Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"Keep coming back to the breath. And sometimes you may wonder, “When do we finish with the breath and move on?” But that’s based on a wrong idea of what progress means. Progress means seeing one thing very carefully — more and more carefully all the time, more and more precisely. Fortunately, when you’re focusing on the breath right here in the present moment, all the things you need to understand for gaining release are all right here as well. You’re at the most important point in your world when you’re focused right here, because everything comes out of this. The other things you’re aware of come into your senses because of your past karma. And where was your past karma made? Well, it was made right here in a past version of the present moment. And that’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. What’s really important is what you’re doing right now. So you don’t have to worry about other things, other places. Just stay right here. And get really familiar right here....

"You start with right view about kamma and rebirth in general, thinking about what those principles say about your life. If you think that life ends with death and that’s it — there’s nothing more — then that’s going to put everything else in your daily life into one context. But if you think of samsara as something that’s going to lead on for more and more and more lives, then your actions take on a different meaning. You want to keep that larger context in mind, so that you can have a clear idea: What really is worth doing? What’s not worth doing? When you start getting attached to ideas, memories, material things, you can remind yourself, “Okay, you’ve had these things before, you’ve let go of them before, and you’ve come back to them again, and you’re setting yourself up to miss them again. Haven’t you had enough?” If you think everything ends with death, there’s never any sense of enough. You want to grab as much as you can before you go. But, if you realize that you’re go...

"Empires rise and fall, but the mind remains. That’s got to be your perspective. Because the mind remains not only through the death of the body but through many, many cycles of the Universe. So you’ve got to get it into good shape, because otherwise it’s going to take you to weird places, undesirable places. If it’s in good shape, you can go to good places." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Most Important Thing to Be Doing"

"As for what other people are thinking or saying or doing, just remember: They can never take you to hell. If you’re going to go to hell, it’s through your own doing. They can’t take you to heaven, either. If you are going to heaven, it’s through your own doing. And you don’t have to worry about heaven and hell in the afterlife. Right here and now, you can see it. Other people can do horrible things, but it’s only when you let what they’re doing get into your mind, and then you start doing horrible things along with them: That’s when it really gets bad. At the same time, no matter how good other people may be, you can always be worried about how much longer that goodness is going to last. Sometimes, the better the person is, the more you’re worried: “It can’t last. So I’m just going to have to hold on to them.” The issue isn’t what other people are doing, it’s how you’re managing your own mind. This is why you have to give importance, give weight to this ability to stay centered r...

"Where do you go next? Well, you don’t have to worry about that right now. As long as you’ve been doing good things in your life, you go to a good place. Where do the good things come from? They come from a mind that’s well rested, a mind that has a good sense of well-being here in the present moment. So when you’re working on the present here, you’re helping to get the future covered as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Housecleaning"

"So try to sensitize yourself throughout your life to the choices you’re making. And realize that your happiness depends on making skillful choices, a process that you can learn. If your life has been unskillful up to this point, and you’ve got lots of burdens and issues in your life, you can make choices to deal with those burdens skillfully. You can make a choice, change your habits. That’s the good part of this process of fabrication: Nothing is ever permanently engraved in stone. After all, even stone washes away and disintegrates. But in the meantime, because there is this constant process of fabrication, you can focus on the present moment. You don’t have to worry about first causes or what happened way back in the past. Just notice what you’re doing right now, how you’re reacting to and shaping the raw material of life right now. Learn to do it more and more skillfully. And you find that it can take you a lot further than you might imagine." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "...

"Your goodwill [mettā] and your generosity will help you survive no matter where you go. If you go into a new society where you don’t know anybody, goodwill and generosity are the things that will carry you through. When things begin to break down, goodwill and generosity will carry you through. So remember: Your protection lies in your goodness, in the skillfulness of your intentions and the discernment with which you carry those intentions out. Those are the things that will see you through no matter what happens. That’s why the Buddha taught them as the Dhamma, because they’ve been true all the time, as civilizations rise and fall and then rise again. These are the qualities that make human life worth living, make it the kind of life that we can get the most out of it, regardless of how things arise and fall outside." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Your Goodness Is Your Protection"

"The Buddha listed virtue as one of a person’s greatest treasures. Kings and thieves can steal your material belongings and even take your life, but they can’t take your virtue. If it’s uncompromising, your virtue protects you from any true danger from now until you reach nirvana. Even if you’re not ready to accept the teaching on karma and rebirth, the Buddha still recommended an absolute standard of virtue. As he told the Kalamas, if you decide to act skillfully at all times, harming no one, then even if it turned out that there was no life after death, you’d still come out ahead, for you would have been able to live and die with a clear conscience — something that no amount of money or political influence can buy." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Getting the Message"

"You might say, “Well, because so-and-so did something bad, that gives me the right to do something bad in return.” But that kind of attitude is what tears the world apart. The attitude that can have goodwill [mettā] even for people who are doing evil, so that when you’re dealing with them you can trust yourself: That’s what keeps the goodness in the world going. If you had to wait for everybody to be good before you’d treat them well, we’d all be at each other’s throats pretty quickly. Goodness has to start here . And you have to decide it’s going to start with you. If you can have this attitude, it cleanses the mind." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Cleansing the Mind"

