Changing karma

The moment a child leaves its mother's womb, it is placed in a destiny that it created for itself in a previous life. "Destiny" sounds heavy, but in fact the situation is not much different. This is a destiny not imposed by deities but made by each person for themselves.

With karma already formed, we are swept along by the force of karma and can hardly resist it. We must admit that our freedom to direct our own lives is very slight. Everything seems already arranged. In an earlier section we set out a symbolic scale of value for the fixed and unfixed in karma, in which circumstances are determined almost 100%, actions are determined 70%, leaving only 30% for us to weigh at the last moment. Only in thought is the determination by karma 50%, leaving 50% for us to choose freely whether to think good or bad thoughts.

Understanding this, we have a fairly steady outlook on life and do not worry much about luck, success or failure. What deserves our concern is to hold firm the 50% freedom in thought so as to win outright over the 50% of leftover habit. We must begin to change karma by first transforming our own inner mind, and then actions and circumstances will gradually change following it.

Over many lives, our mind has accumulated tendencies of selfishness, greed, hatred, envy, competitiveness, haughtiness... Now those tendencies still remain and constantly urge repetition in the present. If we are careless and let go, the old tendencies will prevail and drag us for ever into darkness and wrongdoing. But fortunately, in thought, the force of past tendencies is only 50%. We still have 50% to resist with, to create for ourselves a new moral tendency that wins outright over the ignorant tendencies of before.

To transform our inner mind, first we must seek out and read much about the lives of sages in East and West, ancient and modern. The noble lives of those figures will suggest many good and right things for us to reflect on. It is precisely those things worth reflecting on that are the starting point of the work of inner transformation. For example, when he conquered Syria, Alexander the Great heard of the sage Diogenes. This sage had no property except a bowl for drinking water. He slept in a wooden barrel by the roadside. When Alexander the Great arrived with his entourage, Diogenes was sunning himself in the morning. He sat calmly in the sun even though before him stood an emperor who had conquered most of the lands from Greece to India. Diogenes' calm attitude made Alexander the Great respect him, and he asked whether there was anything he wished for.

"Yes," Diogenes replied. "I wish that you would kindly step aside and not block the sunlight I am basking in."

Alexander turned and said to his entourage:

"If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."

Later Diogenes died by deciding to stop his breath.

How much there is in this story for us to analyse and reflect on! We compare ourselves and see how much of our own inadequacy needs correcting.

Or another story. Many social activists maintain that to carry out land reform and to level out people's property holdings, violence must be used. But the sage Vinoba of India held that love should be used to reform this situation. He walked on foot in a simple cloth, carrying a lantern, from one region to another. He went to meet the landowners there, and with his gentle, kind face, his loving eyes and his courteous, unhurried manner he made a good impression on the householder. He spoke much about the hardship of peasants who toil hard and never have enough to eat, because they own no land and must work for hire and pay land rent. He appealed to the landowners' compassion; he drew on their faith, with the heavens as witness. Finally he said:

"Sir, you have six children. Please regard me as your seventh son and give me one part of your land so that I may share it again among the poor peasants here!"

By this method he obtained a great deal of land from landowners. He called the peasants there and divided it among them. Then he set off again for another place.

How much there is in this story for us to reflect on. Could it be that love transforms the world more effectively than violence?

And do we ourselves have any share of loving-kindness like Vinoba's? Around us are so many heartbreaking things and injustices; do we always use our love and patience to resolve them?

Or another story. Mạc Đĩnh Chi, although he was Trạng Nguyên (top scholar) of two countries, was very poor because he was incorruptible. King Trần Minh Tông, learning of this, sent someone at midnight to secretly leave a bag of gold in front of his house. In the morning, having picked it up, he took it to present to the king. The king laughed and said that if he did not know whose it was, the king gave him permission to use it.

It is true in every age: a mandarin who lives solely on his salary cannot get rich. But how many people can keep such lofty integrity as Mạc Đĩnh Chi? If we stood in his position, could we keep such integrity?

There are countless stories of sages worth our reflection and for illuminating our own lives. It is precisely the moments of thinking about the lives and words of famous people that are the first step in transforming our inner mind, so that we completely overcome the 50% of bad habits still quietly settled within. And inner transformation is the firm foundation for the next step, changing karma.

