Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (109)

Where Do Karmic Actions Go After Ceasing?

Once karmic actions are created, they cease instantaneously. For instance, when we speak, sounds arise one after another: one word emerges and ceases, followed by the next, which also ceases. This is the nature of behavioral creation—each act arises and ceases in the very moment it occurs, vanishing as swiftly as it arises. Though the karmic action ceases, it persists as a seed within the Alaya consciousness. When a single word is uttered, countless consciousness-seeds arise and cease in succession, completing the karmic creation of speech in that instant. If even one consciousness-seed were interrupted, speech would fail. Thus, speech is a provisional phenomenon, not an ultimate reality.

After karmic actions cease, where do they go? There is no abode for them to reside in. The Alaya consciousness does not store these karmic actions themselves, for the Alaya is formless and shapeless; it does not retain tangible actions of body, speech, or mind but only holds formless seeds. All karmic actions have no place to go and no origin to return to. When we speak, where does the first sound emerge from? Is there a place where spoken sounds are stored? Certainly not. If there were, where would all the sounds from our lifetime—or from beginningless kalpas—reside? Search as we might, they cannot be found.

Some may suggest that sounds can be recorded with a recorder or karmic actions captured with a camera, thereby granting them a physical abode. But if so, let us disassemble the recorder or camera to locate the sound or karmic action—we would find neither sound nor image. Yet the entire process of karmic creation, including mental actions, is recorded by something akin to a recorder or camera. This "something" is the Alaya consciousness. Once recorded, it exists as a seed. Those with the power of knowing past lives may access and observe it at will, much like turning on a television. The "television" of the Tathāgatagarbha can store limitless recordings—programs from beginningless kalpas remain intact and never lost. Those with the power of knowing past lives can replay them, regardless of whether the karmic seeds have ripened or the retribution has been exhausted.