Are the Defiled Seeds Transformed or Eradicated?

The seeds of karmic actions undergo arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing; they cannot transform into one another. Although it is said that good and evil wax and wane, the seeds of wholesome and unwholesome karma also cannot transform into each other. Defiled seeds are the karmic seeds left behind by defiled karmic actions performed with a defiled mind. When these seeds ripen and bear fruit, sentient beings suffer retribution for their evil deeds. Once the retribution is exhausted, the seeds are extinguished. If one repents of defiled actions, after the mind turns pure, the defiled seeds will also be eliminated. In future lives, one will either not suffer the evil retribution or suffer less of it. Therefore, defiled seeds are extinguished, not transformed. If ignorance gradually diminishes, the mind will turn increasingly pure, wisdom will gradually increase, and defiled seeds will be eliminated more and more until they are completely extinguished. When the mind is ultimately and completely pure, one attains Buddhahood. As ignorance becomes increasingly faint and wisdom increasingly abundant, the phenomenon of the mind being defiled also becomes increasingly rare. Wholesome pure actions will become more and more numerous, until finally there are only pure actions and pure seeds, with no defiled actions or defiled seeds.

Some say that the Tathāgatagarbha possesses both defilement and purity, hence the doctrine of the transformation of consciousness into wisdom. However, in reality, the essence of the Tathāgatagarbha is the pure consciousness. It is only because it contains the defiled karmic seeds produced by the seven consciousnesses that the Tathāgatagarbha is said to be neither pure nor impure. If the Tathāgatagarbha did not store the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses, it would be the pure, undefiled consciousness. If the Tathāgatagarbha were defiled, it would possess afflictions and defiled actions. However, the Tathāgatagarbha does not perform any wholesome actions, unwholesome actions, or neutral actions; it is the seven consciousnesses that possess afflictions and defilements and can perform wholesome and unwholesome actions. Therefore, when the seven consciousnesses act under affliction, the unwholesome actions they perform are defiled actions. After the Tathāgatagarbha stores the wholesome and unwholesome actions performed by the seven consciousnesses, it then contains the seeds of defiled actions.