Cause and Effect is True

Rebirth is Disaster

The third practice is to visualize the truth of cause and effect:

The cause and effect is true. Just reciting the verses in the ritual is not enough. It requires practicality, practicing, mindfulness and contemplating deeply about the meaning of the verses.

In terms of white dharma, it includes ten kinds of good deeds of body, speech, and mind such as not killing. But just not killing is not enough for a good deed. Only when you vow to "never kill from now on", then it is considered a wholesome deed. Taking it a step further, if you not only refrain from killing but also practice releasing animals, not only refrain from stealing but also give alms, and so on. These are all ten extraordinary good deeds. In short, all the good karma created by the ethos of non-greed, non-anger, and non-delusion is good karma, and the good karma created by the more intense ethos is more extraordinary good karma.

In terms of black dharma, there are ten kinds of unwholesome karma, including three on the body, four on speech, and three on the mind. For serious unwholesome karma, there are several situations when looking at the causes and conditions of the karma: First, severe confrontation, such as the guru and triple gems, parents in this life, etc. Second, intense reactions, such as strong anger, hatred, and other afflictions. Third, the nature of the unwholesome karma, such as killing, is the heaviest among the ten kinds of evil karma. The other unwholesome karma is difficult to cure and change, such as wrong views. "It is better to destroy the body than to damage the right view", so in this regard, the wrong views are extremely serious. We must eradicate these ten kinds of unwholesome karma.

Good deeds will have good rewards, evil karma will have retribution, and the consequences of karma are real and not false. In summary, all good deeds and evil karmas have four kinds of consequences: the fruit of karma (Vipakaphala), the fruit of outflow (Niṣyandaphala), the fruit of dominance (Adhipati-phala), and the fruit from human effort (Purusa-kara-phala). The cause and effect are not false. Just reciting the verses in the ritual is not enough. It requires actively practicing mindfulness and thinking deeply about the meaning of the verses.

The standard for the occurrence of cause and effect is to truly believe in cause and effect, to always remember the truth of cause and effect, to uphold it with non-resistance at any time and place, and to practice good deeds to prevent unwholesome karma.

The fourth practice is to visualize the disaster of the cycle of birth and death:

The requirement is to also meditate and visualize while reciting the ritual. The cultivation is to always remember many sufferings in the cycle of birth and death in the mind, and deeply feel that the six realms cycling is like a house on fire, with no moment of peace, so that the mind can always stay in the practice of the dharma and cultivation.