The Relationship Between Karmic Seeds and the Seven Great Seeds

Are karmic seeds and the seven great seeds independent? First, let's examine how karmic seeds are formed. Karmic seeds are formed by the bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the seven consciousnesses within the physical body. The agent of karma creation is the mental faculty (manas). The mental faculty directs, instigates, and commands the six consciousnesses to utilize the physical body to perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions. These actions then exist as seeds within the Tathagatagarbha (Buddha-nature). When conditions mature in the future, the seeds take root and sprout, manifesting as karmic retribution, thereby actualizing the law of cause and effect.

The seven consciousnesses are formed from the consciousness seeds within the seven great seeds. The physical body is formed from the five great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space within the seven great seeds. There is also the great seed of perception, which is the functional manifestation of the Tathagatagarbha. The seven great seeds operate in harmony, creating karmic actions and forming karmic seeds. Thus, this entire process can be said to be the functional manifestation of the Tathagatagarbha.

The relationship between karmic seeds and the seven great seeds is extremely close; without the seven great seeds, there would be no karmic seeds. However, karmic seeds are independent of the seven great seeds. For instance, when the five great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space return to the Tathagatagarbha, they cannot carry karmic actions back with them. The five great seeds also do not create karmic actions or karmic seeds. When the great seed of perception returns to the Tathagatagarbha, it likewise does not carry karmic actions or karmic seeds. Do the consciousness seeds of the seven consciousnesses, the great seeds of consciousness, carry karmic seeds and karmic actions back into the Tathagatagarbha? Certainly, they do not carry karmic seeds or karmic actions. The consciousness seeds themselves are pure; they are neither wholesome, unwholesome, nor neutral. They remain eternally so and therefore do not carry karmic actions or karmic seeds. Karmic actions have distinctions: wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. It is only after the consciousness seeds manifest to form the seven consciousnesses, and mental factors (caittas) accompany their operation, that the consciousnesses acquire the three natures: wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (non-defined). The consciousness seeds themselves do not possess these three natures. Once the mental factors operate, the consciousnesses manifest karmic actions of the three natures (wholesome, unwholesome, neutral), forming karmic seeds. Consequently, these karmic seeds do not follow the consciousness seeds back into the Tathagatagarbha. The consciousness seeds retain their original purity and, when projected outward again, remain pure consciousness seeds.

Since karmic actions of the three natures (wholesome, unwholesome, neutral) arise only when mental factors accompany the operation of the consciousnesses, and since mental factors possess the three natures, while the consciousnesses formed from consciousness seeds lack the three natures, it follows that karmic seeds are related to the mental factors. When mental factors change, karmic seeds change; when mental factors are pure, karmic seeds are pure. Therefore, the seven great seeds and karmic seeds are two distinct mechanisms. Although they are closely interrelated, they should not be conflated.

So, when the seven great seeds are projected by the Tathagatagarbha, do they carry the information of karmic seeds? They cannot carry it, because the seeds are pure. The seven great seeds of all sentient beings, including Buddhas, are equally identical and without distinction. The difference lies in the mental factors. Karmic seeds are related to mental factors. The purity or impurity of the consciousnesses is related to mental factors. The key to spiritual practice is to transform the mental factors, not to change the seven great seeds or the consciousness seeds. These seeds cannot be altered. One can only change the mental factors, thereby transforming the karmic seeds, making them utterly pure. Only then can one become a Buddha, as pure as the Tathagatagarbha.