者，但求世間利養名稱，以之為主，不能專心修出要法。爾時眾生覩世災亂，心常怯弱，憂畏己身及諸親屬不得衣食充養軀命。以如此等眾多障礙因緣故，於佛法中鈍根少信，得道者極少。乃至漸漸於三乘中，信心成就者亦復甚尠。所有修學世間禪定，發諸通業，自知宿命者，次轉無有。如是於後，入末法中經久，得道獲信、禪定、通業等一切全無。』我今為此未來惡世，像法向盡及末法中，有微少善根者，請問如來。設何方便，開化示導，令生信心，得除衰惱。以彼眾生遭值惡時，多障礙故，退其善心。於世間、出世間因果法中，數起疑惑，不能堅心專求善法。如是眾生可愍可救。世尊大慈，一切種智！願興方便而曉喻之。令離疑網，除諸障礙，信得增長。隨於何乘，速獲不退。」
佛告堅淨信言：「善哉！善哉！快問斯事，深適我意。今此眾中，有菩薩摩訶薩，名曰地藏，汝應以此事而請問之。彼當為汝建立方便，開示演說，成汝所願。」時堅淨信菩薩復白佛言：「如來世尊，無上大智！何意不說，乃欲令彼地藏菩薩而演說之？」佛告堅淨信：「汝莫生高下想。此善男子發心已來，過無量無邊不可思議阿僧祇劫，久已能度薩婆若海，功德滿足。但依本願自在力故，權巧現化，影應十方。雖復普遊一切剎土常起功業，而於五濁惡世化益偏厚，亦依本願力所熏習故，及因眾生應受化業故也。彼從十一劫來，莊嚴此世界，成熟眾生。是故在斯會中，身相端嚴，威德殊勝，唯除如來，無能過者。又於此世界所有化業，唯除遍吉、觀世音等諸大菩薩，皆不能及。以是菩薩本誓願力，速滿眾生一切所求，能滅眾生一切重罪，除諸障礙，現得安隱。又是菩薩，名為善安慰說者。所謂，巧演深法，能善開導初學發意求大乘者，令不怯弱。以如是等因緣，於此世界，眾生渴仰，受化得度。是故我今令彼說之。」
爾時，堅淨信菩薩既解佛意已，尋即勸請地藏菩薩摩訶薩言：「善哉，救世真士！善哉，大智開士！如我所問：『惡世眾生，以何方便而化導之，使離諸障，得堅固信？』如來今者，為欲令汝說是方便。宜當知時，哀愍為說。」爾時，地藏菩薩摩訶薩語堅淨信菩薩摩訶薩言：「善男子！諦聽。當為汝說。
Thus have I heard. At one time the Bhagavān, the All-Knowing One, was on Vulture Peak at Rājagṛha, and by his spiritual power revealed a vast, adorned, and unobstructed place of practice, and together with a measureless, boundless great assembly expounded the profound Dharma-gate of the Cluster of Faculties.
