Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (109)

Where do karmic formations go after they cease?

After a karmic formation is created, it ceases in an instant. For example, when we speak, sounds appear one after another without pause—one word arises and ceases, the next word arises and ceases again. This is the creation of formations. Such formations of action cease the very moment they are created; having ceased, they arise again, arising and ceasing from instant to instant. Although the karma has ceased, the karmic formation remains stored in the ālayavijñāna as a seed. When a word is spoken, countless seeds of consciousness arise and cease in succession, completing that instant's formation of verbal action. If even one seed of consciousness were to break its stream, the words could not be spoken. Therefore, language is a conditioned dharma, a false dharma, not a true dharma.

After karmic formations cease, where do they go? There is no place where they can abide. The ālayavijñāna does not store these karmic formations themselves, because the ālayavijñāna is formless and without characteristics; it does not store bodily, verbal, and mental actions that have form and characteristics—it only holds formless, characteristicless seeds. No karmic formation has a place it goes to, nor a place it comes from. When we speak, the first sound comes out—from where does it come out? Is there a place where the sounds of speech are stored? Certainly not. If there were, then where are the sounds of speech we have made over a lifetime, or over beginningless kalpas, stored? Go look for them—you simply cannot find them.

Some say that if we record sounds with a tape recorder and record karmic formations with a video recorder, then formations of action would have a place of existence. If that were so, then let us take the tape recorder and video recorder apart and search for them—where are the sounds and the formations of action? Search as we might, we would probably not find the sounds or the images. Yet the entire process of formation of action, including mental karma, has something that records and films it all, just like a tape recorder and video recorder—and that something is the ālayavijñāna. Once recorded, it exists as a seed. Those with the power of recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti) can retrieve and view it at any time, just like turning on a television to watch. The tathāgatagarbha, this television set, can store as many audio and video programs as there may be; programs from beginningless kalpas are all stored without being lost. Those with the power of recollection of past lives can play them all back, regardless of whether the karmic seeds have come to fruition or whether the retribution has been fully received.