What Does "Manifest According to Karma" Mean?

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, there is the teaching that phenomena manifest according to karma: sentient beings, following their own karmic power and karmic conditions, can only come into contact with a certain portion of the Dharma; without karmic conditions, they cannot come into contact with it. For example, with a gold mine, some people who go to mine it will obtain gold, while others who mine it will not. For example, with water, some people need water but cannot obtain it and die of thirst, while others are exposed to too much of it and drown. For example, with hell, some beings can see it and enter hell, while others cannot see it and cannot go to hell. It is the same with heavenly realms, and it is also the same with the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī). The environment in which every sentient being lives is nothing but manifesting according to karma—without karma, nothing appears.

All dharmas manifest in the mind in reliance upon karmic power. Even when sentient beings come into contact with the same outer six sense objects, because their karmic power differs, the inner six sense objects that each one's tathāgatagarbha transmits into the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda) are different, so each sentient being is affected differently, and their perception and feeling of the same realm of experience differ. The most famous example is this: devas, humans, and hungry ghosts see the same river—the outer representation is the same—but the inner representations they perceive are different, and their enjoyment of it is different.