Search results for: past karma
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- Anger… gone into the day, the past week, or whatever. They all come piling on at the same time. So of course there’s going to be pain in the body, pain in the mind, and you lash out. Even if you don’t lash out physically, there can be some verbal exchanges. But then you’ve got karma: You’ve got to keep thinking …
- Dhamma Warrior… The Buddha says, karma and the results of karma are one of the things you just can’t think about. In other words, you can’t try to figure it all out, because karma is so complex. But then he goes on to say, “Therefore, Ananda, one should not judge others. If one judges others, one destroys oneself.” That whole passage beginning with “Therefore …
- Metta… Happiness depends on present actions and past actions. Past actions you can’t change. With present actions, you have some control over your present actions, but there are a lot of people out there whose actions you don’t have any control over at all. As Ajaan Suwat used to say, “Each of us has one person.” We’re responsible for our thoughts, our …
- Tenacity… You’re just feeding off old karma and creating blank new karma, which doesn’t lead to the end of suffering. The end of suffering requires a determination that you hold to, that there’s got to be a way out. It requires a lot of ingenuity and a lot of discernment to notice where you’re causing yourself suffering, and how the avoidance …
- The Noble Search Makes Us Human… the realization that if your happiness depends on that little bit of water, you’re going to create a lot of bad karma and then you’re going to die anyhow. Is that all there is to life? And his answer was No. That No is what constitutes pasada: that defiant answer to the limitations that people normally accept in life. It’s the …
- Tranquility & Insight with the Breath… It’s a repeated karma—often knee-jerk karma, because we’re so used to doing it, because we think, “Well, that’s just the way the mind works,” or “That’s just the way things have to be,” or “This is who I am.” All of those ideas are clinging, too. Think of each of those ideas as an activity, and ask yourself …
- The Demands of Goodwill… If you can make your mind expansive now, then whatever past bad karma you have from the past, your development of goodwill will reduce the impact it could have in creating pain. So goodwill is your protection in all directions, including the direction of the past and the direction of the future. It’s your protection right now. And we’re not speaking just …
- What Should & Shouldn’t Be Done… One is in his teachings on karma, emphasizing the fact that you do have choices here in the present moment. The present moment is not totally determined by the past. It’s not determined by some god or your own past actions. There will be influences coming in from the past, but you have the right to choose among those influences. In fact, what …
- Stretch Your Mind… It wouldn’t totally wipe out the effects of past bad karma, but it would give you a reprieve for a while. And who knows, maybe like Angulimala you could train your mind so that it wouldn’t have to suffer from those bad things. So, seeing the power of the mind, seeing the power of the present moment, he then focused on his …
- Equanimity… At the same time, everybody has a history of karma: good things, bad things, they’ve done in the past. You have your history: good things, bad things you’ve done. Those actions—your actions, their actions—are going to place limitations on what you can do. You have to think about this so that you don’t suffer over the fact that all …
- Dependent Co-arising in Fifteen Minutes… So your present-moment intention is something you actually experience prior to the results of past karma. That’s pretty radical. How you approach things comes first, before the things themselves. Which means, of course, that we have to train the mind. You don’t just say, “Okay, this is the way things are, this is the contact that comes in, and then I …
- What You Bring to the Moment… But if something seems to be getting in the way, the question is: “Is it what I’m doing now or something I did in the past?” In other words, maybe it’s an illness in the body that comes from past karma, about which you can’t do much. But you can change the way you relate to it. You can change the …
Beyond All Directions
Beyond All Directions
… The Buddha’s teaching on karma, however, focuses on the fact that while your experiences are influenced to some extent by actions from the past, the way you experience those influences depends on what you do with them in the present. In fact, without the karma of your present actions, you wouldn’t experience anything at all. So the Buddha’s teaching on karma …Show 3 additional results in this book- Delight in Conviction… In other words, what you did in the past determines what you do now. With views like that, there’s not much hope to change your ways. But as the Buddha saw, what we experience in the present moment is shaped partly by our past actions, but more importantly by our present actions, our present intentions. And our present intentions can be freely chosen …
- People Who Think Too Much… Some of them are present intentions and some of them are the result of old intentions—in other words, they’re past karma—and one of the important things in the meditation is learning to see the difference. But you can’t do it just by making an observation once or twice. You have to be willing to sit still for long periods of …
- Merit: Actively Happy… So you don’t let past wrongs get in the way of your goodwill, because if you have ill will for someone, you can’t trust yourself to behave skillfully around that person. And that’s then going to become your bad karma. So thoughts of goodwill are nourishment for your generosity and nourishment for your virtue. The Buddha also calls them a kind …
- Faith in Present Intentions… But they’re pushing against the results of past intentions: If the past intentions were good, things will go in line with the way we want them to. If they were not, they put up resistance. We have very little control over what’s coming in from the past. We can develop states of mind that minimize the effect of past bad actions. It …
- In the Mood to Meditate… So recollection of the virtue you’ve practiced in the past and recollection of the generosity you’ve practiced in the past are not just to put you in a good mood. They’re also to remind you: You’ve learned lessons from generosity, you’ve learned lessons from virtue that are going to be really useful as you sit here and meditate. After …
- Faith in the Buddha’s Awakening… There may be some roughness coming in from your past karma, but you don’t have to suffer from it. You have some choices in the present moment, in how you’re going to shape those potentials coming up from the past. So keep these points in mind because they give you energy even when things seem to be closing in on you. There …
- Songkran Blessing… In other words, we look to the past, make merit for those we loved in the past who are now gone. We look to the future, we hope to have a good future, which is why we give blessings and ask for blessings. If you simply take blessings, you’re living off your old treasures. If you want new treasures, you give blessings to …
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