Genuine Repentance and Counterfeit Repentance

True repentance, if it is genuinely sincere and stems from the mental faculty's willingness to reform, can alter karmic seeds, either causing them to vanish, making them less prone to manifestation, or mitigating their resulting retribution. Because the mental faculty repents and changes its mental conduct, it can implant new karmic seeds that counteract the old ones. The degree of repentance determines the extent of this counteraction. If repentance is insincere—merely a perfunctory, formalistic act of consciousness—without any change in the mental faculty's conduct, the old karmic seeds remain unaltered, and the resulting retribution will not change.

This is analogous to confessing face-to-face to others. If the other party perceives our repentance as sincere, they often soften their hearts, forgive us, and let go of past grievances. If they sense our repentance is insincere, they recognize that our hearts remain unchanged, refuse to forgive, and may seek retribution. This is especially true if they realize we are feigning repentance and deliberately deceiving them; their anger may intensify, leading to harsher retaliation. True repentance originates from the mental faculty, while false repentance is merely a superficial act of consciousness. Naturally, only true repentance is effective in eliminating karma; false repentance cannot eliminate karma and may even aggravate it.