Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: The Chapter on Purifying Karmic Obstacles, Sixteen

First, regarding the title\: "The Section on the Purification of Karmic Obstacles." Karmic obstacles, as everyone knows, refer to the seeds of evil karma created by sentient beings in past lives having ripened, so that now the retribution manifests, obstructing and impeding one's various wholesome karmic activities. For those cultivating the Buddha's path, the greatest obstacle is that which obstructs one's study and practice of the Buddha-dharma, obstructs the attainment of correct knowledge and view, and obstructs one's meditative concentration (samādhi). In short, karmic obstacles can obstruct all of a sentient being's direct and circumstantial retribution; as an impediment to studying the Buddha-dharma, they will make the direct and circumstantial retribution of the five aggregates in future lives even less satisfactory. Therefore, being able to purify karmic obstacles is extremely important. Once karmic obstacles are cleared away, the cultivation of the Buddha's path will be unimpeded, and one will attain perfect merit and wisdom, sever all ignorance, and accomplish the ultimate unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment.

In this section of the Diamond Sutra, the World-Honored One taught that by studying and practicing the Diamond Sutra, realizing the Diamond true mind of suchness, and cultivating in accordance with the true mind of suchness, one will gradually purify karmic obstacles and reduce obstructions. Because the Diamond Sutra can directly break through sentient beings' four marks, once the four marks are broken through, the obstructions of worldly conditioned marks are uprooted. Moreover, through the merit of realizing the true mind of suchness—the tathāgatagarbha—one will attract the lightening of heavy retribution, causing the karmic retribution of evil karma to manifest in advance, thereby uprooting those karmic obstacles. Thus, when each karmic obstacle is uprooted and cleared away in this manner, ignorance is extinguished, there is no karmic retribution of evil deeds, and sentient beings attain buddhahood.

Original text: 复次。须菩提。若善男子善女人。受持读诵此经。若为人轻贱。是人先世罪业。应堕恶道。以今世人轻贱故。先世罪业。即为消灭。当得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

Explanation: Furthermore, Subhūti, if there are good men and good women who can receive, uphold, read, and recite this Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, and who practice in accordance with the profound meaning within the sutra, and if at that time someone slanders, humiliates, reviles, or despises them, then their evil karma will be extinguished. Because this person created evil karma in past lives, if the evil conditions had ripened, they would originally have fallen into the evil destinies to undergo evil retribution. Now, because of their reading, reciting, receiving, and upholding of the Diamond Sutra, the karmic conditions of the evil karma created in past lives are caused to ripen in advance; but because they are now despised by worldly people, the heavy retribution is lightened, the evil karma created in past lives is immediately extinguished, and before long they will accomplish the Buddha's path.

Why is it that when one reads, recites, receives, and upholds the Diamond Sutra in this life, the conditions of past evil karma will ripen in advance? Because this person, through reading, reciting, receiving, and upholding the Diamond Sutra, has developed merit and virtue, and one manifestation of merit and virtue is that the conditions of evil karma ripen in advance, so that one undergoes less evil retribution—this is the lightening of heavy retribution. Whether wholesome or unwholesome karma, both carry high "interest," also called the accrual of karma, like a deposit in a bank: the longer it is deposited, the higher the interest, and the deposit grows. This deposit is analogous to the karmic retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma: the longer wholesome karma is stored, the greater the wholesome retribution one should receive; conversely, the longer unwholesome karma is stored, the greater the evil retribution one should receive.

When one's cultivation is effective, it will cause the conditions of evil karma to ripen, so that evil retribution is undergone in advance, and the evil retribution attracted will be light. Therefore, when creating wholesome karma, everyone should not hope for the fruits of wholesome karma to manifest as quickly as possible so as to enjoy them soon; this is a mental conduct lacking wisdom. The earlier one undergoes the retribution of wholesome karma, the less one gets to enjoy the high interest, nor the generous treatment of compounded interest. A true practitioner should not be short-sighted, considering only one's present retribution, but should rather plan and prepare for future lives, for the unsurpassed retribution countless eons hence; it is best to be without thought for wholesome fruits and wholesome retribution.

Therefore, this person who reads, recites, receives, and upholds the Diamond Sutra, because their cultivation is effective and their merit and virtue manifest, not only causes the conditions of evil karma to ripen, but can also transform the evil karma that would have caused them to fall into the evil destinies into merely the slight evil retribution of being despised by others—and that evil karma is thereby extinguished. In this way they lightly undergo the evil retribution; this is attracted by wholesome karma and brought about by merit. If a person diligently cultivates without cease, their merit grows ever greater and their virtue ever more abundant, and adverse conditions will manifest one after another; then all the evil karma of past lives will be extinguished one by one. When all evil karma has been extinguished, this person is close to accomplishing the Buddha's path—when karma is exhausted, the Buddha's path is accomplished.