Tathāgatagarbha Stores and Outputs Karmic Seeds and Realizes Karmic Retribution

The tathāgatagarbha can directly bring about the karmic retribution of sentient beings without going through the manas's mental factor of deliberation (manana); the requital of cause and effect is not decided by the seven consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha directly causes the material body to grow, age, decay, and undergo change, without the seven consciousnesses deciding; the tathāgatagarbha directly impels the arising, ceasing, and transformation of the material body, altering the conditions of survival and karmic conditions, without the seven consciousnesses deciding.

The karmic actions that sentient beings create in this life are all stored by the tathāgatagarbha, including every detail of body, speech, and mind, without leaving out the slightest bit; all are recorded and stored in the form of karmic seeds. When the conditions ripen in later lives, the tathāgatagarbha outputs these karmic seeds, and sentient beings must live and receive their retribution in accordance with their own karmic seeds.

These karmic seeds all correspond to the manas, because the manas exists life after life without perishing, continually carrying this karma into future lives until the retribution is fully received and the karmic seeds disappear. The six consciousnesses, however, are newly born and carry no karmic seeds; yet they are influenced by the manas's perfuming and thus manifest various habitual tendencies and afflictions.