Search results for: "Kamma"

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  2. Metta Math
     … And that becomes our kamma. It’s a drain on our resources. The Buddha talks about goodwill and the other sublime attitudes as being the practitioner’s wealth. And it’s an interesting kind of wealth. It’s not the kind where you have to go out and do something to get it from somebody else. It’s something you can produce from within … 
  3. Mistakes
     … They may seem to come out of nowhere because a lot of them come from your past kamma, but then the decision to go along with an impulse, to run with it: That’s a present-moment decision. It’s present kamma, but all too often we’re not even present for it. So if we want to learn why we’re doing things … 
  4. Detail Work
     … Is there anybody out there that you really would have ill will for? Why would you benefit from seeing them suffer? Sometimes you say, “Well, I’d like to see justice done.” Don’t worry about that—kamma takes care of that. *Your *duty is to figure out, “If I ever encountered that person, how could I actually behave in a way that would … 
  5. Tough Goodwill for a Tough World
     … You realize that if you allow yourself to have ill will for anyone, you’re going to do some very unskillful things around those people, and that’s going to become your kamma. So it’s primarily as a protection for you. This is a theme you see throughout the Canon—that goodwill protects you from your own actions. At the same time, the … 
  6. Gratitude & Trust
     … As for gratitude, that’s more related to the teaching on kamma. When the Buddha introduced the topic of gratitude, he did so in the context of explaining kamma. After saying that there are good and bad actions that lead to good and bad results, he went on to say, “There is mother and father,” which sounds like a non sequitur and something perfectly … 
  7. All Fabrications Are Stressful
     … Everybody has kamma as their arbitrator, kamma as their possession.” The first round contemplation, the Buddha says, is the basis for heedfulness—realizing you’ve got to get your act together. It’s bad enough that we have aging, illness, and death, but our actions can make the situation even worse. We pile unskillful thoughts, unskillful words, unskillful deeds on top of the facts … 
  8. The Kamma of Self & Not-Self
    Sometimes you hear Buddhist teachers treating your sense of self as if it were a logical fallacy. If you look at events, if you look at your life and realize that everything is impermanent, then there can be no separate permanent self, they say. Your sense of self is just a series of actions. There’s nothing substantial there, and because actions are ephemeral … 
  9. Insight Is a Judgment Call
     … And so we have to see that these things have some pretty strong bad consequences—seen in terms of the teachings on kamma—and the best way to see that, of course, is to not only keep thinking about the principal of kamma, but also to develop some space for concentration in the mind. Have some confidence that you can do it. One of … 
  10. Thinking About Rebirth
     … When material gain comes, you can learn how to use it skillfully so that you gain in skillful kamma, you gain in skillful mental qualities. That way, when the material gain goes, you’ve gotten what’s really of worth out of it. Ajaan Lee says it’s like squeezing the juice out of a fruit. The material object itself, he says, is like … 
  11. The Kamma of Self & Not-self
    The Kamma of Self & Not-self May 21, 2005 One of the questions the Buddha has monks ask themselves every day—actually, it’s a useful question for all people to ask themselves—is: “Days and nights fly past, fly past, what am I doing right now?” The purpose of the question is to remind you of the importance of your actions, and the … 
  12. The Reality Principle
     … We’re subject to aging, illness, death, and separation, yet we have kamma as our refuge. Actually that’s only a part of the contemplation that the Buddha recommended. He also said to go on to think about the fact that all beings—men, women, children, lay or ordained, past, future, no matter what their level of being—are subject to aging, subject to … 
  13. Dispassion Isn’t Depression
     … He goes on to the fifth reflection, on kamma. Kamma is the way out—if we master it. It’s important to keep that distinction in mind. Some people think that the Buddha’s teachings end with aging, illness, death, inconstancy, stress, and not-self. The message seems to be: “Give up. There’s nothing worth striving for, because everything all falls apart.” Some … 
  14. Chew Your Food Well
     … Right view starts as an understanding about kamma. And it’s interesting to note that when the Buddha talks about kamma, the first two things he focuses on are gratitude and generosity. If you don’t see the virtue, the value of gratitude, if you don’t see the value of generosity, it’s hard to do anything else on the path. You have … 
  15. A Victory that Matters
     … Then you have to ask yourself, “Is it really worth fighting for? What does the fighting accomplish? Is it going to gain any respect? And even if it does, how much is that respect worth?” There are so many battles in the world that just lead to bad kamma even when you win, sometimes especially when you win. Look at the history of the … 
  16. We All Start with an Impure Heart
     … He taught the end of suffering for all beings, and he didn’t ask them ahead of time, “Is your motive for coming here pure?” Or, “The suffering that you’re suffering from, is it something that you deserved?” He could have said that, based on your passed kamma, you deserve to suffer, so he could just leave you there. But he never said … 
  17. The Power of Present Kamma
    A lot of us, when we first hear the teachings on karma, think about the bad things we did in the past, which is one of the reasons why karma is a very unpopular teaching. Things that were past, we hope to leave past. But karma says, “They may still have their fangs.” Of course, “karma” doesn’t mean just bad karma. It also … 
  18. Part V : Finding a Teacher
     … It was your kamma that made you pick up those things. I’ve noticed in my own family: My two brothers and I came away from our childhood being raised by the same parents but with very different impressions about what they taught. So it’s important, as you’re engaging in an admirable friendship, that you try to pick up what’s really … 
  19. The Limits of Old Kamma
    Focus your attention on the breath and see how it feels. Where do you notice it in the body first? Where does it seem most prominent? You might notice the passage of the air through the nostrils, the rise and fall of the chest, the expansion of the rib cage: There are lots of different places in the body where you can sense the … 
  20. Sorting Yourselves Out
    Sorting Yourselves Out November 11, 2010 When the Buddha talks about our sense of who we are, he talks about it in the context of kamma, because we make a sense of who we are. He calls it “I-making” and “my-making.” And there’s not just one “I,” or one “my.” For each desire, you have a sense of self, especially the … 
  21. Wisdom for Dummies Revisited
     … It’s an activity, a kind of kamma. And as with all kinds of kamma, the question is, “When is it skillful? When is it not?” So give yourself a little more freedom around this issue. The idea that you’re committed to being a certain way or a certain sort of person: That gets in the way of the practice. If everybody were … 
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