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

In our Buddhist practice and cultivation, there is such a principle: this principle 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 be dominant. Following that heavy karma to receive retribution, the retributive result of that heavy karma will subsequently manifest. If the wholesome karma is great, then in this life we may awaken to and see our true mind, or at the time of death be reborn in another, more excellent Buddha-land. If the unwholesome karma is relatively heavy, then despite studying Buddhism and cultivating, 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; at the end of his life he may descend into the three evil destinies to undergo 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 the 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 and superb. If the unwholesome karma of all sentient beings is heavy, the result will be dominated by unwholesome karma, and the manifested circumstantial retribution will be an extremely wretched living environment—for example, living in poverty or frequent disasters, and so on. If there is a great cultivator 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 circumstantial retribution will be reversed by his unwholesome karma, dominated by the retributive results of his unwholesome karma. The manifested living environment will be extremely wretched—crops fail to harvest 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 shared karma there is also individual karma. For example, when a plane crashes, some people die, while others return home safe and sound. And there are those who were originally going to board the plane and meet with disaster together with these people, but by a twist of fate, they did not board that plane and escaped the disaster. These conditions, causes, and retributive results are extremely complex; only the Buddha's wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) can completely know them. Even bodhisattvas of equal enlightenment have no way to know them exhaustively and comprehensively.