Nyung-nä Teachings at Lawudo

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lawudo Retreat Centre, Nepal (Archive #133)

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave these teachings during a nyung-nä retreat at Lawudo Gompa, Nepal, in April 1978. Edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.

The Index Page provides an outline of the topics discussed in each of the lectures. Click on the headings below to go directly to a particular lecture.

For more advice on nyung-nä practice, see Nyung-nä Practice: Prostrations and Offerings and Rinpoche's Online Advice Book. You can also listen online to Rinpoche's teachings from a nyung-nä retreat in Taiwan, 2007.

7. Abiding in the Retreat

….in order to enlighten all my kind mother sentient beings by releasing them from all their sufferings.

The other night we were talking about the Vajrayana. We often talk about the Vajrayana, which makes our mind space out. We were talking about the meaning of vajra.

The meaning of vajra is Vajrasattva’s holy mind, the transcendental wisdom of great bliss. Vajra means inseparable, but inseparable from what? It has to be inseparable from something. In Vajrasattva, or Dorje Sempa, in Tibetan, the vajra, or dorje, is inseparable from the sattva, or sempa. The vajra, which is the transcendental wisdom of great bliss, is the method and sattva is the wisdom, the wisdom realizing voidness. So, what Vajrasattva, or Dorje Sempa, actually means is the inseparability of method and wisdom. The method, great bliss, is inseparable from voidness. Vajradhara has the same meaning. If you clearly and fully understand the meaning of one title, such as Vajrasattva, you can easily understand the names of Vajradhara and other deities. In Vajradhara, vajra has the same meaning, bliss, and dhara refers to wisdom, or voidness.

It is same with the meaning of the name Tara. The literal translation is release, but again the actual meaning is the same. Release can be understood in two ways. One is released from all the disturbing negative thoughts and subtle obscurations, the obscurations of the objects of knowledge, and Tara is the releaser, or savior, the one who releases all the sentient beings from all their fears: the fears of true suffering and true cause of suffering, the delusions and disturbing negative thoughts. In one way, Tara means the releaser, the subject who releases all sentient beings from all the fears of true suffering, the sufferings of samsara, which have risen from the true cause of suffering, the disturbing negative thoughts. Tara is the one who releases all us sentient beings from all the fears of the disturbing-thought obscurations and from even the subtle obscurations, the obscurations of the objects of knowledge.

You can relate the meaning of mantra as I explained it before to the meaning of Tara, release. Buddha’s holy mind, which is Tara, releases sentient beings from all these various wrong conceptions, starting with the attachment that clings to the pleasures of this life up to the subtle dual vision. Tara releases us and all other sentient beings from all these wrong conceptions, from the ordinary, impure vision and conception. So, the function of this buddha’s holy mind, which itself is completely free from all fears, from all these wrong conceptions, is to release us from all these fears and wrong conceptions and lead us to the unified state of Tara, Tara’s enlightenment. Because of its function, what it does to benefit us sentient beings, the subject, this buddha’s holy mind, is called release. So, what is that buddha’s holy mind that is called Tara, release? That is the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. That is what Tara actually is, and that is what we call guru. That is the absolute guru. When our mind becomes the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, by following co-operatively the sutra and tantra paths, we have achieved the guru. When our mind becomes that, at that time we have achieved the guru. That is what is called “having achieved the enlightenment of the guru.” That is what is called having achieved Tara. At that time we have also achieved Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment. At that time we have achieved Manjushri’s enlightenment. At that time we have achieved Avalokiteshvara’s enlightenment. At that time we also become Vajrasattva. At that time we also become Heruka. At that time we become the deity Yamantaka. At that time we become all the peaceful and wrathful aspect buddhas; we become all the numberless different aspects of buddhas, male and female, who are called different names.

At that time, when you have achieved the guru, you have achieved enlightenment. At this time your mind becomes dharmakaya. You have achieved the guru; you have achieved the guru’s enlightenment, which you have been meditating on and trying to achieve before. At this time, when your mind becomes dharmakaya, you have achieved the guru.

When you have achieved the guru, you actually meet the guru. When your mind becomes dharmakaya, you actually meet the guru. How do you meet the guru? Before, you met the guru physically, in separate forms. At first you met the guru in ordinary aspect, according to your own karma, according to the level of your own mind. As you entered and actualized the bodhisattva’s path, you saw the guru in nirmanakaya aspect. When you reached the higher bodhisattva’s path, you saw the guru in the sambhogakaya manifestation. You were still meeting the guru separately.

