Search results for: past karma
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- Disconnecting… We think that interconnectedness is a good thing, but think of all the sorrow that the Buddha saw as he reflected on his many past lives in that first watch of the night: Birth, aging, death. Pleasure, pain, death. Eating this, eating that, death. Over and over and over again. When you think about all the different relationships you’ve had through the vast …
- Into the Cave with the Tiger… You’re not causing yourself suffering in the past, you’re not causing it in the future. You’re causing it right now. There may be things coming in through the senses that come from past unskillful karma, but the fact that you’re suffering from that is based on how you’re shaping the present moment. And it’s happening right here. When …
- Put Your Heart into It… They’re just there.” Sometimes you’re dealing with the results of past karma: old habits that have been running through the mind for a long time and they’re not going to die down quickly. You can’t put an instant stop to them, but you can refuse to nourish them. That way, you don’t get tied up with them. They can …
- Goodness… All the great people in the past, though, said that to be truly happy, there has to be goodness as well. The two have to go together. This is why we wish well for ourselves, and if we have any intelligence, we wish well for others. This is where the goodness comes in. We don’t want our happiness to depend on anyone else …
- Looking after Yourself with Ease… Those words don’t apply to me.” Watch the words as they go past and you realize, “Oh. It’s that person’s karma.” And the reason you were suffering from the words is because you were pulling them inside. Our minds are like vacuum cleaners. All too often we go through life sucking up nothing but the dirt. So when a word is …
- Give It Your All… what was your experience of generosity in the past. Then from that point, he leads you into the Dhamma. So, what is your experience of generosity? On the one hand, there’s the generosity you’ve received from other people, starting with your parents. If they hadn’t been generous with you, you’d be dead from the very beginning. If you’ve been …
- Calm… In other words, influences come in from your past karma, and you shape them into how you’re experiencing your body and mind right now. So, you are playing a role. It’s not just that you have to put up with whatever’s there; you have to look into, “How am I shaping this in a way that’s not as good as …
- The Ten Priorities… Often it’s translated as “perfection.” In Thailand, when they talk about people having *parami, *it’s like a fund of good qualities they’ve inherited from their past actions. One way of interpreting the word *parami *relates it to parama, which means “foremost.” In other words, these should be your foremost priorities as you go through life, realizing that whatever else gets accomplished …
- Not-self in Context… If you can get past your ideas of self, then there’s no more suffering. But you can’t just drop your ideas of self, because your sense of self is part of your strategy for finding happiness—and it’s going to be part of your strategy for following the path. Just as you engage in other forms of clinging on the path …
- Visakha Puja – Shaking the Earth… That becomes our karma. That shapes the world in which we’re going to live. So, with the concentration practice, we can shape the mind so that it’s not so hungry for things outside. And it can gain a sense of detachment. You’re putting yourself in a better position to do what is wise, to do what is skillful, to do what …
- Fangs in the Static… Different images will appear to the mind, based on your past karma. Some of them will be obviously unpleasant, others will be apparently pleasant, but if you look more carefully, you realize they have a lot of drawbacks—like this human realm that we came into the last time we were born. If you compare it to some of the lower realms, it’s …
- Analyzing Anger… And notice, the reflections end with, “All beings are the owners of their actions.” That’s supposed to remind us that when we’re upset with other people, when we feel like saying something or doing something that might not be in our best interest or theirs, it’s going to be our karma. When we’re upset with others, our mind tends to …
- Common Sense… In the second watch of the night, he saw beings dying and being reborn all over the cosmos in line with their karma, in line with their actions. But that wasn’t his awakening. His awakening came when he extracted a causal principle out of that: that what you do bears results. So that became his laboratory: his actions. He watched what he was …
Undaunted
Lessons from the Awakening
Chapter One Lessons from the Awakening On the night of his awakening, the bodhisatta gained three knowledges that led to his total release: • knowledge of his own past lives; • knowledge of how all beings die and are reborn in line with their kamma (a word meaning “action,” better known now in its Sanskrit form, karma); and • knowledge of how to end the mental qualities …- The Buddha’s Currency… You think about the principle of karma, that your actions really do make a difference, so why would you want to make a difference that goes down? Try to make a difference that goes up. So, you can invest the well-being of your generosity in a sense of compunction. This connects with another principle: the internal principle that the Buddha said is the …
- Determined to be Happy… There may be some limitations coming in from past karma, but there’s a range of skillful choices open to you. The wise person wants to find something really solid—and not be pushed around by random desires, but have a clear sense of priorities in what’s really important in life, and what’s not. Then you try to develop the strength, the …
- The Mind When Trained Brings Happiness… It’s here in the present moment, not wandering off to the past or the future. We’re using the breath here to train the mind, to develop some useful qualities. The first one is mindfulness, the ability to keep something in mind. In this case, you’re reminding yourself each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, that this is where …
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The Craft of the Heart
Glossary
… the ability to display psychic powers, clairvoyance, clairaudience, the ability to know the thoughts of others, recollection of past lifetimes, and the knowledge that does away with mental effluents (see āsava). anattā: Not-self. anicca(ṁ): Inconstant, unstable, impermanent. anussati: Recollection as a meditation exercise. Strictly speaking, there are seven themes recommended for recollection: the virtues of the Buddha, of the Dhamma, and of …
- Guardian Meditations… You can think about your past generosity, especially when you’re feeling discouraged in your practice, when you feel that “I don’t have any good in me,” tell yourself, “What do I have in me? What do I have in the past that’s good?” Think of the times you’ve been generous when you didn’t have to be. Think of the …
- Feeding Off the Future… For instance, you can think about times in the past when things looked bleak and then all of a sudden they went well. It’s also good to remind yourself of times when you let yourself feed on unskillful thoughts or engage in unskillful activities, and of the bad results that came about. You want to keep that in mind as well too, as …
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