Your Karma Is Yours

Ajaan Suwat used to make the point that the Buddha talks about many things being not self—not you, not yours—but then he says we’re the owners of our actions. Those are ours. We’re responsible for them. And those are our treasures. We keep them as good actions, good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Those are truly yours; the results will be yours.

So you want to make sure that you protect your actions. In other words, don’t let people influence you to do things that are against the precepts, things that would be harmful. We live in a world where people set really bad examples, and they flaunt their bad examples. And other people follow those examples.

But you have to remember you’re responsible. You have to maintain your own independent goodness because no one else can maintain it for you. This is why we meditate, to get the mind really familiar with itself, because the quality of our actions depends on our intentions. All too often we’re not really clear about what our intentions are when we do something, or say something, or think something.

But when we meditate, we get more familiar with the mind, because we’re dealing with it every time it wants to slip off. We learn how to say No—and learn how to say No effectively. Then you can use that same skill to say No to other unskillful desires as you go through the day. The skills you gain as you meditate are not meant to be left on the cushion. They’re meant to be taken with you. They’re your protection wherever you go.

There are other people out there who want to set bad examples and would be very happy to see you follow their bad examples. But there’s no reason to follow them. They make it hard to do what is good.

But you remember, what you do is really yours. What other people do to you—that’s a result of your own past actions. So you accept that with equanimity. But you don’t have to continue any bad patterns. You can establish some good, new patterns and then maintain them. Then wherever you go, you go in safety. Wherever you stay, you stay in safety. You’re giving protection to yourself.

At the same time, you’re giving protection to others. As the Buddha said, when you hold by the precepts in all situations, with no exceptions, you’re giving universal safety to all beings. Then you have a share in that safety as well. In the same way, when you protect your actions, you’re the primary beneficiary, but other people benefit too.

As the Buddha said, if you want to harm yourself, you break the precepts. If you want to harm others, you get them to break the precepts. So if anyone wants to get you to break the precepts, they’re trying to harm you. Think of it in that way. When you guard your actions like this, then you guard what’s really important.

The fact that you have a human body means that you’re exposed to the dangers of the world outside. The fact that your mind knows what’s going on outside, that exposes you to dangers outside, too. But you realize what the dangers outside are for the mind. Bad examples are your dangers—along, of course, with your own greed, aversion, and delusion. You don’t want them to combine and rise up against you.

So. Protect your actions, and you’ll keep yourself well protected.

King Pasenadi went to see the Buddha one time. King Pasenadi is portrayed as kind of naive. He’s a powerful king, but he doesn’t know much about spiritual matters. Yet as he comes to visit the Buddha on occasions, he begins to pick up some of the Buddha’s perspective.

He comes to the realization one day that even if you have a big army, but if you keep breaking the precepts, you’re not protected. You leave yourself exposed to danger. But if you protect your precepts, then even if you don’t have an army at all, no danger is going to come to you.

So your good actions are yours. Protect them, because they’re your treasures.