Look at your ideas about negative karma and positive karma. I am sure we all think our positive karma ripens quickly and finishes swiftly. That it comes and goes very quickly. On the other hand, we think our negative karma is permanent and always functions to produce the result of suffering, and can never be purified, it just always is. Maybe we acquired that concept when we were children, or maybe our minds made it up. We really need to bring out the assumptions and underlying ideas we have about things and ask ourselves if they are true. “Am I grasping onto a permanent cause? Am I holding onto an idea of an external creator whom I’ve got to please? Am I thinking that a discordant cause is the cause of my suffering or my happiness?”

Use reasoning and logic to root out these old assumptions, because they create a very strong emotional block in our practice if they are not challenged. If we have the idea that negative karma is permanent and there is nothing we can do about it, we can easily conclude that we are a bad person. Mistaken actions do not mean you are a bad person — they are not connected, though our mind invents a connection. These kinds of wrong views impede our growth and disturb us on an emotional level. If we believe this irrational logic that ends with “therefore, I’m insufficient, stupid, so forget it”, we will be down all the time.

There are many kinds of causality aside from karmic causality, such as biological causality, chemical causality, and psychological causality. A lack of snow this winter was due to the physical causality of the Gulf Stream moving the water elsewhere, but our living in a place where there is insufficient rainfall is influenced by our karma.

When you contemplate causality, it loosens things up in your mind and you realise that they are not concrete. If they are dependent on causes they cannot support themselves and only exist because the causes for them exist. The whole idea of causality means change, so if we can change those causes, we can change the results. It is possible to remove the causes of negativity and suffering because they are all based on wrong views. If we develop the wisdom that understands things the way they are, those wrong views will be eliminated. Realising this opens a whole field in which you can play because things are not cast in concrete. This gives us much more enthusiasm and helps us to be more compassionate because it is easier to be kinder to others when our mind is happy.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!