Search results for: past karma

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  2. Friends & Enemies
     … As for enemies outside, they’re going to do their thing, but that’s their karma. Your karma is what you do, say, and think. Anything inside that would make you do, say, or think something that would cause suffering: That’s not a friend. That’s a traitor. When you realize this, then you can keep yourself on the right track. You can … 
  3. Page search result icon In the Eyes of the Wise : The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame
    In the Eyes of the Wise The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame Several years back, I led a retreat in Santa Fe on the topic of karma. One of the readings was a passage in which the Buddha teaches his seven-year-old son, Rahula, how to examine his actions, as he would his face in a mirror, to make sure that he … 
  4. In the Mood to Meditate
     … But the Buddha never has you focus on past kamma. He has you focus more on what you’re doing right now. This is why karma is very relevant to the meditation. If your mind is in good shape, then you’re more likely to do the right thing, shape your life in the right way. And you have that power. That’s a … 
  5. Desire Is Part of the Path
     … The path to the end of suffering, the Buddha says, is the karma that leads to an end of karma. There are things you have to do in order to stop doing. You have to have a desire to act. You see this in right resolve. You set your mind on doing things that are going to be skillful, and then with right effort … 
  6. Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves
     … And do your best to develop all the qualities that are needed so that you don’t have to suffer from past kamma. At the same time, remind yourself that the possibility of there being past bad kamma is there for everybody, so you can’t get complacent. Here it’s important that you adopt the right attitude, not so worried about it that … 
  7. Everything You Need
     … And what you can do, as he said, plays such a huge role in your experience of the present moment that you can actually take yourself to a point where no matter what your past karma is, you don’t have to suffer. So keep that possibility in mind. It helps to prevent you from settling for second best, or third best, or fourth … 
  8. Overcoming Obstacles
     … If it’s just plain old desire for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, think about all the sensual pleasures you’ve had in the past. Where are they now? Ajaan Suwat used to like to ask this question time and again: All the happiness you got from sights and sounds and smells and tastes and tactile sensations last week, where’s that … 
  9. Bojjhanga: Discernment Fosters Concentration
     … When you step back from your thoughts, you say, “Where are they going?” Look at thinking as karma—not as pictures of the world as it really is, but as an activity of the mind thinking about the world. It gives you a different perspective on your thoughts. You can step back and see: Where do these lead? What are they useful for? Are … 
  10. Goodwill as Right View
     … And if we happen to meet up again, we’ve got a good past with each other. Having that good past with one another helps us start up again on a good footing. So universal goodwill is good all around. It’s a categorical teaching, one that’s applicable everywhere. So when you’re facing difficult decisions, remember goodwill will help carry you through … 
  11. Beyond Sound-bitten Dhamma
     … Ask yourself, “Is my practice actually making me a better person?” Think of that question the Buddha has you ask every day: “Days and nights, fly past, fly past. What am I becoming right now?” What you’re becoming depends on your actions. So what are you doing, and what kind of person are you becoming as a result of what you’re doing … 
  12. Goodwill First & Last
     … The first knowledge was recollection of his past lives, all his narratives going back many eons. And notice: He didn’t go from that knowledge straight to the present moment. The second knowledge had to do with all living beings. He’d seen in his first knowledge that he had gone through many lifetimes, in many different roles, many different levels of being. But … 
  13. Metta Means Goodwill
     … These are times when you really do have to think about the past and think about the future, i.e. where you’ve made a mistake in the past and what you can do in the future not to repeat it. The same principle applies to observing the precepts. Once you know that you’re not going to kill anything, you have to sit … 
  14. Dhamma is Timeless
     … It’s scary! Everything gets pulled away from you—all the things you depended on in this lifetime—and you may have some good that you’ve done, but you don’t know what karma you’ve got from the past. The possibility for falling is very strong. But we do have this life right here, right now; we do have this opportunity right … 
  15. Book search result icon Starting Out Small An Image of the Buddha
     … In other words, you have to brush away all concepts of past and future, leaving only the present: the breath. Be aware only of the breath. When your mold is thoroughly heated (i.e., you’re alert to the whole body), your air pump is working well (i.e., mindfulness is steady and strong), and your metal is pure and free from specks (i … 
  16. Focus on the Doing
     … This is what gives you a better chance to do things carefully in the future as well and to be able to handle any results of past bad karma that may be lying in wait. So no matter what thought comes up, there is a way of thinking about it, realizing that it’s more in your own true self interest and the interest … 
  17. Escape from Inter-eating
     … Part of it, of course, is the karma of feeding on others. But the other part it is just simply being in a position of hunger and dependency. It’s very unstable, very unreliable, very uncertain. There’s a lot of suffering that goes into that. So he taught us to be heedful of both dangers. This is where his teachings on heedfulness go … 
  18. Page search result icon A Good Independent Self
     … If your mind is expansive, then whatever painful results you’re experiencing from past karma are going to be greatly reduced. Just as when you throw a salt crystal into a large river of water: Even though you’ve put some salt in the water, there’s so much more water than there is salt that you can still drink the water, and it … 
  19. Breaking the Arrows
    The chant we had just now on aging, illness, death, separation, and then the reflection on action or karma: That reflects the Buddha’s own path. As a young prince, he looked around him. He had all the pleasures you could imagine that a prince in India would have at that time. But it struck him that all those pleasures would be subject to … 
  20. Respect for What’s Noble
     … Is there somebody who knows a way to get past this pain? It’s because of pain that we look for things in life. If we didn’t have any pains at all, what would we search for? We’d be perfectly satisfied where we were. What would we have to think about? It’s because we’re bewildered that we start thinking. But … 
  21. Ways to Think
     … thing I did in the past when I hurt that person or did this thing I know was wrong: It’s going to come back and get me!” That’s our normal first thought about the teaching on kamma. But that’s not what the Buddha emphasizes when he teaches kamma. He emphasizes the positive side of karma: The fact that we can do … 
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