What is the karmic retribution for committing an unrepentable offense?

Question: Does an unconfessable offense (avāratikā) mean that if a person commits such an offense, the karmic offense cannot be eliminated through confession, and can only be eliminated after undergoing karmic retribution? But if this person successfully attains rebirth in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) through the dharma gate of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), and if he keeps cultivating in the land of bliss until reaching the stage of one lifetime remaining before buddhahood, would he then have no opportunity to undergo retribution? In such a case, would the karmic seeds of the unconfessable offense wither away?

Answer: After a person commits an unconfessable offense, the obstruction in his mind becomes very great, and the resistance to cultivation is extraordinary. For such a person to attain rebirth in the land of bliss through recollection of the Buddha, and to keep cultivating there all the way to the fruition of a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment or wondrous enlightenment—all such claims are mere suppositions; the possibility is extremely small, and there is no evidence proving that such things exist.

Since it is called an unconfessable offense, it means the karmic offense is very great and severe—so great that even confession cannot eliminate it. Such a karmic offense creates a great obstruction to cultivating the Path, obstructing cultivation, and of course obstructing recollection of the Buddha and rebirth in the Pure Land. Most of all, it obstructs the arising of meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom, obstructs the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and obstructs seeing the mind and seeing one's nature. Of course, if one has not committed the offense of slandering the Three Jewels, or the five rebellious acts such as killing one's father or mother, rebirth in the land of bliss is still a possibility.

As for rebirth in the land of bliss, the so-called stage of one lifetime remaining before buddhahood does not mean that once one goes to the land of bliss, one never leaves again—cultivation is not practiced that way. For a person to achieve great accomplishment, one does not follow only a single Buddha in cultivation; rather, one forms karmic connections with all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, and cultivates by following the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions. Moreover, one must also form karmic connections with sentient beings throughout the worlds of the ten directions, make great vows and strive to deliver sentient beings, strive to accumulate the greatest and most abundant merit, and continuously advance one's progress on the Path. If one stayed in the land of bliss forever, how could one deliver sentient beings?

The accomplishment of a great bodhisattva requires every kind of experience, both worldly and transcendent: one must visit every kind of land, form every kind of karmic connection, deliver every kind of sentient being, undergo every kind of hardship, and also enjoy every kind of wealth and honor. Only through being tempered by all favorable and adverse circumstances can a bodhisattva be forged who is perfect in every respect. How rich the experiences of a great bodhisattva must be, and how vast his virtues and abilities! Having seen everything, possessing every kind of wisdom, being able to handle every kind of state—a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings are needed to make steel. Having been a king, having been a wheel-turning sage king, having been a lord of the heavens, having been a king of ghosts, having transformed demons—neither favorable nor adverse circumstances can become an obstruction to one's progress on the Path. Only then is a bodhisattva's character complete and perfect, only then can his virtue be deemed first-rate, only then can he become the guide and model for all sentient beings, and only then can he lead the multitude ever onward toward the Buddha Way.

Why is it so difficult for sentient beings to study Buddhism and cultivate? Is it not precisely the obstruction of karmic obstacles? What karmic obstacles? All karmic obstacles—most of them are unconfessable offenses committed in the past. If sentient beings were not blocked by the major karmic obstacles of unconfessable offenses, seeing the mind and seeing one's nature would be quite easy, and each subsequent barrier would hardly count as a barrier at all—one could stride over them with a lift of the leg. How could becoming a Buddha be so difficult? But the facts are clearly not so. Therefore, as for using the wisdom of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta) to confess through seeing the mind and seeing one's nature—such things do exist, but the vast majority of people should not even think about it. When the Buddha was in the world, only extremely rare individuals could accomplish confession through the mind of ultimate reality; in the present age and in ages to come, such things will be extremely unlikely to occur, because sentient beings are ever farther removed from the Buddha's era, their spiritual faculties (indriya) are ever more disappointing, and their merit and wisdom ever more deficient. How could they accomplish confession through the mind of ultimate reality and step in one stride into the ranks of true bodhisattvas?