Understanding Karma

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing all the mistakes, what you did. My root advice is this. The great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “My karma persuaded them; that’s why I received this harm. Now, didn’t I make that sentient being fall into the hole of the hells?” [A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, chapter 6, v. 47.]

So what Shantideva is saying is this. Regarding the person who abused you, or anyone in your life who caused harm—even somebody who rolls their eyes or says bad words—none of this is permanent phenomena. They are causative phenomena, so they arise due to cause and conditions. When something bad happens, the causes were created either in this life or in past lives, in the life before this one, or it could be billions or zillions of eons ago, numberless eons ago. Even a small bad karma, if it is not purified, will eventually bring a result, even if it was created numberless eons ago.

So what that person did to you is the result of causes created in a past life. You treated them in that way and you didn’t get to purify that negative karma, so then you experienced the result this time. Also, karma becomes powerful.

What you experienced as a child means that the person who harmed you did the actions with a negative motivation and created negative karma. That means that sentient being, who is a human being now, because of doing this action, will later have to be reborn in the lower realms, in the hell realms.

Shantideva’s advice shows that it is not only the effect but also the result of your own negative karma, having treated that person in a similar way in past lives. Not only that, it will cause that sentient being to be born in the hell realms. They are human now and from there they will be reborn in the hells. From this you can see there is no need to be angry with them; actually you need to help them because when they die they will be reborn in the hell realms.

To attain liberation, you need to have a higher rebirth and to meet the Dharma, to meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru and achieve full enlightenment as quickly as possible. So now if you can, generate unbelievably strong compassion for that person and for others who harmed you in this way. As you develop more compassion, the quicker you will achieve enlightenment, and the quicker you will be able to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings.

My ultimate advice to you is this. If you don’t want to experience such karma, my answer is to become free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings as quickly as possible, and to never ever get reborn back in samsara again—not for few years or a few days, not like that, but forever—because you are not creating the causes of negative karma and delusion; that has totally ceased.

This is just a side talk. One time in Singapore, probably it was the first time liberating animals, so I said to buy three snakes, not only snakes but frogs and other things. When it came to releasing the snake, the snakes were sort of a little drugged, as they had been kept since the night before in a sack, so it took a little time for them to wake up. Anyway, the thought came in my mind that if I let them go, they would kill the frogs, mice and many insects. But if I don’t let them go, they will get cut in half lengthwise along their body, and will suffer so much, because this is how people eat them. So what can I do?

Then the answer came in my mind that here, I will let them go this time, but the best thing is for me to actualize the path, then become free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, by becoming free from delusion and karma. Then we don’t have to harm other sentient beings, by being born as a snake, for example. Also we can reveal the Dharma to sentient beings, then through that they can actualize path and become free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings. This is the only way to ultimately help others, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings forever. It is only through practicing Dharma, actualizing the path, then also leading sentient beings to full enlightenment, sang gye, the total elimination of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations. Anyway, I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like this. I thought, more or less, something like this.

I hope you can understand now what I am explaining; I just want to tell you from my heart to your heart. The first hell [of the eight hot hells] is the hell of being reborn again and again. The second hell realm is the black line hell [where the being is laid out on the iron ground and its body is cut open]. The third hot hell is where the hell being is gathered and crushed between mountains which appear in the form of heads of animals and people that they have killed. Their blood comes out like a waterfall, and it goes on and on until the karma is finished.

Fourth and fifth are the hell of crying and the hell of great crying, where the beings are in total oneness with crying in pain. They are stuck in an iron house without doors or windows, where it’s unbelievably, unbelievably hot, but they are stuck there until their karma is finished. Even when they’re free from that, there is another similar house outside that with no windows and doors, where it’s unbelievably hot and they are stuck there for an unbelievable longer time. The last three hells are the hot hell, the extremely hot hell and the inexhaustible hot hell. There is unbearable suffering, where the being’s body is like a log of wood in the fire; it is oneness with fire. You can only tell that it is a sentient being by hearing the sounds of it screaming. The beings are there for one intermediate eon and if their karma is not finished, even if this world ends, they still get reborn in the hell realms in other universes until the karma is finished. We have experienced all of this numberless times, from beginningless rebirths.

