เมื่อโดนวิบากกรรม ต้องดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรมเท่านั้น เร่งรักษาศีลและสร้างบารมีให้ดวงบุญโตขึ้นจนชนะดวงบาป และต้องทำต่อไปแม้วิกฤตจะผ่านพ้นแล้วก็ตาม เพื่อชดเชยสิ่งที่สูญเสียไปWhen karmic results strike, abide only in the system of wholesomeness — keep precepts and build every kind of merit until the orb of merit outgrows the orb of demerit, and keep at it even after the crisis passes, to make up for what was lost.
Someone asked: when karmic results strike, how should we act to move from heavy toward light, or to gradually ease it until it fades away?
The answer is that we must abide within the system of wholesomeness — there is no other way. Our lives can never step outside these three systems: wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral. If we don't dwell within system, we fall into either the neutral or one. The neutral side offers no help at all, but at least it doesn't compound our troubles; the unwholesome side, however, compounds them and makes things heavier still. So at the very time karmic results strike, it becomes essential to dwell within the system of wholesomeness. Anyone who has never kept the five precepts should begin keeping them; from five precepts, raise it to eight; if ordination as a monk is possible, ordain; if ordination as a nun is possible, ordain — so as to bring every tool of the wholesome side fully into use, including all ten perfections (giving, , renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolve, , equanimity) and the , using every one of them.
The reason this is necessary is that, at such a time, the orb of demerit has grown larger than the orb of merit — in the dimension of energy within our sphere of . Karmic results ripen precisely because the orb of demerit outweighs the orb of merit; the smaller orb of merit can do nothing to help, because it's obscured by the larger orb of demerit. The orb of demerit releases a current that draws in conditions to work against us according to the template already set in motion. The resulting misfortune destroys our assets — whether physical form, wealth, virtues, followers, or fame and status — depending on which template is in force.
As we accumulate merit, the orb of merit keeps growing, while the orb of demerit, being paid off, keeps shrinking — like a phone battery that depletes as it's used. But if we actively generate causes of merit at the same time, the orb of merit grows even faster. Once the two orbs become roughly equal, we feel a kind of stalemate — not quite good, not quite bad. We must keep going until the crisis has passed entirely, and even after it has passed, we must continue further still, so the orb of merit grows enough to make up for what was lost.