The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

100 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGwith his black magic. And yet through his remorse, and theordeals and hardships he had to undergo with his great masterMarpa, he was able to purify all these negative actions. Hewent on to become enlightened, a figure who has been theinspiration of millions down through the centuries.In Tibet we say: "Negative action has one good quality; itcan be purified." So there is always hope. Even murderers andthe most hardened criminals can change and overcome theconditioning that led them to their crimes. Our present condition,if we use it skillfully and with wisdom, can be an inspirationto free ourselves from the bondage of suffering.Whatever is happening to us now mirrors our past karma.If we know that, and know it really, whenever suffering anddifficulties befall us, we do not view them particularly as afailure or a catastrophe, or see suffering as a punishment inany way. Nor do we blame ourselves or indulge in self-hatred.We see the pain we are going through as the completion ofthe effects, the fruition, of a past karma. Tibetans say that sufferingis "a broom that sweeps away all our negative karma."We can even be grateful that one karma is coming to an end.We know that "good fortune," a fruit of good karma, maysoon pass if we do not use it well, and "misfortune," the resultof negative karma, may in fact be giving us a marvelousopportunity to evolve.For Tibetan people, karma has a really vivid and practicalmeaning in their everyday lives. They live out the principle ofkarma, in the knowledge of its truth, and this is the basis ofBuddhist ethics. They understand it to be a natural and justprocess. So karma inspires in them a sense of personal responsibilityin whatever they do. When I was young, my familyhad a wonderful servant called A-pé Dorje who loved me verymuch. He really was a holy man and never harmed anyone inhis whole life. Whenever I said or did anything harmful in mychildhood, he would immediately say gently, "Oh, that's notright," and so instilled in me a deep sense of the omnipresenceof karma, and an almost automatic habit of transforming myresponses should any harmful thought arise.Is karma really so hard to see in operation? Don't we onlyhave to look back at our own lives to see clearly the consequencesof some of our actions? When we upset or hurtsomeone, didn't it rebound on us? Were we not left with abitter and dark memory, and the shadows of self-disgust? Thatmemory and those shadows are karma. Our habits and ourfears too are also due to karma, the result of actions, words,