Similarly, there are eight cold hells. The first cold hell is the hell of blisters, and the second is the hell of bursting blisters, which has four thousand kinds of suffering. It is much, much colder than the first one; the suffering of cold is so much more, it’s double the previous one. There are four thousand kinds of suffering, each one greater than the last, and lasting longer than the previous ones. It is so heavy, heavy, heavy. We have experienced each one of these numberless times since beginningless rebirth, but our mind cannot even see the beginning; it’s happened from beginningless rebirths.

The preta beings [hungry ghosts], too, have unimaginable suffering. There are the outer obscurations, the food obscurations, and the inner obscurations, all those details that are in the lamrim. We have experienced this numberless times from beginningless rebirths, hundreds of thousand times, even tens of thousands of times, like that. We don’t die, and we experience the heaviest suffering of hunger and thirst numberless times.

Those born as animals are extremely foolish; they may be eaten by another animals, they always live in fear and they eat other sentient beings. So we have experienced this numberless times from beginningless rebirths. We have eaten all sentient beings numberless times and all sentient beings have eaten us numberless times without a beginning. There’s also the suffering of heat and cold, hunger and thirst, or being used by human beings, for example, being killed for skin, killed for hair, killed for meat, killed for medicine, heavily tortured by human beings for food or for money. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable suffering, and we have experienced this numberless times without a beginning. The big problem is that we don’t remember this, due to pollution and ignorance.

Also, there are all the different human sufferings—the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death; the suffering of meeting undesirable objects and not meeting desirable objects; or even finding them but not finding satisfaction. Especially in the West, this is such a big problem and so many people commit suicide, so many people die or kill themselves because they don’t feel satisfaction. Even if they have a billion, zillion, trillion dollars, they still can’t live for many lifetimes. Then there are the sufferings of the five aggregates. This is all explained in Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, the Lamrim Chenmo or the Middle-Length Lamrim. We have experienced all this numberless times from beginningless rebirths.

There is the suffering of the asuras [demigods], who are always getting killed, always at war with the suras [gods] and getting killed. Their wives watch everything on the [surface] of the lake; they can see all the fighting and all the wars, all that is happening, so they get very worried. The asuras are jealous of the suras’ wealth and so many other things.

The suras’ main suffering is being totally unaware that their whole life is misused, distracted by great desire, great sensual desire. It is said that they have incredible sensual pleasures and desires. The billionaires, zillionaires and trillionaires in this world, these people are supposed to have everything, but they are the poorest compared to the suras and asuras. The suras have no opportunity to generate renunciation of samsara, which means they have no opportunity to generate bodhicitta and it is extremely rare for them to realize emptiness. Their life is totally distracted by desire and so much pleasure.

It is said in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that hell beings have greater physical suffering, but mentally, the suras’ suffering is fourteen times more. You can also understand this relating to human beings. A person may have a billion or zillion dollars and be so rich in the world, but their life becomes full of so much fear and worry. They are worried to even go out because they could be killed or kidnapped. There are so many dangers, so then they stay in their house because of their wealth and their mind is never happy. They cannot get satisfaction and they want more wealth. They have so much wealth, but they are not satisfied, they cannot find happiness, they’re so miserable and their mind is upset, so unhappy. The beggars who live outside on the street and eat whatever food they can find don’t have as many worries as rich people. They have less worries. So you can get the idea from this simple example.

The great suffering of suras is having the five signs of death and the five signs of approaching death. They are put in the corner and all their friends, those who accompanied them for a long time, don’t come to see them. The other suras pass some flowers to the dying suras with a long stick, so they don’t have to be close. Normally the suras don’t sweat, but at that time they sweat and start to smell and get dirty. They realize they are going to die and they see that they have to go down, that they will have a lower rebirth because they have used up all their good karma. Knowing that the next rebirth will be lower is incredible suffering for them. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable. Even the richest human being is the poorest compared to those in the deva realms.

It is very important to understand this. We experienced all of this numberless times and not only that, if we don’t get to practice Dharma in this life, if we don’t get to actualize the true suffering, the true cause of suffering, the true cessation of suffering and the true path, directly seeing emptiness, and [ceasing] the delusions and karma and cutting the oceans of samsaric suffering, if not, then we have to again suffer and experience all the sufferings of the six realms. We will endlessly, endlessly suffer in samsara.

