Remember you're a karma-producer taking in potentials from the past and generating your experience.
"So always remember that you’re not just sitting here on the receiving
end of the world. You’re actually generating your experience, you’re
taking in potentials that come from the past and you’re creating your
experience of the world — every time you look, every time you listen,
every time you deal with the senses in any way. Every time you move the
body, every time you speak, with every thought: You’re a producer,
you’re a creator, you’re a put-together-er. In this way, you shape your
life.
This is one of the reasons why when the Buddha talks about
harming yourself, it’s not hitting yourself or killing yourself or
anything like that. It’s actually killing other people, stealing from
other people, lying to them, having illicit sex with them, taking
intoxicants. You harm yourself in these ways, because the part of you
that’s the karma-creator creating lots of bad stuff is going to have an
impact on your experience now and on into the future.
In the same way, he said, when you harm other people, it’s not that you go hit them or anything. You harm them by getting them
to create bad karma. The worst thing you can do to somebody is to
persuade them to do something really unskillful, because that karma then
becomes theirs. If you hit them, it may be something in their past
karma but now it’s gone, it’s been paid off. It’s now your karma. But if
you get them to do something unskillful, the impact of that on their
experience is going to last for a long time.
So remember, you’re a
karma-producer; other people are karma-producers. Start some good
productions by training your mind. Learn how to produce good karma.
Learn how to do it well, because that’s your only true possession."
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Karma in the Present"
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