Fixed Karma and Indeterminate Karma

What are fixed karma and unfixed karma? How to distinguish them? When the causes and conditions for a karmic result have not yet ripened, that karma is unfixed: it can be eliminated through repentance, eliminated through attaining realization of the fruits, eliminated through seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature, eliminated upon attaining the bhūmis, and eliminated through realizing any stage of attainment. When the causes and conditions for a karmic result have already ripened, it is fixed karma; for ordinary people, the retribution must be undergone. However, for those with strength in cultivation, when the karmic result manifests, heavy retribution may be lightened, and the karmic result may also be transformed—none of this is certain.

For noble ones, all karmic results are unfixed: they may manifest, be transformed, or not manifest at all—it depends entirely on the person concerned. In terms of ultimate truth, all karmic results are unfixed. If karmic results were fixed, sentient beings could never become Buddhas, because the karmic offenses accumulated by sentient beings over countless kalpas could never be fully exhausted; and if karmic offenses could not be exhausted, they could not become Buddhas. Yet in the actual world, the Buddhas of the ten directions are infinite in number, and their karmic offenses have all been exhausted without remainder. Therefore it is said that no karmic result is fixed.