I don’t have much advice, but my main advice to you is this. You have to be aware of the situation, which you have not been aware of, how you are. This is the reality. You have to remember this in your daily life, morning and night, in your daily life and then the conclusion is to practice Dharma, as I said.

Here we have met the Dharma. It’s like an impossible thing that has happened—we have received a perfect human rebirth with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, we have been able to practice Dharma and we have met the Buddhadharma, the Hinayana teachings, the Lesser Vehicle teachings, and the Greater Vehicle teachings, the Mahayana teachings. Not only have we met the Greater Vehicle teachings of sutra, through which we can achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, buddhahood—this is besides having met the Lesser Vehicle teachings, where we can be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings forever—not only this, but we have also met the Greater Vehicle teachings of [Buddhist] tantra, not Hindu tantra.

When we only practice the Greater Vehicle teachings of sutra, it takes three countless great eons to complete the merits of virtue and the merits of wisdom to achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Here, with the Greater Vehicle teachings of tantra, we can achieve enlightenment and we are able to achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya in one lifetime. We have met the Mahayana Yoga Tantra, where we can achieve full enlightenment in a brief lifetime of this degenerate time. We are able to complete the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue in a brief lifetime, just within a few number of years. We have received all these initiations which plant the seed of the four kayas and make it ripen on the mind. We can actualize the path-time three kayas that purify the ordinary base time of death, intermediate stage and rebirth, then the path-time three kayas make the mind ripen and plant the seed of the ultimate three kayas. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

We are fortunate, so fortunate, so fortunate. Our life is not long and we can die at any time. This is a most precious human life, which is so difficult to find again and it can stop at any time, at any moment, therefore there is nothing else in the life that is more important than practicing Dharma.

Practicing Dharma is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment and also to please the holy mind of the virtuous friend. For example, when you are talking to the guru, even joking or whatever, making them laugh or making the guru’s mind happy, even in that second you can purify the negative karma to be reborn in the lower realms. You can totally change your rebirth within that hour, minute or second, to be reborn as a human being, or as a monk or nun, or even in a pure land. Things can change so quickly, just like that, because the guru is the most powerful holy object.

First are this life’s parents, who are more powerful for us than outside people. Next are the ordained people, the monks and nuns, who are more powerful than our parents of this life. Then come the arhats, who have achieved arhatship and are free from samsara; they are more powerful than numberless ordained Sangha. One bodhisattva is more powerful than numberless arhats, and one buddha is more powerful than numberless bodhisattvas.

Now, our guru, the one with whom we have made the decision that we are the disciple and that person is our guru. From this guru we may have received even only one teaching on OM AH HUM mantra or only a few verses of teachings, but we have a Dharma connection, so that guru is more powerful than numberless buddhas. I’m not talking about just any guru in the world; I mean your own guru.

You should remember that even looking at one bodhisattva with a calm mind, in a respectful manner, you collect more merit than having made charity to all the three-realm sentient beings. Looking at a bodhisattva by rolling your eyes, showing the whites of your eyes, looking at them in a disrespectful way, in a negative way, is the same or worse than taking out the eyeballs of all the three-realm sentient beings. This is just talking about one bodhisattva, so if this is a buddha or our guru—wow, wow, wow!

We have suffered in the oceans of the six realms numberless times from beginningless rebirths, so if we don’t practice Dharma now, we will experience the six-realm sufferings without end. Exactly like this, there are numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings who have been experiencing the oceans of suffering of each realm from beginningless time. Those who have met the Buddhadharma, especially the Mahayana teachings, where they can achieve enlightenment, and especially the Mahayana tantra, the number is nothing compared to those who haven’t met the Buddhadharma. They are numberless, numberless, numberless. Of course, there are numberless sentient beings suffering in each realm now and they will have to suffer again.

Also, it is from every sentient being that we have received happiness from beginningless rebirths, that we receive it now and also in the future, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. This all comes from the numberless sentient beings. We receive this happiness due to the kindness of numberless sentient beings, so we can see they are most precious, most kind, most dear, our wish-fulfilling ones. Not only that, they have been our mother from beginningless rebirths, having been kind in four ways. Each of them has given us a human body, especially, for example, this present life’s mother who gave us a human body, which has the benefit of being able to practice Dharma, and being able to learn, read and write—wow, wow, wow—not just having met the Dharma but up to Mahayana tantra. Wow, wow, wow, amazing, amazing! Like that, all sentient beings have been kind. They gave us our body from beginningless time, numberless times; they protected our life from hundreds of dangers every day, not only during the nine months in the womb, but after that they protected us for many years.

