Practitioners who aspire to self-liberation and who have attained arhatship are liberated from all afflictions. They no longer create the causes that bring vexation. Hence, they no longer create the cause to be reborn or remain in samsara. They are truly free from afflictions and samsara. But what about the causes they have created in the past before attaining liberation? Retribution as such only comes to those who still have self-attachment. People with attachment definitely receive karmic retribution for past actions. Those without self-attachment must also undergo the karmic consequences of past actions, but because they have no attachment to self, they do not see it as retribution. Therefore, those who attain arhatship and transcend self-attachment do not feel the retribution for previous actions, whether they are good, bad, or neutral. It does not matter what they did. Also, from the Mahayana perspective, those who attain arhatship may cross over to the Mahayana path. In that case, they will reappear in the world to help sentient beings. In returning, bodhisattvas resolve previous karmic debts, though their purpose in returning is to help others.

The nirvana of the Mahayana path is the goal of bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas attain the goal without fear, confusion, or imaginings. Although they have no attachment to life or to the world, bodhisattvas still choose to remain in the world to help others. To great bodhisattvas, samsarea is the Pure Land, the arena in which they work. They do not separate themselves from the world of ordinary sentient beings. Even this being so, they do not have the emotional afflictions that ordinary sentient beings have. Great bodhisattvas remain in samsara, but their mental states are the same as that of arhats.