Someone asked the teacher about a case abroad in which a woman went through an extremely traumatic event that left her with severe psychiatric illness. Years of treatment brought no improvement. She later attempted to end her own life, which left her permanently disabled and in constant severe physical pain. In time she sought legal permission to end her suffering. The questioner asked the teacher to explain how this connects to the three underlying natures.

The Law of Karma and the Law of the Three Characteristics

The teacher explained that every life is governed by two laws: the Law of Karma and the Law of the Three Characteristics. In its broad sense, "three characteristics" refers to the three natures of phenomena — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. The more familiar "three characteristics" — impermanence, suffering, and non-self — are simply a subset belonging to the unwholesome side. Because every life in this world depends on causes and conditions, it always remains under the influence of these three natures.

The Law of Karma stores the result of every past action as a completed "sphere of merit" or "sphere of demerit," placed along the timeline of a life. When it comes time for demerit to bear fruit, its sphere grows larger than the sphere of merit and envelops it. Whichever sphere is larger releases a current that draws in the people and circumstances needed to deliver that result.

Why such an event occurs

The teacher explained that the people who caused her harm had themselves been harmed by her in a past life. The one who was wronged back then held onto resentment; when reborn into the same life-stream, the connection drew them back together. When the time came for that old debt to ripen, it produced the violent event — the working-out of what she herself had once done, whether or not it had been done with clear intent. Whatever degree of harm one has caused, one must eventually receive the same in kind.

Why treatment brought no relief

Years of treatment failed because the unwholesome force continued to act throughout. The only true refuge is the wholesome nature — but without turning toward it, the unwholesome side keeps reinforcing suffering through an inner voice and inner feeling that repeats itself relentlessly. The teacher described two forms this inner voice can take: if the darkness isn't complete, it merely suggests self-harm; but if the heart becomes fully clouded and the suffering becomes truly unbearable, it can lead all the way to a decision to end one's life. In this case, the moment of death had not yet arrived, so she survived — but was left disabled and in even greater physical pain.

The real way through

The teacher taught that if a person accepts the truth of the Law of Karma — that they themselves once created the causes now bearing fruit — they can adjust and face reality. But without this understanding, the unwholesome side leads a person to blame everyone and everything else instead, which only draws in more demerit on top of the old, leaving no opening for wholesome forces to help at all. The teacher pointed to the truth of suffering: it arises from the defilement that is the residue of past actions, near or distant, and must be taken up and examined honestly. Only the wise, and those established in wholesome dhamma, are able to accept and face this kind of suffering; most people instead turn away from it. Once a person truly accepts reality as it is, the wholesome nature can then guide and support them through the crisis.