Lama Zopa Rinpoche

All of us, believers or nonbelievers, need to practice an ethical life, not harming others: not
killing, not lying, not stealing and so forth. That is the basis. In that way, we don’t suffer and
others don’t suffer. Not being harmed by others, we have happiness and then, in turn, we
can benefit others more and more. As a result, we become happier and happier and so too
do others. We can bring great happiness to those around us, to our family, our country and
the world.
We will be able to do all that, even without believing in karma and reincarnation. People who
do not necessarily have such beliefs but have a very good heart bring much happiness to
others and, because of that, gain everybody’s respect. In that way they can benefit others
more and bring more happiness to themselves, their families and the world.
If ethics is important for the happiness of just this life, it becomes a much more important
issue when we consider more than one life. The conclusion is this. The suffering we
experience in this life might look like it comes from others, from external sources, but it
does not; it comes from our own mind. It is the result of our own past karma, the intention
to harm others, which left a negative imprint on the continuity of our consciousness. We
then experience the result in this life.
Similarly, all the good things we experience in this life are due to our past good intentions,
our good karma, the help we have given others, which left a positive imprint on the
continuity of our consciousness, resulting in our experience of happiness, joy and success in
our wishes.
Others are not the main cause, they are just a condition; therefore there is nothing to blame
others for. It has all come from our mind, from our past lives. Because we want to be
successful in this life, we can see that what we need to do is not harm others. Whether or not
we believe in karma and reincarnation, we need to not harm others and to bring them
happiness, to use our life to fulfill their wishes. We must bring happiness to everyone—
people, animals, even insects, whatever size they are. Because it is a dependent arising, if we
do that, it will become the cause of our own success and happiness—using our life to bring
happiness to others, to making others’ wishes succeed, is the best cause.
Karma is definite. If we create the cause we will definitely experience the result, happiness.
The result of nonvirtue is suffering; the result of virtue is happiness. And karma is
expandable. One karmic action results in many lifetimes of results. From one act of good
karma we can experience many lifetimes’ happiness. To be able to fulfill somebody’s wishes
of happiness, which is one time, we can then experience five hundred or a thousand lifetimes
of happiness and success for ourselves—from just one good karmic act. You should
understand that and keep it in mind.
Conversely, if we harm somebody once, cheating or harming them, we experience the
suffering results for five hundred or a thousand lifetimes, depending on how harmful the
action is. In his Four Hundred Verses, the Nalanda pandit Aryadeva said that if we cheat one
sentient being we will be cheated by others for a thousand lifetimes. If we kill an insect with
a negative mind then, because karma is expandable, the result will be to be killed for five
hundred lifetimes. Keeping this in the mind, we should dare not give even a small harm,
even once, to anybody.
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