What about the question of free will versus predestination in terms of karma? The Buddha once related a story about how he, after becoming the Buddha, still experienced retribution for a mild, boyish prank performed lifetimes before. This posits a tit-for-tat, fatalistic interpretation of karmic retribution which I find difficult to accept.

SHIH-FU:

I think there is a bit of confusion in your understanding of this story. Yes, the Buddha did experience the consequence of an action he performed lifetimes before. However, he did not experience it as retribution. There may have been pain, but there was no suffering such as we would experience. To enlightened beings, receiving retribution is the same as not receiving retribution. If there is no self, how can there be retribution? Only beings who have an idea of self experience retribution.

QUESTION:

If you break the precepts in your dreams, have you still broken Mahayana Precepts?

SHIH-FU:

Having taken the Bodhisattva Precepts, whether you have bad thoughts while awake or dreaming, you will still break the precepts. In a dream you may steal something or kill someone, but you haven't truly done so, so you shouldn't concern yourself with it, and you shouldn't punish yourself.

If a person is completely enlightened, then it is impossible to break precepts, even in dreams. If you are on the Bodhisattva Path, you can always repent your bad actions, speech and thoughts and still practice the precepts. Precepts are guidelines for behavior, not commandments.