By practicing on Tara (or Chenrezi or any of the buddhas) you are making a strong connection and accumulating lots of merit. With this force behind you, your aspirations become very strong and effective. The positive karma can be so powerful that its effect ripens before your other karma. Karma is not only something that was created long time ago, but it is also created now. Actually, the most effective karma is the karma you create now.

If you are hit and then fall down, that is the immediate effect of karma. But sometimes we fall down without being hit, which is the effect of previous karma. If you produce very strong karma now, the karma coming from the past can sometimes be delayed. Sometimes it can make the previous karma become so small that it is negligible, or it ripens as a very small obstacle.

For example, if you have done very negative deeds throughout this life, accumulating the karma that would take you to a lower realm, and just before death your karma is extremely positive, then all the karma that has been built up in this life could be put aside for the time being, and you would get the effect of the immediate karma. This is because the effect of the immediate karma is the strongest.

This is why we do these kinds of prayers. We say prayers and aspirations to ward off obstacles and things like that. Because of the strong connection, this type of strong positive deed can delay the result of negative karma, either collective or personal. And if it is even stronger, then it can reduce the karmic effect to a minimum.

This means that by practicing the Dharma, if you are in trouble, or you get a disease or some other undesirable thing, it is possible that doing something positive like this can eliminate all of your negative karma. The power of your practice can counteract the unfavorable karma that is a result of previous negative actions. Every one of us has a very big backlog of negative karma that we will eventually undergo. But by the power of intense practice, we might get rid of this big backlog of old karma by experiencing smaller suffering now, and that would be very good for us.

In the Diamond Sutra the Buddha says to the great monk Subhuti: “Subhuti, a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, who receives this sutra, who reads this sutra, who retains this sutra, will experience a lot of suffering. The force of the negative karma through which they would have been born in the lower realms will ripen in this very life in a smaller, milder way. They will experience the results of negative karma that otherwise would have been experienced for many lives in the future. Instead, they will experience some suffering in this life, and then they will become enlightened.”

Also, Shantideva says in the Bodhicharyavatara that that if a person who is sentenced to death gets away with having only his hand cut off, he feels relieved and happy. Similarly, if by experiencing some suffering in this life, a person could be relieved of falling into the lower realms for a very long time, that person should feel happy.

So, if someone who practices the Dharma gets a disease or has great misfortune, it could be seen as the effect of massive bad karma coming forward. It is being brought forward and minimized in this life. It can be a sign that there will be no more suffering later, and that the backlog of one’s negative karma is being cleared up altogether.

Extracted from Ringu Tulku’s teaching on the Heap of Jewels of Dharma Analogies, given at Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland in 1992.