KNOWLEDGE OF DHARMA (Page 71)

Giving up Dharma in order to take care of temporal life means creating bad karma by giving in to the possessions. This is the practice of samsara, the opposite of creating good karma. When we do not have not much understanding of Dharma or of the nature of suffering, we renounce Dharma to take up the temporal life. But on the contrary, as we realize samsaric life more and more deeply, as we understand the nature of suffering and the result of negative mental actions, the more we realize the nature of Dharma, Dharma Knowledge, and that Dharma is the source of all the past, present, and future happiness for every sentient being, and the source of enlightenment. As we realize the value of the Dharma more deeply, we can see that the Dharma is more important and more beneficial than anything else. Therefore, we will be able to give up temporal life for the practice of Dharma, to hold the teachings of the Enlightened Being, to strive for enlightenment, and create good karma to accumulate merit and to purify. For Dharma we can give up our body and possessions.

There are almost an infinite number of beings following the temporal life, living in ignorance, working for samsaric happiness and temporal possessions, while these who renounce the temporal life to take care of the development of the Dharma are so rare.

All of this depends on understanding wisdom in the evolution of karma. The benefits of Dharma are inexpressible, one can never finish explaining them. There are infinite enlightened beings who all attained their infinite knowledge and enlightenment through Dharma practice. Every living being, from the tiniest invisible insect up to enlightened beings receive all their happiness from Dharma. This is too much to explain fully, but generally we can say that the source of all happiness arises from creating good karma.

The actual way to take refuge is from the mind. It is a frame of mind born of understanding what refuge means. Taking refuge in Buddha doesn’t mean just saying the prayer. It depends on understanding and fearing samsaric suffering—the cycle of death and rebirth, the suffering realms, ignorance, and negative mind. This depends on the recognition of suffering and the understanding of samsara, and from this full confidence in the noble beings arises. The noble beings are those who have the achievement of the true cessation of suffering and the true path, power, compassion, omniscient mind, and who put it all into practice. We must trust the omniscient mind of Buddha.

With the foundation of these two causes, fear and faith, our minds should rely completely on Buddha, like children depend completely on their parents and follow their orders with full confidence. This is the true way to take refuge. With the mind relying on the Buddha’s knowledge, we can take refuge without saying a mantra or a prayer.

The two causes for refuge again, are full confidence in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and fear of samsaric suffering, the cycle of death and rebirth, and so forth. With this foundation, we take refuge. This is likened to the confidence of the patient in his doctor, relying on him, having fear of sickness and death; and the necessity of following the doctor’s orders, taking medicine, and observing diet. As the patient’s health improves, his confidence grows. The actual cure of the sickness depends on the patient following the instructions given by the doctor. This is the main thing. A doctor needs to receive the methods to cure the patient, and then it is up to the patient to follow the instructions. Relying on the doctor is not enough, we must follow the instructions we were given as they were shown to us. When we take refuge in Buddha, we should not follow prohibited practices, and we should not follow practices that present wrong views, such as those say there is no absolute truth, no karma, or no existence. If we follow such practices our realizations of Dharma will be cut. Following practices that encourage wrong views pushes one further and further into samsara, and believing wrong things, such as believing that samsara is not suffering (which is like sitting in a fire burning up and saying it’s not a fire) or that greed is good and necessary, which is also a wrong conception.

In Dharma there are many types of discipline. Taking refuge is something to be done with feeling and not with words alone, to be taken from heart. No matter how much one says Jesus’ name but lives creating bad karma, and then prays to God asking for forgiveness and help, one can never escape from suffering. This is like a person continuously taking poison and asking for help to get better all the time. We must also help ourselves. Taking refuge depends on us, and the actual refuge taken the best and most correct way, is in accordance with karma. We must create refuge ourselves, in our own minds. The method to do so was shown by the Enlightened Being. This practice will guide us, will take us away from suffering.

Because of lack of understanding this method, most of us desire and choose the cause of suffering instead of the cause of perfect peace and happiness as it was shown by the Enlightened Being in his teachings. If we deeply check up, our heart’s desire does, in fact, lead to this choice. So it is important to follow the correct path, and in refuge we should not harm other beings with negative mind. This should really be avoided as much as possible, because Dharma is the method to bring happiness to each and every sentient being; and harming others is its complete opposite. The Enlightened Being showed us the Dharma to stop sentient beings’ suffering, and to stop the creation of bad karma.

Dharma methods help to free the mind from greed, ignorance, and hatred. Impulse or motivation is so important because if we are aware of the evolution of karma, we take care in the actions we create and we have pure motivation to try to make the effect of our actions bring happiness to other beings. To fully know Dharma, we must see each and every subtle karma. Once an old man that nobody liked or wanted tried to become a monk. An arhat monk checked up using his powers (arhats can do some checking) and could find no evidence of even the tiniest previous merit. But Guru Shakyamuni checked up and found a very subtle merit in the man’s mind that was hidden from the arhat. In a previous life the old man was a fly, and around a stupa was animal feces. The fly flew around the stupa following the feces and this was the tiny merit that he had accumulated that allowed him to become a monk. Every color on a butterfly or on a peacock’s feather is the result of subtle karma, beyond the view of the arhat. To fully know karma depends on attaining enlightenment. It is a lifetime’s study. The knowledge of the evolution of karma is a profound subject.

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The Dharma object of refuge includes every realization of the enlightened and noble beings, as well as the belief that the Dharma is the true cessation of suffering and the true path. True path means the wisdom that sees the absolute true nature. True cessation of suffering and its cause, ignorance, comes about when we have achieved the true path, the realization of absolute truth. Following the Dharma stops us from following the negative mind—we cannot follow both things at the same time. Doing so would be like wanting the milk and the meat from the same cow.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SANGHA

The noble bodhisattvas who have attained the pure realization of absolute truth are the Sangha. The more we realize the knowledge of the Sangha, the more our devotion will arise.

Instructions in the Practice of Refuge (Page 72)

1. All statues, no matter what the quality or even if made of kaka, should always be kept with respect in a clean, high place since they are the form of the figure of Buddha. We should remember the knowledge that Buddha attained and treat these things as if they were Guru Shakyamuni himself. It is not necessary to think of them merely as statues.

