Since there is therefore no intrinsic nature in either truth, the views of eternalism and nihilism are thoroughly abandoned. In addition, there will be no need to justify the link between the result and the karmic act, even when a long time has passed since the act took place, by resorting to such ideas as a substrate consciousness, karmic indelibility and obtention. How so?
Because it doesn’t really cease to be,
Though there’s no substrate, still the potency
Of karma stays long after it has ceased,
And will produce effects – this you should know. (6.39)
Those for whom karmic acts cease will in response to the critical remark, ‘How can a karmic act that has ceased to be give rise to a result?’, venture to confirm the potential of ceased karmic acts by maintaining a substrate consciousness, a separate indelible dharma similar to a promissory note, obtention, or that there is a continuum of consciousness that takes on the karmic imprints.1
But for those for whom karmic acts are not inherently produced, they also do not cease; and since it is not impossible for a result to manifest from what has not been destroyed, when the karmic acts do not perish the link between the karmic act and its result becomes perfectly tenable. As the Treatise states:
Karma is not produced because
It has no inherent nature at all.
And since it is unproduced,
It also does not cease to be.2
And from the sutras:
A human lifespan is a hundred years,
Thus we call that a lifetime.
But one cannot gather years in a heap.
This is established in a similar way.
When we say, ‘It is not exhausted,’
And when we say, ‘Karma is exhausted,’
The empty aspect is its non-exhaustion,
Conventionally its exhaustion is taught.3
Title
Chapter 1: Pramuditā