You actually meet the guru when your mind becomes in essence the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. At that time you mentally meet the guru. You meet the guru in the essence of dharmakaya. That is actually meeting the guru.

As you have achieved the guru in this way, at that time you have achieved all the buddhas, all the numberless different aspects, peaceful, wrathful, male, female. There is no such thing as, “I have achieved Tara but I haven’t achieved Manjushri, so again I will have to enter the path. Again I will have to purify.” You then have to come back from the West to Kopan and again take meditation courses. I’m joking! There is no such thing. When you have achieved the guru’s enlightenment, at that time you have achieved the enlightenment of all the buddhas. To put it simply, it is like this.

This just happened. This is actually quite a secret point from a subject in the highest Vajrayana teaching, Highest Yoga Tantra. But it is one of the important secret points of guru yoga practice in relation to the Vajrayana path. But you should not misunderstand and think that I am buddha. That is a mistake. I am talking generally about how the practice works. You should not think that I am trying to identify myself as a buddha.

When you have achieved the vajra, the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness, at that time you have achieved Vajrasattva, or Vajradhara. It is like saying Vajrapani. Slightly different words are used but they mean the same thing. When you have achieved one, you have achieved all those buddhas with different name. So, at that time the buddha’s holy mind understands all existence, all objects of knowledge. The whole of existence is covered by the understanding of a buddha’s holy mind. There is not one single existence that is not covered by the understanding of a buddha’s holy mind. And wherever the understanding of a buddha’s holy mind covers, a buddha’s holy body covers. In a similar way, as all of existence is covered by a buddha’s holy body, the whole of existence is covered by a buddha’s holy speech. This is one way of understanding that there is no place where there is no buddha.

I think the Bible also has something similar, that God is everywhere. The way people talk is kind of similar, but I’m not sure whether it comes from pure reasoning or anyone’s experience.

It just came into my mind.

I heard from a monk that a long time ago Catholic priests were invited to a big meeting in Ceylon. On one side were the monks and on the other were priests. They then had a big discussion. A priest gave a lecture in which he mentioned “God is everywhere” or something like that. A monk then stood up and pointing to where he makes kaka, asked the priest, “Is God also here?” The priests couldn’t say anything. They couldn’t say yes and they couldn’t say no, God is not inside his kaka, because they had already mentioned that God is everywhere.

However, everything I have just explained comes from logical reasoning and experience. It is very useful for Dharma practitioners; it is especially beneficial for our mind. If you understand this, even when you don’t have an altar with statues and pictures of buddhas, for example, when you are at your parents’ house or someone else’s house in the West where it is not right for you to have an altar because they wouldn’t like it, there is no need to worry, “Oh, there is no buddha in my room, if I can’t set up an altar. There is no Avalokiteshvara, there is no Tara, there is no Manjushri.” You don’t need to worry as there is not a single second that the buddha does not see you. There is not a single second that buddha is not with you, that Avalokiteshvara is not with you. Avalokiteshvara doesn’t forget you for a single second. If there were such a thing, it would mean that Avalokiteshvara hadn’t achieved enlightenment, hadn’t achieved omniscient mind.

Whether you are in a dirty toilet or in a beautiful park or a jewel palace, like a palace of the gods, Avalokiteshvara is always with you. Avalokiteshvara is always on your head. Even though we might see a place as dirty, it doesn’t appear dirty to a buddha’s transcendental wisdom eye.

We think, “How can it be possible for a buddha’s holy body to be wherever a buddha’s holy mind is?” We can’t relate it to our own consciousness. We cannot understand the qualities of a buddha by comparing a buddha’s holy body to our own body, a buddha’s holy speech to our own speech, and a buddha’s holy mind to our own mind. You can’t figure out the capabilities of a buddha’s holy mind and holy body by thinking that they are similar to your mind and body. As your own body is impure, it’s capability is limited and as your mind is impure, its capability is also limited. You can’t say, “I can’t do this, so how is it possible for a buddha?”

I remember that one of the monks, who had taken two or three courses, was trying to relate a buddha’s holy mind to his own mind. By thinking they were similar, he thought, “How is it possible that a buddha’s holy mind can see all the past, present, and future existence at the same time? It’s impossible!”

