This Karma is Ripening

So sometimes, saying “Oh good!” is a good antidote.

I’ll tell you a story about one nun who is a friend of mine. One time she was on retreat and she had a big boil on her cheek which was very painful. During the break time between her meditation sessions, she bumped into our teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Rinpoche said, “How are you?”

She said [in a moaning tone], “Oh! I have this boil…”

And Rinpoche said, “Great! Fantastic! You’re so fortunate!”

This was of course the last thing she wanted to hear. She wanted some pity instead.

But Rinpoche said, “This is fantastic! All these negative karma that could have ripened in a horrible state, you’re experiencing it just by having a boil. How fortunate you are!”

So whenever we have some kind of physical pain or illness, if we look at it in this way, if we are able to see it from this other perspective, then we realize that it’s actually not so bad. We can bear it when we think of how it could have ripened in another way that would have brought much more suffering. And we can feel fortunate that this karma is ripening now, so then it won’t obscure our mind anymore. So this is another tool to use when you are sick.

by Thubten Chodron