Can Practicing Chan in Mahayana Eliminate Grave Karmic Offenses?

Some say that since sentient beings' karmic offenses are as immense as mountains, one should contemplate who is suffering and who is creating karma, thereby realizing the true mind. They claim that the true mind neither creates karma nor suffers, thus eliminating karmic offenses. This method of eliminating offenses is highly improper and unreasonable. First, due to heavy karmic obstructions, the hindrances to cultivating the path are also severe, making it utterly impossible to perfect the practice of the six paramitas of a bodhisattva. One cannot meet the causal conditions for realizing the true mind, nor can one practice Chan meditation; therefore, it is impossible to eliminate such profound karmic offenses. Second, for sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age burdened by heavy karmic obstructions, this approach leads to denying causality, evading evil karma, and failing to reflect on the defilements within their own minds. Despite their efforts, karmic offenses remain as immense as mountains and may even increase.

For beginners and those with heavy karmic obstructions, who are at the stage of practicing the Four Right Efforts to abandon evil and cultivate goodness, it is necessary to observe the causes of karmic retribution and suffering, thereby understanding causes and realizing effects. Only through fear and reverence for causality can one abandon evil and cultivate goodness, subdue afflictions within the mind, and ultimately undergo complete transformation, cleansing the mind and becoming a Mahayana bodhisattva. When karmic obstructions are heavy, one cannot use the Mahayana method of formless repentance to eliminate offenses, nor can one use the Mahayana Chan meditation method to evade afflictions and karmic offenses; in fact, it is impossible to escape or avoid them. With such heavy karmic offenses obscuring the mind, how could one possibly practice Chan meditation to realize the eighth consciousness and illuminate the mind? How could one attain the formless state?

When the conditions for practicing Chan are not yet in place, one can only rely on inference to speculate about the eighth consciousness. One may conjecture an eighth consciousness that, relative to the seven consciousnesses, never functions, possesses not the slightest merit or benefit, eliminates not a trace of karmic offense, and severs not one of the three fetters. One may infer an eighth consciousness that creates no evil karma and thus suffers no retribution, while the evil karma of the seven consciousnesses remains entirely intact and undiminished. The eighth consciousness cannot substitute for the seven consciousnesses. The eighth consciousness is inherently pure and fundamentally Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have been karmically bound ordinary beings since beginningless time. The eighth consciousness has never borne the suffering of the seven consciousnesses, nor have the seven consciousnesses ever received even a fraction of relief from their suffering through the Buddha-light of the eighth consciousness.

The eighth consciousness has never possessed greed, hatred, or delusion, yet the seven consciousnesses have never been free from them. The eighth consciousness has always been liberated, yet the seven consciousnesses have never experienced the slightest liberation. The eighth consciousness is Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have never thereby ascended the throne of Buddhahood, nor have they ever enjoyed the status of a Buddha. For most of the time, they suffer in the three evil destinies, endlessly revolving in birth and death. Therefore, it is said that the eighth consciousness and the seven consciousnesses do not substitute for one another. The eighth consciousness pervades all places, all realms, all dharmas, all times, and all locations. Anyone with a slightly sharp consciousness can infer this — the eighth consciousness is everywhere; one can roughly understand its nature through thought. But the key question is, what use is such thinking? Ordinary beings, filled with greed, hatred, and delusion, think countless thoughts. Since beginningless time, how many of their thoughts have ever come to fruition?

Therefore, for beginners, repentance through realizing reality or using Chan meditation to eliminate offenses is highly unrealistic. Only those with lighter karmic obstructions, who have nearly perfected the practice of the bodhisattva's six paramitas, can use such methods to realize enlightenment and eliminate karmic obstructions. However, even this is not fully guaranteed. The possibility is high near a Buddha, but the difficulty is indeed significant when apart from a Buddha. Inference is easy; actual realization is difficult. This becomes increasingly true as we enter the Dharma-ending age. No one should harbor wishful thinking; one must cultivate with genuine effort and diligence, avoiding shortcuts and superficial practices.

Why can karmic offenses only be eliminated after realizing the eighth consciousness? Because during the process of realization, one can observe the operation of the five aggregates as they truly are according to principle. The five aggregates become increasingly empty and unreal within the mind; the phenomenon of their arising and ceasing is observed with ever greater clarity and depth, ultimately leading to the severance of the view of self. Upon realizing the eighth consciousness, one further observes that the five aggregates are all born from the eighth consciousness. The mind becomes even more selfless and empty, and thus the karmic offenses created based on the five-aggregate self are also seen as empty — without self and without what belongs to self.

This is like the first line of the Heart Sutra: "When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara was practicing the profound Prajna Paramita, he illuminated the five aggregates and saw that they were all empty." The result of Chan contemplation is to illuminate and see the emptiness of the five aggregates. This is the merit of realization — the five aggregates are empty; there is no self. The ultimate result of contemplation is this illumination and seeing, which is sudden enlightenment. "Illumination" means the mind-lamp is unmoving; the light of wisdom reflects the image of the five aggregates, which is the image of the true eighth consciousness — there are no five aggregates; the five aggregates are not the five aggregates. The wisdom of illumination is extremely difficult to arise. One must extensively cultivate the immeasurable merit of a bodhisattva and approach the stage of complete transformation before it becomes possible to illuminate and see the emptiness of the five aggregates. "Illumination" is not the shallow thinking of the conscious mind; it is the deep and subtle function of the wisdom of the manas consciousness. When the light of the mind emerges and penetrates the five aggregates, the true nature of the five aggregates is revealed.

Without genuine effort, without cultivating meditative concentration, without cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, without abandoning evil and cultivating goodness, without subduing afflictions, with karmic obstructions obscuring the mind, the illuminating light of wisdom can never arise. One can only engage in superficial inference, intellectual understanding, and research, exerting effort only at the level of the conscious mind. If the manas consciousness cannot be engaged, then the ordinary bones of the manas can never be transformed. At the end of life, one will still be reborn as an ordinary being, because entering the womb is determined by the manas consciousness and karmic force — the manas consciousness represents karmic force. Only by causing the manas consciousness to generate wisdom and transforming the manas consciousness can one transform karmic force and eliminate karmic obstructions.