Source: FPMT Newsletter November 2005

The Earth In Your Hands

SUTRAS PLAYED ALOUD

People come to the Dharma center for purification, to achieve liberation and enlightenment, so such an easy way to help them is to have a sutra playing where they can hear it as they are resting or working.

You can play the Sanghata Sutra, or other sutras. Hearing the sutras can purify not only the ten non-virtuous actions, but also the five extremely heinous non-virtues and prevent rebirth in the lower realms.

It is very good to have a sutra recited by a holy being (such as the recording of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche’s reciting the Sanghata Sutra) so that there is more effect from the blessing of their speech. Or can have the sutra recited by someone whose voice is enchanting, and who flies like to listen to…!

Colophon: Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this brief advice to Karen Itzel during the retreat at Oseling, Spain; August 25th 2005. Notes taken by Claire Isitt and Karen Itzel.

Karma means ‘action’. According to the law of karma, there are inescapable results of our intentional actions.

There are deeds of body, speech and mind that lead to one’s own harm, to others’ harm, or to the harm of both. Such deeds are called ‘bad’ or ‘unwholesome’ karma. They are motivated by craving, ill will or delusion, and because they bring painful results, they should not be done.

There are also deeds of body, speech and mind that lead to one’s own well-being, to the well-being of others, or to the well-being of both. Such deeds are called ‘good’ or ‘wholesome’ karma. They are motivated by generosity, compassion or wisdom, and because they bring pleasant results, they should be done as often as possible.

Much of what one experiences is the result of one’s own previous karma. Thus when misfortune occurs, instead of blaming someone else, one can look for faults in one’s own past conduct. If a fault is found, the experience of its consequences will make one more careful in the future. When happiness occurs, instead of taking it for granted, one can look for the past good karma which caused it. If one can find such a cause, the experience of its pleasant results will encourage more good karma in the future.

The Buddha pointed out that no being whatsoever, divine or otherwise, has the power to stop the consequences of good and bad karma. The fact that one reaps just what one sows gives the Buddhist a powerful incentive to avoid all forms of bad karma and do as much good karma as possible.

Though one cannot escape the results of bad karma, one can lessen their severity. A spoon of salt mixed in a glass of water makes the whole glass very salty, whereas the same spoon of salt mixed in a freshwater lake hardly changes the taste of the water at all. Similarly, the results of bad karma in a person habitually doing only a small amount of good karma is painful indeed, whereas the result of the same bad karma in a person habitually doing a great deal of karma is only felt mildly.

This natural law of karma thus becomes the force behind, and the reason for, the Buddhist practice of morality and compassion in our society.