The karmic power of sentient beings can change the essential object

However, the immutability of the essential object is only a temporary phenomenon; sooner or later it will change. Because the essential object is also a dharma that arises and ceases through causes and conditions—a dharma subject to arising, ceasing, and mutation—when causes and conditions change, the essential object will inevitably change. Even when causes and conditions do not change, if sentient beings pay attention to and place hopes upon the essential object, and the manas' aspirations and seeking become involved in it, the essential object will inevitably undergo change. When the minds of the multitude are sincere and all beings are of one heart, this will inevitably cause the essential object to turn in accordance with the minds of the multitude, and it may even turn in accordance with the mind of a single person of the Way.

Take the earth, for example. Before humanity came into existence, although it existed in a state of arising, abiding, mutating, and ceasing, the mutation in that existence was very slow. The delicious earth-flesh on the surface of the ground floated on the earth's surface for many kalpas, sweet, luscious, and fertile, neither diminishing nor growing thin. When others descended upon the earth and became human beings, their craving for the earth-flesh caused it to become ever thinner and scarcer, until it no longer grew, and finally it became extinct—this was the result of the interference of sentient beings' karmic power. After its extinction, humans began to cultivate the delicious rice; and finally, because sentient beings craved it without letting go, the rice vanished, so that even its name can no longer be found. Such is the enormity of sentient beings' karmic power.