What is karmic power?

Karmic force refers to the habitual tendency of karmic actions, divided into wholesome karmic force, unwholesome karmic force, and karmic force that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. For example, a car is driving at full speed toward a dangerous place ahead; the speed is very fast, and the driver becomes aware of the danger on the road ahead and feels he should slow down, brake, turn around, and change direction. Yet for two reasons the speed does not decrease, and braking and turning around are simply impossible. One reason is that although the driver is aware, he lacks the power to act, or his mind is unclear, his hands and feet are in disarray, and his capacity for action is weak; the other reason is that the car's own inertia is too great, or the brakes have failed. These two reasons cause the car to keep speeding toward the dangerous place.

Although many things are consciously realized, they cannot necessarily be accomplished. Being consciously realized means the mind consciousness knows it, but knowing yet being unable to accomplish it is because the manas has not made the decision. How can it be accomplished? The car of sentient beings' five aggregates, driven by the immense unwholesome karmic force accumulated over beginningless kalpas, speeds inertially toward the three evil destinies. Who is the driver of the car, or its owner? It is certainly the sovereign consciousness, the manas. If one wishes to depart from the track leading to the three evil destinies, turn the direction around, and speed toward the three wholesome destinies, toward the Pure Land of the Buddha's country, the driver or owner of the five-aggregates car is extremely crucial. Why would the manas drive the car toward the three evil destinies? Some say the driver is the mind consciousness; then when the mind consciousness ceases, is the five-aggregates car still running or has it stalled? If the mind consciousness is drunk, how is the car to be handled? The mind consciousness can only serve as the front-seat passenger, as a navigator, guiding and urging the driver to keep a firm grip on the steering wheel.

Sentient beings tend toward the three evil destinies because of the three fetters, which bind the five-aggregates car as it travels on the way to the three evil destinies; in fact, it is the three fetters of the manas, the driver, that make the manas drive the car along the way to the three evil destinies. Therefore, so-called karmic force mainly refers to the karmic force of the manas. When the manas eliminates the self-view and eliminates the three fetters, it will turn the direction around and drive the car onto the wholesome destinies.

When facing the realms of the six sense objects, karmic force manifests. For example, in the face of wealth and sensual pleasures, the manas of different sentient beings has different karmic forces, different habitual forces for dealing with wealth and sensual pleasures. If the power of unwholesome karma is great, one will greedily seize wealth and sensual pleasures; if the power of wholesome karma is great, one will disregard wealth and sensual pleasures, even giving them away in generosity (dāna); those neither wholesome nor unwholesome will take the middle way according to conditions. When sentient beings' karmic force manifests, all exhortations are like wind past the ears—not entering the ears, not heard. If the power of wholesome karma is great, even in adverse circumstances one is not defiled, does not join in the corruption, and still maintains a pure heart. One who dwells in the mire and is not defiled is called a bodhisattva. If the manas does not change the force of its unwholesome karma, and the afflictions are not subdued, then wanting to eliminate the self-view and the three fetters and escape the three evil destinies is absolutely impossible. The Four Right Efforts (samyag-vyāyāma) of eliminating evil and cultivating good must be well cultivated; if evil is not eliminated and good is not fulfilled, the three evil destinies cannot be avoided.