Many people see that their lives are less fortunate and often meet with things against their wishes. Because they believe in and understand the law of karmic cause and effect, they acknowledge that in previous lives they knew little about making merit and perhaps created much unwholesome karma. They long to change their karma. But they do not know how to change karma from the foundation of the inner mind. They hurry to temples to pray for the protection of the deities. They offer a small sum of money and hope for a return many times over. Or they take the trouble to do meritorious work such as building roads, digging public wells, contributing money to print scriptures... But however many good deeds they do, the greedy, selfish inner mind remains intact. They do good deeds for the karmic reward to themselves, not out of love for everyone. They build a palace of merit on sand, because it does not come from a pure, good and noble inner mind. In a later life they will be people who meet with much good fortune, but a selfish, greedy nature is present at the same time. Then that very selfish, greedy nature will drive them to commit other unwholesome karma.

One who knows how to change karma must know how to transform from the inner mind first. After that, actions will change accordingly.

As said, our actions are already 70% decided from the previous life, with only 30% unfixed. At what time we will build a house, at what moment we will do a good deed, when we will do wrong. Whom we will help when we meet them, whom we will harm... All of this seems 70% arranged already. But if our inner mind is powerfully transformed and has overcome the 50% of old habits, and we are completely free to hold holy thoughts firmly in our hearts, then we will have enough strength to resist the 70% arrangement of action. We will have enough strength to use the remaining unfixed 30% to choose the wisest, most reasonable and most moral action.

For example, on meeting Mr Thành, because of a karmic grievance from a previous life, Mr Hải would have looked for a way to persecute and attack him, and Mr Hải naturally feels a strange dislike. But because Mr Hải has become skilled at transforming his inner mind, when the order comes from the unconscious urging him to harm Mr Thành, he quickly eliminates those unwholesome ideas. Karma urges us to act from deep within the unconscious, and the force of the unconscious is enormous. So it is nearly impossible for us to resist the 70% arrangement of action created by karma from the previous life. Only when we have used the will of awareness to build up good thoughts constantly, and these new good thoughts are stored in the Consciousness Aggregate (see "What Are the Five Aggregates?") to be kept in reserve to deal with the unwholesome urging, will we not be driven by karma to do unwholesome things.

In addition, because the inner mind has been transformed into pure goodness, we will diligently create much merit and perform many meritorious deeds. Such merits include encouraging everyone to cultivate morality, helping the poor and suffering, comforting the sorrowful... and once too many meritorious deeds have been accomplished, not only are they enough to create a life full of good in the future, but even in the present they are enough to change part of our circumstances, although circumstances seem to be determined 100%.

For example, karma has determined that Mr Tám's house will burn down next year. But three years earlier he created much good karma. When the time comes for the house to burn, the fire does rise, but it is put out very early so that he does not suffer much damage. His good karma has shifted part of the circumstances in the present life and is still kept in store for much good fortune in the next life.

As said, all karmic results have been arranged from within the Essence. The law of karma deep in the Essence is like a supercomputer that has combined all of each person's karmic causes and has finished forming the karmic results to come. However, because new good karma created in the present is fed in, the answer is distorted. Three plus five should have been eight, but unexpectedly someone has inserted a few numbers, so the result differs from before. It is no longer eight but twenty.

Hearing this, many will say that, in that case, in the scale of value the claim that circumstances are determined 100% is no longer correct.

Yes, it is no longer correct for those who believe in and understand the law of karma, earnestly wish to change karma, and know how to begin the transformation from their own inner mind. For everyone else, circumstances are determined 100%, and no one has the talent to change them, not even the genius Zhuge Liang.

However, people can change only some details, not the whole main outline of the circumstances. For example, Mr Tám's house must burn; that is the main outline. Whether it burns a lot or a little depends on whether he has managed to change his karma. Or, Mr Sáu must have a car accident. That is the main outline; whether the accident is serious or slight depends on whether he has managed to change his karma.

The main framework, the general outline of the circumstances of life, such as times of good luck and bad luck, promotion and demotion, choice of occupation and change of occupation, the marriage partner, the children who will be born into our family, good and bad friends, periods of rise and fall... has been arranged in advance by the karmic causes of many previous lives and is not a coincidence of this life. Because the circumstances of this life are the accumulated result of many previous lives, they seem fixed and very hard to change. However much merit we make, it changes only some minor details, while the main outlines still go quietly along according to the determination of karma.