But without having achieved the realization of even impermanence and death or perfect human rebirth, how can you try to figure out how a buddha’s holy mind can see all the existence of the three times? You shouldn’t even try.

Unless you yourself enter the path and achieve enlightenment, you cannot see perfectly and exactly every single quality and action of a buddha’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind. It is not an object of knowledge of even arhats and higher bodhisattvas. Even though they are close to achieving enlightenment, even a higher bodhisattva cannot see every single quality and action of a buddha’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind. It is not an object of a higher bodhisattva’s mind.

Wherever our consciousness goes, our body doesn’t follow; we can’t make them inseparable. But a buddha’s holy mind and holy body are inseparable. That’s why I often talk about the unified state of Vajradhara; it means that the holy body and holy mind are unified. What is unified? A buddha’s holy body and holy mind.

You can understand how Vajradhara’s holy body and holy mind become unified only through Vajrayana teaching on the Highest Yoga Tantra path, not through sutra teachings. When you study the graduated path of Highest Yoga Tantra, which has detailed explanations of this, you will understand it. And that has to be practiced. It’s not something that all of a sudden becomes inseparable. We have to prepare for it. In this life and in future lives, we have to make preparation to receive the unified state, the unification of a buddha’s holy body and holy mind. It’s not something that happens all of a sudden, like lightning, without making any preparation, without meditating on it.

Achieving the vajra that I was talking about before, the unified state of Vajradhara, depends upon actualizing the Vajrayana path of training, which in turn depends upon having achieved the path of the actual ultimate clear light. Achieving that depends on having achieved the illusory body. Achieving that depends on having completed the subtle and gross stages of the path of becoming. Becoming refers to becoming the deity, transforming into the deity. To achieve that, you should receive a pure initiation from a perfectly qualified vajra guru, then guard the Vajrayana pledges, as well as the bodhisattva ordination, more than your life. It is said in the Manjushri Tantra: “For those who have degenerated moral conduct, there is no sublime achievement. There is not even the middling achievement and not even the lowest achievement.”

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha said: “The one who has degenerated their moral conduct can[not] achieve the mantra.”

As I have already mentioned, Vajrayana means the shortcut path. There are still some more quotations about this. It is completely wrong to think, as many young Western people do, that those who practice Vajrayana don’t need discipline. They think that since Vajrayana is a shortcut, they don’t have to follow moral conduct, and that disciplining your mind by following moral conduct is the sutra path and not the Vajrayana path. Some people say that moral conduct is the practice of the Gelugpas, the yellow hat sect. That is a completely wrong idea. They should check up. If you check the biographies and teachings of the high lamas and great yogis of all the sects, you will clearly understand that how they practiced Dharma and Vajrayana is unbelievable.

Giving up the disciplines of the mind, giving up moral conduct, is also avoiding Dharma and creates unbelievable negative karma. If you say, “I don’t want to practice sutra. It takes a lot of time and is the long way. Sutra is the practice of the yellow hat sect—it’s not my practice,” you are making a great donation of negative karma. Each time someone criticizes in this way, they are making it possible for them to be born in the hells; they are making their own path to the hells.

It happens, first, because they have not understood refuge well. They don’t understand that, if they have taken the bodhisattva ordination, a person who avoids Dharma also receives a root fall of the bodhisattva ordination. There is one root fall involving avoiding Mahayana teachings and also a root fall of avoiding Dharma, such as criticizing different sects, which are teachings of the Buddhadharma with the same essential method.

My emphasis is that taking initiation and keeping the Vajrayana ordinations depends on training your mind in the general path beforehand, and that depends on perfectly following, or depending on, the guru through thought and through action. The word depending might sound a little funny, but the actual meaning is okay.

So, in conclusion, how quickly you can achieve this dorje, the unified state of Vajradhara, depends on how quickly you achieve the preliminary of actualizing the Vajrayana path and how quickly and perfectly you can achieve that depends on how quickly you can achieve the general path. And how quickly you can achieve the general path depends on how perfectly you do the practice of the guru through thought and action.

Another way to express the conclusion is to say that the fewer mistakes you make in the practice of the guru, the quicker you will actualize the general path, which means the quicker you will actualize the Vajrayana path. It progresses like this. So, the whole thing is completely dependent on the foundation of the practice of the guru. If the guru is a completely wrong guru, who can’t show those paths, or if you don’t do the practice of the guru, you have no hope of achieving the path and the unified state of Vajradhara.

