In addition, the misdeed of giving derogatory nicknames is also extremely serious: In the past, during the time of Buddha Kasyapa, a monk named Shi-o-sakya(?)(西哦色嘉), who was well-versed in the Tripitaka, spoke immodestly and gave many bad names to many achieved monks, such as "like a horse head". As a result, when he died at the time which human lifespan was 20,000 years, he was reborn as a huge whale with 18 animal heads such as a horse's and others'. He suffered pain until the birth of Buddha Sakyamuni when human lifespan was 100 years.

Originally, everyone has a definite, proper name to represent oneself. If one doesn't call people by their proper names, but give them bad names such as "gap mouth" and "crooked nose", he is accumulating negative karma that leads to falling into lower realms. In the past, the husbands of 500 women of the Sakya clan were killed by brutal soldiers, and they all became widows. Later, the army of King Vidudabha cut off all their hands and feet, and they died. This is because: they were five hundred monks under the teachings of Buddha Kasyapa. At that time, they gave the monks bad names such as "broken feet" and "broken arms". As a result of these misdeeds, they fell into hell for many lives, and  died in five hundred lives with their hands and feet cut off. No matter what bad name one gives, he will experience the outflowing fruit five hundred times. If one gives bad names to monks and samaneras, the retribution fruit will be falling into hell.

Moreover, if one speaks harshly to one's parents, the karmic retribution is also very serious: In the past, a patron named Balasena (meaning "Having a Powerful Army") in the border area of Vasava had a son named Shronakotikarna. When he was going to the island in the sea to get treasures, his mother tried her best to stop him. But he didn't listen. Finally, his mother cried sadly. He said angrily: "I am going to get treasures, but you say inauspicious things, may you see hell!" In the pastoral language, it means "Go to hell!" He left after saying such coarse words. On the way, they stayed at an inn. Due to the effect of karma, all the merchants left. Shronakotikarna slept too deeply and the merchants forgot about him. When he woke up, all the merchants had disappeared. Knowing that only he and the two donkeys were left on the deserted seaside, he panicked very much. He immediately tied the two donkeys together and drove them forward. 

At this time, strong winds blew violently and the views of the road was completely blocked by sand. They had no idea where to go. However, the two donkeys were very smart. They moved forward slowly by smelling their way through. Shronakotikarna was scared and on edge, so he whipped them hard, hoping to speed up. As a result, the two donkeys also lost their way because they were confused. They came to another open place. The two donkeys were exhausted and thirsty. They stuck out their tongues and panted. Seeing this, Shronakotikarna felt compassion and left them where they were. He wandered around and finally came to a very scary city of the hungry ghosts ... Later, he continued to wander in hell in his original identity for twelve years, suffering from hunger, cold, thirst and immeasurable pain.

Even towards animals, one should not criticize with harsh words: A long time ago, a patron had a serf and two cows. Once, when the cows went to the field, the serf threw a piece of wood which broke the horn of one cow. He then called it "broken horn". When another cow ran to the field, he threw a sickle which cut off the cow's tail. He then called it "broken tail". The master had promised to marry his daughter to the serf, but later did not fulfill his promise. The serf held a grudge against the master. He tied the two cows to a withered tree, whipped them with a whip, and then ignored them. In the initial kalpas, animals could speak. They said, "You never whipped us before, and you fed us grass and water. You were as loving and protective as a parent. Why are you abusing us now? What have we done wrong?"

The serf said, "Although you are innocent, your master deceived me."

The cow asked, "Then why don't you report it to the king?" The serf replied, "I have no witnesses."

The cow said, "Report it to the king, and we can be your witnesses. If the king asks, 'Do you have witnesses?' You should say, 'The cows are your witnesses.' If the king says, 'How can the cows be witnesses?' You should answer, 'We tied them under a rock. If what I said is true, then tell them, 'Don't eat grass or drink water.' At this time, we will not eat or drink until the king believes it."

So the serf reported it to the king. The king said, "Then let's do this and see." At this moment, the cow with a broken tail suddenly remembered the serf called it by the bad name "broken tail". So it became resentful and said, "I don't want to testify. I will not only eat grass, bus also stones." The other cows said, "This serf is as kind to us as a parent. We can't lie to him and should testify for him." It said, "Although this is true, I don't want to testify for him because he often called me 'broken tail'." 

