On the Principle of the Withering of Karmic Seeds (II)

Question: The principle of karmic seeds withering seems to contradict the verse, "Even after a hundred thousand kalpas, the karma one has created does not perish; when the causes and conditions converge, one will undergo the retribution oneself." Those four lines of verse should express the meaning that karmic seeds are firm and will never perish unless the retribution is undergone. How should this be explained?

Answer: The meaning of karmic seeds withering is this: the habitual force of sentient beings' karma-creating tendencies, when long deprived of opportunities to create karma, will gradually weaken, until finally there is no ability, no momentum left to create karmic actions. It is like a seed that has been stored away and left idle for a long time—it loses its vitality and will no longer take root and sprout. A person who has created great evil karma and is reborn in the lowest grade into the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) will, at the very most, dwell inside a lotus flower in the land of bliss for twelve great kalpas, cultivating the Buddha's teachings there, without the slightest opportunity to create karma. In the end, even the evil in his mental activity disappears, and he will never create karma again. Only then can he emerge from the lotus flower and face the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva to hear the Dharma, yet he cannot comprehend its meaning—all because of the obscuration of his past evil karma.

Because he has long been without karmic actions inside the lotus flower, the momentum for creating evil karma is gone; evil actions of body, speech, and mind no longer arise, and this has become habitual, so he will not disturb the tranquility (praśama) and peace of the land of bliss. However, the evil karma he created in the past, when he returns to the Sahā world, will still bring retribution when the conditions for great evil karma ripen; only the karmic retribution will be somewhat lighter, not too heavy. It is impossible for him to undergo it in the three evil destinies; he can only undergo some corresponding suffering retribution in the human world. This shows that heavy retribution can be experienced lightly, and light retribution can disappear.

Repentance follows the same principle. Through repentance, the seeds of evil karma are eliminated or lightened, so that sentient beings may afterward not undergo the retribution of evil karma, or undergo it lightly, and the karmic seeds thus disappear. Therefore, not all karmic seeds disappear only through undergoing retribution; many are eliminated through other means. Otherwise, by the time of buddhahood, the evil retribution would never be fully undergone, and buddhahood could never be attained.