Each statue or tangka symbolizes so much knowledge. Each tiny hair of the holy body of Buddha contains incredible knowledge, infinitely greater than all samsaric knowledge put together. Even a single hair of Buddha is the result of many eons of purification and many merits. For us, even the lowest realization of the bodhisattva path, the realization of bodhicitta, is extremely difficult to realize and maintain—even for an hour. Even a single atom of Buddha’s body is incredible—all the knowledge in the world cannot compare. Therefore, a statue or a tangka is a symbol of such great knowledge, and must be respected, although our respect will vary according to our level of understanding of his knowledge.

We can also visualize a statue as a real, living person. Practitioners in India and Tibet make offerings to the statues or to the holy texts. Depending on the level of practice and the level of realization of the practitioner, the value of the offering is determined. The serious offering to the statue is the offering that is made by the mind, and does not depend on the material substance that is offered. The best offering is the offering that is made with the mind free of the eight temporal desires, or at least with the mind free of greed for the temporal life. If you do not have this latter motivation at the very least, the offering doesn’t make sense. Even if you don’t have material substances to offer, you can still make offerings. A small or big offering is designated so by the mind. The size of the offering depends on the mental decision you make. The more certain you are that your mind is making the offering free from negativity, the bigger the offering will be. You must make offerings with a pure mind. If you have not completely renounced greed in your mind, your offering is made that much smaller. Clean offering, dirty offering—these things are determined by the mind.

Once there was a Tibetan meditator, an ascetic Geshe, who lived in a hermit’s cave. One day he heard his benefactor coming with food, and he jumped up to offer clean water in the offering bowls on his altar. As he did this he checked up, and found that it was his negative mind and his wish for a good reputation, wanting the benefactor to respect and think highly of him, that was motivating his action. He recognized his enemy, the negative mind of greed. So he made the clean water in the bowls dirty. The first offering of clean water was a black offering because his mind was so attached to reputation, and therefore the action of offering clean water created negative karma. The second offering of dirty water was a white offering, because it represented the renunciation of the comfort of this life, the mind opposed to greed, and the real Dharma. Therefore the second action was purer. When other yogis heard about this, they admired and respected the meditator very much, because of his success in recognizing the actual Dharma and practicing it in opposition to the negative mind.

The purpose of making offerings to the enlightened beings is to purify our negativity. Prostrations to the enlightened beings can also help to do this. How do these actions have this power? The power is not only dependent on the action performed, but also on the knowledge of the objects of offering. This knowledge is complete, pure, limitless compassion. When we make offerings we remember this holy knowledge and increase our faith in it. Every tiny Buddha figure symbolizes this knowledge. Offerings and prostrations are not done merely as customs, but in order to purify negativity. If they are done with full understanding they can bring rapid purification of negativity. Another action that can bring this result is cleaning holy places. We can also purify by meditating on the figure of Buddha and on his infinite knowledge. It is helpful to do this at the time of death.

The holy statue and the holy text do not depend on the quality of the material. We should not place gold statues up high and clay statues down low. It creates great negative karma to pay more respect to an expensive statue than to a cheap one. This applies in the same way for tangkas.

It is definitely possible to contact the enlightened beings through the form of statues. They do exist—this is not just some theory. Many statues in India, Nepal, and Tibet have given teachings in the past to realized beings. If we have great devotion and our minds are purified, no matter what the quality of the statue, it is possible to receive teachings, instructions, prophesies, and so forth. I have no idea if this is still the case in Tibet or not.

2. Dharma books can contain many pictures and words of enlightened beings. Sometimes we use these holy texts as cushions, sitting on them to keep our clothes clean, and sometimes we put them on the floor. Such actions show extreme ignorance of the laws of karmic cause and effect. If we disrespect the texts, it becomes very difficult to meditate, or to even comprehend the subject matter. Even simple Dharma explanations become hard to understand. In meditation the mind will be distracted and difficult to control; it will be hard to visualize and difficult to achieve realizations no matter how much we meditate. Nor respecting the holy texts, statues, and figures can bring these results.

Why are these things holy? Because of the realizations of the enlightened beings, which is an example for us to follow. These things represent Buddha’s holy mind and so they themselves are holy; it has nothing to do with the quality of the material. Also, each statue makes it possible for us to attain the Enlightened Being’s holy mind. His mind is holy because it is free from every single defect. He sees each and every sentient being’s thoughts every second, simultaneously—all past, present, and future existence; he has great compassion towards all sentient beings with no discrimination.

If we do not pay respect to the figures and teachings of the holy beings, no realizations can be attained; we should pay much more attention to holy objects than we do to money, which we recognize as important. Disrespect creates much bad karma. Using books as a pillow or a cushion is not respectful. Books are holy because they explain the Dharma, and by meditating on this we can attain realizations that make us holy. The Enlightened Being is holy and becomes enlightened through Dharma practice; so Dharma texts are holy and make us holy, perfect, and help us to escape from suffering.

Since many enlightened beings have received their realizations from the holy texts, the texts are priceless and invaluable. All the realizations from the beginning of the path—the basic knowledge of karma and the continuity of mind—up until enlightenment come from the holy texts. The basic meditations such as bodhicitta and the other steps on the path depend upon receiving the explanations that are taught in the holy texts. We should think, “This text is the transformation of the speech of the holy beings.” Disrespecting such texts causes us to lose wisdom and forget easily.

Holy books should be kept clean, and we should make offerings to them—not because the book wants respect, or claims it, but for ourselves, to create good karma and purify. We should not step over books. In monasteries, Dharma books are kept in a high, clean place, and in lay people’s homes in Tibet they are as well.

Respecting Dharma

Realizations, the knowledge of the enlightened beings, eliminate suffering and are highly respected by practitioners of the teachings. Dharma books should never be placed on the floor or in impure places. They are very precious, and in the same way that we respect the enlightened beings, we should also respect these books. They are holy and can make ignorant beings wise. Those born human have the responsibility to recognize the holiness of the teachings, and should not treat the texts in a way that will create negative reactions—like using them as cushions or as newspaper. Negative actions done now cause problems to arise in the future. But then, when problems arise in the future, we don’t recognize the cause of suffering. In this way, the suffering situation becomes cyclic.

We make prostrations and offerings in front of and to figures of enlightened beings not merely as a custom, but also out of respect and with understanding of the great purpose.

3. Junior monks can prostrate to senior monks.

The Benefits of Taking Refuge (page 73)

The benefits of refuge practice could never be counted. They are innumerable, beyond what our minds can perceive.

