Melt Your Karma

Student: In the beginning, I could control my emotions better and became more relaxed. Now my emotions are as rough as ever, and it is difficult. Why is that?

Zen Master Dae Bong: That can mean your practice is going stronger. We say, “Dharma strong, karma strong.” Our karma is like a ball of ice. Maybe we have some suffering and some question appears. We find practicing, and we start practicing. Practicing is like putting a little flame under this ball of ice. The Japanese have words meaning “heat up the mind”; when you practice, heat up the mind. Right away something melts right up here. So we feel a little better. And after a while, we can melt the outer edge of this whole ball. But the ice inside is more strongly frozen, so it doesn’t melt that easily. That’s what you are experiencing now. So you have to turn up the flame. Turn it up. Let’s say you have a gas flame. when you cook and you want it hotter, you turn it up. Same as that. You have to practice more strongly. Then you can melt much more of the ball. If we melt the whole thing, then it’s not there anymore. That means your don’t know mind is strong. Do you have some daily practice that you do at home? What do you do?

-Zen Master Dae Bong