So, you have to understand how to do the perfect practice of the guru from such teachings as the graduated path to enlightenment. You have to meditate on and practice these teachings.

A rocket depends on its fuel to go across space and land on the moon. Its main energy is the fuel. It is the same with an airplane. Whether you can reach the place you are heading, depends on how much fuel the plane has. Someone who has been shown the Paramitayana and Vajrayana teachings, has never made mistakes in the practice of the guru in this life, has unshakeable devotion in the guru, and has achieved the realization of guru yoga, sees the guru as, in essence, the actual buddha. For instance, if the King of Nepal came to our house in the dress of a beggar and not that of a king, as soon as we saw him, we would have the unshakeable recognition that he is the Nepalese king. As soon as you saw him, even though he was in the aspect of a beggar, you would automatically, naturally, effortlessly, see the Nepalese king. Even though there is the aspect of a beggar, you wouldn’t think he was just like a beggar you see in the street.

In a similar way, if Guru Shakyamuni Buddha manifested as a beggar, we would know that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha had manifested in that beggar. Even though we would see a beggar, our mind would realize it was Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. It is similar with the unshakeable devotion that sees the guru in the essence of buddha. A person with that realization has the possibility of achieving enlightenment in one lifetime through the Vajrayana path.

How quickly you achieve all the subsequent realizations and enlightenment depends on how you have done the practice of the guru, on whether or not the thought of heresy has arisen toward the guru. There’s no need to talk much about that now. It wasn’t mentioned before—I just gave the general idea.

Also, to learn how to successfully achieve the path and quickly achieve enlightenment, it is very useful to read the autobiographies of the great lamas and yogis of the various sects who achieved enlightenment in one life. It is all a teaching, showing clearly how to practice and how to achieve enlightenment. It is very useful for the mind. Also, if somebody tells you some wrong information, you won’t be cheated by yourself or by them.

I am now going to mention a little about the benefits of the retreat. In the Kriya Tantra practice of the Avalokiteshvara yoga method, in order to achieve Avalokiteshvara, you have to abide in the retreat. It is not enough to understand the teachings and try to practice the path, you have to abide in the retreat.

The actions of the body, speech, and mind should abide in the pledges, or disciplines, to help make successful the meditation, or view. You can’t succeed in the practice of the Avalokiteshvara yoga method without living in the disciplines. Without the body, speech, and mind living in the pledges, or disciplines, no matter how much you try to practice secret mantra, you will never achieve the actual result. It will become the cause of only the wrong result. Instead of achieving enlightenment, you will achieve an undesirable result that is the complete opposite.

It says here in the teaching that eating, drinking, and talking a lot especially increase the gross superstitions. Eating and drinking make you fall asleep; they make your mind foggy, so your meditations are not clear. Your stomach also becomes uncomfortable, and you fart a lot. Too much liquid also makes liquid run from your nose and your mouth. It disturbs the Avalokiteshvara yoga practice so that it is not pure.

Also, talking a lot makes much superstition arise, which disturbs the quick achievement of the path of Avalokiteshvara yoga. As the gross superstition increases, various delusions then arise and disturb your concentration.

By living with our body, speech and mind in retreat, most of the moral falls and negativities of the three doors that we normally create are naturally stopped.

Besides that, doing this retreat generally purifies the negative karmas that have been collected during beginningless precious lifetimes. But doing just one retreat purifies the negative karmas that have been collected during 40,000 eons. You also receive the sublime birth of a god or human. If you do this retreat eight times, you will be born in a pure realm. If you do it twenty-five times, you purify the negative karma that has been collected during 80,000 eons. If you do this retreat fifty times, you purify the negative karmas collected in many millions of eons. If you do this retreat one hundred times, you purify the negative karma and obscurations collected during many hundreds of trillion eons. Also, there is no doubt that you will be born in the presence of the Long-Life Buddha in his pure realm.

There are other benefits. By your body living in the retreat, not eating and not drinking and refraining from other physical actions, you purify all the negative karma that has been collected with the body, such as by taking the lives of others, stealing, sexual misconduct, and other worldly physical actions. It saves you from being born as a preta. It is very good to remember this while you are doing the retreat. Each time attachment arises to food, drink, clothing, or something else, each time we eat with attachment, it creates the karma to be reborn as a preta. So, during the retreat it is very good to remember this to stop the lazy, discouraged mind, which makes you suffer and be unhappy.

