The Karmic Retribution of a Contemptuous Mind

When a person has a contemptuous mind in their heart, not only can the words spoken become seeds of evil karma that will bring evil retribution in the future, but even the expressions that represent contempt also become karmic seeds, and in the future one will also suffer evil retribution because of them. Even the thoughts and mental deliberations in the mind will be stored away as seeds, and in the future one will also suffer evil retribution because of them, because once the mind-ground is defiled, the karmic seeds are impure.

Anyone who has ever had a contemptuous mind, no matter in what form, should promptly repent. In order not to suffer evil retribution in future lives, it is worth paying any price to remedy it. There are also mental actions more serious than a contemptuous mind that should be repented of even more, so as to avoid great evil retribution in future lives—for example, deception and lies, deliberate deception and malicious lies, all of which should be promptly repented. Small causes yield great fruits; these matters are no trivial play—the retribution is not false.

In the past, a young novice said of an ordained master that he ate like an ox chewing grass, and as a result he was reborn as an ox for five hundred lifetimes. If the verbal karma of an ordained person speaking about an ordained person is that severe, how much more severe is the verbal karma of a layperson speaking about an ordained person. Everyone must examine themselves; even the slightest fault should be repented, lest one suffer the retribution in the future and regret it when it is too late. Nowadays there are many people who slander the Three Jewels—not a small number—and they do so brazenly, openly, self-righteously, unreasonably, unbelievably. These people may well descend into hell to undergo retribution. If one had supernatural powers and could take a trip through the hells, one would know that the beings in hell are not all murderers and arsonists; quite a few are sentient beings who studied Buddhism and committed great evil karma before going there. At the time, they did not know they were committing evil karma; some even thought it was wholesome karma, thinking nothing would come of it. Among these people, quite a few considered themselves to be quite good practitioners.

As long as the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion have not been eliminated, one may commit evil karma. Especially when a Buddhist practitioner is incited by someone they trust, their head gets hot, and they dare to do anything, thinking nothing will happen, not knowing that the future retribution will be extremely heavy. The more noble and esteemed someone is in the world, and the more beneficial they are to sentient beings, the greater the sin of committing evil karma against them. A Buddhist practitioner must first understand cause and effect, be careful with bodily, verbal, and mental actions, not commit evil karma, and not suffer evil retribution—this is a wise person. Those who truly understand cause and effect, who truly deeply believe and accept cause and effect, are already close to attaining the bhūmis as a bodhisattva. Pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas cannot yet completely believe and accept cause and effect, let alone ordinary beings. Because those who can realize the tathāgatagarbha and directly observe its functioning know that bodily, verbal, and mental actions are stored into the tathāgatagarbha moment by moment without omission, and the retribution is therefore unavoidable, they have no mentality of hoping for a lucky escape.

By frequently reading the examples of cause and effect taught in the Buddhist sutras, one can better understand cause and effect, and one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions will become extremely careful. People whose heads are often hot and who are irrational are everywhere; the evil habits accumulated over beginningless kalpas are too deep and heavy, difficult to restrain. Know what you know, and admit what you do not know; regarding what you do not understand, do not lightly open your mouth to comment and evaluate. Do not be overconfident—overconfident people often suffer losses, and it is always losses they bring upon themselves. An overconfident person is one whose "I am strong" is present—that is, one whose self-grasping, self-love, self-delusion, and self-conceit are deep, heavy, and blazing. To put it plainly, committing evil karma and suffering evil retribution is still because of the "self" within the mind. As long as that self has not been subdued, it will keep popping out to commit evil karma.

Having a sense of superiority in one's heart is self-conceit; it is having a self. As long as the mind takes any minute dharma as "self," that is self-conceit. Self-conceit is the hardest to eliminate and the hardest to detect in oneself, because one is too accustomed to it; often it manifests naturally without one being aware of it. Most people have very coarse self-conceit, yet very few can become aware of their own conceited mind. Because meditative concentration is insufficient and wisdom is lacking, they cannot introspect on their own obvious conceit and hidden conceit; if no one reminds them, it will be allowed to develop unchecked.