Each full karmic action has three results, though one of the results is divided into two, so sometimes you hear about four results. All four results come only if the action has been completed with the four parts and it has not been purified.

The first result is called the ripening result or the maturation result. This is how karma ripens in terms of what rebirth we take, and which realm we are born into. The exact specifics of the rebirth, like who our parents are and that kind of stuff, is also due to karma but is more of a completing result and not the ripening result of the realm that you are born into.

The second result is karma that corresponds to the cause. It corresponds to the cause in two ways. This is the one that is divided into two parts. The first way is that the result corresponds in terms of the experience. In other words, what experience we gave to others, we now experience ourselves. If we criticised others, then it ripens when we are born again as humans, and we get criticised. If we stole from others, the karma ripens that people steal from us. The second corresponding result is in terms of the habitual tendency to do the action. This part is the most serious way that karma ripens because just committing an action once, you get the habit and you keep doing the same thing again and again. Then things get really heavy.

From a karma we created in a past life, we have the tendency to do the same thing in this life again. If it is a non-virtue, then we tend to do a lot of nonvirtue in a certain way; if it is a virtuous action we did in the past, then we have the tendency to do a lot of virtue in that particular action again in this lifetime. That habitual tendency is quite important. We can see that in our lives. We can see how kids are born with certain tendencies and despite the encourgement or discouragement from their parents, the tendencies will still remain as a strong imprint within them. Their parents can encourage the tendencies or discourage them, and that has a strong imprint. We can look at ourselves and see certain virtuous actions that we do very easily, or kind, virtuous mental states that come very easily, that are a result of having developed them in previous lives and having that habitual energy. Whoever we were in a previous life, we can thank them for those parts of ourselves that are virtuous and easier to activate.

Then we have bad habits that we are also well-trained in. That is because in a previous life we did not try to counteract them, we did not apply the antidotes, and we just kept doing them. We developed the habit, so the habit continues. That is why it is important in this life to try and deal with the habitual negative actions that we do so that in our next lives we do not have to carry those things. Or if they are there, they are very weak. If we have habitual virtuous actions, keep doing them because then it is very easy to continue doing them in our next lives.

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