On the Principle of the Withering of Karmic Seeds (II)

Question: The principle of karmic seeds withering seems to contradict the verse, "If through a hundred thousand kalpas, the karma created does not perish; when causes and conditions meet, the retribution is still borne by oneself." Those four lines of verse should express the meaning that karmic seeds are firm and will never perish unless the retribution is received. How should this be explained?

Answer: The meaning of karmic seeds withering is this: the habitual force of sentient beings' karma-making, when long deprived of opportunities to create karma, will gradually weaken, until finally there is no ability and no inertia left to create karmic actions. It is like a seed that has been stored away and left idle for a long time—it loses its vitality and will no longer take root and sprout. A person who has committed great evil karma and is reborn in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī) at the lowest grade will, at the longest, dwell inside a lotus flower in the land of bliss for twelve great kalpas, where they cultivate the Buddha's Dharma. There is not the slightest opportunity to create karma there, and in the end even the evil in their mental processes disappears, and they will never create karma again. Only then can they emerge from the lotus flower and behold the Nirmāṇakāya of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva to hear the Dharma, yet without understanding its meaning—all because of the obscuration of their past evil karma.

Because he has long had no karmic actions inside the lotus flower, the inertia for creating evil karma is gone; evil actions of body, speech, and mind no longer arise—it has become a habit—and he will not disturb the tranquility and peace of the land of bliss. However, when he returns to the Saha world, if the conditions for his great evil karma have matured, he will still receive its retribution, only the karmic retribution will be lighter and not too heavy; it is impossible for him to undergo it in the three evil destinies—he can only receive some corresponding painful retribution in the human world. This shows that heavy offenses can be lightly requited, and light offenses can disappear.

Repentance works on the same principle: through repentance, the seeds of evil karma are eliminated or lightened, so that sentient beings may afterward not receive the retribution of evil karma, or receive it lightly, and the karmic seeds thus disappear. Therefore, not all karmic seeds disappear only through receiving retribution; many are eliminated through other forms. Otherwise, by the time of becoming a Buddha, the evil retribution could never be fully exhausted, and Buddhahood would be impossible to attain.