..续本文上一页tress when looking back on what we have done. We are only creating good karma. If we are creating bad karma, then the result later on will be misery. If we haven”t created bad karma, we won”t suffer such results in the future. But if we don”t try to change our habits and put a stop to wrong actions, our difficulties go on and on, both the mental distress and the material troubles. So we need to listen and contemplate, and then we can figure out where the difficulties come from. Haven”t you ever carried things to the fields on a pole over your shoulders

　　 When the load is too heavy in front, isn”t that uncomfortable to carry

　　 When it”s too heavy in back, isn”t that uncomfortable to carry

　　 Which way is balanced and which way is imbalanced

　　 When you”re doing it, you can see. Dharma is like that. There is cause and effect, there is common sense. When the load is balanced, it”s easier to carry. We can manage our lives in a balanced way, with an attitude of moderation. Our family relations and our work can be smoother. Even if you aren”t rich, you can still have ease of mind; you don”t need to suffer over that.

　　If a family is not hard-working, then they fall on difficulty, and when they see others with more than they have, they start to feel covetousness, jealousy, and resentment, and it may lead to stealing. Then the village becomes an unhappy place. It”s better to work at benefiting yourselves and your families, for this life and also for future lives. If your material needs are met through your efforts, then your mind is happy and at ease, and that is conducive to listening to Dharma teachings to learn about right and wrong, virtue and demerit, and to keep on changing your lives for the better. You can learn to recognize how doing wrong deeds only creates hardship, and you will give up such actions and keep improving. Your way of working will change, and your mind will change too. From being someone ignorant, you will become someone with knowledge. From being someone with bad habits, you will become someone with a good heart. You can teach what you know to your children and grandchildren. This is creating benefit for the future, by doing what is right in the present. But those without wisdom don”t do anything of benefit in the present, and they only end up bringing hardship upon themselves. If they become poor, they just think about gambling. Then that finally leads to becoming thieves.

　　We haven”t died yet, so now is the time to talk about these things. If you don”t hear the Dharma when you are a human being, there won”t be any other chance. Do you think animals can be taught the Dharma

　　 Animal life is a lot harder than ours, being born as a toad or a frog, a pig or a dog, a cobra or a viper, a squirrel or a rabbit. When people see them, they only think about killing or beating them, or catching or raising them for food.

　　We have this opportunity as humans. It”s much better! We”re still alive, so now is the time to look into this and mend our ways. If things are difficult, try to bear with the difficulty for the time being and live in the right way, until one day you can do it. Practicing the Dharma is like that.

　　I”d like to remind you all of the need for having a good mind and living your lives in an ethical way. However you may have been doing things up to now, you should take a look and examine to see whether that is good or not. If you”ve been following wrong ways, give them up. Give up wrong livelihood. Earn your living in a good and decent way that doesn”t harm others and doesn”t harm yourself or society. When you practice right livelihood, then you can live with a comfortable mind.

　　We monks and nuns rely on the layfolk for all our material needs. And we rely on contemplation so that we are able to explain the Dharma to the…

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