1. The first benefit of taking refuge is that you become a Buddhist. In Tibetan we say nang pa, which means inner being—a person who completely relies on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha with the support of the two causes of refuge in his mind. The two causes, again, are (i) fear of the samsaric suffering realms and (ii) full confidence that you can be guided from this state of suffering by the Enlightened One.

Relating to the first cause, even if you don’t fear all of cyclic existence, at the very least you should fear the three lower realms. Relating to the second cause, in order for you to have full confidence in the Enlightened One, you should understand the knowledge of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha fully, and also must completely comprehend and fear samsaric suffering and the suffering nature of samsaric beings’ minds. This also depends on understanding and believing in the evolution of karma, which in turn depends on understanding and believing in past and future lives. This doesn’t depend on robes, beads, or prayer wheels, but only on what is in the mind—not on saying prayers or playing cymbals. To become an inner being is not easy—it is a question of mental understanding and takes time. It does not depend on the clothes or the way a person acts. Refuge is in the mind.

If you think, “Who cares about becoming an inner being?” you should know that without depending on refuge in the mind you cannot attain realizations or enlightenment. Achieving the higher path depends on the achievement of the lower path, which depends on the fully renounced mind, which in turn depends on fully understanding the nature of samsaric suffering and so forth. The internal equipment of refuge comes at the very beginning, before you even receive the path. It is the beginning of the development of the positive mind. This is the foundation. There is no way to follow the high path without refuge, and the stronger the two causes for refuge, the quicker the realizations will come. With refuge, every action you do becomes an inner action, higher, more powerful, more beneficial, more positive, and purer than those of the person who does not have refuge in the mind.

Again, having pure refuge means having fear of samsaric suffering—at least the fear of suffering of the three lower realms through the understanding of the evolution of karma and having full confidence in it—and having full confidence in their three perfect, pure guides, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, relying on them completely to lead you and all sentient beings from suffering and its cause for your entire life. Your fear depends on the understanding of the nature of samsara and suffering—if there is no understanding, there is no fear, then no renunciation, and no enlightenment. If you have no knowledge of beginningless mind or the evolution of karma, there is no understanding. Thus, the mind of refuge requires the total knowledge and understanding of the total subject.

Meditation on Refuge

1. To begin your meditation on refuge, you should try to remember what refuge means, and what the purpose of taking refuge is.

2. Next, you should check up—who is the perfect refuge? The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

3. Then you should think about the knowledge of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind. Where does all that knowledge come from? It comes from the Dharma, it is the power of Dharma knowledge.

4. Then you should meditate that not only is this the case, it is also the power of the Dharma and Sangha.

5. Next you should think that although the objects of refuge have so much power, is that enough for me? What is missing? What is missing is the two needs, the causes from your own side. Check up to see whether you have the two causes in your mind or not. If you don’t, then think, “In order to have refuge, I must have fear and devotion. I must create these two causes in my mind.”

(i) Think that fear should arise because you understand that mind is beginningless and that it has traveled through past lives and will travel through future lives, that based on your understanding of the evolution of negative and positive karma, you have definitely created more negative karma in the past, and that therefore you will definitely suffer in the three lower realms if you don’t begin to eliminate your ignorance. At the moment you are in an upper realm rebirth, but you are still suffering, and still under the control of delusions and karma. Think, “Why aren’t I released from all these problems yet?” It is your own fault, your own ignorance—you believe that samsaric happiness is happiness, but it doesn’t continue, it is trivial. All samsaric happiness is exactly the same as pain and suffering. The most important thing to realize is that all samsaric happiness changes to suffering—this, in turn, brings fear and gives cause to find a path.

(2) Now you should think that on this path it is necessary to rely on someone—to rely on the objects of refuge, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

[This talk was given to students taking Refuge, November 1972]
TAKING REFUGE

Taking refuge is passing through the gate of the path leading to enlightenment. When we take refuge, we take a vow, make a promise—this is not the same as attaining the realization of refuge. The vow is made with the understanding of the purpose of taking refuge. The essential meaning is complete reliance on the Guru Buddhas, the Dharma, and the Sangha with full confidence—knowing that they have the supreme power to guide us from the suffering of the three lower realms, samsaric suffering, and from every illusive mind—and with fear of suffering in the three lower realms and of all samsaric suffering.

The motivation for taking refuge should be at least to release ourselves from being reborn in the three lower realms. A higher motivation would be to release ourselves from the three sufferings of cyclic existence—pervasive suffering, changing suffering, and the suffering of suffering. The third motivation is the highest motivation, the motivation of a Mahayana practitioner of refuge. With this motivation, we think that in the same way that we are suffering, so also are many other sentient beings suffering in samsara, therefore I take refuge in order to attain enlightenment to rescue other sentient beings from the cause of suffering.

Before taking refuge, we should have pure impulse or motivation, especially, if possible, the great Mahayana motivation. It is not enough to have the motivation not to reborn in the three suffering realms, nor is it enough to wish to be reborn in the upper realms. We have been born in both places countless times, and still we keep on going on. Even now, born in the human realms we have many problems, confusion, suffering, and dissatisfaction. We do not recognize the causes of suffering and happiness, or the results of these causes. We constantly make mistakes in our actions—no matter how much we try to have happiness, we create the causes for suffering, which is opposite to the result we expect. Most of the actions we create are disturbing causes, destroying the happiness we desire. We lack the knowledge of the difference between positive and negative karma.

In the six samsaric realms, especially in the three upper realms, wherever we are born is like escaping from one red-hot burning iron house to another, from one blaze to another, always bringing burning suffering. This is like escaping from one pit of thorns to another. Wherever we are born, everything is trivial, nothing lasts forever, and is in the nature of suffering. From beginningless samsaric lifetimes until the present, there is not one tiny suffering that we have not experienced, not one tiny samsaric happiness. In the same way that we have experienced every great samsaric happiness, we have experienced every great suffering—and ordinary happiness and suffering, too. There is no single place in which we haven’t been born, no being that we haven’t been, no food that we have not eaten before.

No experience is new, our comfortable samsaric life and enjoyment of material things is old. Even though we believe it’s new, all this is beginningless.

