What Does 'Neutral/Indeterminate' Mean?

Mental actions that are neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta) are mental actions that belong neither to wholesome karma nor to unwholesome karma; such mental actions can be recorded neither as wholesome karma nor as unwholesome karma. For example, all the mental actions of the eighth consciousness cannot be classified as wholesome or unwholesome karma; no matter what mental actions the eighth consciousness has, they are not stored as karmic seeds, and there is no karmic retribution.

Then, can the mental actions of the manas be stored as karmic seeds, with wholesome and unwholesome retribution? The Śūraṅgama Sūtra teaches that, countless eons ago, among living beings there were only two consciousnesses: the eighth consciousness and the manas. Although the manas had ignorance, it also had wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; however, the mental actions of the manas could not manifest—He Himself could not create karmic actions, there were no karmic seeds, and thus there was no retribution whatsoever, neither wholesome nor unwholesome.

It was not until, due to the manas's outward grasping, the eighth consciousness gave birth to the material world and the six consciousnesses and the five-aggregate body that karmic actions came into being. The eighth consciousness then began to record these karmic actions and store them as karmic seeds, and the five-aggregate body came to have wholesome and unwholesome retribution. But the karmic actions of the six consciousnesses were entirely directed and influenced by the ignorance and the wholesome and unwholesome mental actions of the manas. Although the manas Himself has wholesome and unwholesome mental actions and can direct the six consciousnesses to create wholesome and unwholesome karma, He Himself cannot create any karmic actions; therefore He is classified as neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta). Yet although He is indeterminate, He possesses wholesome and unwholesome mental factors and can impel the six consciousnesses to create wholesome and unwholesome karma.

All the mental actions of the six consciousnesses belong to karmic actions, will be stored as karmic seeds, and all have retribution—including wholesome mental actions, unwholesome mental actions, and mental actions that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. All the mental actions of the manas while the five aggregates are asleep at night are not stored as karmic seeds and have no retribution; even if one dreams after falling asleep, and wholesome or unwholesome karma is created within the dream, it is not stored as karmic seeds and has no retribution. However, the mental actions of the manas can influence the behavior of the six consciousnesses; He is the guiding and primary factor in wholesome and unwholesome karma, the master who creates karma, and so the one who truly receives the retribution is still the manas. On the surface it does appear that the six consciousnesses receive the retribution, but in essence it is the manas who receives it. The six consciousnesses can cease and can be replaced with new ones; even in states without the six consciousnesses, the body is still a retributive body—for example, while asleep, at the time of death, in the concentration of no perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), in a faint or coma, and in the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha-samāpatti)—in all these, it is the manas alone who receives the retribution.