Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: Chapter Sixteen, Able to Purify Karmic Obstacles

First, about the title\: The Chapter on Purifying Karmic Obstacles. Karmic obstacles, as everyone knows, are the seeds of evil karma created by sentient beings in past lives that have now ripened; the retribution has manifested, obstructing and hindering one's various wholesome karmas. For those cultivating the Buddha's path, the greatest obstacle is that which obstructs one's study and practice of the Buddha-dharma, obstructs the acquisition of correct views and knowledge, and obstructs one's meditative concentration (samādhi). In short, karmic obstacles can obstruct all of a sentient being's direct and circumstantial retributions; as an impediment to studying the Buddha-dharma, they will make the direct and circumstantial retributions of the five aggregates in future lives even less satisfactory. Therefore, being able to purify karmic obstacles is extremely important. Once karmic obstacles are removed, the cultivation of the Buddha's path will be unobstructed, and one will attain perfect merit and wisdom, eradicate all ignorance, and achieve the ultimate unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment.

In this chapter of the Diamond Sutra, the World-Honored One taught that by studying and practicing the Diamond Sutra, realizing the Diamond mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), and cultivating in accordance with the mind of ultimate reality, one will gradually purify karmic obstacles and reduce hindrances. Because the Diamond Sutra can directly break through sentient beings' four marks, once the four marks are broken through, the hindrance of worldly conditioned marks is uprooted. Moreover, with the merit of realizing the mind of ultimate reality, the tathāgatagarbha, one will attract the lightened retribution of heavy karma, causing the retribution of evil karma to manifest in advance, thereby uprooting that karmic obstacle. Thus, when each karmic obstacle is uprooted and cleared away in this manner, ignorance is extinguished, there is no retribution of evil karma, and sentient beings attain buddhahood.

Original text of the Diamond Sutra: 复次。须菩提。若善男子善女人。受持读诵此经。若为人轻贱。是人先世罪业。应堕恶道。以今世人轻贱故。先世罪业。即为消灭。当得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

Explanation: Furthermore, Subhūti, if there are good men and good women who can receive, uphold, read, and recite this Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, and practice according to its profound meaning, and if at that time someone slanders, humiliates, reviles, and despises them, then their evil karma will be extinguished. Because such a person created evil karma in past lives, if the evil conditions had ripened, they would originally have fallen into the evil destinies to undergo evil retribution. Now, because of their reading, reciting, receiving, and upholding of the Diamond Sutra, the karmic conditions of that evil karma created in past lives are caused to ripen in advance; but because they are now despised by worldly people, the heavy karma receives light retribution, the evil karma created in past lives is immediately extinguished, and before long they will accomplish the Buddha's path.

Why, when one reads, recites, receives, and upholds the Diamond Sutra in this life, would the conditions of past evil karma ripen in advance? Because this person, through reading, reciting, receiving, and upholding the Diamond Sutra, has developed merit and virtue; one manifestation of merit and virtue is that the conditions of evil karma ripen in advance, so that one undergoes less evil retribution—this is the lightened retribution of heavy karma. Whether wholesome or unwholesome karma, both carry high "interest," also called the accrued yield of karma, like a bank deposit: the longer the deposit is kept, the higher the interest, and the deposit grows. This deposit is analogous to the karmic retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma: the longer wholesome karma is stored, the greater the wholesome retribution one should receive; conversely, the longer unwholesome karma is stored, the greater the evil retribution one should receive.

When cultivation is effective, it causes the conditions of evil karma to ripen, so that evil retribution is undergone in advance, and the resulting evil retribution is light. Therefore, when creating wholesome karma, everyone should not hope for the fruits of wholesome karma to manifest as quickly as possible so as to enjoy them sooner—this is a mental act lacking wisdom. The earlier one undergoes the retribution of wholesome karma, the less one enjoys the high interest, nor the generous treatment of compound interest. A true practitioner should not be short-sighted, considering only one's present retribution, but should rather plan and provide for future lives, for the unsurpassed retribution countless eons hence; best of all is to be without thought for wholesome fruits and wholesome retribution.

Therefore, this person who reads, recites, receives, and upholds the Diamond Sutra, because their cultivation is effective and their virtue and merit manifest, not only causes the conditions of evil karma to ripen, but can also transform the evil karma that would have caused them to fall into the evil destinies into merely such a light evil retribution as being despised by others—and that evil karma is thereby extinguished. In this way they lightly undergo the evil retribution; this is the attraction of wholesome karma, the attraction of merit. If a person cultivates diligently without cease, with ever-growing merit and ever-increasing virtue, adverse circumstances will manifest one after another, and all the evil karma of past lives will be extinguished one by one. When all evil karma has been extinguished, this person is close to accomplishing the Buddha's path; when karma is exhausted, the Buddha's path is achieved.