Only we can help ourselves

said that the person who is unknown and insignificant
is a person who was a small-hearted person, who was always
jealous of other people, and very spiteful. Therefore,
when he is reborn, he becomes unknown and insignificant.
Nobody bothers about him. Whereas another person
is big-hearted and was never jealous of other people.
He had a lot of goodwill instead of ill-will. Therefore,
that person, when he comes to be a human again, will be
born influential and well-known, and powerful.
So kamma can explain why people in the world are all
different. Due to past life kamma, each of us comes into
life with different qualities. However, we must remember
that we cannot put it all on past life kamma alone, because
the law of kamma does not only concern our past
life kamma but also our present life kamma. If you say
that everything is due to past life kamma, then we do not
need to do anything-just sit down and wait for kamma to
bring us everything. Evidently, you can see that it does
not work this way.
We take an example of the Form 5 students studying
to try to get ten As in their examinations. Let us consider
three types of students. The first one does not bother to
study, but he goes around praying from temple to “dato
kong” (a deity) and everywhere else, trying to get ten As,
but refuses to study. So, can he get ten As? Definitely not
because he does not put in the effort, that is, he does not
put in the kamma. He relies on past kamma only.
The second student studies very hard, but unfortu-
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