When we understand the evolution of our unsatisfactory experiences in cyclic existence, we will see that meditating on emptiness is their antidote. All knowable things--people and phenomena--appear to our minds to be inherently existent. We then grasp at them, and that gives rise to the various disturbing attitudes of anger, attachment, and so on. These disturbing attitudes motivate our actions, which in turn leave karmic imprints on our mindstreams. When these imprints ripen, we meet with suffering.

--from Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, by Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron, published by Snow Lion Publications