For example, if our mother had an abortion then we wouldn’t be in the human realm, we wouldn’t have met the Dharma, besides actually practicing Dharma. No way. Then also they bore hardships numberless times for us, like during the pregnancy and after the birth, they worried day and night about us. All the hardships that our mother has endured—she could not do many things during the pregnancy, and also she worked so hard, bearing so many hardships, day and night, many things, then she gave us education.

This is not the first time; it has been happening from beginningless rebirths. Every sentient being has done this numberless times. They are so unbelievably, unbelievably kind, but they are not enlightened, they don’t have realizations of bodhicitta and they haven’t renounced the self-cherishing thought; it is only with [bodhicitta] that everything becomes the cause of enlightenment. Also, they don’t have realizations of emptiness. With that, everything they do would become the remedy to cut the root of samsara, ignorance, but [without that realization] everything they do, every action, becomes the cause of samsara, because whatever they do is done with attachment to samsaric happiness, attachment to this life.

This shows the unbelievable kindness of all sentient beings, but all their actions are done with anger or attachment, mostly attachment and ignorance, so all their actions become the cause of samsara and the cause of the lower realms, so again they have to suffer. Wow, wow, wow. They have suffered for us from beginningless time. Can you imagine that? Can’t bear what they have to suffer for us—the general suffering of samsara and in particular, the suffering of the lower realms numberless times from beginningless rebirths. Wow, wow, wow.

Therefore, as it is said by the great yogi Heruka, Kyabje Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Calling the Guru from Afar:

Thinking of the plight of my pitiful old mothers, pervasive as space,
Fallen amidst the fearful ocean of samsara and tormented there – reminds me of you, guru.
Therefore, guru, please bless me to generate in my mental continuum
Effortless experience of the profound three principles of the path and the two stages.

So now you can see that practicing Dharma is the most important thing, to try and help every single sentient being, to repay [their kindness]. As well as that, to actualize the lamrim; that is the best solution. Please come to this conclusion and understand this, then you can see how your life becomes most beneficial.

Thank you very much. Please read this letter again and again, not just quickly one time. Also, please read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, the section on correctly following the guru, the shortcomings of not following the guru correctly, making mistakes in regards to following the guru, etc. Think about these points and read about them and use them in your meditation, to come to the realization that however many gurus you have, from your side seeing them as a buddha, as all the numberless buddhas. Seeing each guru is all the numberless buddhas and each buddha is all the gurus, from your side.

I am not telling you I am Buddha, I am just saying from your side to see each guru as all the buddhas and each buddha as all the gurus.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My most kind most dear most wish-fulfilling mother,
I hope you and your whole family are well. I hope many people didn’t die from COVID in the country you are in. I have not heard much about your country, but nowadays, people are dying daily. At the beginning [of the pandemic], of course, we didn’t know exactly how many had died, but I think it must have been a lot. So many people have died.

I understand people eat so many animals. It is really terrifying and there is so much suffering. They harm other beings who have a body and mind, who do not wish suffering but wish for happiness, exactly like human beings, like us, but they never realize that, or even if they do, they don’t care! What a terrible harm they are causing others. So of course, they will suffer from so many problems— floods, earthquakes, many things caused by nature, and diseases, viruses, then second and third viruses.

I thought in my mind that if people stopped eating meat, stopped harming animals—so terrible, terrible, so many creatures and sea creatures, and the animals living with people, wow wow!—only then can they stop the virus and other problems.

People are not surprised at all eating animals and giving harm to them, not surprised at all. They enjoy it and even make money from that, maybe there is even competition or success. But, you see, when they get the result of harming others—sickness and so forth—then they get surprised. Only when they get a problem, they get a surprise. They are not surprised when they create the cause. It is like that. Generally, the sentient beings are totally, totally, unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably ignorant.

