# Master ask us that observing ants can help in our practice. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Lamrim Discussions | 广论研讨\ **Created:** [January 6, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/t/master-ask-us-that-observing-ants-can-help-in-our-practice-why/688 "2020-01-06T00:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adrian](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/82dd89/32.png) [@adrian](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/u/adrian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/t/master-ask-us-that-observing-ants-can-help-in-our-practice-why/688/1 "2020-01-06T00:37:25Z")
Venerable Ru Jun provides his answer (12:00 to 14:18 minute mark) My takeaway: Ants have lots of strength. They can lift many times their weight Ants have speed. They are always running. Ants work well together Ants are not lazy, they are hardworking. Such traits are valued from our perspective. However, their effort in their lifetime will go to nought if they do not have the chance to encounter the Teachers and their Teachings. Are we like ants now busying ourselves with things that will not help us in our Infinite Lives? Something to ponder. ---
**Author:** ![julieng](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/user_avatar/forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/julieng/32/70_2.png) [@julieng](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/u/julieng)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://forum.bwmonastery.org.sg/t/master-ask-us-that-observing-ants-can-help-in-our-practice-why/688/2 "2020-01-07T01:58:31Z")
I noticed that ants tend to be lured towards food, even though they face danger in being killed when people try to sweep them away, even though this gets repeated many times. This made me think about how we repeatedly engage in actions that are causes for nonvirtuous karma but we either forget or just can’t stop ourselves.