At that time there was, in the assembly, a bodhisattva named Firm and Pure Faith, who rose from his seat, arranged his robe, bared his right shoulder, joined his palms, and said to the Buddha: "I now wish to ask something of this assembly. I beg the World-Honored One's leave to question you." The Buddha said: "Good son, ask as you wish." The bodhisattva Firm and Pure Faith said: "As the Buddha has said before: 'After I have passed from the world, when the true Dharma has perished and the semblance Dharma is nearly spent, and the final age has come — at such a time sentient beings will have thin merit, weighed down by manifold troubles; kingdoms will fall repeatedly into disorder, and disasters will follow one on another; every kind of calamity will terrify and oppress them. My disciples will lose their wholesome thoughts, and only greed, anger, envy, and pride will grow in them. Even those who seem to practice good will only be seeking worldly gain and reputation as their real aim, unable to give themselves wholly to the practice that leads out of suffering. Beings of that time, seeing the world's calamity and disorder, will be constantly fearful in heart, anxious for their own safety and their families', unable even to secure food and clothing to sustain their bodies. Because of hindrances such as these, few among the Buddha's teaching will have sharp faculties or firm faith, and those who attain the path will be extremely rare. Gradually, even among the three vehicles, those whose faith comes to completion will grow fewer and fewer; and those who cultivate worldly meditation, develop the higher knowledges, and know their own past lives will, in turn, cease to exist. So it will go, until in the final Dharma age, after a long time, attaining the path, gaining faith, meditative concentration, and the higher knowledges will all be entirely absent.' I now, for the sake of those in this coming evil age — when the semblance Dharma is nearly spent and in the final Dharma age — who have but a little root of goodness, ask the Tathāgata: what expedient means might open, instruct, and guide them, so that faith may arise in them and their troubles be removed? For these beings, meeting with an evil time, are hindered in many ways, and their good hearts fall back; again and again they raise doubts about the causes and effects of the mundane and the transcendent, and cannot fix their hearts firmly on seeking the good Dharma. Such beings are to be pitied, and are worth saving. World-Honored One, great in compassion, possessed of all-knowing wisdom — I beg you to raise up some expedient and make it plain to them, so that they may leave the net of doubt, remove every hindrance, and see their faith increase, so that in whichever vehicle they stand, they may swiftly attain the stage of never turning back."
The Buddha said to Firm and Pure Faith: "Excellent, excellent! You ask this swiftly, and it suits my intention well. In this assembly there is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva named Kṣitigarbha. You should put this question to him. He will establish for you the expedient means, and open and expound it, and bring your wish to fulfillment." Then the bodhisattva Firm and Pure Faith again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, Tathāgata, unsurpassed in great wisdom — why do you not speak of this yourself, but wish Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva to expound it?" The Buddha said to Firm and Pure Faith: "Do not give rise to thoughts of higher and lower. This good son, since he first set his mind on awakening, has passed through measureless, boundless, inconceivable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, and has long since crossed the ocean of all-knowing wisdom, his merit and virtue fully complete. It is only by the power of his own original vow, freely exercised, that he manifests transformation-bodies by skillful means, casting his reflection into the ten directions. Though he travels universally through every buddha-land, forever taking up the work of benefiting beings, his benefiting is especially deep in this evil world of the five turbidities — both because he is steeped in the power of his original vow, and because sentient beings here are fit to receive his transforming work. For eleven kalpas he has adorned this world and brought its beings to maturity. This is why, in this very assembly, his bodily form is dignified and his awesome virtue supreme — none can surpass him save the Tathāgata himself. And as for the transforming work done in this world, none of the other great bodhisattvas can equal him, save Samantabhadra and Avalokiteśvara. By the power of this bodhisattva's original vow, he swiftly fulfills every wish of sentient beings, and can extinguish every grave sin of sentient beings, remove every hindrance, and bring about present ease. This bodhisattva is also called the One Who Skillfully Reassures and Explains — meaning that he skillfully expounds the profound Dharma, and is able to guide well those who have newly set their minds on seeking the Great Vehicle, so that they do not grow fainthearted. For reasons such as these, sentient beings in this world thirst for him and are eager to be transformed and delivered by him. This is why I now have him speak of it."
Then the bodhisattva Firm and Pure Faith, having understood the Buddha's intention, at once entreated the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha, saying: "Excellent, true gentleman who saves the world! Excellent, great sage who opens the way! As I have asked — by what expedient means may the beings of an evil age be guided, so that they leave every hindrance and attain firm faith? The Tathāgata now wishes you to speak of this expedient. Please know the time is right, and out of compassion, speak of it." Then the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha said to the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Firm and Pure Faith: "Good son, listen closely. I shall now speak of it for you.