If we think deeply about any samsaric happiness or pleasure and understand that it has no beginning, our minds will become tired and bored, understanding that we have done these things for such a long time. We will have no interest in samsara, as many of us in the West have lost interest. Just as having old belongings is boring, so we can feel tired of samsara very strongly, due to deeply understanding its suffering nature. Every experience of happiness or suffering—our spouse, our parents, materials, places—nothing is new. Clothes of all kinds, colors, and countries—we think it’s all new, and interest and greed arise. We think we’ve never enjoyed it before, but it is lack of remembering that we have enjoyed these things in countless previous times in numberless lives. No samsaric experience is new. Nothing at all is new—all actions that seek samsaric experiences are beginningless.

By understanding the suffering nature of samsara deeply, or by thinking about it, we will no longer feel any interest in samsaric experiences or activities, and all of this will be seen with pessimism.
This view develops clearly through meditation—we see through logic. We find no interest in non-existent “new” samsaric experiences of pleasure or suffering. We are tired of living in these realms, have no interest in being reborn in them, and lose attachment to their enjoyments. We can attain the state of nirvana more quickly through this pessimistic view of the suffering nature of samsara and samsaric existence. There is nothing to trust, even samsaric existence itself. For example, we see beautiful clothes in a shop and buy them, or we see a motor car and buy it. As these things get older, we lose interest in them—day by day they lose their beauty like a dying flower. After a short time, our interest ceases completely. Then we buy better, newer things and the same thing happens again and again—we repeat this without end until death. At death the same thing occurs with the body—the samsaric actions that we have created with this body end, just as the actions we do with our belongings end. This is why existence is trivial. Usually, however, we don’t see our existence in the same way that we see our material belongings. But as we see an attractive, beautiful object decaying and breaking each day, so too does the body decay and break. Then the object is seen in the opposite way that we first perceived it—the object cheats and betrays me and my trust. If we check up we will find that when we first see a beautiful object, we believe in our hearts that it will remain attractive forever. But this belief is betrayed. It’s the same thing with trust in the permanent deliciousness of a certain food—actually we can’t live on that food for any significant amount of time, it soon will bore us. Therefore, all the great yogis, great Indian pandits and enlightened beings emphasized that we should never trust material possessions; if we trust samsaric existence as it is seen at that time, our own trust, our own ignorance, betrays us. One of the purposes of taking refuge is to destroy this ignorance, the source of attachment, the wrong beliefs in permanence and samsaric existence.

That is the nature of samsaric existence—things change from the way we think they are. Our beliefs in changeable objects are blind. It is the same thing with friends. However, although such things are so old we haven’t yet discovered them, and we don’t discover them until we are told—we ourselves fail to realize the relationship between our minds and objects. Therefore another purpose of taking refuge is to cut off problems by helping us to recognize the negative mind and the nature of objects and people and so forth. Refuge helps us to understand how we take the object as a fact, as true, and see it with the wrong conception of “I—” attached to non-existent things, causing greed, anger and so forth. We think, “I see this object as beautiful and this enemy as ugly, so it must be true.” We take the view of material existence that is created by our own negative minds as true, and believe in our own ignorance, and in greed and hatred.

Another main problem is that ignorance doesn’t see past or future lives, or many other deep objects of inner knowledge. Believing our ignorance, which doesn’t see these things, we come the conclusion that these things don’t exist. As the Enlightened Being explains everything logically, with his experiences, with his holy mind that sees and understands everything, so do we do explain and see things with ignorance, limited mind, insisting that there are no past or future lives, no karma, and so forth. We believe this to be true. Believing in ignorance creates negative karma and leads us to have no belief in the realizations of meditative experience.

All samsaric experiences are of a suffering nature, old without beginning, and hold no interest; this includes the experience of making the temporal life comfortable by harming other beings, making expenses, and so forth. But once we are enlightened we stay enlightened, we don’t need to make any actions for happiness, and there is no further work to create Perfect Peace. We are just working for all sentient beings’ release from suffering.

Our minds are selfish—there is no reason for us to think of ourselves as more important than any other sentient being; all of our desires are exactly equal. We should think as follows. “Since every sentient beings has each been my friend, enemy, and stranger, so they are all related. All have been my mother. I must help them all, as all have helped me countless times and will continue to until I reach enlightenment. However, the wisdom of most sentient beings is blind; through ignorance they usually make mistakes, and their actions create an unhappy, suffering result. They have done this from beginningless lifetimes until now, and so have I. Therefore, I am responsible for leading them to enlightenment by leading them to attain the cause of enlightenment. Many of their sufferings are caused by me—I take rebirth from their bodies in the form that was created by my bad karma and ignorance. They as mother created many bad karmas that led to the result that they must look after me, help me, and these bad karmas left deep impressions in their minds from which they are still suffering. As I see my present sufferings as unbearable, so much greater are their sufferings, which they also experience without choice. Therefore, sentient beings should reach enlightenment right away, by creating good karmas to cut the cause of suffering. In order to bring this about, I am going to take refuge in the presence of Guru Shakyamuni and countless other buddhas.”

KARMA (Page 74)

Introduction

Karma is a mental action; it can be negative, positive, or neutral.

1. Meritorious Karma

Meritorious karma is a direct perfect action for that cuts samsara. There are other kinds of positive karma, such as charity, that are created without concentration on the nature of the subject, object, and action. Creating these kinds of karmas is an indirect method, but can still cause release from samsara. These are still good karmas, but not so strong. The virtuous actions done with meditation—with concentration on subject, object, and action—is a very powerful method to cut off samsara and always causes rebirth in the upper realms. This kind of karma is the most powerful and is recognized as the perfect positive action.

Shunyata means non self-existence, seeing the true natures of the subject, object, and action. For instance, if I offer one stick of incense to cut off samsara, I should think, “I make this offering to release all sentient beings from samsara.” I must have this motivation. Also, I should try to think, “I am of a non self-existent nature, my action is non self-existent, the offering is non self-existent, and so is Buddha.” This is the most powerful way to make an offering, the most perfect way to cut off samsara. Any positive karma done with shunyata becomes a direct method by which to do this. Without shunyata, an action can still be positive and cause you to take rebirth in the upper realms, but it is not nearly as direct as positive karma created with shunyata.

“Self-existent” is the opposite of “non self-existent.” I am devoid, completely empty of a self- existent I. When you think this “self-existent I,” it means that the “I” exists in such a way that I am completely my mind and body, yet the whole thing is completely empty of the self-existent “I” that exists by itself, without depending on the aggregates and also without even the name “I.” That “I” exists by itself without depending on anything, exists without depending even on a name. So you see that “I” does not exist anywhere. The whole thing is completely empty of the self-existent “I,” that which depends on nothing. Also the action and object, Buddha, are of a non self-existent nature. Similarly when prostrating, meditating, or when any other good karma is created, you should think, “I, my mind and form, are of a non self-existent nature and Buddha himself is of a non self-existent nature.” Always think like this.