If a person wants to change their circumstances and so makes merit, such as giving to orphanages, giving to the poor and the sick, printing scriptures,... then only about one fifth of that merit affects the present circumstances, and four fifths is kept for the next life. That one fifth makes illnesses and accidents lessen a little, but cannot wipe out the old karma entirely.

The branch still has to fall when Mr Năm walks by. But instead of landing on his head and causing a brain injury, it only hits his arm and leaves it swollen for a month, simply because earlier he had bought many birds to set free. The karmic result still has to appear, to tell us that we once did a bad or good deed in the past. If we do not change our karma, the karmic result will appear in full, matching the karmic cause we created. If we have made merit to change karma, it will appear in a lighter degree. But it must appear, and is never entirely erased, to tell us what we did in the past.

Thus, in the process of changing karma, we must make transformation of the inner mind the foundation, in order to overcome the 50% of old habits. When the inner mind has become purely good, we have enough strength to overcome as well the 70% urging of past karma that compels us to act immorally. When action has been carefully controlled, with only good conduct and no bad conduct, then the details of circumstances will change, accidents will be milder and good fortune will come more often. But the main outline of destiny still does not change.

Followers of religions place great faith in prayer. They believe that if they pray to the higher powers, they will be protected by them and escape accidents, have more good luck, and everything will happen as they wish. They pray to the higher powers to pass exams, win the lottery, profit greatly in trade, marry a rich husband, bear obedient children, travel safely, be promoted... Countless forms of folk belief have appeared in answer to these requests. Shrines, temples and palaces have sprung up like mushrooms, with countless deities, ladies, saints and scholars worshipped with the duty of listening and responding to the prayers of those who come. Those who come to pray also sincerely bring fruit, incense, candles and money to present as offerings expressing their sincerity to the deity there. The income of temples and shrines famed for their spiritual power is very large. Even the statues of the deities are hung with necklaces of almost ten taels of gold. And after a festival, the cash offered is beyond counting.

If those sums are used by the temple custodian for public benefit such as relief, road-building and almsgiving,... the donors will gain merit. If the money is divided up privately, no one has merit. As for whether each person's secret prayer is fully answered by the deities, there are no clear statistics.

However, from the viewpoint of the law of karma, people's sincere prayer is not entirely without effect. A sincere and earnest heart of prayer makes the power of the mind rise up. The power of the unconscious is very great and wondrous and can produce unexpected effects. For example, a mother suffering over a wayward child prayed for the child to repent and turn to the good. After a long time the child changed markedly and gave up quite a lot of his earlier bad habits. Here the mother's earnest prayer works like hypnosis and suggestion from afar. Over time it is strong enough to change her child's inner mind. Moreover, the liberated saints who abide in the absolute Essence are always in resonance with everyone. A sincere heart praying for good things is always protected by the Buddhas, since a good aspiration is already a good karmic cause, and it deserves to enjoy a corresponding result.

Understanding this, we have one more method of changing karma for everyone out of our own suffering.

Whenever we meet adversity, do not pray for the higher powers to protect us so that we escape the calamity; instead pray that everyone may avoid that adversity. This altruistic aspiration brings about greater merit than a selfish plea for ourselves alone. A person who has fallen into unemployment and poverty, because he believed in and understood karma, prayed that the higher powers would protect everyone from unemployment and poverty, so that everyone would have work. Then his good aspiration was rewarded fittingly. Some time later he found work easily.

So from now on, whatever we wish for, let us earnestly pray first for everyone to attain it; whatever suffering we want to avoid, let us earnestly pray for everyone to be free of that suffering. Thus we both know how to change karma and know how to grow our altruistic mind.

Returning to the pleas of the many who visit temples and shrines. They ask for wealth, status and marriage. Some will attain them and some will not; all is governed by karma. Whoever has made much merit in the past will have their prayers bear fruit. Whoever lacks merit will not have their wish fulfilled at present.

