The Relationship between Karmic Seeds and the Seven Great Seeds

Are karmic seeds and the seeds of the seven great elements independent of each other? First, let us look at how karmic seeds are formed. Karmic seeds are formed through the bodily, verbal, and mental actions that the seven consciousnesses create upon the material body. The master who creates karma is the manas: it is the manas that directs, instigates, and commands the six consciousnesses to use the material body to perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions. These actions then exist in the tathāgatagarbha in the form of seeds. When the causes and conditions ripen in the future, the seeds take root and sprout, manifesting the retribution and realizing the law of cause and effect.

The seven consciousnesses are formed from the consciousness seed among the seeds of the seven great elements; the material body is formed from the five great-element seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space; and there is also the seed of the great element of seeing, which is the function of the tathāgatagarbha. The seeds of the seven great elements operate in combination, creating karmic actions and forming karmic seeds. This entire process, one could say, is entirely the function of the tathāgatagarbha.

The relationship between karmic seeds and the seeds of the seven great elements is extremely close—without the seeds of the seven great elements there would be no karmic seeds—but karmic seeds are independent of the seeds of the seven great elements. For example, when the five great-element seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space return to the tathāgatagarbha, they cannot carry karmic actions back with them; the five great-element seeds do not create karmic actions or karmic seeds. When the seed of the great element of seeing returns to the tathāgatagarbha, it likewise does not carry karmic actions or karmic seeds. Do the consciousness-element seeds of the seven consciousnesses carry karmic seeds and karmic actions back into the tathāgatagarbha? Certainly they also do not carry karmic seeds or karmic actions. The consciousness seeds themselves are pure; they are neither wholesome in nature, nor unwholesome, nor neither wholesome nor unwholesome—it is forever thus, and therefore they carry no karmic actions or karmic seeds. Karmic actions are distinguished as wholesome, unwholesome, or neither wholesome nor unwholesome. It is only after the consciousness seeds arise and form the seven consciousnesses, with the mental factors (caittas) operating in conjunction, that the consciousness-minds come to possess the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta); the consciousness seeds themselves do not have these three natures. When the mental factors operate, the consciousness-mind then has karmic actions of the three natures—wholesome and unwholesome—and karmic seeds are formed. These karmic seeds do not follow the consciousness seeds into the tathāgatagarbha; the consciousness seeds retain their original purity, and when they are transmitted out again, they are still pure consciousness seeds.

Since it is only when the mental factors operate in conjunction with the consciousness-mind that there are the three karmas of wholesome and unwholesome, and since the mental factors possess the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral, while the consciousness-mind formed from the consciousness seeds does not possess these three natures, then karmic seeds are related to the mental factors. When the mental factors change, the karmic seeds change; when the mental factors are pure, the karmic seeds are pure. Therefore, the seeds of the seven great elements and the karmic seeds are two separate mechanisms; although they are greatly related, they cannot be conflated.

Then, when the seeds of the seven great elements are output by the tathāgatagarbha, do they carry the information of karmic seeds? They cannot, because the seeds are pure. The seeds of the seven great elements of all sentient beings, including the Buddha's, are equal and identical, without difference. The difference lies in the mental factors. Karmic seeds are related to the mental factors, and whether the consciousness-mind is pure or not is also related to the mental factors. The key to cultivation is to change the mental factors—not to change the seeds of the seven great elements, nor to change the consciousness seeds. These seeds cannot be changed; only the mental factors can be changed, and consequently the karmic seeds change, becoming absolutely pure. Only then can one be a Buddha as pure as the tathāgatagarbha.