Hopefully, the more they experience problems, I hope that they can realize [the cause of] all the suffering. Therefore, I hope it can stop the problems in the mind, the suffering to the mind, and that they can bring all the peace individually in their own life as well as in the world, to all the six realms—the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings—to all the six realm beings. I hope it turns out this way, that the more suffering they experience, the more realizations they can develop. They can have more and more discoveries, realizations, then they will be able to stop the suffering in their mind, their own individual mind, as well as the suffering of the world, the suffering of the six realms’ sentient beings.

Also, Ama-la and the whole family, I hope you pray for this to happen in the whole world. If you want to do this, pray for this to happen.

It’s a little bit like the Tibetans. They lost Tibet to China, but because His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many Tibetan people were able to escape, they rebuilt and educated new boys and girls, nuns and monks. The knowledge of Buddhadharma, its practice, learning and realizations, developed year by year over a long time and produced so many learned meditators, so many teachers of the Buddha’s teachings—philosophy, sutra and tantra—who can now benefit the world.

Just in FPMT there are 166 or so centers, mostly meditation centers, and some schools, hospices, like that. We have, I think, around forty-six resident teachers, who came from these monasteries after so many years of study and practice. They can spread the light of the teachings, Buddhadharma, to the rest of the world and dispel the darkness of ignorance of sentient beings.

They show clearly the whole path to enlightenment—how to go to enlightenment, how to get free from samsara. Buddhadharma has spread in the Western countries, where there has never been Buddhadharma before. It’s unbelievable, the light of Dharma has spread in the world, in so many Western countries, unbelievable!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been able to travel to so many countries again and again. He is the best example of a practitioner, if we examine this. Every year in the world, like in America, the people learn more and more about what His Holiness is—that he is full of compassion and wisdom, not ignorant. Unbelievable! He not only communicates with high people, but also with lower people, with suffering people, with people who have no education, etc. He helps everyone. People throughout the world learn by seeing His Holiness, hearing His Holiness and especially by what His Holiness teaches.

Tibet was lost to China, but all these unbelievable teachings of the Buddha, their light spreads and shines in the world so much. If Tibet did not get lost to China, then spreading the light of Dharma, making it shine in the rest of the world, His Holiness traveling to many countries again and again, and enlightening the people more and more—all this would not have happened.

Similarly, people are experiencing more suffering due to earthquakes, floods, landslides, all these things—generally fire and water problems—tsunamis, wind, then disease, viruses, so many problems.

I hope this turns out in a correct way that benefits the mind to see the reality of life, from where all the suffering comes. It does not come from the outside, but from the mind. Sentient beings experience problems in this life and through that they can learn how to stop the suffering through the mind. They can learn how to achieve happiness, not only temporal but ultimate happiness forever, liberation from samsara forever and especially peerless happiness, enlightenment, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations.

I hope everyone is well—you, your father and your sister, who I spent much time talking with when I was there, as well as your brother. I hope to see you soon.

My prayers are always with you. Love and greetings to you and to everybody. Thank you very, very much. You can use these cards to send to your friends and to your enemies as well, if you have any. It’s up to you, however you want.

Thank you very, very much! I hope I can make an apple strudel one day for the mother and family to taste, haha!

I hope the center is OK. That’s all.

With love and prayers ...

They don't know this at all, but those people who were killed had karma that they had not purified. They had killed other people [in a previous life], so now the karma has ripened this time and also the shooter is creating results similar to the cause. This is very, very, very important to remember, not only for others but also for ourselves. [Read more about karma here.]

If we don’t want to have enemies, Dharma practice becomes so important. It is of the utmost importance for that reason to learn Dharma, the correct Dharma taught by Buddha. That is why it is so important to have centers, where people can study well and learn correctly the Dharma taught by the Buddha,

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Without harming others or mistreating others, this would never have happened. It’s not logical and there is no reason for this to happen at all, so the cause of what they did to you and to the family is totally dependent on what you caused them, by mistreating them in the beginning. So this harm you are experiencing now completely came from you. Originally the harm was done by you, it came from your self-cherishing thought, and now they are creating negative karma by harming you in this way. They will have to go to the lower realms, such as the hell realms and so forth, therefore you have to help them, to pray for them to not be reborn in hell and for the unbearable suffering to not happen. [Read more about karma here.] 

