Every single negative thing we have ever thought or done, has ultimately arisen from our grasping at a false self, and our cherishing of that false self, making it the dearest and most important element in our lives.
All of those negative thoughts,emotions, desires and actions that are the cause of our negative karma are engendered by self grasping and self cherishing. They are the dark, powerful magnet that attracts to us, life after life, every obstacle, every misfortune, every anguish, every disaster and so they are the root cause of all suffering of samsara (wandering from lifetime to lifetime).
All of those negative thoughts,emotions, desires and actions that are the cause of our negative karma are engendered by self grasping and self cherishing. They are the dark, powerful magnet that attracts to us, life after life, every obstacle, every misfortune, every anguish, every disaster and so they are the root cause of all suffering of samsara (wandering from lifetime to lifetime).
When we have really grasped the law of karma in all its stark power and complex reverberations over many many lifetimes, and seen just how our self grasping and self cherishing, life after life, have woven us repeatedly into a net of ignorance that seems only to be ensnaring us more and more tightly; when we have really understood the dangerous and doomed nature of the self grasping mind's enterprise; when we have really pursued it's operations into their most subtle hiding places; when we have really understood just how our whole ordinary mind and actions are defined, narrowed and darkened by it, how almost impossible it makes it to uncover the heart of unconditional love and real compassion, then there comes a moment when we understand, with extreme and poignant clarity, what Shantideva said:
If all the harms
Fears and sufferings of the world
Arise from self grasping,
What need have I for such a great evil spirit?
and a resolution is born in us to destroy that evil spirit, our greatest enemy. With that evil spirit dead, the cause of all our suffering will be removed, and our true nature, in all its spaciousness and dynamic generosity, will shine out.
You can have no greater ally in this war against your greatest enemy, your own self-grasping and self-cherishing, than the practice of compassion. It is compassion, dedicating ourselves to others, taking on their suffering instead of cherishing ourselves, that hand in hand with the wisdom of egolessness destroys most effectively and most completely that ancient attachment to a false self that has been the cause of our endless wandering in samsara. That is why in our tradition we see compassion as the source of essence of enlightenment, and the heart of enlightened activity. As Shantiveda said:
What need is there to say more?
The childish work for their benefit,
The buddhas work for the benefit of others,
I shall not attain the state of buddhahood
And even in samsara I shall have no real joy.