The same thing is true in terms of my self, body, and action. The mind acts through the speech and body. This aggregate is completely empty of self-existent action, of any action that exists by itself without depending on the function of body, speech, or mind. It is the same thing with name, and the same with Buddha. This is how to create positive karma that is direct action with shunyata.

Karma created with the realization of the absolute true nature, shunyata, is the principal force that destroys negativity. Meditate on this—subject, object, and action—because it is the opposite of karma created by ignorance. Good karma that is created without an understanding of shunyata, without checking its nature, without meditating on the absolute true nature is still positive karma, but because these actions are done with wrong conceptions, with wrong views that assume that I am self-existent and that the object is self-existent, the good karma we create is ignorant good karma of ignorance. This kind of wrong conception is the principal ignorance, like parents who give birth to many children. This wrong conception thinking, “I am self-existent,” and, “this object is self- existent,” is the main ignorance that we are talking about. Also, always saying suffering is created by ignorance is not correct either, because suffering is created by karmic delusions of which ignorance is but one.

Good karma created without shunyata can help us to attain enlightenment, but it is not a powerful method to fight ignorance. Therefore, the motivation can be good, but it is an indirect method to liberation. A very sharp axe cuts a tree easily and quickly, but the tree can also be broken by hitting it with an iron bar, although it takes a very long time. There is the same difference between good karma created with an understanding of shunyata and good karma created with ignorance. Shunyata is the direct method, like the axe, the other method is like the heavy unsharpened bar—it will break the tree but it will take a long time. Understanding this, however, is not an instantaneous process, it takes time. Creating good karma with shunyata practice is completely opposed to merely creating good karma. Like this: the mind is ignorant and the object is viewed with ignorant mind. This is in opposition to the mind that has the understanding of shunyata and the object that is viewed with that mind. Image that person A’s mind sees person B as a tiger, and person C sees person B as a person. Person A seeing the tiger is seeing a tiger that does not exist. But C sees B as a person. The object of these two minds, person B, is different.

Ignorance, seeing oneself with the wrong conception, is different from the mind understanding the shunyata of the “I.” The ignorant object “I” that is held by ignorance does not exist anywhere. The object viewed by the mind understanding shunyata does exist. One exists, the other doesn’t. Ignorance never views the object in the same way as the mind understanding shunyata views the object. As the mind that is freed from samsara never sees the body as a person, so the ignorant mind never sees the mind in the right view, absolutely, in its nature. But the mind understanding shunyata sees the mind in its absolute true nature. There is big difference between these two; they are completely opposite. Understanding shunyata is like the axe cutting a tree.

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In one way, karma is not definite. The more we research the subject of karma, the more our wisdom grows, and the more we become aware of the evolution of ourselves and others. The best medicine for the suffering mind is the understanding of karma. Karma is not definite—all beings are different, no face is the same—some are fat, some thin, some have big heads, big hands, short legs, and so forth. Animals bodies are also all different.

In Tibet when there is no water, a lama makes prayers and says mantras as shown by Guru Shakyamuni. They offer a puja for the nagas in a special place, and after one or two days the water increases. This is very common in Tibet; you are not considered to possess some high power if you are able to do this. It is not always a monk who performs in the ceremony; sometimes lay people can do it as well. Still today, in Darjeeling, India, they do pujas to protect the crops. There are beings in this world that we don’t see. Due to the power of the method shown by the Enlightened One, these prayers can have a positive effect. The prayers are relative to the karma of the people—if the nagas are not happy with the people, if they are distracted by the people, they keep the place dry and don’t allow rain. This is rooted in karma.

Collective karma is working when, for example, one hundred people die under a bomb, or one hundred people due during a meditation course. The Chinese have the collective karma to control Tibet, the Tibetans have the collective karma to lose it. A heavy storm is not only the elements at work, but it is also related to spirits. Basically, it is rooted in people’s karma—the storm is the cooperative cause. In the same way, when a person beats me with a stick, he and the stick are the cooperative causes. The principal cause of suffering is our own minds.

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Meditating on karma is one of the most important meditations we can do. Just consider what we don’t understand about “life,” forgetting all about those complicated matters of rebirth, absolute truth, psychic powers and so on that we find so confusing. What is the meaning of life, the meaning of the evolution of mind? What is the creator of suffering, the creator of happiness? We are completely blind in our understanding of these things; we have created so much confusion, not finding a solution to the temporal problems. All of these things are caused by not understanding the evolution of karma. Also, all the negativities of body, speech, and mind that we have created up until now have been caused by not understanding and not believing in karma, which in turn is caused by the complete ignorance of mind. As a result of not having faith and true understanding in karma, the true law, we have all of these problems on earth now—fighting, disease, famine, and so forth are all caused by not having a full understanding of karmic evolution. Rich people and poor people are all suffering due to not understanding the evolution of karma.

This meditation is a checking meditation involving research with understanding, not ignorance. The kind of research it involves is the kind in which the understanding of one thing (karma) means the understanding of all, the whole thing. It is very useful to study about karma, and to meditate on this subject. It is like a mirror—we can see all objects reflected without physically being there ourselves, changing positions. By understanding karma we can understand the evolution of every single existence, we can realize every single nature, we can fully see each and every existence with the achievement of omniscient mind. Every subject matter in this world is all included within this subject. Finally, understanding karma, we can fully achieve all the knowledge of the enlightened beings, as well as that of ordinary beings that received through study. As well, it brings the realization of every meditation much more quickly, including the realizations of higher Tantric practices and the yogic development of physic powers. To achieve full understanding we should do this checking meditation on the evolution of karma. It will not make you ignorant, and it will lead you to control your negative mind and take care in the creation of karma, which is essential for the attainment of perfect peace. This is the nature of the Buddha’s teaching.

3. Neutral Karma (Page 74)

Neutral karma is, for example, a movement without any reason, such as a movement you make in your sleep. A neutral action has no principal, specific impulse.