If you check how many times you have enjoyed food, drink, and clothing with attachment and without attachment from when you were born until now, it would be difficult to find any time you have used food, drink, or clothing without attachment. And here we are not talking only about this life. The numbers of karmas to be reborn as a preta we have collected during our beginningless previous lifetimes is unbelievable. They are numberless. But fortunately, even though we have collected that much karma, at this time somehow we have been born as a human being.

Remember the benefits of your body living in the retreat. You purify all the negative karmas of the body, including all the actions of eating and drinking with attachment. You purify the causes to be born as a preta or in those other realms.

Living with your body in retreat also helps you not to create the negative karmas of eating and drinking with attachment, which then make you to be reborn as preta. It helps not to create that negative karma today.

Thinking like this also pacifies the lazy mind that thinks, when you are suffering, “Oh, how terrible this is! I’m so hungry. I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have come to the mountains!” If you are suffering too much, you might pray, “May I never come to Lawudo again. May I never put my feet in Lawudo.” You might pray about Lawudo the way you pray about the lower realms.

If you’re not skillful, if you don’t remember these benefits of the retreat, the lazy mind can arise. If you follow too much the attachment that seeks the pleasures of this life, all kinds of thoughts can arise. Your sufferings of hunger and thirst become greater and greater as you think, “I am suffering, I am suffering.”

It helps to remember, as I mentioned before, all those numberless negative karmas collected in previous lives which will cause you to be reborn as a preta or in another of the lower realms. After remembering how much karma you have collected, remember the result, the sufferings of pretas. As you think of those sufferings, your mind instinctively says, “No! I don’t want to be born like that!”

So, you then think, “If I live with my body in the retreat, not eating, drinking, and doing those other negative actions of the body, I will purify all the past negative karmas of the body and the negative karmas that make me to be reborn as a preta. Also, by living in the retreat, I won’t create those negative karmas today.”

If you think like this, your sufferings of hunger and thirst will become smaller, and you won’t care about them. Besides that, your mind will be very happy to be living in the retreat.

Also, if you are feeling much hunger and thirst, it’s a good opportunity to practice tong-len. It’s a very good chance to figure out the sufferings of the pretas. Normally, when we have eaten and our stomach is full, even if we try to meditate on the sufferings of the pretas, it is difficult to feel compassion for them, because we don’t really feel their suffering. Even though we say the words and try to meditate, there is no feeling in our mind. So, when we have this experience of much hunger and thirst, it’s a very good opportunity to remember the sufferings of the pretas and to generate compassion for those sentient beings. It’s a very good opportunity to practice tong-len.

Another benefit of the body living in the retreat is that it pacifies spirit harms and disease. Also, it stops the arising of the many diseases that are caused by food.

And in future lives while you are in samsara and even during this life, you receive a beautiful, magnificent-looking body. Simply seeing your body causes devotion to arise in the minds of other people. Other people’s minds are controlled by the magnificence of the body. Just seeing that body makes the mind happy and gives a good feeling. It makes other people want to be with you.

By having such a body, you can also benefit others. Ultimately, it enables you to achieve a buddha’s holy body adorned with the signs and exemplifications, for the benefit of other sentient beings.

Your speech lives in the retreat by keeping silence, making a retreat from talking, especially from the negative actions of speech—of telling lies, speaking harshly, slandering, and gossiping. You can tell lies even without speaking, with your head and fingers. You can tell big lies by writing letters and in many other ways. Here, keeping silence should include not telling lies, speaking harshly, slandering, or gossiping; otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. Many people are interested in keeping silence, but they don’t care about the actual negative actions of speech. Keeping silence should include all these, and even the gestures of the body that lie and cheat.

The speech abiding in the retreat purifies all the negative karmas that have been collected with the speech, such as, with anger or attachment, telling lies, speaking harshly, slandering, and gossiping. Making a lot of noise by talking about meaningless things creates the cause to be born like the birds that make a lot of noise all day long. Making noise all the time makes you to be reborn in the animal realm.

Also, by living in the retreat and not speaking, you temporarily stop creating negative karma.

