The Direct Karmic Retribution and Environmental Karmic Retribution of Sentient Beings

The Buddha stated in the Sutra on the Upāsaka Precepts for Bodhisattvas that the evil karma and conditions of a single evil being can cause the failure of harvests of fruits and vegetables throughout an entire land. Why is this?

The karmic retribution of sentient beings is divided into primary retribution and dependent retribution. Primary retribution refers to the karmic causes, conditions, and results experienced by the five-aggregate physical body. For example, the type and condition of a sentient being's physical body, whether it belongs to one of the Four Holy Realms or Six Ordinary Realms, and within the ordinary beings, which realm it belongs to, whether the six sense faculties are complete, normal, impaired, or afflicted by illnesses, and so on. The physical body of a sentient being's primary retribution is determined by the individual karmic seeds (karma created in past and present lives) of that single being; it is solely manifested by that individual sentient being's Tathagatagarbha. Dependent retribution, however, is the shared living environment of sentient beings. The living environment is not utilized by a single sentient being alone; it is shared by beings with shared karma. Therefore, the living environment is collectively determined by the karmic seeds of many beings with shared karma. Thus, the dependent retribution of the living environment is the karmic causes, conditions, and results generated by the Tathagatagarbhas of all related beings with shared karma, based on their collective karmic seeds.

Dependent retribution refers to the external living environment of sentient beings. The living environment is not determined by a single sentient being; it is determined by all beings with shared karma, through their collective karmic conditions and karmic seeds. Therefore, the external living environment is not something that the Tathagatagarbha of a single being can create alone; it is collectively manifested by the Tathagatagarbhas of all related sentient beings. The Tathagatagarbhas of beings with shared karma collectively output the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind) and output the karmic seeds created by the beings. After outputting these, they collectively manifest the dependent retribution — the living environment — for all beings with shared karma.

The success or failure of the harvests of food, fruits, and vegetables upon which our survival depends is determined by the collective karmic conditions of all related sentient beings. How, then, is this dependent retribution formed? The karma of sentient beings includes shared karma and individual karma. Individual karma includes the karma of a single sentient being and the karma of a portion of sentient beings that is distinct from the karma of all beings. Both shared karma and individual karma are relative concepts, not absolute. For example, the karma of a specific region is both shared karma and individual karma: shared karma is the collective karmic condition of the beings in that region, while individual karma is distinct from the karmic conditions of beings in other regions or distinct from the karmic conditions of beings in the entire world. The karma of all sentient beings forms the dependent retribution of the living environment, which is generated after the Tathagatagarbhas of all sentient beings output the karmic seeds based on the karmic conditions of the beings. Therefore, the dependent retribution of the living environment is not something that can be determined by the Tathagatagarbha of a single sentient being; it is determined by the Tathagatagarbhas of all sentient beings based on their collective karmic seeds.