Search results for: "Kamma"

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  2. The Power of Attention
     … Sometimes we think that, with kamma, what you see at any moment in time is the running balance in that person’s kamma account. But the Buddha never said that we have one kamma account. His image is of seeds in a field. With every action, you plant a seed, so you have lots of seeds. Some of them are ready to sprout; some … 
  3. Tuning-in to the Breath
     … the principle of kamma. Now when we hear the word “kamma,” we usually think, “kamma-and-rebirth,” but he meant specifically the principle of action: that what you do shapes your experience. If you’re convinced of this, you can do the meditation because, after all, the meditation is a doing. You’re not just sitting here, biding your time, waiting for the accident … 
  4. The Power of Action
     … When people asked about what the Buddha taught, the monks would say, “He’s a teacher of kamma—a kamma-vadi, someone who teaches kamma. When monks from other sects were coming to ask to ordain, the first question was, “Are you a kamma-vadi, too? Or do you not believe in the power of action?” If you didn’t believe in the power … 
  5. Equanimity as a Skill
     … It’s meant to take you beyond itself, and to do so, you have to develop equanimity in conjunction with the other factors in the lists, keeping in mind the principle of kamma: that there are certain things that, based on past actions, you can’t change. But you have to remember that, in the teaching on kamma, not everything in the present moment … 
  6. Happy for People You Don’t Like
     … You created the kamma to enjoy those things. Now that kamma has shown its results and gone away. If you want those results again, you’ve got to create the kamma to bring them back. But in the meantime, why be envious of those who have what you used to have and would like to have again? It’s a part of human life … 
  7. Empathetic Joy
     … You don’t have to wear off the bad kamma before you can enjoy the good. You simply learn to make the best use of both pleasure and pain when they come along. The Buddha never talks about having to wear off your old kamma before you can gain awakening. The idea that meditation is a purification that burns away your old kamma is … 
  8. Generosity First
     … These are kamma connections. Now, we in the West often have problems with the teachings on kamma, which may be why we want the teachings on connectedness without the kamma. So we go looking elsewhere in the Buddha’s teachings to find a rationale or a basis for a teaching on connectedness, but the real basis for a sense of connectedness comes through kamma … 
  9. Not the Predictable Thing
     … seeing beings dying and being reborn in line with their kamma, and seeing how complex kamma was. There’s a basic principle that’s pretty simple: You act on skillful intentions and you get good results, good rebirths. You act on unskillful intentions, you get bad results, bad rebirths. But even though the principle is simple, its working-out is not. It’s not … 
  10. A Sense of Yourself
     … The Buddha himself said he couldn’t prove the principle of kamma to people. The best he could do was give a pragmatic proof: that if you take this principle on, your actions are going to change, all for the better. Whereas if you don’t believe in the principle of kamma, what reason is there to be careful in your actions? When you … 
  11. Death World
     … One of the reflections the Buddha recommends is a reflection on kamma. You can reflect on the fact that you yourself are subject to kamma—you’re the owner of your actions, heir to your actions—and then there’s the reflection all beings are owners of their actions. These reflections serve different purposes. The one on your being the owner of your actions … 
  12. Intent
     … Now, you can’t be responsible right now for things that are going to come in from your past kamma. But you can be responsible for what you’re doing right here. This is why, when the Buddha teaches about kamma, he talks about world systems evolving and devolving, and spreads his net really wide, but then he pulls it back in. The course … 
  13. Conditions for Concentration
     … Even when the Buddha’s talking about kamma and the way it plays itself over huge cycles of time, he ends his discussion by saying, “All these events come from kamma. And where is kamma being made? Right here, right now, in the choices you’re making right here, right now.” So even something as big as the course of the cosmos comes back … 
  14. Wise about Pain
     … There are some pains that are caused by past kamma; others are caused by present kamma—in other words, your intentions right now, how you’re relating to the body, how you’re holding the body, how you’re breathing. The ones that come from past kamma: There’s not much you can do about them except to release the tension around them by … 
  15. Name & Form
     … a lesson in cause and effect, a lesson in kamma. Those are the two principles that you always have to keep in mind when you’re listening to any of the Buddha’s teachings. When you read about mindfulness, how does mindfulness relate to kamma? How does it relate to causality? When you read about goodwill, how does it relate to kamma and causality … 
  16. Scribe Knowledge, Warrior Knowledge
     … Actually prior to that you start with mundane right view, which is a belief in kamma, action, and that moves into the four noble truths. After all, craving, the cause of suffering, is an unskillful form of action. The path is a skillful form of action. The path is a type of kamma. But it’s a special type of kamma: kamma leading to … 
  17. Saying No to Distraction
    When you meditate, it’s good to keep in mind the Buddha’s teachings on kamma—that what you’re experiencing right now is a mixture of several things: the results of intentions from the past, your present intentions, and the results of your present intentions. This helps you to sort out what’s going on in the mind. Your present kamma should be … 
  18. The Need for Right View
     … The first level of right view is conviction in the principle of kamma: that there are good and bad actions that lead to good and bad results, which are determined by the quality of intention behind the action. A lot of us resist the teaching on kamma because we tend to run into it mostly when we find ourselves facing a bad situation, and … 
  19. Owners of Our Actions
     … Therefore all kamma leads to all stress and pain.” And the Buddha said, “That’s not how you answer that. When you talk about kamma, you have to talk about the three kinds of feelings.” After all, you have the choice of acting. You want to know which kind of feeling you’re going to be producing. After all, pleasure is preferable to pain … 
  20. Significance
     … But when the Buddha explains causality, your intentions in the present are actually prior to your experience of the six senses, which is where you sense your old kamma. What you’re doing right is what’s really important. That element of freedom is there because it’s prior. So when the Buddha talks about kamma and the principles of skillful and unskillful kamma … 
  21. Goodwill & Heedfulness
     … You can see them in the principle of kamma: If you act on ill will, you’ll create bad kamma. In fact, when the Buddha talks about developing goodwill, it’s often in the context of realizing that you may have done something that’s harmed other people, or harmed yourself. You’ve broken the precepts and you realize it’s harming not only … 
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