金剛經纂要刊定記 2.40

2.40

Answer: "It merely transforms the heavy into the light, rather than causing it not to be experienced at all; therefore there is no contradiction. As this sūtra says: 'If a person upholds, reads, and recites this sūtra and is despised by others, this person's sinful karma from past lives should cause them to fall into the evil destinies; but because they are despised by people in the present life, the sinful karma from past lives is eradicated, and they will attain anuttarā samyaksambodhi.' The words 'past lives' have two senses: first, lives prior to the previous birth are called 'past lives'; second, the time prior to upholding the sūtra is called 'past lives'. Although both apply, the latter sense is the standard one. Here, taking the karma of the three destinies, it is substituted with being despised, making the retribution indeterminate; retribution in a future birth is repaid in the present, making the time indeterminate: these are all transforming the heavy into the light. As for extinguishing the light so that it is not experienced, the sūtra has no explicit text; though the sūtra lacks explicit text, in principle it must be so. There are two senses: First, inferring the light from the heavy, meaning: since heavy karma is transformed into light, light karma ought rightly not to be experienced. Second, those who have fallen into the three destinies, upon emerging among humans, still have residual karma—namely, the sufferings of poverty and various afflictions; now, since they do not fall into the three destinies, their residual karma is necessarily spared, which is also both time and retribution being indeterminate."