The Method and Principle of Eliminating Karma

Question: Karmic retribution operates with perfect precision—not a single result fails to occur, nor is any result misdirected. So then, when someone recites sūtras or mantras for a sick person to help them recover, or performs rites for deliverance, how can this actually help others?

Answer: The karmic actions that each sentient being creates—although the karmic seeds exist within the tathāgatagarbha and do not vanish without cause—can only be eliminated through certain forms. One way of dissolving karmic obstructions is for the karmic seeds to manifest: the sentient being suffers the retribution, and once the retribution is exhausted, the karmic seeds are gone, and henceforth there will be no further retributive results from that karma. Another way of dissolving karma is repentance: after repentance, the mind becomes purified, heavy karma becomes light karma, and light karma disappears. Yet another way of dissolving karma is through reciting the Buddha's name, reciting sūtras, reciting mantras, performing rites for deliverance, and so on, whereby one can resonate with the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to dissolve karma.

On the other hand, when a sick person's karmic obstructions manifest, sometimes it is karmic creditors coming to collect their debts. By reciting sūtras or the Buddha's name and dedicating the merit to these karmic creditors, they receive benefit and no longer press their claims, and the sick person's body recovers. If reciting sūtras, reciting the Buddha's name, and reciting mantras can help sentient beings dissolve karma, this is because the one performing the deliverance possesses virtue. A person of virtue can resonate with the blessings of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, dragons, devas, and Dharma protectors, thereby extinguishing a portion of sentient beings' karmic obstructions, so that their karmic creditors receive the benefit of the Dharma and either forgive them or depart from them, and a portion of the sick person's karmic obstructions is thus eliminated. Furthermore, a person of the Path and of virtue also has the ability to resolve sentient beings' karmic affinities and alleviate their suffering of illness. This involves the application of the mental factors of the manas and the mental factors of the mind consciousness; most importantly, it involves the concrete operation and implementation of the tathāgatagarbha, as well as the mutual interaction among sentient beings' tathāgatagarbhas. The details of how the three transforming consciousnesses function in harmonious conjunction are extremely complex, and only one possessing extremely profound wisdom of the seeds of consciousness (ālaya-knowledge) can observe these contents.