Determinate Karma and Indeterminate Karma

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

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