The Causes, Conditions, and Retributions of Wholesome and Unwholesome Karmic Actions

There is a principle in our Buddhist practice: it looks at our wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions—whichever karma is greater, whichever karma is heavier, then in this life, at the time of death, or in the next life, that karma will predominate. Following that heavy karma to receive retribution, the retributive results of that heavy karma will subsequently manifest. If the wholesome karma is great, then in this life we may see the mind and realize its nature, or at the time of death be reborn in another, more excellent Buddha-land. If the unwholesome karma is relatively heavy, then even though we study Buddhism and cultivate practice, because the unwholesome karma keeps dragging us down, it is very difficult in this life to cultivate our way out of the three evil destinies. His retribution will be dominated by the unwholesome karma, and at the time of death he may descend into the three evil destinies to receive retribution, unable to obtain a human body, let alone be reborn in another Buddha-land.

The karmic seeds of all sentient beings can also be weighed in aggregate, to see whether the force of wholesome karma or the force of unwholesome karma is greater. If the force of wholesome karma is greater, the external living environment that manifests will be beautiful and satisfactory, more excellent. If the unwholesome karma of all sentient beings is heavy, the result will be dominated by unwholesome karma, and the manifest environmental retribution will be an extremely harsh living environment—for example, living in poverty or frequent disasters. If there is a great practitioner whose wholesome karma is considerable, he can reverse the entire trend of unwholesome karma. If there is a sentient being whose unwholesome karmic force is extremely strong, then even though others have some wholesome karma, that being's unwholesome karmic force is too powerful, and the environmental retribution will be reversed by his unwholesome karma. With his unwholesome karmic retribution predominating, the manifest living environment will be extremely harsh—crops and produce fail, or disasters occur frequently—all because this evil person's evil conditions are too great and the force of his unwholesome karmic seeds is too strong.

However, within collective karma there is also individual karma. For example, when a plane crashes, some people die, while others return home safe and sound. And there may be someone who was originally going to board the plane and share in that disaster with these people, but by a twist of fate he did not board that plane and escaped the disaster. These conditions and karmic retributions are extremely complex; only the Buddha's omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) can fully know them, and even bodhisattvas of equal enlightenment have no way to know them exhaustively and comprehensively.