The other cows said to the serf, "You pierce the nose of this cow with a broken tail and tie it (with a rope) to our horns. If it eats grass, our horns will rise up, and then you can say, 'Look! The sun they point to is also testifying for me.' You will win by this." 

The servant pierced the nose of the cow with a broken tail. The cow shouted, "Look, this man is still hurting me." The other cows said, "He is not hurting you, but dressing you up. Don't make any noise and stay still!"

When the king was judging, the cows defended him in this way. He won a great victory and married his master's daughter as he wished. This shows that although they are animals, if you love them, they will know and repay you; if you say harsh words to hurt them, they will also take revenge from this life on. Even if they fail to take revenge, they will make evil wishes to frame and take revenge in lives after.

In addition, in a secluded mountain village, there lived a coachman who had two cows named "Garsu"(嘎雪) and "Satyi"(?)(萨热). Later they each gave birth to a calf. Because the horns of the calf born to Garsu were joined together, it was named "Joined Horns Garsu"; because the calf born to Satyi had a crooked mouth, it was named "Crooked Mouth Satyi". The two calves gradually grew into big cows. Once, the coachmen gathered together to discuss the good and bad of cows. The owner of the two cows said confidently, "My two cows are very good." They negotiated and decided to make a bet of 500 taels of gold, and let the cows compete by pulling a cart loaded with a large amount of goods on a difficult road. Other people also placed bets. The owner let the two cows pull the cart, and he drove them while shouting, "Joined Horns Garsu, run fast! Crooked Mouth Satyi, run fast!" But they were unwilling. So he pricked them with a needle. At this time, others said, "You lost, don't kill the cows, give us the bet money quickly." As a result, he lost 500 taels of gold. In order to punish the two cows, he whipped them many times and tied them to a withered tree under the scorching sun.

The two cows said in human language: "Why do you punish us like this? What wrong have we done?"

He said (, unable to curb his anger): "You two obviously knew, but you deliberately made me lose money, so I punish you!"

They said: "That was caused by your own bad speech. Originally, our names were 'Satyi' and 'Garsu'. But you called us by the bad names 'Joined Horns' and 'Crooked Mouth'. So you lost. But now if you choose a more difficult road, load twice as much cargo on the cart, bet twice as much, call us by our names, and have another race, we will let you win the bet."

He did as they said, and then drove them while shouting: "Garsu, run fast, Satyi, run fast!" The two cows did their best to quickly deliver the cargo to the plain, and in the end he won the bet of 1,000 taels of gold. 

It can be seen that we should not say harsh words to people or animals alike. As the Vinaya says: "So one should speak with gentle words, not unpleasant words. If one speaks with pleasant words, it is a virtue free from evils."

Then, who is prone to say harsh words? Those who are vicious, cruel, irritable, negligent of their sense bases, shameless, or have bad temperaments tend to say harsh words.

Some people seem to be born unable to speak except speaking with harsh words, which often hurts strangers also. Most evil people deliberately say harsh words to hurt others. As it is said in the "Chapter on Causes and Conditions": "Born whenever one speaks, he speaks with harsh words, just like a sharp axe, that will cut himself off." Guru Padmasambhava of Orgyen once said: "The words of an evil person are like a poisonous tree, wherever one touches it, that part breaks off ." The sutra says: "No one can be happy, if overcome by the evils of harsh words. Just as lions and snakes are extremely ferocious, people who speak with harsh words have no place in the good realms." The Sutra on Repaying Kindness says: "The burning iron wheels, constantly rotating on the top of one's head, the pain is not unbearable. If one says harsh words, the retribution will be even more unbearable. Never say harsh words." Also, as the verse says: "The burning iron wheels, constantly spinning on the top of one's head, the pain is not unbearable. If one speaks harsh words, the retribution will be even more unbearable. Do not say harsh words to holy men. " 

After thinking of these harms, if one can stop saying harsh words, he will not be reborn in the lower realms. He will often hear pleasant words, be respected by everyone, have many relatives and friends, and all his endeavours will be  accomplished effortlessly. Even if one becomes a beggar with nothing, he will win the love of everyone and never have to worry about dying in evil ways (absent the Dharma). As the sutra says: "Abandon all pride, harsh words hurt feelings, whoever speaks with gentle words, he will be reborn in good realms." It also says: "Holy people abstain from saying harsh words, and always speak with gentle words. Those who like beautiful words, are very close to Nirvana."

