What is Avyākṛta?

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha states that before the appearance of the five aggregates (skandhas) and the world for sentient beings, only the mental faculty (manas) and the Tathāgatagarbha exist in a state of profound obscurity and murkiness, in a state of utter confusion, unaware of the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth. The mental faculty is ignorant and devoid of wisdom, but because it lacks the cooperation of the six consciousnesses and the five aggregates, the mental faculty cannot create any karmic actions. Consequently, there are no good or evil karmas, nor are there the karmic retributions of good or evil actions. This is the non-defining nature (avyākṛta) of the mental faculty.

When the five-aggregate body of sentient beings appears, even if the mental faculty has thoughts and actions of good or evil, or thoughts and actions that are neither good nor evil, it cannot accomplish anything by itself when the six sense faculties cannot interconnect and function mutually. It can only realize its own ideas and fulfill its own mental activities through the six consciousnesses. Therefore, all mental activities of the mental faculty belong to non-defining karma (avyākṛta-karma), which bears no karmic retribution. The reason sentient beings experience karmic retribution is precisely because the mental faculty, through the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses, realizes its own mental activities. There is a record of these bodily, verbal, and mental actions, storing karmic seeds. Only when these karmic seeds are brought forth does retribution occur.

Within the non-defining karma of the six consciousnesses that is neither good nor evil, if a mind of delight, joy, or craving arises, it becomes a bond and fetter of life and death (saṃyojana), binding one within the cycle of life and death. This is karmic retribution. Even if the six consciousnesses lack craving and aversion, their non-defining karma, being neither good nor evil, is still stored as karmic seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha. As long as there are karmic seeds, there will be retribution. When Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to this world, within the good karma and non-defining karma they create, there is no craving and no mind of delight or joy. Therefore, there is no bond or fetter of life and death, and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not bound within the six paths of life and death. Even when performing the same actions, some do so with intention, some without intention; thus, the karmic retribution differs.