Energy is mind. Pure intrinsic nature of mind does not have to be energy. The energy we need for Dharma practice has no form. To create Dharma actions does not mean that the mind has to be “free” from the Dharma point of view. From the Dharma point of view “free” means free of greed, ignorance, and hatred, such that it is impossible for these things to ever arise again. But what we mean by “free” in terms of the ordinary mind is different than that—not that our mind is not free of greed, ignorance, and hatred, but that we practice Dharma. Dharma action has to be without ignorance in evolution of karma; for positive action the mind should be free of those negative minds at the time of creation.

KARMA IS DEFINITE (Page 76)

The whole universe can one day become completely empty but karma is so definite. As long as there are different methods, the result can be stopped, but as long as we don’t know the method, the path, we can never stop karma. Karma was created hundreds of eons ago—it is more definite than the existence of this whole planet or solar system. For instance, if we plant a seed in a field, since it is in a perfect element, it is definite that it will bring a stem and seeds unless we stop the conditions for it to grow with different methods. Karma is like the seed and the elements are also definite—the method has to be done before the result arises, while there is a chance; if we are already experiencing the result it is extremely difficult to stop.

Karma is definite because it definitely brings its own result in time. All the results that we have not yet experienced, created by beginningless karma, will definitely be experienced unless we try to prevent them by following the different methods that stop the results from arising. Also, karma is expandable. We should always think about the fact that there are so many other karmas that we created many eons ago that still haven’t brought their result, and yet we think only about karmas of this lifetime, or maybe the lifetime before. There are so many horrible negative actions that we have done that we have yet to experience the result of—such as the five extreme negative actions of heresy, killing our parents, destroying the teachings, and harming holy beings. We shouldn’t think that because we have no created any really gross negativities in this lifetime that we’ve never done them. There is not even one bad karma, one negative action, that we have not created in samsara—there is no new bad karma left to create. We should not be complacent due to bad memory.

Why are we so ignorant, not understanding Dharma, finding difficulty with meditation, unable to visualize holy beings and so on? Because the mind finds it far easier and is closer to creating bad karma. Creating positive karma is difficult, like crossing over a mountain. Usually we create good karma for a few minutes, and then for the rest of the day we create negative karma. Such is the personality of the mind. Much negative karma has been created in all our past previous lives, and all the present problems that we are experiencing are the result of the problem of ignorance, not having realizations, finding it difficult to develop wisdom, not clearly remembering the past, not seeing the future, and even not understanding what will be going on tomorrow. All this is due to negative karma.

Therefore, the development of wisdom and understanding in Dharma is most difficult because it is a method that works in exact opposition and totally against the negative mind that is the cause of suffering. It is obvious that if we follow the negative mind to suffering, it is harder to see the Dharma, which brings happiness.

We should think that all this confusion that we now have—difficulty in meditation, not even understanding what the mind is or knowing where it exists—all this is due to the negative karma that we created in past lifetimes, and other than this there is no reason or cause for ignorance to exist. It cannot eliminated by any being other than ourselves—not by God, not by our parents, and not by anyone else. It is created only by previous mind. Parents are not the principal cause of our sufferings; in fact they are the cause of all of our past, present, and future happiness. If they were the cause of our ignorance we should hate them as enemies, the cause of our suffering. But it is never like this. Parents can be ignorant and their children not ignorant; parents can be free from ignorance, enlightened, or bodhisattvas, yet their children may be ignorant. Take for example the parents of the Tibetan generation, Chenrezig and Drolma. Most children are born without control over their rebirth, so their ignorance has nothing to do with their parents. Parents are the source of past, present, and future happiness, and are not our enemy.

Ignorance is not created by God. If it were created by God then God should be the creator and cause of suffering. If God is the creator of all negative mind, then the creator of all suffering should be God, then the whole of the world’s problems are His fault and He becomes the enemy. This is not possible, it is the opposite action of God. Such an enlightened being acts only to enlighten all sentient beings. His only desire is to release all sentient beings from suffering. He can never be the creator of suffering or else it makes no sense, and the word God loses all meaning. In this case, our ignorance becomes our God.

We should never think, “I have created very few negative karmas,” considering only this life. Since beginningless lives we have created far more negative karmas than positive; even since we got up this morning, if we check up on body, speech, and mind we can see this. To create negative karma doesn’t mean to go outside, or to talk, it can happen when we are meditating, sitting cross-legged in lotus position, looking beautiful as if we are receiving realizations. We should check up on the mystical karma of the mind—bad karma comes from action of mind as well as from body and speech. As we start to meditate we have no control over our mind—it wanders, it spends more time on distractions than on meditation. In this situation it is definitely possible to create much negative karma. Also, past memories come into the mind, we think about what we did before. We also think a great deal about what we are going to do in the future. All these things come into the mind during meditation.

Due to your past experiences in your country, greed comes along, the door opened by memory (we usually forget the bad experiences): greed also arises in respect to the future plans. Anger can also arise in meditation when we think of the enemies who disturbed us in the past and present, and especially when we check their personalities as we see them. These are just a few examples of how we can create negative karma even when meditating. To create positive karma is so difficult.

Why is it that the mind finds it so difficult to create positive karma, the opposite of attachment and greed, and so easy to be negative? It is because the mind has become very well trained and habituated to negative actions. If there were no ignorance in the previous lifetimes, no past karma, then the mind would not find it so difficult to renounce attachment. The reason that the mind follows negative actions is because it is easy and intuitive. Creating positive karma, however, is very difficult, requiring great effort.

These must be a reason for the mind’s present personality, a reason why a person is shocked and frightened to give up attachment. We must check up on this, why it is so difficult for us to give up attachment? If there is no recognition of life how can we recognize death? We have passed so much time since birth and still we don’t know what mind is. Ignorance is beginningless, it is hard to give up. If ignorance has a beginning what makes the mind intuitively follow negativity, naturally follow the action of attachment? What causes this? Try to discover why the mind becomes frightened at the idea of giving up attachment, what causes the difficulty in renouncing attachment, why the mind follows attachment, how greed starts, why it is so easy to follow attachment even though there may be many physical problems to overcome to do this? The mind doesn’t care about any difficulties created—a person can even give up his life to follow attachment. The earth is full of examples of this. You can see it in movies, or in people who travel the world not caring about expenses, or those who commit suicide from situational problems and problems of human relationships that arise from attachment.