Zhixu reads even the assembly's own hindrance as self-inflicted rather than a limit on the Buddha's compassion. He raises the question directly: if buddhas and bodhisattvas possess "great compassion, great vows, great power," why can they not simply rescue this degenerate age outright? His answer is an analogy — the blazing sun stands overhead regardless, but nothing of its light reaches beneath an overturned basin; the failure belongs to the basin, not to the sun. Sentient beings, he says, stand in exactly the same "one real realm" as every buddha, but wall themselves off from it with the delusion they mistake for real — "同在一實境界之中，自以無明虛幻覆障" ("dwelling together within the one real realm, they cover and obstruct themselves with nothing but the illusion of their own ignorance"). Kṣitigarbha's method, on this reading, does not import light from outside; it removes the basin.
On why the Buddha delegates the answer to Kṣitigarbha rather than giving it himself, Zhixu takes up the etymology of the name directly: 地 ("ground," "earth") because a mind-ground bears and generates, as ordinary earth bears and generates all things; 藏 ("store," "treasury") because a nature-treasury can both hold in and yield out — "無不從此法界流，名之為出；無不還歸此法界，名之為內" ("nothing fails to flow out from this one dharma-realm, which is why it is called 'issuing'; nothing fails to return to this one dharma-realm, which is why it is called 'storing'"). He sets this beside the other bodhisattva names built the same way in the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra — Sun Store, Moon Store, Sumeru Store, Space Store — each one named for whatever object of contemplation that bodhisattva took up and, through it, realized the true nature of all things: Kṣitigarbha took up the suffering of hell itself as his object, and through it realized the treasury of the three virtues that can rescue every great hell in the ten directions.
Three Wheels, and Why This Is Not Fortune-Telling
「若佛滅後，惡世之中，諸有比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷，於世間、出世間因果法，未得決定信，不能修學無常想、苦想、無我想、不淨想，成就現前；不能勤觀四聖諦法及十二因緣法；亦不勤觀真如、實際、無生無滅等法。以不勤觀如是法故，不能畢竟不作十惡根本過罪。於三寶功德種種境界，不能專信。於三乘中，皆無定向。如是等人，若有種種諸障礙事，增長憂慮，或疑或悔，於一切處心不明了。多求多惱，眾事牽纏，所作不定，思想擾亂，廢修道業。有如是等障難事者，當用木輪相法，占察善惡宿世之業、現在苦樂吉凶等事。緣合故有，緣盡則滅。業集隨心，相現果起。不失不壞，相應不差。如是諦占善惡業報，曉喻自心。於所疑事，以取決了。若佛弟子，但當學習如此相法，至心歸依，所觀之事，無不誠諦。不應棄捨如是之法，而返隨逐世間卜筮、種種占相吉凶等事，貪著樂習。若樂習者，深障聖道。
「善男子！欲學木輪相者，先當刻木如小指許，使長短減於一寸，正中令其四面方平，自餘向兩頭斜漸去之。仰手傍擲，令使易轉，因是義故，說名為輪。又依此相，能破壞眾生邪見疑網，轉向正道，到安隱處，是故名輪。其輪相者，有三種差別。何等為三？一者，輪相能示宿世所作善惡業種差別，其輪有十。二者，輪相能示宿世集業久近，所作強弱、大小差別，其輪有三。三者，輪相能示三世中受報差別，其輪有六。
「若欲觀宿世所作善惡業差別者，當刻木為十輪。依此十輪，書記十善之名。一善主在一輪，於一面記。次以十惡書對十善，令使相當，亦各記在一面。言十善者，則為一切眾善根本，能攝一切諸餘善法。言十惡者，亦為一切眾惡根本，能攝一切諸餘惡法。
"If, after the Buddha has passed from the world, in this evil age, there are monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen who have not attained decisive faith in the mundane and transcendent laws of cause and effect; who cannot cultivate the perceptions of impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity so that they stand fully present before the mind; who cannot diligently contemplate the Four Noble Truths and the twelve links of dependent origination; and who cannot diligently contemplate suchness, the ultimate reality, and the unarisen and unceasing — because they cannot diligently contemplate such things, they cannot, in the end, refrain from committing the root offenses of the ten evils. They cannot wholly believe in the virtues and various realms of the Three Jewels, and among the three vehicles they have no settled direction. When people such as these encounter all manner of hindering circumstances, their anxiety grows; doubt or regret arises in them; everywhere their minds are unclear. They seek much and are troubled much, entangled by many affairs, their actions unsettled, their thoughts in turmoil, so that they abandon the cultivation of the path.
