Repentance and the Elimination of Karma

Question: I repent and make vows every morning and evening, and my bodily, verbal, and mental actions are much purer than before. But occasionally, without realizing it, I still commit karmic acts of greed and anger. Does this mean my repentance has not reached deep into the manas, that it is not in accord with the Dharma, and that I have not yet dissolved karmic obstructions? 

Answer: After repentance, karmic obstructions are not necessarily all purified at once; there are certainly remaining karmas that have not been eliminated, and there are still afflictive obstructions, because each person's repentance may not necessarily be thorough and complete. Moreover, repentance only eliminates a portion of the innate afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa) and karmic afflictions; it is unlikely to eliminate all innate afflictive obstructions. Furthermore, there are sinful obstructions that cannot be eliminated, so inevitably there will be sinful retribution.

During the Buddha's time, there was a layperson who slandered an arhat (the fourth fruit; Pali Arahant). That arhat immediately went to the hall and rang the bell to assemble the community, and told the layperson: "I have attained the fruit of arhatship. You must quickly repent of your slander before the assembly, otherwise you will suffer the retribution of hell." The layperson immediately repented before the assembly to the arhat, and the arhat said: "I forgive you; may you eliminate your sinful karma." However, after this layperson died, he still fell into hell to undergo retribution. This story does not mean that repentance is useless and cannot dissolve karma; rather, it means that repentance can only eliminate sinful karma on the level of the mind's nature. Sinful karma on the level of phenomena has already been committed and has become an established fact—it cannot be eliminated, and only undergoing the retribution can eliminate it. After that layperson repented, his innate afflictive obstruction was gone, but his sinful obstruction still remained, so he went to hell to undergo retribution. If he had not repented, the suffering he would have endured in hell from innate karma plus sinful karma would have been even greater and very hard to bear. Therefore, we should all be as careful as possible with our bodily, verbal, and mental actions, especially toward the Three Jewels—we must be even more cautious and not commit any karma of slander. 

If all karmic afflictions and obstructions were completely purified, one would have attained the fruits and become a Buddha. In reality, it is not that easy to purify everything through repentance. Karmic afflictions and obstructions are lessened bit by bit; even though they are lessened, they may occasionally flare up—this is all a normal phenomenon. After repentance has reached deep into the manas, it still depends on how deep it has gone and to what extent change has occurred—certainly the degree is insufficient. If the degree were sufficient, all afflictions would be completely severed. Since the degree is insufficient, of course there will still be karmic afflictions and obstructions; this is all normal. As long as you have progressed compared to before, and are progressing every day, that is a good sign.