Take a couple, for instance. The wife always worries about the husband going after someone else. She experiences much worry and suffering. If he is indeed with someone else, then she will have a big problem, cry so much, even though she has no material difficulties and the needs of hunger, thirst, and possessions are met. Because of this she may even commit suicide. This action does not help her situation at all, but only causes her greater suffering and makes her life shorter. This is all done for attachment. The mind is so afraid to give up attachment. Besides this, she may experience great jealousy, again despite having adequate material possessions. She may be jealous of the other woman, and complain so much. The negative mind arises, thinking how to disturb the other directly or indirectly, wishing some danger befall her rival, or wishing for her death. Men also experience these things. Men fight with others over their wives, disregarding their own life—very brave! They might also let their friends fight for them at the risk of their lives. All of this, again, is only for the sake of attachment. It is no surprise that the mind follows attachment so easily.

KARMA IS EXPANDABLE (Page 76)

Negative and positive karma are both expandable. In the same way that one rice seed can bring so many results, so many more seeds, so can the results of positive and negative karma expand like grain. Good karmic results can be experienced in many other future lives; bad karmic suffering results may be experienced for many lifetimes for eons. This is the reason that it is so important to understand karma—because one action created in a short time can bring results over such a great time.

The evolution of one universe, from beginning to end, empty space to empty space, takes one great eon. This includes the realms of the gods. One great eon has four parts.
1. The first part is the eon of the evolution of the universe and universal beings; the universe includes this southern world, the other worlds, and Mt. Meru.
2. The second part is the eon of existence.
3. The third is the eon of degeneration.
4. The fourth part is the eon of complete emptiness.

Each of these eons consists of twenty eons that are not short, but very long, and eighty of these make one great eon.

The human life starts off with an incredibly long lifespan, getting longer and longer until it reaches eighty thousand years. Then the evolution of humans ends. From there the lifespan gets shorter and shorter, down to ten years, then it gets longer again, to eighty thousand, and then down to ten once more. One small eon is the time it takes to degenerate from eighty thousand to ten years. In one of the eighty eons there are twenty such ups and downs. At the present time our lifespan is less than one hundred years and degenerating on its way to ten. This is all based on karmic evolution. Thinking about this will lead to greater understanding of positive and negative karma.

One created karma can bring one result or many. Many karmas can bring one result or many. One karma can bring its result in one life or in many. Many karmas collected in many lives can bring one result. For example, when we feel hot we get attached to cold. If this happens many times, these cravings collect and can cause rebirth in the cold narak realms.

How does one tiny karma bring many results? Once, in a previous time, a man made an offering to Buddha with devotion. This small karma caused him to receive many future lives rich in enjoyments and possessions, and also realizations and nirvana. Guru Shakyamuni explained how that person received so many good results from such a small karma to someone who didn’t believe it. Guru Shakyamuni asked this person, “Have you seen any big result on earth that came from a small cause?” The other replied that a certain large tree was the result of a small cause and Guru Shakyamuni said that it wasn’t possible. “But it is my experience,” said the doubter, “I’ve seen it.” So Guru Shakyamuni said, “Then the object of karma I explained is also my experience, I have seen it.” The subject that he explained was the clear object of his transcendental wisdom.

Guru Shakyamuni explained something similar to a brahmin—that if with devotional mind a person offers food for a day to the Buddha, that karma can cause him to be rich in possessions for many future lives and cause him to be reborn in the upper realms, although the cause occurred for only one day. But the brahmin said, “Who knows this; how can it be known that this offering can create such karma?” Guru Shakyamuni asked him, “Have you seen any big result on earth that came from a small cause?” “Yes, I have seen this,” replied the brahmin, “One seed of wheat can bring many.” Guru Shakyamuni said, “That small cause brought many results?” The brahmin replied, “Yes, I have clearly seen it. This is my experience.” Guru Shakyamuni said, “Well the first is my experience, I have seen it.”

It can be the same with some negative karmas—they have expandable results. In the time of one Buddha a king built a monastery that had all the necessities inside, and offered it to the Sangha. His son, through true renunciation, became celibate and lived there; but despite the monastery being full of things, this king had such great envy that he couldn’t give any of these possessions to any other living beings. His karma caused him to suffer in the narak realms for thirty-one eons. After that he was born as a naga called Temetong—whatever touched this naga’s body burnt it, and flames came from it causing much suffering.

Guru Shakyamuni told these stories about karma to instruct living beings, to make them careful in creating karma.

In another Buddha’s time there was a monastery on the steps of which a girl once slept with some bhikshus. The karma created by this caused her to be reborn in the lower realms for many eons. She suffered in the naraks for all of the eons remaining in the great eon that the karma was created, and at its end was reborn in the narak realm of another universe. After that she was reborn as a blind naga who had a rotten body oozing with pus and insects that ate it. This also lasted for a long time.

As the universe is destroyed, our sun increases into seven suns, getting hotter and hotter until everything burns up. The golden hills melt, the oceans dry up, iron mountains burn, the earth disintegrates, and eventually the sun itself disappears. When this time comes, the minds of beings who are suffering in the narak realms and who still have left some time to experience are transferred to the narak realm of another universe, where they continue to suffer until their time is up. Other beings who have expanded their karmic result can be reborn as humans, gods, and so forth. The place of the narak realms is not definite—it is in many places, it can be on this earth. There are many beings suffering beneath the earth. Some beings are human in the daytime and at night suffer greatly.

Once a person was once asked by a noble being to keep precepts. He agreed to do so only in the daytime but not at night. The result of this was he took a rebirth in which in the daytime he lived in a very attractive place, with five women, enjoying himself very much, but at night they became dogs that devoured all parts of his body without control, barking, and eating his heart. At sunrise he would become the human enjoying himself again; at dusk, he was eaten with much suffering. This kind of rebirth is a type of narak rebirth but not quite so bad, and occurred because the person didn’t follow the precepts at night, only during the day. Having a perfect human rebirth now, it is extremely difficult to receive again. After this universe ends the minds of the beings who inhabit it take form in another universe. Minds can do this. Universes cannot be exactly the same but there are many of them.

Once the sangha of a particular place deposited a jewel with the manager of that place. When they asked for it back, he said that it was his and asked them if they would like to eat kaka. Due to this he was reborn in the worst suffering stages for ninety one eons, and each time during those eons that there was a different founder of the teachings on earth, he was born as a snake in that place near a very dirty lake where people threw their kaka and rubbish. He experienced much suffering. Six of those buddhas used this snake as a an example of karma for their followers. After the snake rebirth, he returned to the narak realms until the next buddha came into the world. Altogether, there will be one thousand buddhas; Guru Shakyamuni is the fourth, and all of them have prophesied about the karma of this being who was once the manager.

