Can Practicing Chan with the Mahāyāna Dharma Eliminate Deep and Heavy Karmic Offenses?

Some people say that since sentient beings' karmic offenses are like mountains, one should just investigate who is suffering the retribution and who is creating the karma, and in this way one can realize the true mind; the true mind creates no karma and suffers no retribution, and thus the karmic offenses are dissolved. This method of dissolving karmic offenses is extremely inappropriate and contrary to reason. First, because the karmic obstructions are heavy, the obstructions to cultivating the Path are also heavy; one simply cannot perfect the practice of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, cannot fulfill the causal conditions for realizing the true mind, and cannot engage in Chan investigation; therefore it is impossible to dissolve deep and heavy karmic offenses. Second, for sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age with heavy karmic obstructions, doing this would lead to denying cause and effect, evading evil karma, and being unable to introspect upon the defilements of one's own mind; after cultivating in this way back and forth, the karmic offenses would still remain like mountains, and might even increase.

For beginners and those with heavy karmic obstructions, who are at the stage of cultivating the four right efforts and eliminating evil and cultivating goodness, they need to observe the causes of retributive suffering, so as to understand cause and effect. Only by fearing and revering cause and effect can one eliminate evil and cultivate goodness, subdue the afflictions of one's own mind, and finally be able to be reborn anew, wash the mind and reform oneself, and become a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. When karmic obstructions are heavy, one cannot use the Mahāyāna formless repentance method for dissolving offenses, nor can one use the Mahāyāna method of Chan investigation to evade afflictions and karmic offenses; in fact, there is no evading them and no hiding from them. With such heavy karmic obstructions blocking the way, how could one engage in Chan investigation and realize the eighth consciousness to see the true mind? How could one reach the formless?

When the causal conditions for Chan investigation are not complete, one can only rely on inference and speculation about the eighth consciousness, imagining an eighth consciousness that, for the seven consciousnesses, never functions at all, has not the slightest meritorious function or enjoyment, cannot dissolve even a bit of karmic offense, and cannot sever even the slightest bit of the three fetters. One infers an eighth consciousness that creates no evil karma and, having no evil karma, receives no retribution; however heavy the seven consciousnesses' evil karma may be, it remains just as heavy and will not be eliminated. The eighth consciousness cannot substitute for the seven consciousnesses. The eighth consciousness is intrinsically pure by nature and is intrinsically a Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have been karmic-offense ordinary beings for beginningless kalpas; the eighth consciousness has never suffered in the slightest on behalf of the seven consciousnesses, and the seven consciousnesses have never benefited in the slightest from the Buddha-light of the eighth consciousness so as to suffer a bit less.

The eighth consciousness has never had the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, yet the seven consciousnesses have never had a moment when greed, hatred, and delusion were severed. The eighth consciousness has always been liberated, yet the seven consciousnesses have never been liberated in the slightest. The eighth consciousness is a Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have never thereby ascended to the Buddha's throne or enjoyed the Buddha's treatment; most of the time they suffer in the three evil destinies, transmigrating through birth and death without cease. Therefore it is said that the eighth consciousness and the seven consciousnesses cannot substitute for each other. The eighth consciousness pervades all places, all realms, all dharmas, all times, and all stages. Any mind consciousness that is a bit clever can make inferences—everywhere is the eighth consciousness; with a little thought one can roughly know what the eighth consciousness is like. But the key is: what use is such thinking? Ordinary beings with greed, hatred, and delusion think of so many things—since beginningless kalpas, how many things have gone as they wished?

Therefore, the repentance of suchness and the method of dissolving karmic offenses through Chan investigation are extremely unrealistic for beginners. Only those with somewhat lighter karmic obstructions, whose practice of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās is more or less complete, can use such a method to attain realization and dissolve karma—but even then there is no complete guarantee. By the Buddha's side the possibility is great; apart from the Buddha, the difficulty is indeed not small. Inference is easy; realization is hard—and the more the Dharma-ending age advances, the more so. No one should harbor any thought of getting lucky; one must cultivate with genuine effort and real practice, and must not cut corners, cheat, or take shortcuts.

Why can karmic offenses only be dissolved after realizing the eighth consciousness? Because in the process of realization, one is able to engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the operation of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) in accordance with reality and truth; the five aggregates become ever more empty and unreal in the mind, and the phenomenon of arising and ceasing is observed ever more clearly and profoundly, until finally the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) is eliminated. When the eighth consciousness is realized, one further observes that the five aggregates are all born from the eighth consciousness; the mind becomes even more without-self and empty. Of course, the karmic offenses created on the basis of the five-aggregate self are also empty—there is no self and no belonging-to-self.

This is just like the first sentence of the Heart Sutra: "When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara practiced deep prajñā-pāramitā, He illuminated and saw that the five aggregates are all empty." The result of Chan investigation and contemplative practice is precisely illuminating and seeing that the five aggregates are all empty; this is the merit of realization—the five aggregates are empty and without self. The final result of contemplative practice is the illumination and seeing, and this illumination and seeing is sudden enlightenment. The illumination is the mind-lamp unmoving, the light of wisdom projecting the images of the five aggregates—images of the true mind, the eighth consciousness; there are no five aggregates, the five aggregates are not the five aggregates. The wisdom of illumination and seeing is extremely difficult to bring forth; one must extensively cultivate the bodhisattva's immeasurable merit, and only when approaching the point of being reborn anew is it possible to illuminate and see that the five aggregates are all empty. Illumination is not the shallow thinking of the mind consciousness, but the deep and subtle wisdom-function of the manas. When the mind's light shines forth and penetrates the five aggregates, the true nature of the five aggregates is revealed.

But if one does not make genuine effort, does not cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), does not cultivate the thirty-seven factors of the path, does not eliminate evil and cultivate goodness, does not subdue afflictions—with karmic obstructions blocking the way, the light of illuminating wisdom can never be born. One can only engage in shallow inference, intellectual understanding, and study, exerting effort only in the mind consciousness, while the manas cannot enter in. Then the ordinary being's bones of the manas can never be exchanged; at the end of life, if one is destined for an ordinary being's womb, it will still be an ordinary being's womb—because the matter of entering the womb is decided by the manas, determined by the manas and karmic power, and the manas itself represents karmic power. Only by letting the manas give birth to wisdom and transforming the manas can one change karmic power and dissolve karmic obstructions.