Then, even while you are in samsara, in this life and future lives, your speech has more power, and it becomes sweeter. When other people hear you, they automatically have to listen to you and do what you say. Your speech becomes powerful even while you are in samsara.

The ultimate goal is achieving the sixty qualities of a buddha’s holy speech, for the benefit of other sentient beings.

If strong attachment to speaking arises, so that you want to break your silence, think as I explained before with the negative karmas of the body. Remember the benefits of keeping silence and how much negative karma you purify, exactly like before. It also stops rebirth in the animal realm.

Now, the benefits of the mind living in the retreat. The way the mind lives in the retreat is by trying to always keep it in concentration. If it becomes distracted, you again try to bring it back to concentration on the Avalokiteshvara yoga. That purifies all the negative karmas and obscurations that have been collected with the mind, through ill will, wrong views, miserliness, and so forth, during beginningless previous lifetimes. As those karmas are purified, you also don’t get born in the hells.

Also, by living in the retreat, you stop creating the negative karmas of the mind. Even though you mightn’t have the negative karmas of miserliness and wrong views, you might have no concentration, with your mind being foggy, as if you are about to fall asleep. You can spend hours in a dark state of no concentration or sometimes your mind gets stuck in a state that is just like watching empty space. Nothing, no object of meditation, appears. It is just like watching space. Meditation on that kind of dark state makes you to be born as an animal. Meditation on that empty state that is like watching empty space makes you to be born as an animal or in the formless realm.

Living with your mind in concentration, in retreat from distractions stops your creating those karmas. Also, you quickly get experiences or realizations, and while you are in samsara, you are always born with sharp wisdom, so you quickly understand the meaning of the Dharma.

The ultimate result is that you achieve the five transcendental wisdoms of a buddha.

It is very good to remember this, especially during the retreat time. While in retreat, you purify that much and rebirth as a preta becomes that much less. It stops your being born as a preta.

During retreat, and at other times, when your mind is foggy and sleepy and the object of concentration is unclear, you refresh, or wake up, your mind. You make your mind happy; you bring your mind up. The unclarity and fogginess then goes away so that you can concentrate. Doing this makes you not to be born in the animal realm.

Here in this teaching it says “during the retreat time” because it is talking about the benefits of this practice, but we should not understand it to apply only to retreat time. If you are suffering like this while you are practicing Dharma, it becomes only purification. But this doesn’t mean that all the sufferings of heat and cold, all other sufferings become purification. No matter how much worldly people suffer to obtain the happiness of this life, no matter how much they suffer from heat and cold, hunger and thirst, it is all useless suffering. It has no benefit at all. They are bearing suffering to create the cause of suffering, to create the cause of the sufferings of the lower realms. The are creating the cause to again be born in the lower realms. That suffering is completely worthless.

However, all the difficulties of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst you bear to practice Dharma becomes only purification. The tiredness your body feels when you are making prostrations and the pains you feel in your knees and backside when you are meditating become only purification. It purifies your past negative karmas and enables you to experience less suffering in your future lives. In one way it is very good for a religious person, a Dharma practitioner, to get sick and experience many catastrophes and it is not good for a non-Dharma person to be happy, not get sick at all, have a long life, and have everything succeed. Why is it good for a Dharma practitioner to get sick and have many hindrances? Because of the power of his Dharma practice, bearing difficulties to practice Dharma, he will experience in this life the heavy negative karmas that were collected in the past and in the present life, rather than experiencing many eons in the hells or other lower realms as a result of those karmas. Instead of experiencing many eons of suffering in future lives, he will be born in the upper realms, even as a human being, and all that suffering will be experienced in this life in a smaller form and of short duration. He will have a headache, stomach pain, or a contagious disease. By experiencing such difficulties in this life, he won’t have to experience those other sufferings in future lives. He will be happy even in this life, and there is no doubt about in future lives.

For a non-Dharma person who always harms others a lot—for example, a butcher who always kills animals—and creates much negative karma, the longer they live, the worse it is because they create more negative karma. Since they will create negative karma as long as they live, it is better for them to have a short life. It is also not good if they don’t feel sick and their life is always comfortable. Why isn’t that good? Because all the negative karma they have collected in the past and in that life, since they are not experienced right away, are left to be experienced in many future lives. Besides happening in the lower realms, this will happen even when they are born in the realm of happy transmigratory beings.

[End of seventh teaching]