Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"Resolve for non-ill will is a relatively skillful craving for becoming: the desire that all living beings — oneself included — can develop states of becoming where they can live in ease and without animosity, oppression, or trouble. Resolve for harmlessness is a relatively skillful craving for non-becoming: the desire that sufferings be destroyed. The reason why the Buddha didn’t simply list the resolve to abandon becoming and non-becoming as mundane forms of right resolve is because the factors of the path — both on the mundane and transcendent levels — require the use both of skillful becoming and skillful non-becoming if they are to develop at all. Only on the final level of the path, beyond the transcendent, can both becoming and non-becoming be entirely dropped. So on the mundane level, the Buddha focuses right resolve on skillful levels of becoming and non-becoming that are helpful to the path: the resolve to abandon sensuality, and the resolve to live — and to help others ...

"There’s another thing that [the Buddha] recommends that you not think about in his discussion on appropriate attention in Majjhima 2. He talks about questions that are not worth following, not worth paying attention to. And some of them are, “What was I in the past? Was I in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? How will I be in the future? What will I be in the future?” Some people say, “Well, didn’t the Buddha ask these questions of himself when he first gained awakening?” The answer is that perhaps that was his first motivation to gain those first two knowledges. But then those are precisely the questions he dropped, because he realized that the question of who he was, was not a useful question — because, after all, the whole process was driven by action. He asked himself: Why not look directly at actions? Actions that are skillful, actions that are unskillful — in ways that you can get past those categories of skillful and unskillful — in other words, to ...

"As the Buddha pointed out in Majjhima 2, there are lots of questions that you could ask that are inappropriate and they’re not even worth your attention. When you look at the list, you can see that many of them are the kinds of questions you would be tempted to ask if you had knowledge of this sort: “What was I in the past? What will I be in the future? What am I now?” Instead of focusing on the actions, you start focusing on your identity — who you are as a being . But apparently the Buddha reasoned that the real factor determining things was not who you are, or what you are, or whether you exist or don’t exist. The real issue is action and its results. So he didn’t let himself get waylaid by thoughts of what we would call metaphysics — the existence of beings and things. He focused solely on actions. As a result, was able to see the patterns by which these actions played themselves out, and also the possibility of going beyond them. It’s because he looked carefully that he saw...

"Actions [kamma] are an interesting kind of possession: You do them and you don’t have to hold on to them. Even after the action is done, its results are going to be there. You don’t have to carry them around. So you just keep focusing on holding on to the mindfulness that reminds you to act skillfully and the conviction that this really does make a difference." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Ready to Evacuate"

"We want to be able to see why the actions we do for the sake of happiness end up leading to stress and how we can change those ways, so that we can actually act in a way that leads to true happiness. We break things down into very simple components so that we can manage them. We realize that this is a problem we can manage. That’s the good news of the Buddha’s teachings: that even though we may be causing ourselves stress and suffering, we can put an end to it. If our suffering really were caused by things outside that were beyond our power, then there’d be no hope. Or if it were caused by things we were doing that we couldn’t change, there’d be no hope, either. But here we’re making choices. We’re probably not making them all that wisely, but we do have some wisdom. We do have some discernment. It’s just a matter of applying it, giving it a foundation here in the present moment, and then really using it to look carefully to see: Where are we creating unnecessary stress and suff...

"Without all the Buddha’s efforts, where would we be? Those six years of austerities and the many years of teaching difficult people, just so that the Dhamma and Vinaya could be established. And here it is, it’s free. We should be overwhelmed with gratitude and practice accordingly." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Buddha's Compassion"