Bodhisattvas fear causes; 

unawakened beings fear results. 

Understanding that every cause has a consequence, bodhisattvas strive to avoid creating evil causes while generating good ones. This two-pronged approach provides the right conditions for these awakened beings to continue along the path to enlightenment. 

Unawakened beings, on the other hand, are like children who commit a misdeed but hope not to get caught. When their bad conduct is discovered, they may blame others. Or they may become defensive. They do not realize that such reactions are yet more causes, causes that will incur yet more painful results and more suffering. 

To stop fearing the results, we need to live wisely in the present rather than trying to escape the past. How? By being continuously alert to what we do—to the causes we are creating. Without an adverse cause, adverse consequences will not occur, and we will have saved ourselves from any associated suffering.

Fill the silence—with silence.

When weeding, we need to pull out the roots 

or the weeds will grow back.

Eradicating bad habits is the same; 

remove the root or the habit will reappear.

Someone unskilled at weeding will often begin by removing the stems and the leaves. But seemingly overnight, the weeds start growing back. And so the novice gardener learns a valuable lesson: removing just the visible parts of the plant won’t eliminate the roots. They need to be located, uncovered, and dug out. 

Similarly, we often try to shed bad habits by curtailing visible behaviors. But this fails to remove underlying causes. Not surprisingly, as soon as we relax our guard, the bad habits return, as rampant as those weeds. To permanently eradicate bad habits, we need to destroy their roots. How?

First, we need to determine the habits’ underlying causes. Maybe selfishness? Maybe apathy or a lack of integrity? By figuring out the causes of our bad habits, we can eliminate them.

Forever.