What Is Fixed Karma and What Is Indeterminate Karma

When the conditions for the realization of karmic results have not yet matured, such karma is indeterminate. It can be eliminated through repentance, eliminated through attaining fruition, eliminated through realizing the true nature of mind, eliminated upon entering the stages, and eliminated upon attaining any level of fruition. When the conditions for karmic results have matured, it becomes fixed karma. For ordinary people, retribution is inevitable. However, for those with profound cultivation, when karmic results manifest, heavy offenses may receive lighter retribution, or the karmic results may be transformed—this is not absolute.

For sages, all karmic results are indeterminate; they can be realized, transformed, or prevented from manifesting, entirely depending on the individual. In the ultimate truth, all karmic results are indeterminate. If karmic results were fixed, sentient beings could not attain Buddhahood, because the immeasurable negative karma accumulated by sentient beings over countless kalpas could never be exhausted. If negative karma cannot be exhausted, one cannot attain Buddhahood. Yet in reality, the Buddhas throughout the ten directions are immeasurable, and their negative karma has already been completely eradicated without remainder. Therefore, it is said that all karmic results are without fixity.