Idle speech: mainly refers to irrelevant words that have not been examined, or spoken without thinking. As the Buddha once said: "Speak after careful examination, do not speak without thinkiing about it." If one wants to speak, one must think carefully before speaking. If one speaks without careful examination, it is very likely that the words will not make sense and become idle talk. If one speaks without careful consideration in public, one will hurt many people and it will become idle talk and harsh speech. As the proverb says, "When you speak, look at the faces of other people." 

Especially if one talks nonsense while listening to the Dharma, or talks about irrelevant things during intermissions of sadhana recitation or mantra chanting, these are extremely serious offences. Nowadays, the general monastic rules of sanghas and the rules of the various Yoga practice sects are somewhat disorganized and lax. Some people even talk nonsense while reciting sadhanas, play and whisper with fellow monks who are close to them during practices within the ranks of monks present. When chanting mantras in the middle of the practice, they take out a snuff bottle that looks like a black intestine and start smoking, or drink tea, chat, and do many other things not conforming to the Dharma. If one chants mantras casually and mixing in idle talk meanwhile, and drinks tea at the same time, the offence is as serious as abandoning the Dharma. 

In addition, when chanting mantras, telling stories, talking about history and dynasties, military affairs and wars, robbery and business, discussing the good and bad of women, commenting on the qualities of valuable items, and all kinds of nonsense regarding ancient times up to the present, local and abroad, from the entrance to the end of the valley, this is the so-called "a mouth that speaks nonsense is like a storehouse of evils, nonsense is the cause of disputes". This can produce conceptual thoughts of greed and anger, and then destroy one's and others' merits of chanting sutras. Therefore, (saying idle words while chanting sutras) is a very serious offence.

Generally speaking, those who are shameless, lazy, lax, with strong greed and anger, like to talk like a parrot, and those who have untamed minds and mouths love to say idle words. If one associates with such people, one's roots of virtue will definitely be cut off and will be led into the evil realms. As it is said in the "The Way of the Bodhisattva": "The company of fools will inevitably give rise to, the fault of praising oneself and criticizing others, and make one like to talk about worldly pleasures, and meaningless and unwholesome things." People often say: "All words are spoken out of desire." Therefore, most of this kind of idle talks are completely self-praising and slandering others. People who like talking idly will increase their strong greed, anger, laziness, and many other misdeeds. The Ratnakuta Sutra also describes the many harms of speaking idle words. Guru Padmasambhava once said: "It is better to recite for one day without speaking, than to recite for a month with idle words mixed in."

Idle talk is also generated by greed, anger, and ignorance, so its retribution fruit will be to fall into the three lower realms correspondingly. Even if one is reborn as a human, he will become one disliked by everyone, who talks in rambles like a madman, is disturbed and confused, who no one believes, and loves to idle talk life after life.

If one abstains from idle talk, he will be born in a noble family in every life, be approved by everyone, speak coherently, and his speech will not have mistakes. He will be eloquent and never contradict the Dharma. What he says will be in line with everyone's wishes like honey... There are incredible benefits. The Sutra also says: "If one can stop, all meaningless idle words, and always speak the Dharma, he will be reborn in good realms."

Thus (before Amitabha and his retinue), confess to and be remorseful for the four kinds of misdeeds committed by the mouth: lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle talk.

I.3, Confess to the three misdeeds of mind:

greed, malice, and wrong views, 

the three non-virtues of the mind,

I now confess.

Greed: It means coveting others’ riches and properties, vast power and 

authority, the courage of a brave warrior, the eloquence of a wise person, beautiful appearance, etc., and thinking: How wonderful it would be if there was a way for me to possess all of these!

Serious greed is coveting the property of the guru and the sangha, its faults are particularly serious. Most businessmen and others, for making profits, become greedy for the property collectively owned by the monks in the temples. Their faults are the same as robbing and stealing the monks’ property mentioned above. Many people covet the horses and cattle and other offerings from devotees and the deceased owned by the guru, and want to make a profit from them. Such misdeeds are also very serious. Even if a small profit is made, it is like drinking poison. Guru Padmasambhava said, "The guru's wealth is like ha-la poison(?)(哈拉毒), whoever enjoys it will lose his life." Even if, when one sees someone else has a Buddha statue or a high-quality item, if he takes it in his hand and looks at it from top to bottom, touches it here and there, and wants to have it, thinking to oneself: "Oh, how great it would be if I could have such a thing!", this is also greed.

