Dharma Check-up

Since conviction in the existence of past and future lives, and karma and causality are the very foundation of all our Dharma practice, it is essential that we check to see how much belief we really have in them.

To gauge how convinced we are in the existence of future lives, we can ask ourselves some questions: “What am I doing for the sake of my future lives? From this morning until now, what exactly have I done, and for what purpose did I do it? Is there really any thought of my future lives in what I have been doing, or am I working with only this life in mind? Or is it that I have spent several hours working with the things of this life in mind and a few for the sake of my future lives?”

And likewise, in relation to karma cause and effect, you can ask yourself, “Am I working in a way that is founded in a belief in causality, or does the way I do things suggest otherwise?” We need to examine what we do from day to day in this way.

It is by examining in this way that we will see whether we really are a Buddhist, or just fooling ourselves thinking we are a Buddhist when we are not. Looking into each area of our lives like this will show us what our actual view is. For a practitioner of Buddhism, it is very important to check whether our general outlook is a true Buddhist outlook or not.

Our health is very important to us, so we keep a careful and regular eye on it. As soon as we feel something might be wrong we go to the doctors for a check-up. In the same way, as Dharma practitioners, we should regularly check our view and outlook. It would be a mistake not to.