The Dreadfulness of Karmic Results

The afflictions accumulated by the manas (mind faculty) over countless kalpas (aeons) defile the six consciousnesses, causing them to unconsciously create karmic actions. These karmic seeds are then stored in the eighth consciousness, which in turn defiles the manas once more. Through this cyclical process of continuous defilement, sentient beings truly have no day of liberation. When sentient beings create karma, they act recklessly, fearing neither heaven nor earth, making one shudder to witness it. Bodhisattvas can directly perceive the karmic retribution that will result from various actions. The suffering endured from those retributions is truly agonizing, so intense that even ground-level bodhisattvas find it difficult to bear.