Generally speaking, those who are shameless, greedy like hungry dogs are prone to greed. This is mainly caused by desire, but there are also cases where it is caused by anger, such as greed for the enemy's property. Because of greed, other misdeeds such as malicious thoughts, killing, and stealing will also arise.

The retribution fruit is to fall into the three lower realms. Even if one is fortunate enough to be reborn as a human being, he will be ugly, poor and pitiful. Even if he possesses wealth, it will easily be destroyed . Because of greed as an obstacle, none of his wishes will be realized. He will be born in poor environments, and is greedy in many lives. Especially when one is greedy for the wealth of a person of merit, if one develops malicious intentions based on that, the result will be like King Murdhagata in the past. He had already gained power as a parallel of King Indra, but later he still wanted to own everything. Eventually his merits in the heavens were exhausted... There are many such cases.

If one is not satisfied with the property he has, and covets the property of others, his own property will also be destroyed because of this: A long time ago, a fox found a piece of meat by the stream. At this time, it saw the fish swimming in the water, and wanted to eat the fish first. So it put down the piece of meat and ran to eat the fish. But the fish sank to the bottom of the water, and the piece of meat was taken away by a crow. In the end it got nothing.

Originally, if one does not have the power of accumulated merits, then what is the use of being greedy for things that one desires in his mind and sees with his eyes? Because there are plenty of merits of the eyes to see many things, and the heart is like that of a depletion ghost that wants everything. But because one has exhausted other merits, one will eventually get nothing. Therefore, be content with how much wealth one has. A person without greed may be as poor as a beggar, but he is very rich spiritually; a person who is greedy and never satisfied may be very rich in material wealth, but he is very poor spiritually. As it is said in Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend: "The Buddha said that among all kinds of property, contentment is the most excellent. So we should always be content, one is a true rich man if he is content even without money."

The harm of greed is extremely serious. If one can be cut off from greed, then when one is reborn as a human, his property will be plentiful and secure. No one will have the slightest desire to rob it. If he is reborn in heaven, he will also become a rich person who is different from other devas. As it is said in the sutra: "In a city or a quiet place, if one has no greed for, other people's property, one will be reborn in a good realm."

Malicious thoughts: It refers to towards those with whom one has a bad relationship, or if they are not one's enemies, but because of malicious intentions, one has the unbearable envious resentment of their property, happiness, reputation, status, etc. And one thinks: How great it would be if I could harm this person! How great it would be if this person encountered misfortune! Bad intentions. The most serious malicious thoughts are to harbor evil thoughts towards the severe objects: Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, as well as one's own gurus and parents. Towards any sentient beings, including even animals, if one intentionally harms them, the offense is very serious. Especially, those who do not fully understand the profound meaning of Tantric Vajrayana practices, who cannot generate even a moment of compassion for the enemies and demons who harm themselves or the patrons, etc. They try to destroy them from the beginning, always harboring anger and malicious intent. But they call it the subjugation practice of Vajrayana. In fact, this is absolutely malicious thoughts and harmful speech.

Those who have no shame, are suspicious of others, are narrow-minded, have impure minds, or have their chests filled with the poison of malice, are prone to harboring malicious thoughts.

Malicious thoughts are generated by the three poisons, mainly caused by anger. Their retribution fruit is falling inevitably into the three lower realms, which is self-evident. Even if one is lucky enough to be reborn with a human body, he will be ugly, ignorant, his body and mind will often be oppressed by various kinds of suffering, be hated by everyone, and reborn in a desolate, terrifying, remote, barbaric environment with frequent disputes. One will often die tragically by bombs and weapons, will only have malicious thoughts life after life, without the conditions for loving-kindness to arise.

In fact, if the target person does not already have karmic obstacles and the adverse conditions, then no matter how many malicious intentions one generates, he will not achieve any of his goals, but will only exhaust his own merits. When trying to completely destroyed someone by using evil spells, if that person happens to have no merits, are weak and have no backings, one may manage to overcome him. But it will also be a lose-lose situation, one will not get any benefit. It will not only cause damage to the current life but also destroy the path to liberation in the next life. As it is said in the "The Way of the Bodhisattva": "Even if his enemy is made unhappy, what can one be happy about? Just hoping that the enemy will suffer, will not become a cause of harming them."

