Are karmic seeds and the seeds of the seven great elements each independent of one another?

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

The seven consciousnesses are formed by the seeds of consciousness among the seven great seeds; the physical body is formed by the five great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space among the seven great seeds; and there is also the great seed of seeing, which is the tathāgatagarbha's function of seeing all dharmas. The seven great seeds operate in harmony and create karmic actions, forming karmic seeds. This entire process, one may say, is all the function of the tathāgatagarbha.

The relationship between karmic seeds and the seven great seeds is extremely close: without the seven great seeds there would be no karmic seeds. But karmic seeds are independent of the seven great seeds. For example, when the five great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space return to the tathāgatagarbha, they cannot carry karmic actions back with them; the five great seeds also do not create karmic actions or karmic seeds. When the great seed of seeing returns to the tathāgatagarbha, it likewise does not carry karmic actions or karmic seeds. Do the seeds of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses carry karmic seeds and karmic actions back into the tathāgatagarbha? Certainly they do not carry karmic seeds or karmic actions either. Because the Buddha said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that the seeds of consciousness are themselves pure—they are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, nor are they neither wholesome nor unwholesome—and this is forever so. Therefore the seeds of consciousness do not carry karmic actions or karmic seeds. However, when the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha, their activities of discrimination and cognition still follow into the tathāgatagarbha in the form of seeds, only not together with the seeds of consciousness.

Karmic actions are distinguished as wholesome, unwholesome, and neither wholesome nor unwholesome. This is because after the seeds of consciousness arise and form the seven consciousnesses, the mental factors (caittas) operate in conjunction with them, and only then do the consciousnesses have the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta). The seeds of consciousness themselves do not have these three natures. When the mental factors operate, the consciousnesses have karmic actions of the three natures—wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral—and karmic seeds are formed. Thus karmic seeds will not be mixed together with the seeds of consciousness; the seeds of consciousness still retain their original pure attribute, and when they are transmitted out again, they are still pure seeds of consciousness. It is only that the mental factors that emerge to accompany the seeds of consciousness have the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral, which makes it appear that the consciousnesses have the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral.

Since it is only when the mental factors operate in conjunction with the consciousnesses that there are the three karmas of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral, and since the mental factors have the three natures while the consciousnesses formed from the seeds of consciousness themselves do not have the 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 seven great seeds and the karmic seeds are two sets of mechanisms; although they are greatly related, they cannot be conflated with each other.

Then, when the seven great seeds are transmitted out by the tathāgatagarbha, do they carry the information of karmic seeds? They cannot, because the seven great seeds are pure and are not mixed together with karmic seeds. The seven great seeds of all sentient beings, including the Buddha's, are equal and identical, without any difference. The difference lies in the mental factors. Karmic seeds are related to the mental factors, and whether the consciousnesses are pure or not is also related to the mental factors. The key to cultivation is to change the mental factors—not to change the seven great seeds, nor to change the seeds of consciousness. 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 World-Honored Buddha as pure as the tathāgatagarbha.