Question asked by H_K
Dear Pastor, I was reading Rinpoche’s book “Be happy” and something caught my eye strongly and made me ponder about his reasoning. It is said that when we see somebody born with a seemingly easy life to outsiders, it is in fact a manifestation of his/her very bad karma in this lifetime and they go around hurting people? I would like to relate this to my personal experience of a person who has hurt me very badly by spreading untruths about me, as well as some unpleasant physical actions. She’s the only child and based on what I know is quite fortunate in this lifetime, spends a lot on herself, has many friends, doting mother etc. However her attitude towards people, friends or strangers depends on her mood, and it can be normal or very unpleasant both in speech and action. She’s very good at gossips too. She feels that this is’ just her’. She’s apologetic towards me at the beginning after I reported on her, citing that she’s not sure what she did to affect me deeply. However now she’s rather cold towards me again. After months of Dharma study I have learnt to accept the law of cause and effect and realized that it is not right to resent and retaliate in the past, as well as to transform my mind to let go, let go of the worldly concerns to be attached to people/repel away unpleasant encounters. My question: could this my real life example of a “good life person” having the bad karma manifesting in this life which might haunt them in the next? Because to the untrained it does seems like the person is enjoying plenty of good karma despite many harmful things done through mental, speech and actions and the law of cause and effect doesn’t exist. In this way, I should practice compassion towards her (I do actually, no more resentment) even though she still sees me as dirt.
Dear H_K,
I am very happy to read this question from you. It shows that you are understanding the Dharma well and that you are progressing along your spiritual path. You are absolutely right that those who behave in this way, and are seemingly enjoying their good karma, will suffer in their future lives.
This is because as they are enjoying life with all its benefits, they are actually using up their good karma. This means that in their future lives they no longer have this good karma to receive benefit from. As their good karma diminishes, it means that their bad karma can overwhelm the good, leading to very negative circumstances in their future lives.
Coupled with this, as they are in the midst of enjoying their good karma, if they are not benefiting others but only themselves, if they are not behaving well, they are self-centred, they hurt others physically or emotionally, they are actually generating negative karma to suffer from in the future. Coupled with the fact that they are using up their good karma, this can lead to a very negative life in their future rebirth in any of the Six Realms of Samsara.
You are right that we should generate compassion for such people. For our own practice, this leads us to transform our minds, so we stop blaming others who hurt others, and also overcoming our feelings of jealousy if we are attached to their nice lives. When we contemplate the suffering of others who have harmed us, who we are jealous of or those we hate, we are able to let go of these emotions that affect us so negatively. If we are able to and in a situation to do so, we should actually try to help them. But his sort of situation is rare to be in. But we must make an effort to help them if we can. I hope this helps.
Thank you.