The Methods and Principles of Eliminating Karma

Question: Karmic retribution is exact to the finest degree—there is no non-retribution or mistaken retribution. Then, when reciting sūtras and mantras for someone can help a sick person recover, and performing dharma rites for deliverance can help others, why is this so?

Answer: The karmic actions created by each sentient being—although the karmic seeds exist within the tathāgatagarbha and do not vanish without cause—the elimination of karmic seeds must take place through a certain form. One way of eliminating karma is for the karmic seeds to become manifest: the sentient being undergoes the evil retribution, and once the retribution is exhausted, the karmic seed is gone, and henceforth there will be no more retributive results from that karma. Another way of eliminating karma is repentance: after repentance, the mind becomes purified, heavy karma becomes light karma, and light karma disappears. Yet another way of eliminating karma is through reciting the Buddha's name, reciting sūtras, reciting mantras, performing deliverance rites, and so forth, whereby one can resonate with the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to eliminate karma.

On the other hand, for a person who is ill, karmic obstructions have manifested; in some cases, creditors from past enmities and debts come to collect their debts. By reciting sūtras or the Buddha's name and dedicating the merit to these creditors, they receive benefit and no longer press their claims, and the sick person's body recovers. If reciting sūtras, reciting the Buddha's name, and reciting mantras can help sentient beings eliminate karma, this is because the one performing the deliverance possesses virtue. A person of virtue can resonate with the blessings of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, dragons, and celestial protectors, thereby extinguishing a portion of sentient beings' karmic obstructions, enabling the sentient beings' creditors to receive the benefit of the Dharma, to forgive the sentient beings or depart from them, and thus a portion of the beings' illness-obstructions is eliminated. Furthermore, a person who possesses the Way and virtue also has the ability to dissolve sentient beings' karmic conditions and alleviate their suffering from illness. This involves the application of the mental factors (caittas) of the manas and the mental factors of the mind consciousness; most importantly, it involves the concrete operations and implementation of the tathāgatagarbha, as well as the mutual interaction among sentient beings' tathāgatagarbhas. The details of how the three transformative agencies of consciousness (parināma) operate in concert are extremely complex; only with extremely profound wisdom of the seeds of consciousness-only (ālaya-jñāna) can one observe these contents.