A selection from The Dhammapada for Awakening

“Here and beyond he is punished. The wrong-doer is punished both ways. He is punished by the thought, ‘I have done evil,’ and is even more punished when he comes to a bad state.

Here and beyond he rejoices. The doer of good rejoices both ways. He rejoices at the thought, ‘I have done good,’ and rejoices even more when he comes to a happy state” (Dhammapada 17, 18).

 Now we come to the major message of these two Dhammapada verses in relation to both good and bad: “He suffers and is tormented to see his own depraved behavior.…He is glad and rejoices to see his own good deeds.” When we look at our life, both internal and external, and intelligently perceive it, we SEE the nature of our past (and often present) deeds. Our external life reveals our inner life; our life as it unfolds before us is an objectification of our mind, and nothing else. Study your life and you will come to know your mind. When we suffer we are seeing our negativity, and when we rejoice we are seeing our positivity. Our life is a revelation/reflection of our inner life. The effect reveals the nature of the cause.