Khenpo Xi'an Rongbo: Evil karma is like an arrow shot, the arrow points to the future self!

Tibetan Buddhism Forum

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There is nothing that remains unchanged in the samsara. Buddhism believes that after death, the spiritual consciousness will carry the unfinished cause and effect and be reborn into the next life. The spiritual consciousness is different from the soul mentioned by heretics, and the soul is always unchanged.

The spiritual consciousness is empty, it is the gathering of causes and conditions, and changes with the changes of causes and conditions. The spiritual consciousness in this life and the next life is not exactly the same, but it is not irrelevant.

It is the cause and effect continuity between the front and back, just like a river. The water in the downstream comes from the upper stream. It is no longer the same water, but it is not another river.

First of all, it is hard to say when evil retribution will mature. It is not that evil will be done in this life, but that all will be rewarded in the next life, and some will be rewarded in this life.

It’s like drinking poison. Depending on the strength of the toxicity, the individual’s constitution, tolerance, etc., some have to wait a few days or even years before the toxicity occurs, and some have a few hours or on the spot.

If you do not have a full understanding and grasp of the nature of the poison and your body and mind, it is best not to try it easily. Secondly, as we mentioned in the previous question, the me yesterday and the me today are not exactly the same.

It is just similar and continuity. "I, Zhang San, have committed evil deeds in this life" and "I, Zhang San, have suffered evil retribution in this life". The two selfs are also different, but because of the "self-attachment" - the obsession of identifying the body and mind of the five aggregates of form, feeling, thinking, action, and consciousness as "I".

There will still be direct experience of committing evil karma and suffering evil retribution. Who is the experience? “I'm in experience. So the key to the problem is not whether the same person is the same before and after, but who is in the experience.

In fact, there is no fixed and self-integrated "I" in experience. "I" is just a firm misunderstanding of the five aggregates of body and mind that are born, died and mutated in an instant, but as long as this misunderstanding has not been fundamentally eliminated.

“I" means undeceptive experience, which follows the law of cause and effect. “I "do evil deeds", and "I" will suffer corresponding evil retribution. In the continuation of the same cause and effect, it is okay to call Zhang San and Li Si.

The consequences are not punishments, they are just the result of the development of events. Just like when you cook, you don’t control the ratio of water to rice, or you don’t pay attention to the heat, and the rice you make is dried and burnt.

You didn't get delicious rice, or you simply didn't have food to eat. No one punishes you for being hungry because you don’t cook well, you’re messing up your own business.

Doing bad things in the process for the ultimate purpose of doing good things requires two situations: unintentional and intentional. If you do bad things accidentally, the consequences of evil will be much smaller than those who do the same thing intentionally.

If you discover it later, you should repent as soon as possible to change the cause before the evil karma matures, so that the consequences will change in a positive direction accordingly.

If you are deliberately doing bad things and really causing harm, it is creating evil karma, no matter what your ultimate goal is. Have clear motivation, object and the consequences of harm.

The power of this evil karma will be great, the consequences will appear faster, and it will be more difficult to change the results. So we must first have good intentions when doing things.

During the process of doing it, we must always reflect on and check, carefully choose cause and effect, try to avoid doing bad things with good intentions, and do not think that we have a noble ultimate goal, and we can do whatever we can do in the process.

Cause and effect do not deceive others. The evil you commit is like an arrow shot, and the arrow refers to your future self.

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- བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་ཆོས་ལུགས་ཀྱིས་འཛམ་གླིང་བདེ་ལ་འགོད་པར་སྨོན། -

May all sentient beings be free from suffering and enjoy happiness