The purpose of this meditation is to generate a feeling of wishing to purify our negativity and to accumulate a vast amount of merit on the basis of our understanding of karma. Then we can look at what this means in light of the advantages of cherishing others.

I began with some breathing meditation and then moved on to the main topic.

I started by thinking about what karma means. All the appearances I perceive arise from my karma. The virtuous actions I have created in the past lead to pleasant appearances and experiences. Conversely, negative actions lead to unpleasant results. I thought about how all my appearances are not ‘real’ or ‘out there’, but are actually projections from my own mind. I felt like I was in a sort of virtual reality simulation, where appearances arose around me – they appeared real, but lacked any inherent existence at all.

I realised that it is pointless to get angry or try to change these appearances. Getting angry with people is like getting angry with clouds – it makes no sense. Instead of reacting to projected images, I should think about what I can do with the projector itself. My very subtle mind projects all these images, and if I can purify my karma and not perform any more impure actions, I can purify my projector. Slowly, all my appearances will become pure – a pure body, with pure enjoyments in a pure environment.

I imagined my mind becoming steadily more pure because of my purification and virtuous actions, until I felt completely pure. Once I experienced this, I focused on it as constantly as I could.

After a while, I wondered what this meant in light of the advantages of cherishing others. It was clear straight away that basis of all my virtuous actions can be the wish to cherish others. This thought will purify my negativities and keep my actions virtuous – it is my method!

With this thought, I returned to the feeling of purifying my very subtle mind of all negativities, and stayed with that delightful feeling for the rest of the meditation.

Dedication

May all living beings understand the law of karma, and through this realisation quickly become enlightened beings for the benefit of all.

Practice in the Meditation Break

I will try to keep my actions pure, and use the four opponent powers to purify my negative karma.