One passage of the Shurangama Sutra discusses two kinds of perverse and false views. What are the two kinds of perverse and false views? One, the false view that each living being's karma is unique. [According to this view,] the karma that one has created is independent and unique. One considers one's perspective special and behaves differently than others. One always tries to stand out and be unusual in every situation. One always considers oneself number one, hurting others to help oneself. Due to wrong views, one is overly ambitious and behaves inappropriately. One has to face the consequences of one's actions, which are different than others. Two, the false view of sharing collective karma. [According to this view,] most people share a collective karma created by living beings. An example of collective karma shared by everyone would be a natural or manmade disaster that causes several tens of millions of deaths at once. All who have done evil face the same consequence. View means perspective, having the same opinion. Since living beings are confused and think that objects are them, they mistake thieves for their sons and give rise to all kinds of false thoughts and attachments. From falseness comes delusion, then the creation of all kinds of evil doings. Hence they face the same retribution.

Let me share a true story, which happened as a result of collective karma. In 1944, there was a drought in Henan Province in China. For that entire year, there was no rain. The soil in the land was absolutely parched. There were also raids of locusts. When the locusts flew in, the sky turned completely dark. All agricultural products were eaten, not even one blade of grass or one leaf was exempt. At the time, one child once saw an old man dumping bags and bags of stuff from the sky. Whatever came out of those bags turned into locusts when they touched the ground. There were so many locusts that they covered an area of more than a hundred miles and piled as high as nearly a foot. People were so hungry that they tried to catch the locusts for food. They did not think the locusts were poisonous because the locusts ate crops. They could have never imagined what happened to the cooked locusts-the locusts turned into human excrement. No matter how hungry they were, they did not dare to eat any more of them! Consequently, these starving people could only flee to Chang An. All along the road between Henan and Chang An, nearly 300 miles, were corpses and skeletons. The bizarre thing was that, the dead wore a wicked smile on their faces that is frightening. This is the result of collective karma, everyone sharing the same false view. Examples were given earlier to briefly describe the false view based on individual karma and the false view based on collectively karma. The Buddha explains in detail the false view based on individual karma in that sutra passage.

What is the false view based on individual karma? For example, some people see red because they have red-colored cataracts. When they look at a lamp at night, they see a halo around it. Since they have problems with their eyes, they see illusions and layers of lights in five different colors.

Red-colored cataracts represent ignorance. Night is a metaphor for confusion. The lamp refers to the nature of our treasury. The five-colored halo symbolizes living beings' illusory bodies made up of the five skandhas and the illusory state of the five objects. Since living beings perceive things with their false views, illusory states appear before us. If we eliminate our false views, then there would be no red cataracts, so from where would the halo come? The good eye represents real wisdom; the lamp symbolizes the truth. Seeing the truth with real wisdom, we see that the one and true Dharma Realm basically does not exist.

For instance, some people have no problems with their eyes, but now they try to create problems for them. I had personally witnessed someone who took hallucinogens stand in front of a wall with a dopey smile on his face the whole time. I asked him what he was smiling about He said, "Strange, there are some really beautiful five-colored lights on the wall!" This is the same thing as an eye problem. Someone with no problems takes drugs and becomes mixed up. He makes the mistake of thinking that illusions of shadow and lights are real. He is confused but does not realize that he is.

Above is a brief explanation of the false view of living beings based on individual karma. Next, the Buddha also named some simple analogies to explain the false view of collective share in that sutra passage. If there were only two countries on a continent in Jambudvipa, they may experience different retributions. Everyone in one country may face negative conditions, seeing the same disaster or inauspicious sign. Its neighboring country, on the other hand, does not see any of it. This is because of false delusions, false karma, false appearance, and such omens only occur in this country but not the other country. For example, recently eastern United States had hurricanes that killed several thousand people while the Southwest had none. This is due to karma in the east but not in the southwest.

Two suns or two moons are all inauspicious omens. The ancients said, "There should not be two suns in the sky and two rulers for the people." In ancient China, when Emperor Jie of Xia Dynasty was being abusive and violent, two suns suddenly appeared in the sky. Xia Dynasty ceased to be as a result. These are examples of ill omens.

Omens also include shadows, dark shadows, white shadows and semi-circular shadows. Shadows are evil energy surrounding the moon; dark shadows are black energy covering the moon; white shadows are energy next to the moon, and then there are semi-circular shadows. These are all signs of disaster as indicated by the moon. Chinese historical records tell us that seven layers of shadows appeared around the moon when Emperor Gao of Han Dynasty was at the City Ping and surrounded by the Huns.

Comets are bright and long; filial stars are short shooting stars; flying stars go across the sky; falling stars have lights that trail down. These are signs of disaster according to the stars. History notes that during the Spring and Autumn era, the Honorable Xiang of Song Dynasty was inhumane and meteors fell like rain. Ominous comets appeared everywhere because of Qinshihuang's cruelty, another ill omen. Vile energy above the sun is called "fu" and that which is next to the sun is called "er". Rainbows appear when the sun comes out after the rain. Rainbows in the morning are called "hong" and rainbows in the evening are called secondary rainbows "ni". These are all signs of disaster according to the sun. In short, any strange phenomenon that occurs around the sun or moon indicates inauspicious events.

In China, every time dynastic rule changes, inauspicious omens appear. Once, one emperor saw an unlucky star and specifically called in Ching Tian Jian, who was in charge of astrology, and asked him whether this was a lucky sign. Chin Tian Jian said, "This is a most inauspicious sign according to the stars. It means that the ruler of this country will die. But I have a way to transfer that death onto a minister, is that okay?" The emperor said, "Ministers manage the affairs of the nation, how can one of them substitute for me and die?" Tian Jian said, "Then transfer it to the people." The Emperor said, "Citizens are the backbone of this country. I am working for the people. How can they die for me?" Tian Jian said, "Then let's transfer it onto this time in history so that there will be a famine." The emperor said, "A famine at this time would mean that people will starve to death too. No!" Tian Jian then kneeled down and bowed, "Emperor, you really are an excellent ruler. With your kindness, you will certainly be able to turn inauspiciousness into auspiciousness. You will not die." Indeed, the inauspicious star vanished the next day. This proves that nothing is for sure. One kind thought can turn inauspiciousness into auspiciousness. Lord of Heaven says, "Change your mind to that of goodness, then although you have not yet acted on the good, good spirits follow you already. Change your mind to that of evil, then although you have not yet acted on that evil, evil spirits follow you already." There are kind and mean spirits. Good spirits protect good people; mean spirits punish evil people. There is no door to fortune or misfortune, people invite it in." If we do not do evil with our minds, nothing inauspicious will happen.