There are many other stories that are told about expandable karma, especially about bad rebirths due to negative actions or speech towards holy objects, such as monks and temples. The rebirth often suits the action—for example, if you call someone a dog you yourself may be born as a dog. Positive actions, such as offering to holy beings, may even be rewarded the same way, especially if the offerings are from a beggar or a poor person who has little.

Further Examples of Karma

In a previous time, in Benares, one being tried to stop his mother from giving charity. He locked her up in a house and at meal times made her eat dust for six days, after which she died. The son wasn’t the least upset. Some time later, an arhat came to beg from this man, and the man took the food from inside the arhat’s bowl and trampled on it. Due to these karmas he was reborn in the lowest narak realm. After many eons he was reborn as a very ugly son to an Indian family. At birth his mother’s milk dried up; whenever they found a wet nurse, her milk dried up too. When he grew up he always had trouble finding food. After some time he became celibate and a bhikshu, begging food. He asked a particular sangha if he could sweep their monastery and they fed him. The first day they were all invited to a benefactor’s house but there was a quarrel there and he missed out. The next day they were again invited, but his food was forgotten and so again he missed out. The next day Guru Shakyamuni’s disciple Kungawo forgot food for him. The next day he tried very hard to remember the food, but it was taken by a dog. The next day Mongalpu brought food for him but it was taken by a Garuda and dropped in the ocean. The next day an arhat brought him food and left the bowl at the door but it was absorbed into the earth. So the arhat, who had great psychic powers and could see the past, present, and future, went under the earth with his power and tried to get the bowl that had been absorbed. But when he returned his mouth was closed by karma. That made up the six days without food. Then he ate dust mixed with water, and died. In this process, all those three karmic actions were repaid. We must remember never to stop someone from giving charity or creating other good karma. This creates very bad karma for us.

In a previous time a member of the sangha jumped into a stream, and another one complained, saying that he was quick, jumping like a monkey. The second was reborn as a monkey. Another monk criticized someone else’s voice, saying, “Your chanting sounds like a dog barking.” He was reborn as a dog. Just calling people names, or telling them they are blind, and so forth, can bring a similar result. You don’t even need anger to create great bad karma and the necessity of experiencing a suffering result.

In a previous time a king made an offering of five hundred dancing ladies who played music to bodhisattvas, and this action was criticized by one girl to ten people who were talking about Dharma. The result was ninety thousand rebirths in the narak realms and five hundred lifetimes reborn as a barbarian and heretic, because of her judgment of the action of offering. For six lives she was born blind and without a tongue.

In the narak realms some beings are born as walls or pillars—the narak being is not of definite form, it can be any shape according to the living being’s karma. Such a rebirth can arise as a result of actions such as spitting in or dirtying a holy place. In the narak realms one can also be born as a tree or leaf or road or broom. This kind of karma can be created by using the possessions of the sangha, such as trees and so forth, for one’s own use, without permission or Dharma reason. Any bad karma created with the possessions of the sangha is extremely difficult to purify.

In the time of a previous buddha the child of a caste devoted to buddha threw a handful of beans to him. Only four of them dropped into his bowl, and one dropped on his head. The result of this was that the child became the king of the universe, extremely rich, with full control of the four great worlds and the realms of the gods of the senses. All this arose from the bean that dropped on the enlightened being’s head. A member of the sangha offered a coin to another buddha and vowed never to kill—as a result, in many future lives he lived a long time, feeling no danger, with few distractions.

Rejoicing can also create negative karma, such as rejoicing over someone’s death. Some Tibetans, for example, rejoiced over the death of Chinese soldiers. Thirty-two people once stole and killed an ox and an old woman rejoiced. After a long time that ox, in the time of a buddha, became a king, and the mother was reborn as a woman with thirty-two sons. The king killed all thirty-two sons.

Rejoicing can also create great positive karma, if we rejoice over positive deeds.

The only war is against ignorance. With Dharma, we cannot harm any other sentient being, rather Dharma is a method to bring perfect peace to ourselves and to others. Buddha’s sole wish is for the cessation of ignorance for all sentient beings right now. If we hurt even the tiniest insect it hurts all enlightened beings, as it hurts the parents if the child is harmed. The best offering to the enlightened beings is to help sentient beings, for their holy minds are strongly bound by limitless compassion.

When Guru Shakyamuni was crossing the Ganges at Varanasi, there were five hundred pretas nearby. They asked him for water, with which he satisfied them. They developed such strong faith that they were reborn in the sura realm, where they again saw him, received teachings and reached enlightenment. Someone asked Guru Shakyamuni about this story and he explained that in a previous Buddha’s time they had been ordained with the five precepts, and once some fully ordained monks had taken some of their food. They had remarked that those monks begged like pretas, and the result was rebirth as pretas for five lifetimes, until they met Guru Shakyamuni, as above.

There was a very poor place in India through which Guru Shakyamuni once passed, and he was seen by five hundred dirty, ragged farmers who were plowing wheat with a thousand cows. The farmers and cows felt strong devotion for the power of his holy body, and received teachings. They were reborn in the asura realms where they met him again and fully realized absolute truth. (It is possible to see the Noble Being and get teachings in the god realm but extremely difficult—like seeing the stars in the daytime is difficult due to brightness of the sun). The explanation of this story is that the five hundred farmers had been monks in the time of a past Buddha, but had been so lazy that they were reborn as poor, suffering farmers. The one thousand cows had once been monks but paid no attention or respect to the secondary precepts, and so were reborn as cows.

Ignorance brings wrong view via greed or the eight temporal desires and hatred or anger. Many negative minds arise from greed for possessions and comfort, which leads to anger, destroying ourselves and others. The bad karma thus created causes rebirth in the suffering realms by way of the three results—the fullness of the sin, or maturation result, the result similar to the cause, and the possessed or environmental cause. This only makes ignorance stronger, anger returns in future lives, and so on. An hour’s anger brings eons of suffering. The growth of ignorance takes us further from the cause of perfect peace and from the realization of absolute truth. Until we stop to purify our ignorance we go in the opposite direction.

Examples are good, since we can remember them when we are about to create negative karma. They will make us afraid of doing so and thus give us protection from creating suffering by following the negative mind.