The Question of Karmic Seeds

Karmic seeds are not composed of the four great elements; they are a form of information, an intangible archive. Karmic seeds are like documents in a computer—they have no physical form. When retrieved, they manifest; if not retrieved, they do not exist. Even if karmic seeds vanish, those with spiritual powers can retrieve them and access that information.

These issues concerning karmic seeds involve profoundly deep Dharma principles. Currently, we can only speculate and imagine; we cannot directly perceive them through experiential observation. Only after attaining the Bodhisattva grounds and acquiring the wisdom of consciousness-only seeds can we gradually resonate with and observe these contents.

Karma is distinguished into pure karma and defiled karma. Only Arhats in the state of Nirvana without residue create no karma. Buddhas also create karma, but theirs is pure karma, not karma born of ignorance. In Nirvana without residue, there are no Arhats, hence no karma is created. As long as the manas (ego-mind) is absent, no karma is created, for the manas is the agent of karma. Ultimately, all karmic actions are created by the Tathāgatagarbha.