Some people cannot hurt others in words or deeds actually, but they always think in their minds: How great it would be if that person lost all his property, family, and livestock! However, they had not even been able to cause the damage of a louse bite on the other party, and ended up falling into hell themselves. Some people do not only sweet-talk to their enemies, but their words are also as white as milk (sweet words) and their hearts are as black as ink (evil minded) (the so-called "A honey tongue, a heart of gall") when talking to anyone. This is also malicious thought. It will become the rock that pulls one down into hell, or they may be reborn in the groups of ghosts and demons.

When misfortunes happen to the enemy towards whom one has malicious intentions, if one says: "I am really happy, it is really the blessing of Buddha, I am satisfied, that's how it should be." If a person who rejoices in this way, he himself will really get the "blessing of Buddha" on the contrary. Because when someone is experiencing misfortune, if one gloats over it, it is the same as committing the offense oneself. It is said that "malicious thoughts are the messenger of hell". Such a person with malicious thoughts will fall into hell immediately after death, like throwing a stone. When one is stewed in the boiling liquid copper of hell, then "if you are happy, you should be happy then; if you are at peace, you should be at peace then!" As it is said in "The Way of the Bodhisattva": "Even if your wish is fulfilled, why would you have any joy because other people suffer? If you think you have your wish fulfilled, the disaster you have brought about is even more than that?"

There was such an example: In ancient times, there lived a guru and his  disciple remote in a mountain, and there was another guru who was not on good terms with them. One day, the guru said to his attendant the little monk: "Make a cup of good tea! I heard a piece of good news today." The little monk asked: "What did you hear?" The guru said: "The guru who we don't get along with has a woman now." The young monk said: "Oh, master, what is there to be happy about? I thought you had met the meditational deity and received the prophecy." After hearing this, Venerable Padampa said: "The guru who gloated over the misfortune of others committed a more serious misdeed than the guru who committed by breaking the precepts." This is the so-called "The weapon of malicious thoughts hurts oneself".

In the past, a man prepared poison and tried to harm someone, but he accidentally swallowed it and died.

Additionally, there was a father and his son. When the elderly father was lying down, a mosquito landed on his bald head and bit him. The son thought: Why did it bite my old father before he is dead? Kill it! So he threw a piece of wood. But instead of hitting the mosquito, it split his father's head and the old man died.

In addition, in the past, when the patrons of Savatthi offered food to the monks, they first made offering to the monks and then gave to the beggars. Once, a little beggar of the Kshatriya caste and a little beggar of the Brahmin caste went to beg. The Brahmin boy did not time it properly and went (before the monks were offered food), so he got nothing. The little beggar of the Kshatriya caste went to ask for food after the monks had enjoyed it, so he got a lot of food. The Kshatriya boy asked the Brahmin boy, "Did you get anything?" He was very angry because he did not get any food. He said, "If I had the power, I would chop off the heads of all these monks." Such a malicious thought arose in him. The Kshatriya boy said, "If I had great power, I would offer all kinds of delicious food to the Buddha and his followers every day."

Such a virtuous thought arose in him. 

After they finished talking, they went to the side of a tree and fell asleep. A speeding carriage came from somewhere and ran over the Brahmin boy's neck. His head was cut off. He died because the fruit of his malicious thoughts ripened immediately. At that time, a great merchant in Savatthi passed away. He had no children. His family decided to invite a person with great merit to their family. People looked everywhere. They found the Kshatriya boy lying under a tree. The shadow of all other trees had disappeared, but the shadow of the tree he was under was still on him and did not disappear. So they concluded that he was a person with great merit and chose him as the merchant's heir. Later, he offered food to the Buddha and his followers, sought the Dharma in front of the Buddha, and finally attained liberation. Therefore, this is the reason why the retribution of his virtuous thoughts ripened immediately.

Therefore, all good and evil mainly depend on one's own mind. We must abandon malicious thoughts and bad intentions, and generate loving-kindness and good intentions. Otherwise, those with malicious thoughts will not only fail to be reborn in Sukhavati, but also not even have a place in the good realms. As the "The Way of the Bodhisattva" says: "If a person harbors malicious thoughts, towards those Buddha's sons who has bodhichitta, the Buddha says that he will fall into hell, for as many kalpas as the number of instants in the duration of the evil thoughts." Also: "Who created the burning iron ground? From where did all the women in hell ensue? The Mighty One has said that all such things,

Are the workings of an evil mind."(*translation by Stephan Bachelor) The "Satipatthana Sutra" says: "The mind is the enemy among enemies, there is no other enemy outside the mind. Just like flint burning itself, the mind is destroyed by itself." It can be seen that, from the burning iron ground in hell and including all other levels of realms above it, is caused by malicious thoughts in the mind. Therefore, we must completely eliminate malicious thoughts.