When you do purification, also think of them, for example, when you do Vajrasattva practice, visualize them in your heart and purify the negative karma like that. Any purification practice you do, think of them and purify together as much as possible, by praying to Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Think it is your self-cherishing thought that is harming you, not them. You should understand this and look at it like this. If you go back to the origin, it is your self-cherishing thought, and the way you have treated others has caused this.

My own story is an example—I think you may have heard this already, but I am not sure. When I was in Tibet and saw the police, it was very scary. They are in the cities running around on motorbikes with nooses to catch people, so you never know what will happen. In India we are not aware of so much of the situation in Tibet and China, and we don’t have that fear, like what we would have in Tibet.

Anyway, I thought to really help His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so I wanted to build a statue, if possible one-story high and to build nine of them, but that was not possible, so then I tried to build just one statue which would be nine stories high. One man, a nomad in a very high position, said he knew the Tibetan people and would be able to help us buy the land to build the statue. His idea was that people could climb inside the statue and they would see the view from its heart, so it would be like a tourist attraction.

We bought the land, but what happened is that the Tibetan people who helped us—I’m sorry to say this, to explain this—we found out that the land we had bought did not cost even half of what we had paid, and they used the other half [of the funds] themselves and bought more land to build a hotel. I only found this out much later. One big businessperson, who was Buddhist, accepted to help us, so he sent his manager to check the land. The manager saw the cost of the land was half of what we paid and he saw in the Chinese office a lot of false letters. He told the businessman, who got very angry because he thought the Tibetan man had cheated me. He thought “How is it possible?” and he wanted to put the Tibetan man in prison.

But I said we could not do this; we could not put him in prison, we could not. This was not to just to save their reputation, but just generally as a practice we can’t do that, we can’t send him in prison. Of course, we are born as human beings, and we can’t do that. We need to give special meaning for this human life, so we can’t do that harm to others. Of course now, being Buddhist, there is no way to do that, because that means to harm others. When we harm others we are not thinking about the result karma; we are only thinking about harming them back, but that is creating the karma to receive harm again in the future.

The reality is that, for example, young Tibetan people want to fight China, but His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says “The truth will win,” so peace will solve this, not violence. The whole issue is that if we harm back, like the rest of the world, then we create the karma to receive harm from others for many hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, again and again. We have to go through so much suffering not just one time—the result from just one negative karma is suffering for many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes, depending on how it is done. It is said that if we cheat one sentient being, from that one karma, the result in future lives is that we will be cheated by sentient beings for thousands of lifetimes.

So we officially lost all the money we paid for the land, because the man didn’t build a school or a hospital and he didn’t even go to the office to try to save the land, as you need to do something on the land before starting to build the statue. If you don’t do anything, then you lose the land, but another statue was still built in another place. I think it has been less than fifteen years since it was started.

Not only that, a long, long, long time ago, there was a lady who said she had so much money and could definitely pay for one of our main projects, but in the end we found out she had lied to us so much. She didn’t have the money and ended up taking money from us. This is also karma that I, myself, created in the past, from harming others, cheating others, so the result is that. Even the observation that we have karma to lose, to not win, even that observation goes under the karma. For three years we took care of this lady, helping her, paying for her, but it seems in reality maybe there was nothing and she was lying. We spent money looking after her, then we found out it was all a lie. So I sent a message to her to not act like this from now on.

In reality, this lady and the Tibetan man are so kind, so precious, so kind, so precious. They are helping us to purify our negative karma; they are showing us our past negative karma and helping to purify that, so in reality they are an unbelievable, unbearable object of compassion. They are the object of our compassion.

Instead of putting them through a court case, with so many expenses that go into that, we should be making offerings to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and collecting so much merit, or using the money to make charity to sentient beings, especially if it is done with bodhicitta. We should offer charity to sentient beings instead of bringing a court case with so many expenses, where all that money is totally wasted.

Our life is very short; we can die at any time and then we go to the next life. This life is not the only one, it is endless and it depends on karma, what we created before.

For you specifically, you should do Vajrasattva or any purification practice with that person in your heart, to purify them and pray that they generate bodhicitta realizations and the path to enlightenment. Pray for that.

So please think about this.

I’m very, very, sorry about what happened to the family and to you.