"For those who have hindrances and difficulties such as these, one should use the method of the wooden wheel-marks, to divine and investigate the good and evil karma of past lives, and the matters of present suffering and joy, fortune and misfortune. These arise because conditions have come together, and cease when conditions are exhausted. Karma accumulates according to the mind; the mark appears and the fruit arises. It is neither lost nor destroyed; it corresponds without error. By thus truly divining good and evil karmic retribution, one comes to understand one's own mind, and settles the matters over which one has been in doubt. Disciples of the Buddha should only learn and practice this method of the marks, taking refuge in it with a sincere mind — whatever is observed will be nothing but true and real. One should not cast aside this Dharma and instead follow the world's fortune-telling and every kind of mark-reading for luck and misfortune, becoming attached to and fond of practicing it. Whoever becomes fond of practicing it deeply obstructs the sagely path.
"Good son! One who wishes to learn the wooden wheel-marks should first carve wood to about the size of the little finger, making it somewhat less than an inch in length, with the middle four faces cut flat and square, and the remainder tapering gradually toward both ends. Cast it from an upturned palm so that it turns easily — for this reason it is called a wheel. Also, by means of this mark one can break through sentient beings' net of wrong views and doubt, turning them toward the right path, until they reach the place of safety — this too is why it is called a wheel. As for the wheel-marks, there are three kinds of distinction. What are the three? First, a wheel-mark that shows the distinctions among the good and evil karmic seeds sown in past lives — this wheel has ten faces marked. Second, a wheel-mark that shows how long ago the karma was accumulated, and the distinctions of strong or weak, great or small, in what was done — this wheel has three. Third, a wheel-mark that shows the distinctions in retribution received across the three times — this wheel has six.
"If one wishes to observe the distinctions among the good and evil karma made in past lives, one should carve ten wheels of wood. On these ten wheels, inscribe the names of the ten good deeds. Each good deed governs one wheel, recorded on one face. Next, inscribe the ten evil deeds set opposite the ten good deeds, matching them so they correspond, each likewise recorded on one face. As for the ten good deeds — these are the root of every wholesome quality, and encompass every other wholesome dharma. As for the ten evil deeds — these too are the root of every unwholesome quality, and encompass every other unwholesome dharma.
This is the passage Ru-Yi's title page for the whole collection leans on hardest, because the sūtra itself raises and answers the "is this just fortune-telling?" question in the very breath it introduces the method: don't abandon this practice, it says, "而返隨逐世間卜筮、種種占相吉凶等事" ("and instead go running after the world's fortune-telling and every kind of mark-reading for luck and misfortune") — whoever becomes fond of that "深障聖道" ("deeply obstructs the sagely path"). Zhixu's Xuanyi takes this distinction further than the sūtra states it explicitly, laying out twenty grades of wisdom capable of using the wheels validly, from the wisdom of an ordinary worldling up through a fully enlightened buddha's — and placing "worldly wisdom" (世智) outside the list altogether, on the grounds that a mind still moving by "邪計妄執" ("crooked calculation and false grasping") cannot divine at all: "善惡報不可信用" ("the good and evil retribution it turns up cannot be trusted"). The wheels do not work by being touched; they work only for a mind already oriented, by faith and by rite, toward the reality the sūtra calls the one real realm — which is exactly why the passage spends as many words on the confession, the vow, and the thousand recitations of Kṣitigarbha's name that must come before a single cast as it does on the wheel-carving itself.