If one eliminates all malicious thoughts, he will be happy and prosperous in the current life, no one can make him afraid, will be pleasant, who everyone feels comfortable with, and he will always be joyful. As it is said in the "Chapter on Causes and Conditions": "Among those who have malicious thoughts, one should settle into a place where there are no malicious thoughts. Absence of malicious thoughts among those who have malicious thoughts, wonderfully this person is extremely happy." It also says: "Those who have no malicious thoughts, feel compassion for all sentient beings, and love all sentient beings, will never have any ill feelings." After death, he will also experience the great karmic fruit in heavens. As the sutra says: "Those who are kind and do not cause harm, have no malicious thoughts, do not hurt sentient beings, he will be reborn in good realms."

Wrong views: refers to the understanding that is completely opposite to the truth. Serious wrong views are: saying that karma cause and effect are not real, that past and future lives do not exist, that the Three Jewels are not real, that doing good and doing evil are the same, or mistakenly thinking that  killing sentient beings for parents is for accumulating roots of virtue, slaughtering animals for offerings, etc., and hold such views as doing harms is true Dharma that are the practices of heretics in border areas. Similar to this are: saying "What are the faults of drinking and smoking, killing is not such an offense...". Slandering cause and effect, even though they have not perform any virtuous deeds, but only committed misdeeds, they believe that they will not fall into the lower realms, and will definitely be reborn as human beings. 

This is the wrong view of cause and effect. 

Or saying: "The monks have no meditational deity, the meditational deity has no blessing power..." Debasing the prestige of the Three Jewels, this wrong view is the same as that of the heretics. Similarly, seeing the gurus and the monks as having faults is also a serious wrong view. All sentient beings have Tathagatagarbha from the perspective of svabhava (own-being). Those who have no compassion even for their own children do not exist even among animals such as sparrowhawks and wolves. Seeing all sentient beings as inferior (like a heretic), seeing true Dharma as contrary to Dharma, contrary to Dharma as true Dharma, etc. are all wrong views.

As the verse says, "Among the ten nonvirtues, wrong view is the most serious." Therefore, from the time when the wrong view of not believing in karma cause and effect arises until the correct view of believing in karma cause and effect arises, no roots of virtue can arise. Those who are cut off from their roots of virtue because of wrong views cannot recover them (until the correct view is established)#. Therefore the offense is extremely serious.

Those who are shameless, ignorant, have been reborn in dreary and remote places of unfreedom since beginningless time, deceived by bad friends, have no faith, or are full of doubts are prone to wrong views.

The thoughts and inclination towards wrong views is generated by the three poisons, but it mainly comes from ignorance. Depending on the strength of the intention, the retribution fruit is falling into the three lower realms, especially falling into the Avici Hell and having to experience all the sufferings of the other hells. After that, they will be reborn as animals life after life. Even if they are lucky enough to get a human body, it will be wasted due to the outflowing fruit of negative karma. They will be reborn as wrong-viewed people life after life. The harm they suffer is unimaginable. The roots of virtue of people with wrong views will also become the cause of suffering. As Nagarjuna said, "If one want to go to the good realms, one should practice right view. If one performs good deeds with wrong views, the karmic fruits will be unbearable."

If one get close to bad friends who don't believe in karma or people who believe in karma but don't understand the principle of karma cause and effect, he will also be infected with the faults of having wrong views. As the "Chapter on Causes and Conditions" says: "If clean auspicious grass, is tied to a rotten fish, the grass will also become rotten, the same is true for associating with bad friends." If one associates with people who sincerely believe in karma, like virtues and are vigilant about nonvirtues, understand thoroughly the principle of karma cause and effect, he will also be transformed into a person with right views. As stated in the "Chapter on Causes and Conditions", "If a person places the leaves of tea olive, in a sachet filled with chinese incense powder, the leaves will also emit fragrance, the same is true for those who associate with good friends." The Ratnakuta Sutra also says, "Associate with good friends who teach the Dharma, do not associate with bad friends. Be completely pure in precepts and learned, one should know there is only one path to the ultimate truth."