bad karma

Karma is the actions of body, speech, and mind. Obstacles are hindrances or obstacles.

According to ancient scriptures, every sentient being has three karmic obstacles: afflictive obstacles, causal obstacles, and karmic retribution obstacles. Arising from afflictive obstacles (greed, anger, and delusion), people create karma, which is the causal obstacle, and then suffer the retribution obstacle in return. This cycle of borrowing and repaying continues endlessly in the six realms of birth and death.

Modern times, however, the Master teaches that each person has three karmic obstacles, in the treatise “On the Three Karmas”:

– Bodily karma (sins caused by the physical body);

– Verbal karma (sins caused by the tongue);

– Mental karma (sins caused by thoughts).

First, arising from mental karma (greed, anger, and delusion) is speech (i.e., verbal karma: divisive speech, abusive speech, false speech) and actions (i.e., bodily karma: killing, stealing, adultery). These three karmic actions follow one another continuously, creating a powerful force that drags sentient beings, causing them to be reborn into one life after another after death… making escape difficult.

In the article “Advice to the Disciples,” the Master taught: “While you are still in the ocean of delusion and suffering, you are often burdened by karmic obstacles from many lifetimes, causing your souls to sink in the three realms and six paths, rising and falling in cycles of reincarnation and transmigration.” (p. 449 SGTVTB 2004)

Notes on Oracles (1975)