Is Karmic Obstruction Eliminated by Consciousness or by Manas?

Karmic obstacles are the hindrances arising from ignorance. They are the impediments to one's own mind caused by the evil karmas created through the force of ignorance, obstructing the mind from attaining good retributions, good fruits, or good karmas. They prevent wholesome dharmas from maturing and further obstruct the wisdom-based cognition of all dharmas. Ignorance initially resides in the mental faculty; its root lies in the ignorance of the mental faculty. The ignorance of consciousness originally stems from the mental faculty. Due to the influence and impulsion of the mental faculty's ignorance, consciousness becomes tainted by the environment. Once the ignorance of the mental faculty is eradicated, consciousness is no longer tainted by the environment, nor is it further stained by the mental faculty's ignorance; thus, consciousness becomes purified. The ultimate purification of consciousness results from the purification of the mental faculty. If the mental faculty is impure, it will inevitably impel and cause consciousness to perform impure actions. Once tainted karmic seeds are formed, karmic obstacles for future lives arise. Therefore, all karmic obstacles are eliminated only after the mental faculty is purified, because the mental faculty is the instigator—whoever ties the bell must untie it.

When the merit and virtue of the mental faculty increase, meditative concentration strengthens, wisdom expands, and ignorance is partially eliminated, the nature of the mind will transform partially, hindrances of nature will be partially removed, and the obscurations to wholesome dharmas, wholesome karmas, wholesome fruits, wholesome retributions, and wholesome conditions will be partially lifted. The hindrances encountered in learning Buddhism will have already diminished to some extent. The extent to which the ignorance of the mental faculty is eliminated determines how much the mind is purified, how much karmic obstacles are reduced, and how much wholesome karma increases.

When the fruit of severing the view of self is attained and when one realizes the mind and perceives its true nature, meditative concentration and wisdom greatly increase, and the nature of the mind simultaneously undergoes a fundamental transformation. The mind becomes purified, the purification of the Dharma-eye is attained, and hindrances of nature are partially eliminated. Consequently, the karmas leading to the three evil realms are simultaneously eradicated, signifying that one no longer needs to suffer retribution in the three evil realms; the remaining karmas will be repaid within the human realm. Each time sentient beings attain a certain samadhi, a portion of their karmic obstacles is eliminated. This includes the second, third, and fourth fruits of the Śrāvaka path, the various critical stages of the Mahayana path, and the attainments of the first, second, and third grounds (bhūmis). As wisdom grows, thoughts and views change, the mind transforms, and hindrances of nature are eliminated, the corresponding karmas will be eradicated. Repentance can also eliminate karmic obstacles from past lives because the mental faculty within recognizes one's own ignorance, delusion, and afflictions, resolves to correct them, and changes the mind; thus, the corresponding karmic obstacles are eliminated, or at least partially eliminated.

Karma is divided into fixed karma (niyata karma) and unfixed karma (aniyata karma). Fixed karma cannot be altered; it must be repaid to be settled. However, unfixed karma can be transformed; it does not necessarily have to be repaid to be settled. It can be partially eliminated through repentance and partially repaid. Even fixed karma can be transformed under special circumstances. Special circumstances refer to when sentient beings possess powerful mental strength, profound wisdom, strong meditative concentration, perform earnest repentance, and undergo a profound transformation in their mental nature; then the karma can be transformed. If all karma were utterly unchangeable and had to be repaid to be settled, then no one in the world could attain Buddhahood. This is because sentient beings have far too much and far too heavy karma, making it fundamentally impossible to exhaust through retribution alone. Furthermore, if karma were unchangeable, repentance by sentient beings would be useless and could not eliminate karma.