Is Karmic Obstruction Eliminated by Consciousness or by Manas?

Karmic obstacles are the hindrances arising from ignorance. They are obstacles to one's own mind, resulting from unwholesome karma created by the force of ignorance. They obstruct the mind from attaining wholesome retribution, wholesome fruits, and wholesome karma. Wholesome dharmas fail to manifest, and they further obstruct the wisdom-based cognition of all dharmas. Ignorance originates initially in the mental faculty (manas); its fundamental root lies in the ignorance of the mental faculty. The ignorance of the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) initially stems from the mental faculty. Due to the influence and impulsion of the mental faculty's ignorance, the mental consciousness also becomes tainted by the environment. Once the ignorance of the mental faculty is eradicated, the mental consciousness ceases to be tainted by the environment, and furthermore, there is no longer the taint from the mental faculty's ignorance; thus, the mental consciousness becomes purified. The ultimate purification of the mental consciousness results from the purification of the mental faculty. If the mental faculty is not purified, it will inevitably impel and cause the mental consciousness to perform impure actions. Once defiled karmic seeds are formed, they give rise to karmic obstacles in future lives. Therefore, all karmic obstacles are eliminated after the mental faculty is purified, because the mental faculty is the instigator; the one who tied 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 accordingly, defilements of nature will be partially eliminated, and the obscurations hindering wholesome dharmas, wholesome karma, wholesome fruits, wholesome retribution, and wholesome conditions will be partially removed. The obscurations encountered in learning the Buddha's teachings will already have diminished to some extent. To the extent that the ignorance of the mental faculty is eliminated, the mind becomes purified, karmic obstacles decrease, and wholesome karma increases.

Upon attaining the fruit of cutting off the view of self (srotāpanna) or upon realizing the mind and seeing the nature (kenshō), meditative concentration and wisdom greatly increase, and the nature of the mind simultaneously undergoes a fundamental transformation. The mind becomes purified, attaining the purification of the Dharma-eye (dharmacakṣuḥ-pariśuddhi), and defilements of nature are partially eliminated. Consequently, the karma leading to the three evil destinies (apāya) is eliminated accordingly, signifying that one no longer needs to undergo the suffering retribution in the three evil destinies; the remaining karma will be repaid within the human realm. Each time sentient beings attain a certain samādhi, a portion of their karmic obstacles is eliminated. This includes the fruits of the Śrāvaka path (the second, third, and fourth fruits), the various critical stages of the Mahāyana path, and the attainments of the Bodhisattva grounds (bhūmi), from the first ground up to the second and third grounds. As wisdom grows, thoughts and views change, the mind transforms, and defilements of nature are eliminated, the corresponding karma is eradicated. Repentance (kṣamā) can also eliminate karmic obstacles from past lives, because the inner mental faculty recognizes its own ignorance, folly, and afflictions, resolves to correct them, and the mind changes; thus, the corresponding karmic obstacles are eliminated, or partially eliminated.

Karma is divided into fixed karma (niyata-karma) and unfixed karma (aniyata-karma). Fixed karma cannot be transformed; it must inevitably be repaid to be exhausted. However, unfixed karma can be transformed; it does not necessarily have to be repaid to be exhausted. It may be partially eliminated through repentance, with the remainder being repaid. Even fixed karma can be transformed under special circumstances. Special circumstances refer to when a sentient being possesses powerful mental strength, powerful wisdom, powerful meditative concentration, practices earnest repentance, and undergoes a profound transformation of mental nature; then the karma can be transformed. If all karma were utterly untransformable and had to be repaid to be exhausted, then not a single person in the world could become a Buddha. This is because the karma of sentient beings is too vast and heavy, making it fundamentally impossible to exhaust through retribution alone. Furthermore, if karma could not be transformed, repentance by sentient beings would be useless and incapable of eliminating karma.