諸經要集 11.7

11.7

Question: What is meant by the meaning of 'path of karma' (karmapatha)?
Answer: The seven karmas of body and speech, by their own essential characteristics, are called 'paths of karma.' The remaining three are minds associated with mental intentions; furthermore, because those very karmas are capable of producing the paths and their fruits, they are called 'paths of karma.'
Question: If karma itself is called a path and can lead to hell and the like, why are the remaining three not paths of karma?
Answer: Like those seven karmas, these three can serve as their root; because they are associated with them, they cannot be like those karmas, and therefore are not called paths of karma.
As the Abhidharmasamuccaya says: Furthermore, there are four kinds of distinctions in karma: black karma with black maturation, white karma with white maturation, black-and-white karma with black-and-white maturation, and neither-black-nor-white karma without maturation that can exhaust all karmas. 'Black karma with black maturation' refers to unwholesome karma: because it is defiled, it yields undesirable maturation. 'White karma with white maturation' refers to wholesome karma of the three realms: because it is undefiled, it yields desirable maturation. 'Black-and-white karma with black-and-white maturation' refers to miscellaneous karma of the desire realm: because wholesome and unwholesome are mixed. 'Neither-black-nor-white karma without maturation that can exhaust all karmas' refers to the untainted karmas in the path of preparation and the path of uninterrupted progress: because the path of preparation and the path of uninterrupted progress are the antidotes to those karmas. 'Not black' means being free from the stains of defilement; 'white' means being entirely pure; 'without maturation' means being contrary to saṃsāra; 'can exhaust all karmas' means that by untainted karma, one forever eradicates the latent impressions of the three tainted karmas, such as black, along with their maturation.
Furthermore, the Upāsaka-śīla-sūtra says: If, good son, there are people who do not understand such karmic conditions, they transmigrate through birth and death for immeasurable lifetimes; though born in the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception with a lifespan of eighty thousand eons, when their merit is exhausted, they fall back into the three evil destinies. Therefore, the Buddha told the good son: Of all paintings, none surpasses the mind: the mind paints defilements, defilements paint karma, and karma paints the body.