Repentance and Karma Elimination

Question: I repent and make vows every morning and evening, and my bodily, verbal, and mental actions are much purer than before, but occasionally I still unconsciously commit karmic acts of greed and anger. Does this mean my repentance has not deeply penetrated the manas, that it is not in accordance with the Dharma, and that my karma has not yet been eliminated? 

Answer: After repentance, it is not necessarily the case that all karmic obstructions are purified at once; there will certainly be residual karma that has not been eliminated, and there are still the afflictive obstructions, because each person's repentance may not necessarily be thorough and complete. Moreover, repentance only eliminates a portion of the afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa) and karmic defilements; it is unlikely to eliminate all of the afflictive obstructions, and there are also sinful obstructions that cannot be eliminated, so it is inevitable that there will be retribution for those sins.

During the Buddha's time, there was a layperson who slandered an arhat of the fourth fruit. That arhat immediately went to the assembly hall, rang the bell to gather the assembly, and told that layperson: "I have attained the fruit of arhatship. You must quickly repent before the assembly for your slanderous karma, otherwise you will suffer the retribution of the hells." The layperson immediately repented before the assembly to the arhat, and the arhat said: "I forgive you; may you eliminate your sinful karma." But when that layperson's life ended, he still fell into the hells to undergo retribution. This story does not mean that repentance is useless and cannot eliminate karma; rather, it means that repentance can only eliminate sinful karma on the level of the mind's nature, whereas sinful karma on the level of phenomena has already been committed and has become an established fact—that cannot be eliminated, and only undergoing the retribution can eliminate it. After that layperson repented, his afflictive obstruction was gone, but his sinful obstruction still remained, so he went to the hells to undergo retribution. Had he not repented, the suffering he would have undergone in the hells from nature-karma plus sinful karma would have been even greater and very hard to bear. Therefore, we should all be as careful as possible with our bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and especially toward the Three Jewels we must be even more cautious, not committing any slanderous karma. 

If all afflictive karmic obstructions were completely purified, then one would have realized the fruits and attained buddhahood; in fact, it is not that easy to purify everything through repentance. Afflictive karmic obstructions are lightened little by little, and even though they are lightened, they will occasionally flare up—this is all a normal phenomenon. After repentance has deeply penetrated the manas, one must still see to what degree it has penetrated and to what degree change has occurred; certainly the degree is not sufficient. If the degree were sufficient, the afflictions would all have been severed; since the degree is insufficient, of course there will still be afflictive karmic obstructions—this is all a normal phenomenon. As long as you have progressed compared to before, and are progressing every day, that is already a good sign.