One of the book's severest judgments turns on continuing influence. A man had made aphrodisiacs and produced pornographic books and videos for profit. After his death, the materials still encouraged conduct condemned in the book. Dizang tells him that he cannot leave hell until the sexual materials he produced have completely disappeared from the human world. He is then returned to punishment. The condition is attached to that man's case: the products outlive their maker, and acknowledgment of his wrong has not ended their influence. [6]
A different difficulty is that good and harmful actions need not bear fruit at the same time. Someone may still enjoy earlier good fortune while creating new harmful karma. Someone who has begun to live well may still experience consequences of earlier conduct. Present comfort alone therefore says little about the quality of present action. Continuing to act well matters even while its results are not yet apparent. [1]
When another person's suffering is concerned, the full history is usually unknown. The Sivaka Sutta, an early Buddhist discourse, rejects the claim that every feeling comes entirely from what a person did before. It includes bodily conditions, seasonal change and harsh treatment among the causes of painful experience. An illness or injury does not reveal a person's whole moral history. Care can begin with the pain that is evident and the help that can be offered. [7]
Lasting freedom from hell requires the causes of return to be abandoned. Dao Lan's postscript joins sincere repentance, reform, refusal to repeat wrongdoing and helping others change. A rescue or a vow can begin this work, while the life that follows shows whether the change endures.
The place to begin is the life already being lived. Earning honestly, caring for a dependant, respecting shared resources and responding to suffering all give an intention something to do. A mistake can be acknowledged, a harmful action stopped and a useful act carried through. Through these repeated choices, a person begins to shape the life ahead. [8]
Notes
[1] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, ch. 18, for earlier good fortune and newly created karma, and permission to attend one teaching with punishment temporarily suspended; vol. 1, ch. 28, for the released practitioner's wealth, lack of right understanding, remaining consequences and renewed opportunity to practise.
[2] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, chs. 1 and 7, for the heavenly return and Five Precepts; vol. 2, chs. 18–19, for the Five Precepts, Ten Good Actions and the future created through conduct. For the ten courses of wholesome conduct through body, speech and mind, see the Cunda Kammāraputta Sutta, numbered AN 10:165 in the Dhammatalks edition, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. The source also states an exception for life-saving medicinal use in its discussion of alcohol. [Source 1](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN10_165.html)
[3] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, ch. 19, distinguishes favourable rebirth from release beyond the Three Realms; vol. 1, ch. 24, names human, heavenly and Pure Land outcomes separately. Hisao Inagaki with Harold Stewart, trans., The Three Pure Land Sutras, revised second edition (2003), The Smaller Sutra, section 5, p. 93, for aspiration, recollection of Amitabha and nonretrogression. [Source 1](https://www.bdk.or.jp/document/dgtl-dl/dBET_ThreePureLandSutras_2003.pdf)
[4] Saṃyutta Nikāya 38.1, the Nibbāna Sutta, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, defines unbinding through the ending of passion, aversion and delusion, and identifies the Noble Eightfold Path as the practice leading to it. Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, ch. 19, gives the City God's account of the aspiration to awakening for the welfare of suffering beings. [Source 1](https://origin.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN38_1.html)