Very many Buddhists place their faith in the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm) who, according to the Universal Gate chapter of the Lotus Sutra, is able to hear everyone's prayers and relieve their suffering. They sculpt the Bodhisattva's statue as the image of a gentle mother who loves everyone and is ready to rescue everyone from calamity. There are very many anecdotes of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara's responsiveness. Many people claim to have experienced it themselves when meeting with disaster. They sincerely recited the Bodhisattva's name and escaped danger in a wondrous way that is hard to imagine.

A woman travelling by river was threatened by robbers, who killed her husband and child. She was struck on the head and thrown into the river. But because she recited the Bodhisattva's name she did not sink; she drifted to the bank and was saved by villagers.

A man was as if lifted and thrown out of a coach before the vehicle overturned into a field. This man had been murmuring the Bodhisattva's name as he travelled a long way.

A young man chased by robbers recited the Bodhisattva's name. At the riverbank, suddenly an old man rowing a boat came and took him to the other bank, leaving the gang watching in frustration. After landing, he turned back and both the old man and the boat had vanished, like something in a fairy tale.

In truth the Lotus Sutra is the most mysterious scripture of Northern Buddhism. Its words all hide many meanings. Each person understands it more deeply or more shallowly according to their own capacity. The scripture has very many hard-to-understand metaphors, and the Universal Gate chapter is a great challenge for anyone who wants to study the doctrine of this sutra. The scope of this work does not allow us to stray into the doctrine of the Lotus Sutra, which is vast and profound; we only summarise, from the standpoint of karma, that it is FAITH and the POWER OF MERIT that brought about the results above. Moreover, if, in a moment of panic, a person can remember to recite the Bodhisattva's name, that person surely knows how to practise and to make merit, and has not come to it for nothing. It is past merit that follows the prayer and dissolves part of their suffering.

Some scholars criticise that the theory of karma makes people resign themselves to injustice. Poor people who are exploited never think of struggling for their rights because they think karma has arranged such a fate for them. Belief in karma makes them resigned, accepting and submissive. That character does not fit the work of social reform, which needs brave people who struggle and sacrifice for the collective interest.

To address this problem, we can look back at a little history.

During the time when tyrants held power, such as Nero, Qin Shi Huang, Hitler... there were very many people who wanted to rise up against them. But while the tyrants' merit remained and the people's wrongdoing had not run out, every plot of opposition was crushed. When the tyrants' merit was exhausted and the country had come to the time of its revival, the tyrants naturally collapsed easily. Sometimes it was a death from illness, sometimes only a simple assassination.

In the relations of karma, the fate of a country and of its leader are connected. When a country reaches a time of prosperity, its leader naturally is a person of full talent and virtue. When a country declines, its leader is naturally a dull and despotic person who holds power very firmly, and no one can budge him. Quietly, karma still governs everything.

Moreover, in history, after struggles and successful coups, the people's lives were often hungrier than before the period of struggle. Struggle by violence has not been the source of prosperity for society. It is a flourishing morality that makes society prosper.

In a society with morality, people know how to care for the common good and forget the private. They try to work with high effectiveness. If everyone is like this, society will transform quickly. Like Japan after 1945. All Japanese felt humiliated and shared one wish: to restore the honour of the homeland. They toiled tirelessly (a good karma) for the country. Now they are preparing to "buy the whole world" with the money from that labour.

It is morality that makes people well fed and warm and makes society progress; it is not violence that does this. An article in the Ho Chi Minh City Public Security newspaper was headed "Advancing to Socialism through charitable work" (that is, good karma), which also accords with this meaning. Let us build a firm moral foundation for society, and then we will see the country transform. If we must struggle, we must struggle first with our own selfishness, while struggle on the outside may sometimes even increase our selfishness. What makes people exploit one another is their self-centred mind. When exploited, they struggle for their rights. After the struggle succeeds, unless they are careful, they in turn become exploiters, because they have not conquered the selfishness hidden in their own hearts.

It is exactly here that we see the value of believing in and understanding the law of karma. A person who believes in and understands the law of karma is not one who resigns himself to injustice, because he is fighting the most terrible injustice of all: selfishness. Injustice is wanting to grab a great deal for oneself without thinking of others. Injustice and selfishness are also one. We want a society without injustice. Very good. But first let us struggle with the injustice still reigning in our own hearts. If everyone knows this, society will be free of injustice.