Can Chan Meditation Using the Mahāyāna Dharma Eliminate Deep and Heavy Karmic Offenses?

Some people say: since sentient beings' karmic offenses are like mountains, one should just investigate who is undergoing the retribution and who is creating the karma; in this way one can realize the true mind, and since the true mind neither creates karma nor undergoes retribution, the karmic offenses will thereby be dissolved. This method of dissolving karmic offenses is extremely improper and contrary to reason. First, because the karmic obstructions are heavy, the obstructions to cultivating the Path are also heavy; one simply cannot cultivate the bodhisattva's six perfections to completion, cannot fulfill the causal conditions for realizing the true mind, and cannot engage in Chan investigation; therefore it is impossible to dissolve deep and heavy karmic offenses. Second, doing this, for sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age with heavy karmic obstructions, would lead to denying cause and effect, evading evil karma, and being unable to introspect upon the defilements of one's own mind; after cultivating for a long time, the karmic offenses would still be like mountains, and might even increase.

For beginners in study and for those with heavy karmic obstructions, who are at the stage of cultivating the four right efforts (samyag-vyāyāma) to eradicate evil and cultivate goodness, they need to observe the causes of the retributive suffering of karmic offenses, so as to understand cause and reach its fruit. Only by fearing and revering cause and effect can one eradicate evil and cultivate goodness, subdue the afflictions of one's own mind, and finally be transformed completely, wash the mind and change one's countenance, and become a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. When karmic obstructions are heavy, one cannot use the Mahāyāna formless repentance method for dissolving offenses, nor can one use the Mahāyāna Chan investigation method to evade afflictions and karmic offenses; in fact, one cannot evade them or escape them. With such heavy karmic offenses blocking the way, how could one investigate Chan and realize the eighth consciousness to see the mind? How could one reach the formless?

When the causal conditions for Chan investigation are not complete, one can only rely on inference and speculation about the eighth consciousness, conjecturing an eighth consciousness that, relative to the seven consciousnesses, never functions at all, has not the slightest benefit of merit, cannot dissolve even a bit of karmic offense, and cannot sever even the slightest bit of the three fetters. One infers an eighth consciousness that does not create evil karma, has no evil karma and undergoes no retribution, while however heavy the seven consciousnesses' evil karma is, it remains just as heavy and will not be eliminated. The eighth consciousness cannot substitute for the seven consciousnesses; the eighth consciousness is intrinsically pure by nature, is originally a Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have been karmic-offense ordinary beings for beginningless kalpas; He has never suffered in place of the seven consciousnesses in the slightest, and the seven consciousnesses have never received even a fraction of the Buddha's light from the eighth consciousness so as to suffer a bit less of painful retribution.

The eighth consciousness has never had the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, yet the seven consciousnesses have never had their greed, hatred, and delusion severed; the eighth consciousness has always been liberated, yet the seven consciousnesses have never been liberated in the slightest. The eighth consciousness is a Buddha, yet the seven consciousnesses have never thereby sat on the Buddha's throne, have never enjoyed the Buddha's treatment; most of the time they suffer in the three evil destinies, transmigrating through birth and death without cease. Therefore it is said that the eighth consciousness and the seven consciousnesses cannot substitute for each other. The eighth consciousness pervades all places, all realms, all dharmas, all times, and all grounds; any mind consciousness that is a bit clever can make inferences—the eighth consciousness is everywhere; just think a little and one roughly knows what the eighth consciousness is like. But the key is: what use is such thinking? Ordinary beings with greed, hatred, and delusion think of so many things—since beginningless kalpas, how many of those things have come true as wished?

Therefore, for beginners, repentance of ultimate reality and the method of dissolving karmic offenses through Chan investigation are extremely unrealistic. Only those with somewhat lighter karmic obstructions, whose cultivation of the bodhisattva's six perfections is more or less adequate, can use such a method to attain realization and dissolve karma—but even then it cannot be fully guaranteed. Beside the Buddha the possibility is great; apart from the Buddha the difficulty is indeed not small. Inference is easy, realization is hard, and the more one approaches the Dharma-ending age, the more this is so. No one should harbor a fluke mentality; one must cultivate genuinely with real effort, and cannot cut corners, slack off, or take shortcuts.

Why can karmic offenses only be dissolved after realizing the eighth consciousness? Because in the process of realization, one can contemplate the operation of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) in accordance with reality and truth; the five aggregates become emptier and emptier in the mind, more and more unreal; the phenomenon of arising and ceasing is observed ever more clearly and deeply, and finally the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is eradicated. When the eighth consciousness is realized, upon further observing that the five aggregates are all born from the eighth consciousness, the mind becomes even more selfless and empty; of course the karmic offenses created on the basis of the self of the five aggregates are also empty—there is no self and no belonging to self.

Just as in the first sentence of the Heart Sutra: "The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, practicing deep prajñā-pāramitā, illuminated and saw that the five aggregates are all empty." The result of Chan investigation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) is precisely illuminating and seeing that the five aggregates are all empty—this is the merit of realization: the five aggregates are empty and there is no self. The final result of contemplative practice is the illumination-and-seeing, and this illumination-and-seeing is sudden enlightenment. The illumination is the mind-lamp unmoving, the light of wisdom reflecting the images of the five aggregates—the images of the true mind, the eighth consciousness; there are no five aggregates, the five aggregates are not the five aggregates. The wisdom of illumination-and-seeing is extremely difficult to give birth to; one must extensively cultivate the bodhisattva's immeasurable merits, and only when approaching complete transformation is it possible to illuminate and see that the five aggregates are all empty. The illumination is not the mind consciousness's shallow thinking, but the deep and subtle wisdom function of the manas; when the mind's light shines forth and penetrates the five aggregates, the true nature of the five aggregates is revealed.

But if one does not do real work, does not cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), does not cultivate the thirty-seven factors of the Path, does not eradicate evil and cultivate goodness, does not subdue afflictions, with karmic obstructions blocking the way, the light of the wisdom of illumination can never be born; one can only engage in superficial inference, intellectual understanding, and study, exerting effort only on the level of the mind consciousness, while the manas cannot enter in. Then the ordinary being's bones of the manas can never be exchanged; at the end of life, if it is an ordinary being's womb, it will still be an ordinary being's womb—because the matter of entering the womb is decided by the manas, determined by the manas and karmic force, and the manas represents karmic force. Only by letting the manas give birth to wisdom and transforming the manas can one change karmic force and dissolve karmic obstructions.