6. Actions And Their Effects
Contemplation: The main cause of rebirth in the lower realms is non-virtuous actions, or negative karma. All the suffering we experience in this life, such as sickness, poverty, conflict, accidents, and harm from humans and non-humans, is the result of our own past negative karma. If our dearest wishes remain unfulfilled while the things we dislike appear with ease, or if we fail to find good friends, or, having found them, we are soon separated from them, these too are due to the ripening of our past negative karma. Even minor annoyances such as interferences in our daily routine, or the discontent that underlies so much of our life, are the result of the non-virtuous actions accumulated in previous lives. Conversely our precious human life, and the attainments of liberation and enlightenment are the result of virtuous actions.
The dependent relationship between actions and their effects, virtuous actions causing happiness and non-virtuous actions causing suffering, is taught by the Buddhas based on their perfect knowledge. We must believe it because conviction in the laws of karma is the root of all future happiness.
Meditation: We contemplate these points until we develop conviction in the truth of karma. Then we make the determination 'Since I wish to be free from every misfortune and enjoy uninterrupted happiness, I must abandon non-virtuous actions and practice only virtue. In particular, I must abandon the ten non-virtuous actions.' We then make this determination firm by meditating on it with single pointed concentration.
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All meditations and contemplations presented here are extracted from 'The Meditation Handbook' by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Tharpa Publications)
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