YOUR ABILITY TO ELIMINATE YOUR KARMIC OBSTACLES REDUCES IF YOU KEEP REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKE
Master Jun Hong Lu: There are many people who have the misconception that “It’s alright for me to do some bad things today. I can recite a few times of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance (LIFO) to repent and all is good.”
Let me make it very clear to all of you, this will not work at all. If you repent with this mindset, the more you repent, the more significant your negative karma will be.
Originally, when you did something wrong and you repent, you are able to eradicate 90% of your karmic obstacles associated with the misdeed, with a remainder of 10%. Subsequently, if you repeat the same misdeed, you are only able to eliminate 80% of the karmic obstacles with a remainder of 20%.
The next time you commit the same wrongdoing again, only 70% of it will get eliminated. This is how the elimination ratio will continue to decline. Imagine yourself performing countless repentance for this said wrongdoing, do you think it is even possible for you to eliminate the karmic ramifications?
You must understand that when one is performing repentance, deep down, he must confide to the Bodhisattva, “I will now break my bad habit for good and I will never repeat this wrongdoing ever.”
Only by embracing such a mental state when reciting LIFO, you are able to exterminate all of your karmic obstacles. Unfortunately, there are many who commit evildoings on one hand and on the other, recite LIFO for that regrettable mistake. For example, you hurl verbal abuse at someone today, and recite LIFO the next day and if this process keeps repeating, at the end of the day, do you think there is any use of you reciting LIFO at all?
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 8 Chapter 6
< About Spiritual Cultivation