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Someone asked Master Cheng Yen, “When we follow karmic conditions, are we clearing our bad karma or creating more negative karma?”
The Master answered:
If you follow good karmic conditions, then you are eliminating your bad karma. However, if you follow evil karmic conditions, then you are creating negative karma. It takes wisdom to determine whether a karmic condition is a good or an evil one, and we must make a wise judgement swiftly.
If someone asks you to commit theft with him and you follow this terrible karmic condition to commit the crime, you create bad karma. If someone seeks your help to save people and you follow this good karmic condition to provide help, you eliminate your bad karma.
There is a big difference between clearing bad karma and creating evil karma. Hence, we must harbour only good intentions when thoughts arise in our minds.
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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