One needs to cultivate ‘concentration’, as this concentration can foster wisdom. As I’ve explained before, the principle of “precepts, concentration, and wisdom” is crucial. It’s only with the discipline of precepts that one can achieve concentration, and it’s this concentration that enhances wisdom. Those who can maintain concentration, those who remain calm, are wise. Concentration and wisdom develop together. By employing both concentration and wisdom, one can alleviate worries and afflictions. By applying your concentration, you generate wisdom, and with this wisdom, you can dispel and distance yourself from afflictions. To do so, you must abandon greed, anger, and ignorance, and all of this relies on concentration and wisdom. If you have both concentration and wisdom, you can attain liberation, but this is merely the beginning of liberation. Can you understand?
I often say that each person’s karmic obstructions are as immense as a mountain and as vast as the sea. A mountain is heavy and the sea is broad, symbolising that a person’s faults and flaws are significant and pervasive, mirroring the size of a mountain and the breadth of the sea. These karmic obstructions are within us, with no part left untouched. Think about it, how many shortcomings have each of you accumulated from childhood until now? Disregarding advice, not listening to others, being lazy, only considering yourself, oblivious to the feelings of others, causing harm, slandering others and so on; these offences weigh as heavy as a mountain, and the negative karma is as vast as the sea.
One should magnify their flaws and minimise their merits. In other words, perceive your strengths as tiny and your weaknesses as substantial. Only in this way can you realise how daunting your shortcomings are and strive to urgently correct them. However, many people do the opposite. They use a magnifying glass for their merits, exaggerating even minor good deeds, and a microscope for their faults, downplaying significant shortcomings as trivial. “Isn’t it just a little thing? What’s the big deal?” Please note this: Never forget that even minor causes can have significant effects.
We should strive to be noble individuals, not petty ones. Although we are all humans, some people live as if they are in Hell, while others dwell in Heaven. Those living as though they are in Heaven do so because their hearts are as vast as the sky, devoid of any distracting thoughts. On the other hand, those living as though they are in Hell have narrow minds, as tiny as the eye of a needle, consumed by worry, sorrow, and jealousy, living in perpetual suffering. The aim of cultivating the mind, as I’ve taught you, is to rectify your own flaws and cultivate a heart as wide as the sea.
Next, let’s discuss the entanglement of karmic forces. You may wish to be a good person, yet find it hard to achieve due to the pull of karmic force. You may try to rid yourself of afflictions, yet they persistently cling to you. For instance, you may aspire to be a good person, yet distracting thoughts swirl in your mind, soon followed by bad intentions. These bad intentions and afflictions are self-inflicted and difficult to push away. So then, how can you become a good person?
Let me share some insights about karma with you:
Firstly, the karmic force that leads to the cycle of rebirth is very heavy and muddled. The karmic obstacles on you are sufficient to keep you trapped in the cycle of rebirth, preventing you from reaching Heaven. Therefore, these obstacles associated with the cycle of rebirth are murky and hefty. What does the concept of “being reborn with karma” mean? It implies that you can carry this karma with you to Heaven, but it must be light karma. For instance, as a young person, you might have scolded others, spoken harshly, or committed minor wrongdoings. But, in your later years, you must cultivate your mind to eradicate past misdeeds and carry with you the positive karma. It doesn’t mean that if you continue to commit evils in your later years, you can carry these negative karmic obstructions and be reborn into the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss; that’s impossible. The concept of ‘being reborn with karma’ means that after you have made transformation through your cultivation, there are still some residual traces of light karma left, not heavy karma. It’s crucial to understand this.
Rebirth to the Pure Land depends on the power of your own cultivation. Despite this dependence, it’s virtually impossible to entirely eliminate your karmic obstructions. I often tell you: imagine a sheet of white paper with words written on it. Can you completely erase those words? The traces remain; what’s rubbed away is only the surface. Yet, the Bodhisattvas are merciful. When our time comes, even though imprints remain, out of their compassion, they allow us to ascend. It’s challenging to thoroughly eliminate karmic obstructions. To genuinely eradicate all karmic obstructions, one needs willpower and determination. If a person lacks these, their shortcomings (karmic obstructions) cannot be removed. We must truly push through to reform ourselves and completely transform our flaws.
Secondly, when the karmic retribution takes effect, it’s akin to a volcanic eruption. For instance, a person might be well at the outset. But when karmic retribution strikes, they may suddenly suffer a stroke, or a major incident occurs at home. Karmic obstructions come unexpectedly; you can’t dodge them, just like a volcanic eruption. When karmic force takes effect, you should ‘run’ and ‘watch’ at the same time. If trouble is about to occur at home, hurry up and ‘run’. However, the ‘running’ I’m talking about is not about evasion. When karma strikes, can you really escape? What I’m teaching you to ‘run’ is to resolve these omens, eliminate them. Simultaneously, you should ‘watch’. This ‘watching’ encourages you to resolve, to think. For instance, why do I have these negative thoughts? Why do calamities find me? What kind of karmic obstacle seeks me? Is it from this life or past lives? Is it from deceased relatives in my family or is it something I’ve incited now?
When the karmic force takes effect, it’s like a volcanic eruption. You ‘run’ and ‘watch’ simultaneously. This terrifying power is inescapable. If you’re not careful, you’ll be melted into it, dissolved within the karmic force. Therefore, karma is a fearsome thing. The method I’m teaching you now is to perform more meritorious deeds to eliminate karma, because only merits and virtue can clear karmic obstacles, while doing good deeds only earns good rewards.
Thirdly, when you are in the sea of suffering, karma clings to you like a shark. When you seek to break free and distance yourself from it, this shark will not let go. Wherever you swim, it’ll follow, tailing you relentlessly. When you finally catch a glimpse of the shore and try desperately to reach it, to shake off the clutches of karma, karma—like the shark—grabs hold of your leg and drags you back down. Imagine how pitiful it is for humans, who desperately seek to escape from karma, only to be dragged back down just as they are about to reach the shore. Karma perpetually pursues you.
Karma resides in your heart, upon your soul. Karmic force is akin to demonic power. The struggle against karma is tiring and challenging, thus it’s best to avoid accumulating it. If you commit negative karma, ensuing suffering becomes unbearable. Can you understand? Moreover, you’re always at risk of being devoured by the shark, or self-harming, implying that you could be hurt or even killed by karma. Karmic forces cannot be escaped from. They are karmic obstructions, shadowing you like your own reflection. They are always ready to be activated, and once activated, they generate spirits, first consuming all your merits and virtues, as merits and virtues can shield you from disaster. It’s similar to how a shark would first bite off the flesh of a plump person without harming the bone. If the person is skinny, a single bite would reach the bone.
When you seek to escape the sea of suffering, the shark bites you back in, preventing your escape. You need to use your foundational strength, rooted in your original Buddha-nature. That is, if you want to break free from your karmic obstructions, you must have this foundational strength— the power of your original Buddha-nature, your inherent nature. You need to use the Buddha-power and compassion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to remove it and attain liberation. Otherwise, all your karmic creditors will come looking for you. (Editor’s note: This section, in which Master Lu discusses the issue of karma in two different contexts, ingeniously parallels another analogy of karmic obstructions acting like a shark that Master Lu used in the previous chapter.)