On why three wheels rather than one, Zhixu's Shu gives a plain functional answer worth holding onto through the next two parts: this first wheel can only show whether a given good or evil seed exists at all in one's past karma, not how long ago it was planted, how forceful it has grown, or when in the three times its fruit will ripen. Those questions need the second and third wheels in turn — the sūtra builds its method cumulatively, each wheel answering a question the one before it structurally cannot.
The Rite Before the Cast
「若欲占此輪相者，先當學至心總禮十方一切諸佛。因即立願：『願令十方一切眾生，速疾皆得親近供養，諮受正法。』次應學至心敬禮十方一切法藏。因即立願：『願令十方一切眾生，速疾皆得受持讀誦，如法修行，及為他說。』次當學至心敬禮十方一切賢聖。因即立願：『願令十方一切眾生，速疾皆得親近供養，發菩提心，志不退轉。』後應學至心禮我地藏菩薩摩訶薩。因即立願：『願令十方一切眾生，速得除滅惡業重罪，離諸障礙。資生眾具，悉皆充足。』如是禮已，隨所有香華等，當修供養。
「修供養者，仰念一切佛法僧寶，體常遍滿，無所不在。願令此香華，等同法性，普熏一切諸佛剎土，施作佛事。又念十方一切供具，無時不有。我今當以十方所有一切種種香華、瓔珞、幢幡、寶蓋、諸珍妙飾、種種音樂、燈明、燭火、飲食、衣服、臥具、湯藥，乃至十方所有一切種種莊嚴供養之具，憶想遙擬，普共眾生奉獻供養。當念一切世界中有修供養者，我今隨喜。若未修供養者，願得開導，令修供養。又願我身，速能遍至一切剎土，於一切佛法僧所，各以一切種莊嚴供養之具，共一切眾生等持奉獻。供養一切諸佛法身、色身、舍利、形像、浮圖、廟塔一切佛事，供養一切所有法藏及說法處，供養一切賢聖僧眾，願共一切眾生，修行如是供養已，漸得成就六波羅蜜、四無量心。深知一切法本來寂靜，無生無滅，一味平等，離念清淨，畢竟圓滿。
「又應別復係心供養我地藏菩薩摩訶薩。次當稱名，若默誦念。一心告言：『南無地藏菩薩摩訶薩。』如是稱名，滿足至千。經千念已，而作是言：『地藏菩薩摩訶薩！大慈大悲！唯願護念我及一切眾生，速除諸障，增長淨信，令今所觀稱實相應。』作此語已，然後手執木輪，於淨物上而傍擲之。如是欲自觀法，若欲觀他，皆亦如是。
"If one wishes to divine by means of this wheel-mark, one should first learn to bow with utmost sincerity to all buddhas of the ten directions, and upon doing so make the vow: 'May all sentient beings of the ten directions swiftly come to draw near to and make offerings to the buddhas, and receive the true Dharma.' Next one should learn to bow with utmost sincerity to the entire treasury of the Dharma of the ten directions, and make the vow: 'May all sentient beings of the ten directions swiftly come to uphold, recite, and practice as the Dharma teaches, and to expound it for others.' Next one should learn to bow with utmost sincerity to all the sages and worthies of the ten directions, and make the vow: 'May all sentient beings of the ten directions swiftly come to draw near to and make offerings to them, give rise to the bodhi-mind, and never turn back from it.' Finally one should learn to bow with utmost sincerity to me, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, and make the vow: 'May all sentient beings of the ten directions swiftly come to extinguish their grave evil karma, be free from every hindrance, and have all that they need for life fully provided.' Having bowed thus, one should, with whatever incense and flowers one has, make offerings.
