Using your experience of the results of actions to inform your intentions turns them skillful

"The fact that we’re meditating is directly related to the teaching on kamma, too. Where does kamma come from? It comes from our intentions. And where do our intentions come from? They come from the state of the mind. So we work on the state of the mind to improve our intentions — to make them not just good, but skillful. “Good” is well-meaning. “Skillful” is not only well-meaning, but also involves checking up to see, when you do a well-meaning action, do the results actually come out well? If something you thought was good turns out to get bad results, you go back and you recalibrate.

It’s the act of reading the results and then going back and using your experience to inform your intention: That’s what turns good intentions into skillful ones. So, when we think about kamma, the kamma of meditation, remember we’re focusing on the good side — the fact that we can make a change for the better, particularly in our own minds.

After all, look at the mind: It’s a huge mess of all kinds of intentions. If you bring more mindfulness and more alertness and more concentration and discernment to it, you begin to straighten things out. You can see where your inner worlds, the worlds of the ideas that you inhabit, are pulling you off in the wrong direction, and you can replace them with better ones. Which better ones? The world of being a meditator, sitting here being aware of what’s going on — being aware of what’s going on in your mind, what’s going on in the breath, with a sense of well-being based on the breath: That’s a good place to step out.

And the mindfulness you bring here: It’s important to understand that mindfulness is not just bare awareness. It’s the ability to hold something in mind; to keep something in mind. And one of the things you want to keep in mind is that you do have the power of choice."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Worlds to Watch Out For"

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