Some of you here started your Buddhist practice earlier, some just a couple of years ago. No matter how long it has been, we should all look back to see what motivated us to perform virtuous actions. If our motivation is that of the inferior disciples, albeit some good karma may ensue, it will not lead to enlightenment. If we come to realize this might be a problem, something can still be done to transform our good karma into means for attaining enlightenment. The most effective way is to generate bodhicitta. Why? From the perspective of all things being incessantly arising and ceasing every instance, it is true that what we did before no longer exists, but the continuum of awareness of the karmic seeds has already been planted in our alaya consciousness. Once we have generated renunciation and bodhicitta, the continuum in the alaya consciousness will be transformed immediately. Virtuous karma of the past may thus become the cause of enlightenment. If we do not improve the inferior motivation, it will forever remain just mundane phenomenon and never become the cause of liberation. What a pity that must be!

~ Depicted from THE RIGHT VIEW - The Three Supreme Methods—the ultimate methods of cultivating virtue and training the mind