Can Karmic Results Disappear?

Sentient beings create evil karma life after life, and the retribution is rebirth in the six realms of saṃsāra. If karmic results could never disappear, there would be no end to rebirth in the six realms, and sentient beings could never become Buddhas—but the facts are not so. Why is it that after realizing the fruits, the three fetters are severed and one never falls into the three evil destinies again? Before realizing the fruits, there were still countless karmic seeds of the three evil destinies that had not yet manifested, and their karmic results had not yet been experienced—where did those karmic seeds go? When sentient beings create evil karma, the Buddha requires them to dissolve karmic obstructions through repentance, so that they need not undergo evil retribution. Then where did that evil karma go? If cause and effect must inevitably be realized, then which sentient being could ever become a Buddha?

All dharmas, apart from the tathāgatagarbha, are illusory and unreal, just like things in a dream. The things in a dream vanish upon waking, and all the actions performed in a dream no longer require any accountability after waking. What is illusory has no karmic results; moreover, after waking one no longer creates evil karma and is no longer deluded. But it is different within the dream: within the dream, when one performs karmic actions, one must undergo the retributive results.

When one eliminates self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and realizes the fruits, that is the first awakening from the dream; seeing one's true mind is another awakening; realizing the illusion-like contemplation is another awakening; realizing the mirage contemplation is another awakening; realizing the dream-like contemplation is another awakening; and realizing each dharma brings another awakening. Entering the first bhūmi is another awakening, entering the second bhūmi is another awakening, until attaining Buddhahood, when one awakens completely from the dream—this time thoroughly awake, never again entering a dream, with no more dreamscape. So does the evil karma created within the dream still exist? Do the people, things, and events in the dream still exist after waking? None of them exist anymore; they have vanished, utterly beyond sight. In the Buddha's mind there is a vast emptiness in which no dharma exists. What cause and effect would the Buddha still need to requite, and how could He requite it? If the skin no longer exists, where can the hair attach itself? Since karmic results have no people, events, objects, or principles to attach to, where could karmic results be?

When the Buddha teaches the Dharma for sentient beings, it is to let us fully recognize that we are all dreaming, that all dharmas are within the dream. Outside the dream, all dharmas do not exist; as long as one wakes up, there is nothing at all—neither good things nor bad things. The Buddha's Dharma is nothing more than breaking delusion; when the mind is not deluded, that is enlightenment, and with enlightenment there is nothing more to it.

I am not real, you are not real, events are not real, principles are not real. Having recognized these principles and realized these principles, are there still any real people, events, objects, or principles? No. Are there still any karmic results? No. Karmic results are also among events and principles, also illusory and unreal, and they all vanish upon waking. Awaken to one part, and one part disappears; awaken completely, and all wholesome and unwholesome karmic results disappear entirely. When one realizes the fruits, has one not awakened to a small part? One has preliminarily realized the principle of no-self—no six sense faculties, no six sense objects, no six consciousnesses. Are the three evil destinies, along with evil karma and its results, contained within the six faculties, six objects, and six consciousnesses? Certainly they are. Then those matters no longer exist, and the karmic results have vanished by a small part.

If the depth of realized dharma is very profound, and the principles understood are very deep, then the degree of awakening is very great; one will realize that even more events and principles are unreal, more events and principles disappear, and more evil karma is eliminated. Once one awakens and becomes enlightened, one knows: where is there any real cause and effect? Where is there any real self, person, sentient being, or life span? Where is there any wholesome or unwholesome karmic action? Having realized these, the karmic seeds vanish by a part.

If one were as awake as the Buddha, perceiving all dharmas as the Buddha does, then all karmic seeds of evil karma would be completely eliminated—where would there be even a trace of evil karmic retribution? There would be none. But in order to keep sentient beings from creating evil karma, the Buddha may also, for the sake of sentient beings, manifest as if having evil karmic results, in order to alert sentient beings. This is acting out a play in order to save sentient beings. Throughout immeasurable kalpas, the Buddha's taming of sentient beings has all been acting; the Buddha is the best and greatest actor, the finest teacher. Everything He does is to awaken the deluded minds of sentient beings, to let them wake up. Apart from this, what personal self-interest could the Buddha have? Absolutely none—utterly without self.