With much love and prayers ...

I am sure the government also makes mistakes, for example, they often don’t know feng shui at all, but [the government officials] experience so much merit. At that time things are in right place so they become very successful and have an easygoing life. There are many people in the world like this.

There are people who have very little merit or who don’t collect merit at all, and only collect heavy, heavy negative karma. Even though they are successful now, soon it will run out and for so many lifetimes, for many hundreds of lifetimes (that is short) and even longer, they will have so much poverty, so much suffering, and difficult lives. Besides being born as a human, they will also be reborn in the lower realms.

That person who creates the most unbelievable bad karma may have success now, but that is the result of past good karma. Soon that will run out and then they will have the most unbelievable suffering. This is due to a lack of understanding of holy Dharma and practice of the holy Dharma.

Generally sentient beings want happiness, but due to ignorance we distort the cause of happiness or by being afraid we run away from happiness. We don’t want suffering, but we always create the cause of suffering, day and night, like rain showers, by strongly believing this is real and that this is the only method to bring happiness.

A good example is the person who is a monk living in pure, holy Dharma practice, but experiencing many problems, sickness and so forth. The wealthy person looks like they have a long life with lots of people coming and so much money coming, so for the people who think and work only for one life, it seems that the wealthy person is very successful and the best. We do not see that they will still have to suffer for eons in the lower realms, besides even the upper realms.

However, the meditator, a very pure holy Dharma practitioner, experiences many problems in this life, such as sickness. This is because of strong Dharma practice and all those things are signs of unbelievable purification. Their future will be like the sun shining in the world, from happiness to happiness to inconceivable happiness, up to full enlightenment. Each life is more and more beneficial for sentient beings.

This is important to understand. It helps to generate so much compassion for sentient beings and it helps us to achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings.

Maybe the hotel man has to order so many chickens to be killed day and night, and also pigs and sheep and many other animals every day, for the hotel kitchen. So even though that person is very rich now, their future lives have so much suffering. The simple monk, who is pure in strong, holy Dharma practice, purifies all the past lives’ heavy negative karma. Then when the monk dies, he will go to pure land or achieve a perfect human rebirth. However, this wealthy hotel man will experience extremely heavy suffering in their next life and may even be reborn in the lower realms and experience eons there.

My most dear one,
Please put the eight auspicious signs around your house, to have success, all the success, to stop the bad and inauspicious things and bring all the auspicious things. Decorate around your house as much as possible—in your room and around like that. I am sending you many of these in order to decrease the bad signs and increase the good things.

The most important thing, as experienced in my own case also, is that nobody wants suffering and everyone wants only happiness, hence we don’t give harm to others, even insects. Everyone wants happiness and not suffering, just like oneself. The mind of everyone is the same, hence we don’t harm any being—animals, humans, and up to worldly gods—and we benefit sentient beings as much as possible. For example, if there are insects on the road we put them away on the roadside; we can blow them away or set them aside. This is just an example. We should help others as much as possible. Toward humans, to those who have no food, we can give bread, and if they have no money, we can give them one rupee, like that. This is what the Buddha explained and it is also my experience. If we help others, then we don’t receive harm from them.

Karma is like that. The evolution of problems is that actions done with attachment to the happiness of this life are nonvirtuous. Also, actions done with anger and ignorance (not knowing) are the same, nonvirtuous. Some religions have beliefs opposite to Buddhism and instead of benefiting they are harming, for example, by performing animal sacrifice, (though it is less than before). There are many so-called religious practices that harm others. If the actions that are done harm others, then sickness and problems result. We receive the harm. Also, by harming others, from life to life, we receive harm from others. Every time we don’t harm but benefit others, we receive benefit 500 times. By giving benefit and not harm, we get benefit for 500 lives. The benefit lasts from life to life—happiness, wealth and long life, up to buddhahood, the total cessation of problems and the completion of all the realizations.

The whole thing is karma. It depends on that. From virtue, non-attachment to this life, benefit and happiness comes. It is said by Nagarjuna, the Indian omniscient one, the pandit from Nalanda in India, who propagated the teachings of wisdom in the world, “Actions born from anger, attachment and ignorance are nonvirtuous, and from that all the suffering arises.” From non-attachment, non-anger and non-ignorance, which are positive and pure, virtue comes. All the happiness of humans and devas is born from that.

