The choices you make in the present determine whether you will suffer in the present from the ripening seeds of past kamma. Skillful choices can protect you from the suffering made possible by past unskillful actions.

"The essence of action [kamma] is the intention that drives it. Intentions can be either unskillful — leading to pain; or skillful — leading to pleasure. As the Buddha discovered, unskillful intentions are rooted in greed, aversion, or delusion; skillful intentions are rooted in states of mind free from greed, aversion, and delusion. Skillful intentions are a special class of good intentions, in that well-meaning intentions inspired by delusion can lead to pain. In other words, not all good intentions are skillful, but all skillful intentions are good. A good intention has to be free from delusion in order to be truly skillful.

The effects of action can be experienced both now, in the immediate present, and into the future. As a result, your present experience is composed of three things: the results of past intentions with long-term effects, present intentions, and the immediate results of present intentions. Past intentions provide the raw material from which present intentions shape your actual experience of the present moment.

Because you are acting on intentions all the time, and because many different past actions can be at work in providing the raw material for each present moment, the workings of kamma can be quite complex. The Buddha’s image is of a field with many seeds. Some of the seeds are ripe and ready to sprout if given a little moisture; some will sprout only later no matter how much you water them now; and some will get crowded out by other seeds and die without sprouting. Present intentions provide the water that enables the ripening seeds, whether good or bad, to sprout.

In this way, past kamma places some limitations on what you might experience in the present — if the seed for a particular type of experience is not ready to ripen, no amount of water will make it sprout — but there is the possibility of free choice in the present moment as to which seeds to water. This means that past actions don’t entirely shape the present. Without some measure of freedom of choice to shape the present, the idea of a path of practice would make no sense, because you wouldn’t be free to decide whether to follow it or not.

In fact, the choices you make in the present determine whether you will suffer in the present from the ripening seeds of past kamma. Unskillful choices in the present can make you suffer even from the pleasures made possible by past skillful actions. Skillful choices in the present can protect you from suffering even from the pains made possible by past unskillful actions."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Buddha's Teachings: An Introduction"

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