Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (109)

Where do karmic formations go after they cease?

After karmic formations are created, they cease and vanish in an instant. For example, when we speak, sounds appear one after another without interruption—one word arises and ceases, the next word arises and ceases again. This is the creation of volitional action; such volitional formation ceases in the very moment it is created, and after ceasing it arises again, arising and ceasing instant by instant. Although the karma has ceased, the karmic formation remains stored in the Ālayavijñāna as a seed. When a word is spoken, countless consciousness seeds arise and cease in succession, completing that instant's verbal volitional formation. If even one consciousness seed were to break its stream, the words could not be spoken. Therefore, speech as a dharma is a false dharma, not a true dharma.

After karmic formations cease, where do they go? There is no place where they can abide, and the Ālayavijñāna does not store these karmic formations themselves, because the Ālayavijñāna is formless and without marks; it does not store bodily, verbal, and mental actions that have form and marks—it only holds formless, markless seeds. All karmic formations have no place they go to and no place they come from. When we speak, the first sound comes out—from where does it come out? Is there a place where the sounds of speech are stored? Certainly not. If there were, then where would the sounds of our speech throughout a lifetime, or throughout beginningless kalpas, be stored? Go search for it—you simply cannot find it.

Some people say that sounds can be recorded with a tape recorder and karmic formations recorded with a video recorder, so volitional formations would then have a place of existence. If that were so, then we could take apart the tape recorder and video recorder to search for where the sounds and volitional formations are—but no matter how we search, we would probably not find the sounds or the images. Yet the entire process of volitional formation, including mental karma, is recorded by something, just like a tape recorder and video recorder—and that something is the Ālayavijñāna. After it is recorded, it exists as a seed, and those with the power of recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti) can retrieve and view it at any time, just like turning on a television to watch. The tathāgatagarbha, this television, can store as many audio and video programs as there are; the programs from beginningless kalpas are all stored without being lost, and those with the power of recollection of past lives can play them all back, regardless of whether the karmic seeds have been actualized or whether the retribution has been fully undergone.