"In making offerings, reverently call to mind that the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha are ever-present and pervade everywhere, absent from no place. Wish that this incense and these flowers become equal to the Dharma-nature itself, and pervasively perfume all the buddha-lands of the ten directions, performing the work of a buddha. Also call to mind that every kind of offering, throughout the ten directions, is present at all times without lack. I shall now, with all the incense, flowers, necklaces, banners, canopies, every kind of rare and wondrous ornament, every kind of music, lamps and candles, food and drink, clothing, bedding, and medicine — with all the kinds of adorning offerings there are, throughout the ten directions — in thought and imagination reach out, and together with all sentient beings, offer them up. I call to mind that in every world there are those who make such offerings, and I now rejoice in this. For those who have not yet made offerings, I wish that they be guided to do so. And I further wish that my own body swiftly reach every buddha-land, and at every place of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, together with all sentient beings, hold up every kind of adorning offering and offer it up equally. I make offerings to the Dharma-body, form-body, relics, images, stūpas, and shrines of all buddhas, and to every work of a buddha; I make offerings to every treasury of the Dharma and every place where the Dharma is taught; I make offerings to all the sages and worthies of the Saṅgha. I wish that, together with all sentient beings, having practiced such offerings, we may gradually come to accomplish the six perfections and the four immeasurable states of mind, and deeply know that all dharmas are, from the outset, still and quiet, unarisen and unceasing, one flavor and equal, free from thought and pure, ultimately perfect and complete.
"One should also, apart from this, set one's mind especially on making offerings to me, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva. Next one should call my name, whether aloud or silently, with a single mind declaring: 'Namo Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva.' Call the name in this way until it is completed a thousand times. Once a thousand recitations are complete, say these words: 'Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, great in compassion and great in kindness! I beg only that you protect and remember me and all sentient beings, swiftly remove every hindrance, increase our pure faith, and let what is now observed correspond truly to reality.' Having said this, one should then take the wooden wheel in hand, and cast it sideways upon a clean surface. This is how one should observe the matter for oneself; and if one wishes to observe it for another, it is likewise done in the same way.
Zhixu insists that every "should learn" (應學) in this rite matters as much as the content of the vow itself: reaching for the four universal vows without conceptual grasping (無作四弘) requires a single mind that holds both compassion and wisdom together, which is why it must be learned rather than merely recited. He then collapses the apparent duality between worshipper and worshipped in a single line: "悟此現前一念心性，則為十方三寶及地藏尊；迷此現前一念心性，則為十方一切眾生" ("realize this present single thought of mind-nature, and it is the Three Jewels of the ten directions and the venerable Kṣitigarbha himself; be deluded about this same present thought, and it is all sentient beings of the ten directions"). The Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, and Kṣitigarbha being invoked in this rite are not, on his reading, external powers being petitioned from outside — they are what one's own mind already is, the moment delusion about it lifts. The bow is not aimed elsewhere; it is aimed at what is deluded about itself.
Reading the Cast
「應知占其輪相者，隨所現業，悉應一一諦觀思驗。或純具十善，或純具十惡，或善惡交雜，或純善不具，或純惡不具。如是業因，種類不同，習氣果報，各各別異，如佛世尊餘處廣說。應當憶念思惟觀察所現業種，與今世果報所經苦樂吉凶等事，及煩惱業習得相當者，名為相應；若不相當者，謂不至心，名虛謬也。
「若占輪相，其善惡業俱不現者，此人已證無漏智心，專求出離，不復樂受世間果報，諸有漏業展轉微弱，更不增長，是故不現。又純善不具、純惡不具者，此二種人，善惡之業所有不現者，皆是微弱未能牽果，是故不現。若當來世佛諸弟子，已占善惡果報得相應者，於五欲眾具得稱意時，勿當自縱以起放逸。即應思念：『由我宿世如是善業故，今獲此報。我今乃可轉更進修，不應休止。』若遭眾厄種種衰惱不吉之事擾亂憂怖，不稱意時，應當甘受，無令疑悔，退修善業。即當思念：『但由我宿世造如是惡業故，今獲此報，我今應當悔彼惡業，專修對治及修餘善。無得止住懈怠放逸，轉更增集種種苦聚。』是名占察初輪相法。
"One should know that in divining the wheel-marks, whatever karma appears, one should carefully observe and consider each one. It may appear as purely the ten good deeds, or purely the ten evil deeds, or good and evil mixed together, or purely good but incomplete, or purely evil but incomplete. Such karmic causes differ in kind, and their habitual tendencies and fruits of retribution each differ from the others, as the Buddha, the World-Honored One, has explained at length elsewhere. One should recall, consider, and observe the karmic seeds that have appeared, and see whether they correspond to the matters of suffering and joy, fortune and misfortune actually experienced in this present life's retribution, and to one's afflictions and habitual tendencies. Where they correspond, it is called a match. Where they do not correspond, it means one was not sincere of mind, and this is called a false and mistaken casting.
