What is fixed karma, and what is unfixed karma?

When the causes and conditions for the realization of karmic retribution are not yet mature, that karma is indeterminate; it can be eliminated through repentance, through attaining the fruits of realization, through seeing the mind and one's nature, through attaining the bhūmis, or through realizing any stage of attainment — all of these can eliminate it. When the causes and conditions for karmic retribution have already matured, it is determinate karma; for ordinary people, the retribution must be undergone. However, for those with strength in cultivation, when the karmic retribution manifests, heavy retribution may be lightened, and the karmic results may also be transformed — none of this is fixed.

For the sages, all karmic results are indeterminate: they may be realized, or transformed and thus not realized — it depends entirely on the person concerned. In terms of ultimate reality, all karmic results are indeterminate. If karmic results were determinate, sentient beings could never attain buddhahood, because the sinful karma accumulated by sentient beings over countless kalpas could never be fully extinguished; and if sinful karma cannot be fully extinguished, buddhahood cannot be attained. Yet in the actual world, the Buddhas of the ten directions are infinite in number, and their sinful karma has all been extinguished without remainder. Therefore it is said that no karmic result is determinate.