Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Having been born at a time when the Dharma has spread, we must practice the unmistaken
Dharma, otherwise we will be exactly like the businessman returning from the land of wishgranting
jewels empty-handed.
When I check up on one day of my life, this is what I see: I get up with ignorance and
attachment to this life, dress with ignorance and attachment to this life, go to the bathroom
and wash with ignorance and attachment to this life and so forth. That is my motivation—
not a Dharma motivation but a worldly one.
Attachment to this life is the main motivation for everything we do; we do not have a
Dharma motivation. In the same way, we eat breakfast with the nonvirtuous thought,
attachment to this life. We do everything with a totally nonvirtuous motivation. Eating
breakfast becomes not holy Dharma but worldly dharma. In the same way, our motivation
for going to work is attachment to this life. We have no Dharma motivation, not even to
benefit our future lives or to achieve liberation from samsara. However many hours of work
we do, because of our motivation, they all become nonvirtuous; our work does not become
Dharma.
Eating lunch with the eight worldly dharmas, with attachment to this life, cannot become
Dharma. However many hours we spend over lunch, every second of eating or drinking
becomes nonvirtue, the cause of the lower realms. Similarly, we eat dinner with the same
motivation, attachment to this life, and so that also becomes nonvirtuous. It does not
become holy Dharma.
Going to sleep is the same; again, we do it for the pleasure of this life. At the beginning
there’s no virtuous thought, no Dharma motivation, so however many hours of comfortable,
deep sleep we get, it all becomes nonvirtue.
Even trying to do some Dharma activity like saying mantras or prayers fails to become
Dharma. Our motivation is the same, the wish for the pleasure of this life, therefore our socalled
Dharma activity actually becomes non-Dharma. Such motivation can make even
Dharma study a worldly concern. Learning more Dharma in order to teach may not be to
benefit others but for reputation and power.
If you are like me, when you check on your day you can see that because of your worldly
motivation, all the activities of your body, speech and mind throughout the whole day and
night have been completely nonvirtuous. And having collected no virtue in this life, only
nonvirtue, the result is that in your next life, leave aside not attaining another human rebirth,
you won’t even hear the sound of a human voice for many eons. Once your life in the lower
realms has started, because your negative karma has not been purified, because you failed to
practice Dharma, you will never hear another pleasant sound.
Shantideva said,
And if I commit no wholesome deeds (there),
But readily amass much wrongdoing,
Then for a hundred million eons
I shall not even hear the words “a happy life.” 100
149