"If, in divining the wheel-mark, neither good nor evil karma appears at all, this person has already realized the mind of undefiled wisdom, and single-mindedly seeks release, no longer taking pleasure in worldly retribution; all their defiled karma has become weaker and weaker in turn, and no longer grows — this is why nothing appears. Again, for those in whom purely good, incomplete, or purely evil, incomplete karma appears, in both these kinds of people, whatever good or evil karma fails to appear is simply too weak yet to draw forth a fruit — this is why it does not appear. If, in the ages to come, disciples of the Buddha have already divined their good and evil retribution and found it to correspond, then when the five desires and their accompanying objects come to satisfy them, they should not indulge themselves and give rise to laxity. Rather, they should reflect: 'Because of such good karma in my past lives, I now obtain this retribution. I should now all the more press forward in my practice, and not rest.' And if they meet with every kind of calamity, misfortune, and inauspicious matter, troubled and afraid, not to their liking, they should accept it patiently, and not allow doubt or regret to make them retreat from cultivating good. Rather, they should reflect: 'Only because I made such evil karma in my past lives do I now obtain this retribution. I should now repent of that evil karma, single-mindedly cultivate its remedy, and cultivate other good besides. I must not remain idle or lax, so as to increase and accumulate ever more heaps of suffering.' This is called the method of divining the first wheel-mark."
Zhixu supplies the concrete calibration the sūtra leaves implicit: if the wheel shows non-killing as one's karmic seed, one's present life should show freedom from illness and long life, or at least a habitually compassionate disposition; if it shows non-stealing, one should find oneself with what one needs, or a temperament of easy contentment; and correspondingly for the evil deeds — a cast showing killing should match a life of frequent illness or a mind prone to violent impulse, one showing theft a life of chronic want or a habitually acquisitive mind. A mismatch, on his reading, is never evidence the method fails; it is evidence the caster was not sincere (不至心), which he takes seriously enough to have devoted an entire later passage of the sūtra — reached in Part 2 — to defining exactly what sincerity of mind requires.
On the closing pair of instructions — do not grow lax when the reading is favorable, do not despair when it is not — Zhixu's Xingfa, his separate ritual manual for actually performing this rite, treats this less as moral advice appended to the divination than as its entire point: the wheel is never consulted for its own sake, as an oracle to be satisfied and set aside, but always as a diagnostic that immediately routes back into practice — favorable karma read as a summons to press further, unfavorable karma read as a summons to repentance. A cast that changed nothing about what one did next would have missed what the method was for.
Part 1 Complete
This closes Part 1: Firm and Pure Faith's question about a degenerate age too doubt-ridden for direct practice, the Buddha's charge to Kṣitigarbha to answer it, and the first of the sūtra's three wooden wheel-marks — ten wheels marked with the ten good and ten evil deeds, cast only after a rite of vow, offering, and a thousand recitations of Kṣitigarbha's name, and read only as a summons back into practice, never as an oracle consulted for its own sake. Part 2 turns to the second wheel, which measures how long ago a karmic seed was planted and how forceful it has grown, and to the sūtra's repentance method proper — the discipline Kṣitigarbha prescribes for anyone whose cast karma is too heavy to take up meditation directly.
Continue to Part 2 — How Deep the Habit Runs →