The Buddha said in the Dharmapada, “All phenomena are created by the mind.” The world, which we use and enjoy, comes from our karma, and as it is used together with others, it is our collective karma. By utilizing objects, happiness and suffering arises. All that comes from our mind. The Buddha said, “Mind is the principal and goes preliminarily,” which means before the actions of body and speech. Also, our motivation is an action of the mind. For example, if by taking or generating a good heart, we give a talk to someone, what comes from that is happiness, just as the shadow follows the body. Hence, by creating good karma, there’s always happiness. Phenomena are created by the mind. The mind is the principal.

Accordingly, by generating a bad mind, then what comes from that is suffering. Take the example of the ox—after the ox comes the cart. The ox has to pull a heavy cart and it can’t express its feelings except by not walking. Then it is beaten until it is made to walk again. It is unbelievable suffering. That is the example. These points above explain the most important thing concerning our happiness and suffering.

The next thing, the most important thing, the greatest thing, beneficial and urgent, is that we should do everything to cause the temporal and ultimate happiness, great liberation, peerless enlightenment, for numberless sentient beings, in whatever we do—sleeping, walking, as well as studying Dharma, whatever we do. This is the best and happiest life. Whatever we do is for the happiness of sentient beings.

There’s a story I want to tell you. One student who was very devoted to me donated land to start a center. His family was rich and all their responsibilities came onto him. He had an expensive house, however the family’s business only went down and he lost millions of dollars, but his mind didn’t go down. His mind maintained virtuous thoughts, devotion to the guru and renunciation of samsara, which is in the nature of suffering. Externally he lost the business, but in reality he gained in life, merit and the development of the mind to enlightenment, guru devotion and renunciation of samsara. These basic virtuous thoughts developed and increased, leading not only to liberation from samsara, but to great enlightenment. So he didn’t lose, he gained. He lost only outside money, which was nothing compared to what he gained.

The most important thing is not to harm sentient beings but to cause happiness, temporal and ultimate, peerless enlightenment, for all sentient beings. Therefore, cherish them like we cherish ourselves. Suffering comes from cherishing the I while happiness comes from cherishing others. Do everything for sentient beings, for their ultimate happiness, peerless enlightenment.

I will stop here. I’m sorry this became long, but since you are new it took time to explain.

There is a mantra to recite if you can:

OM HRI YA DHE SARVA TATHAGATHA HRIDAYA GARBE / ZOLA DHARMA DHATU GARBE / SANGHA HARANA AYU SANGSHODHAYA / PAPAM SARVA TATHAGATA SAMENDRA AUSHNI KHA VIMALE BISHUDE SVAHA

The first benefit, if we recite this mantra a few times and then print Buddha’s holy text or make tsa tsas, images of the Buddha’s holy body—by reciting the mantra a few times before making tsa tsas or printing a text—then the result becomes millions. Even if we make just one tsa tsa, it becomes the same merit as having made ten million.

The second benefit is that by making a stupa, which represents the Buddha’s holy mind, just by seeing a stupa, the sufferings of the three lower realms—animals, pretas and hell beings—are purified and it plants the seeds of enlightenment, buddhahood. The stupa becomes meaningful to behold, and anyone who goes around the stupa, even dogs or other animals, becomes free from the three lower realms—the hot hells and the surrounding hells, etc. It is unbelievable like that.

It also blesses our body, so that when others see us or touch us, there’s double benefit. It frees them from the five heinous crimes (of killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha, and causing a schism amongst the Sangha). These heavy negative karmas are purified. We get a higher caste, like in India where people respect those who are from a higher caste, and then we are able to benefit them.

As well, there are the benefits of wealth, long life, protection from harm, liberation and enlightenment. Recite this mantra as much as possible, either seven or twenty-one times, half a mala or one mala. It is so good and has so much power.

[See also the Mantra Taught by Buddha Droden Gyalwa Chhö to read more about the benefits of this mantra.]

Thank you very much to you, from my heart, for understanding all this.

With love and prayer ...

P.S. Please read the back of the elephant card, so then you can understand its benefits. It comes from a Dharma text. It also has my signature on it. The small one you can put in your top pocket. It’s for success.