Fifteen Centimeters of Motorbike and a Lifetime of Repercussions

A worldly example of parking a motorbike fifteen centimeters into the roadway, obstructing traffic, leading to the karmic result of a life that is always full of obstacles and never smooth.

In the bustling flow of the city, there is a narrow street lined on both sides with tightly packed houses and shops. A motorbike stops in front of a small grocery store. The owner, a young man, hurriedly steps off to buy some things. He does not notice that the rear of his motorbike juts out into the roadway by about fifteen centimeters.

To him, this is a detail far too small to matter. "It's only fifteen centimeters; there's still plenty of room for other vehicles to pass," he tells himself. He locks his bike, walks into the store, and completely forgets the presence of the vehicle now blocking part of the shared path.

A few minutes later, a small truck comes along. The driver must swerve sharply to avoid the motorbike, nearly hitting an electric pole. Another motorbike approaches, and squeezed between the parked bike and the heavy traffic, it brakes suddenly, causing the rider behind to bump lightly into its rear, creating a long chain of congestion. Horns blare, curses ring out, shouts echo along the whole stretch of road. Everyone is irritated and weary, yet the root cause is only fifteen invisible centimeters from someone who is completely unaware.

The years pass, and that young man is now grown. He considers himself a gentle person who has never intentionally harmed anyone, always living in a mild and agreeable way. And yet, his life seems to be filled with inexplicable obstacles. In business, his capital keeps dwindling; at work, his advancement is slow; in his social relationships, he is often misunderstood and feels lonely. He frequently complains to his friends: "Why is it that I live well, yet life is never lucky for me? It must be that I carry heavy karma from a past life."

He blames fate, blames some vague old karma, but he has never looked back at the small actions of his present life. He does not know that the law of cause and effect (karmic law) operates with precision down to the millimeter. Every time he parks his bike jutting into the road, every time he obstructs the flow of traffic even a little, he is sowing into the universe an energy of "blockage," of "difficulty," of "lack of ease" for others. Those small seeds accumulate and ripen into the karmic results of his own life: a life that is always squeezed, always meeting barriers, always lacking favorable conditions.

In a similar way, there was a family who, over a land dispute, built a wall sealing off a small alley, leaving only enough space for one person to squeeze through. They believed they were within their legal rights, that they had the right of ownership. But six months later, that family fell apart: the father suffered an accident that left him bedridden and paralyzed, a child developed cancer, and the family's assets were exhausted. They did not understand that blocking the path of others is blocking one's own path of growth.

The Meaning of the Story

The story emphasizes the concept of "seeing the danger in every small fault" that the Buddha taught. Ignorance is not only found in great crimes, but also in the lack of awareness toward small actions that affect the community. Parking a motorbike fifteen centimeters into the road, or building a wall to seal off an alley—these acts may seem small, yet they create great karmic results of obstruction and dead ends in one's life. Practicing to end ignorance begins with recognizing that no action is meaningless; every gesture, every decision, sows a cause and reaps a fruit. To acknowledge one's own "foolishness" when one has not yet seen the full subtlety of these connections of cause and effect (karmic law), and to correct oneself starting from the smallest things, is a solid step forward on the path to enlightenment.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang.