On Karma (Pali: Kamma)

We inherit six bases. The five physical bases (senses) and the mind. In this instance the mind means the effect of a past cause.

Things are always paid for: a karmic law.

(quoting Edgar Cayce) … It arises that our bodies are our own doing. I am responsible for the body I have now through my actions in a previous existence.

We are involved and linked in karma with those around us.

Theravada Buddhism recognizes that there can be societies that enslave individuals. How does one explain this? From a former cause. This is why people are born poor, blind, etc. We are born with human perception, and can't see this.

Man’s servant went to market, saw the angel of death. Frightened, he went back to master. His master said get the fastest horse and flee to Baghdad. Master went to the Angel of Death and said, "What do you mean, frightening my servant?" Angel of Death answered, “I’m sorry, I was surprised to see him here because I’d planned to see him in Baghdad tonight. I’ve just sent him the fastest horse and he should be on his way there now.”

You wouldn’t come across the Buddha unless you had good karma. Very difficult to get good or worthy teachers; it cannot happen without former perfections.

Teachers of dharma are, in the law of karma, very much closer to you than your parents.

Urges? You have practiced these things before … so it is your nature … so you are not free.

Your unconscious is governed by former habits.

Buddhism considers wealth and possessions a desirable. To be a debtor is bad karma.

What we are currently experiencing is reaping what we have sown by deeds in the past – the effect of past causes. There is nothing to be done about effects here and now. Our responses, however, are a new cause which will have future results.

If I am reconciled to the world, I am not making new, unwholesome causes.

You want to be a champion runner? Start running – sooner or later you will be the greatest runner in the world. Might take several lifetimes.

Merits and sins go with one at death – no ancestors and no descendants – only our deeds.

You might have merit good enough to meet a saint but such weak javanas that you cannot gain anything from him.

Stealing has physical results/effects on people who steal. Stealing is an offense against oneself and the law. It must be repaid.

One is not responsible for acts not volitionally intended.

No motion is lost. All has an effect. No energy can be expended without an effect following. To deny this law is to deny cause and effect.

On "lack of moral dread": As soon as these things are practiced (meditation) one becomes afraid of an unwholesome action because you know that it might come back to you.

A leper gives a field of merit. Your reaction: an opportunity? anger? indifference? action? The leper is a vipaka effect, but your reaction to him/her is karma.

Anything coming without desire is kamma. You, the students, made no effort to get Desani here. No willful effort. This is all vipaka – effect of a former act. If you get food you do not like – vipaka effect, destiny. Buddha wandered for six years … saw all kinds of devils, Mara, his destiny. The thing to do when bad vipaka comes is to make good use of it. Detach consciousness from the problem (e.g.: hatred) and contemplate it. You cannot help unpleasant effects, but you can consider them.

Mental acts are energy – seeds, causes — which must produce results.

Problems we have, have a former cause. Solution might be self-forgetfulness, charity, doing things for others. By doing this, in time, problems will disappear.

All thoughtless acts produce undesirable results.

It is extreme to reduce everything to karma. You can get rich by discovering a particular (non-karmic) law and applying it. Buddha does not take the extreme view that everything is predetermined. One is rich not from the good will of the gods. Some money can be made by the law of telling lies, etc. This is the law of telling lies. It is the wrong idea to reduce everything to one law. There are thousands of laws.

It is good karma not to be a debtor to others. People in India are, by birth, debtors to Americans.

We would never be in a war unless it was merited.

You might be working for someone else … work hard, create lots of karma for yourself then hand over 5 million lakhs for your family at death.

It is the highest form of charity to give the dhamma because it teaches one against the making of bad karma.

To say that the one who does a deed and the one who experiences the results is the same is false. There are millions of ‘I’s’. The experience of ‘I’ is very real, but it will change. The ‘I’ that is watching is watching the ‘I’ of the past.

Not to say that the same being is reborn, because you are subscribing to 'eternity' when you do. Not to say that annihilation occurs is also incorrect. Conditions and causes bring forth a future individual. It is not the same individual who goes from point A to point B.