Is There Injustice in the World?

The karmic actions that sentient beings have committed since beginningless kalpas are beyond the reckoning of countless computers. If the karmic seeds that sentient beings have accumulated over immeasurable kalpas could be formatted, their past karma would be settled. But if this karma has not finished yielding its retribution, or if one has not undergone repentance of offenses, or has not cultivated practice to achieve complete purity, the karma will never be exhausted. Because the karma that has been created is so immense, if space had form, space itself would be burst apart by it. All that karma is borne by each sentient being through their own causes, conditions, and karmic retribution.

All the things we do not know are all recorded in the tathāgatagarbha. Those complicated matters entangled by causes and effects are all known to the tathāgatagarbha; when the causes and conditions are complete, they will all manifest truthfully and justly. Therefore, we must not judge by those things that appear unfair on the surface—the causes and effects behind them are far too complex. The tathāgatagarbha will reckon them all clearly and present karmic retribution exactly as it is. Thus, in this world there is no such thing as unfairness. With the tathāgatagarbha existing, everything is equal and everything is just. As long as you have done a deed, it has not been done in vain—whether good or bad.

The tathāgatagarbha is truly inconceivable. After studying the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, one will come to understand many principles of the human realm, the heavens, and the world of the three realms, and thereby ignorance will be reduced. As for those karmic actions, the more the manas clings to them, the more deeply the eighth consciousness records them. Therefore, the retribution for karma created intentionally differs from that for karma created unintentionally. So when we do good deeds, we should not worry about whether we will receive good retribution—the eighth consciousness will bring you the corresponding good retribution. When doing evil deeds, one must not harbor any hope of luck, thinking one can escape; the tathāgatagarbha will not let you escape. Guard well your bodily, verbal, and mental actions: do not refrain from a good deed because it is small, and do not commit an evil deed because it is small.