The actions of body, speech, and mind are divided into wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta) karma that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome; intentional and unintentional bodily, verbal, and mental actions are all included within the three karmas. Whether the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, once they are performed, seeds will be stored in the tathāgatagarbha; when the seeds encounter conditions, karmic retribution will arise, so all karmic actions have their retribution. However, the retribution differs: intentional actions carry great retribution, while unintentional actions carry small retribution; the same applies to both wholesome and unwholesome actions.
If one does good intentionally, the wholesome retribution is great (here, "intentional" means having a wholesome mind); if one does good unintentionally, the wholesome retribution is small (here, "unintentional" means that one originally had no thought of doing good, yet happened to perform a wholesome deed). If one commits evil intentionally, the unwholesome retribution is great (here, "intentional" means having an evil mind); if one commits evil unintentionally, the unwholesome retribution is small (here, "unintentional" means that one originally had no evil mind, yet happened to commit an unwholesome deed).
In any case, retribution is bound to occur, because whenever bodily, verbal, and mental actions appear, the tathāgatagarbha makes a record: intentional bodily, verbal, and mental actions are recorded as intentional, and unintentional bodily, verbal, and mental actions are recorded as unintentional; they are then stored as seeds, and the future retribution will manifest. When the seeds of bodily, verbal, and mental actions are sent out, they must return to the tathāgatagarbha, bringing the information of those bodily, verbal, and mental actions back into the tathāgatagarbha, thereby becoming karmic seeds.
Otherwise, why would sentient beings have so many karmic obstructions and so many painful retributions? The tathāgatagarbha's record-keeping is also not done deliberately or intentionally; He merely follows certain laws, certain procedures and processes, and naturally records all karmic actions. Any bodily, verbal, or mental action directed toward others will rebound back in the future, and one must bear it together with a very high karmic interest. Of course, the same holds for wholesome karma: a high interest is added, and sentient beings must bear the great retribution of that wholesome karma.
16
+1