Into the Heart of Life by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Read Free Book Online Page B

powers. First is the power of remorse—we regret whatever unwholesome action we did. We genuinely regret it. It’s no good thinking, for example, “Oh well, but what I did was kind of clever, and nobody else would know how to do it as well as that”—that’s a kind of subtle pride in doing something which was unwholesome. And that is not regretting; there’s no remorse, and then it doesn’t purify. So first of all, we have to deeply regret—we are really sorry we did that action. But remorse doesn’t mean that we keep on and on. There’s regret, but it’s not like continually picking at the scabs.
    Then there is the power of reliance. That means we rely on something outside of ourselves to really help us. In this case, we rely on the purificatory practices like Vajrasattva—we believe that doing this Vajrasattva practice can really help us purify this karma.
    Then we have the power of promising never to do it again. It’s like we took poison, then we’re really sorry we took that poison, and we vow we’re definitely never going to do that again. Finally there is the power of the antidote—that means that we do something which is the opposite of what we did before. For instance, if something has been killed, we save life or we try to help children. We try to do what we can to create good karma, the direct opposite of the bad karma. If we do that with sincerity, that will help to purify.
    Perhaps in the case of something like abortion, it may be a good idea on the anniversary to offer prayers for that being’s good rebirth and wish him or her well on the journey through samsara. Because of course abortion is a terrible thing—we’re not pretending. But also, there must have been some short life karma since the fetus of that child was born in circumstances where it couldn’t come to fruition. Since then the consciousness has gone on and has taken other rebirths. So while we regret that we did what we did, still it is no good holding on. The child has gone on now. Just send prayers to wish him or her well, wherever they may be in samsara and then, as I say, do things which can compensate. For instance, if you have children, be kind to them—love them and make them know how welcome they are.
    Rely on the fact that there is a way to go beyond this—it’s all right. In this world of birth and death, we come into being and we go, don’t we? Don’t hold on to it.
     
    Q: Is there a kind of collective karma?
    JTP: No. Not from the Buddhist point of view. Anyway, collective karma is the aggregate of all the individual karmas, and if we share certain similarities, then they may come together so that we might be born in the same kind of circumstances with others of similar karmic backgrounds. I think that’s what happens. But from the Buddhist point of view, there is no collective karma—that’s a philosophical idea.
    Q: I’ll tell you what I thought in the back of my mind. It’s something that comes to my mind when I’m trying to deal with cynicism. It seems to me that there has been a certain amount of spiritual progress overall. A notable example is that there is perhaps less slavery in the world today than there once was. And I find great hope and solace in the notion that we have collectively made some progress in overcoming these unwholesome practices.
    JTP: You mean the world is full of remorse? There has never been such an increase in prostitution, including child prostitution, than in these days. The exploitation of human beings is ghastly. Look at the importation of these people—just recently, all those people that died in the back of the truck. And that goes on in the hundreds of cases, if not thousands and millions. And there is still slavery and bonded labor carried on in many parts of the world today.
    We hope that we are progressing, but there is increasing violence, especially among the young, and there are widespread suicides. I mean, I do want to hope that we are learning our lessons, but