Zen Practice – Change Your Karma

It is essential for us to learn from the negative karma we manifest. One should be able to let go of negativity without creating or putting something else on it. However, if one’s mind is always full of something, it is very difficult for you to get rid of negative karma. Empty your mind, and it will be easy for you to get rid of negative karma.

One must learn to empty the mind. This is the highest practice in Zen. Only when the person reaches the highest form of enlightenment and the mind can manifest “no self,” which is emptiness, can he dissolve negative karma upon encountering it without simply creating something similar. But we are everyday people, relatively speaking. If one has a calm mind, meaning one that is relatively calm, it can also help to reduce the power with which negative karma are created.

If you want to get rid of negative karma completely upon encountering it, you should have no self-mind. Only the formless mind can create something without side effects.

Let us examine this a bit further: If you are free of dependence on phenomena and material things, the calmness you attain will enable you to have joy from the very bottom of your mind.

Sometimes, when one is in a bad mood, he needs to go watch a movie, play a game or have a drink. Thus he depends on outside phenomena to get rid of his worries. If a practitioner still needs something to depend on in order to be happy and make his mind calm, he is not a true practitioner e but only one on the way. When your mind generates a single angry thought, you have anger. However, can you have your mind generate one happy thought without the process of depending on phenomena? If you can, this is a true practice.

Only you can generate all types of thoughts, and only you can manifest all kinds of emotions. However, an everyday person will experience anger based on a single angry thought. So, a process is needed. He needs to depend on something or someone to make him angry. He also needs a process to make himself happy again. Who can generate a happy thought? The same person can.

You can generate an angry thought, but at the same moment you can generate a happy thought without depending on something or someone. This is the right practice. Moreover, if you can improve your daily life and liberate yourself from your sickness, bad relationship or negative situation, you will prove the value of your practice and find that you are on the right path.