"Most often we go through the world, looking not at our own actions but at what other people are doing, and then we react. We feel that our reaction is a natural response, built into the way things are: When people do outrageous things, we feel we’re bound to get angry. But as the Buddha said, whether they’re outrageous or not, your reaction is still your kamma. You have to look at it that way. So you have to ask yourself, “What kind of action would be skillful in a case like this?” It’s not the first thought that often comes to us. When you look around at the world, it’s hard to say, “It’s a wonderful world, everything’s fine, therefore I’m going to be good.” You have to realize that, ok, even though the world is a mess, and people are doing all kinds of horrible things to make it messier, still, for your own sake, you have to ask yourself, “What kind of actions can I do right now that would lead to good long-term results?” That’s what you’re responsible for, and that...

"It’s often the case that when we’re disappointed outside, it’s not just the case that we simply suffer. We can also lash out at what we don’t like — out of disappointment, out of a sense of being treated unjustly. That often creates more problems, just more bad karma. So this practice we do is not only for our own good in the sense of finding a reliable sense of comfort inside, but also it means that we can become more reliable in our actions — the things we do and say and think. In that way, regardless of what’s happening outside, we can behave in a responsible manner, a harmless manner." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Inner Refuge"

"Learn to look at what other people say as the result of your past actions; what other people do is the result of your past actions. In other words, the karma you’ve done in the past is coming back at you. It’s a sobering thought to think: Your past actions were done with the desire for happiness, and now you’re experiencing the skillfulness or lack of skillfulness in your past actions, in your past desires for happiness, your past efforts to bring about happiness. When you have that attitude, it’s a lot easier to live with other people. If they do something outrageous, you realize that you probably were a real character sometime in the past. And let it go at that. Your focus right now should be on what you’re doing and saying and thinking in the present moment." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Your Own Karma"

"You cause harm to yourself by breaking the precepts. You cause harm to yourself by giving in to greed, aversion, and delusion. You might think of breaking the precepts as harming other people, because after all, you’re killing them or stealing from them, lying to them. But [the Buddha] said, no, that’s where you’re harming yourself. If you want to harm other people, you get them to do these things, because then that becomes their karmic load." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Compunction"

Question: If any unskillful thought arises and you acknowledge it as unskillful, does it still have negative kammic effects? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: No. Question: In other words, does the arising of unskillful thoughts cause bad kamma or is it just our reaction to them? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: It’s our reaction to them that can cause bad kamma. The fact that the thought arises is the result of old kamma. What you do with it is your new kamma. If you simply acknowledge it and it goes away, or if you think skillful thoughts that counteract it and make it go away, then the new kamma is good new kamma. ~ Good Heart, Good Mind: The Practice of the Ten Perfections

"We live in a world where good actions are rewarded, both in this lifetime and in future ones. We ourselves are beings who will survive death — as we have already survived death many times — to enjoy the results of our actions." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Clinging & the End of Clinging"

"There’s goodness in the world — Ajaan Lee talked about this quite a lot — there’s goodness in the world that has nothing to do specifically with the Buddha. In many cases, he simply pointed out things that everybody had known before: that killing is bad, stealing is bad, illicit sex, false dealings, intoxication are bad. A lot of people had already seen that. Many of us have learned these things from our parents. Even if we didn’t, we can repay our parents by setting a good example for them in avoiding these unskillful forms of behavior." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Repaying Our Parents"

Question: Is it valid to send mettā to a person no longer in this world, one to whom I felt resentment and who had resentment toward me? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: This is a very good practice to do. It’s one way of bringing your own mind to some peace. You have to remember that when people die, they don’t go out of existence. They get born again. So, they’re always there someplace for you to spread mettā to. Now, whether that person rejoices in your mettā or not, that’s that person’s business. But if you can spread goodwill to someone you used to resent, that takes a huge burden off of your mind. ~ Good Heart, Good Mind: The Practice of the Ten Perfections

"We all know that life is going to end at some spot and the question is, what comes next? So you want to develop the qualities of mind that will help ensure that, whatever comes next, it’s something not to be afraid of, but something actually to look forward to. Not in the sense that you want to die, but at least you feel secure about where you’re going after death." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Try This at Home"

"If your mother has passed away, dedicate the merit of your meditation to her and spread thoughts of goodwill [mettā]. If she’s still alive, figure out what ways you can help her. Make sure she’s not suffering. As the Buddha said, the best way to repay your parents is, if they are stingy people, you teach them how not to be stingy. If they’re unvirtuous, you teach them how to be virtuous. If they don’t meditate, you teach them to meditate. Of course, parents are the hardest people in the world to teach. But you can show them by your example. Maybe it can inspire them to act in skillful ways. That good karma then becomes their source of happiness." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Mother's Day"

"When you decide that you don’t agree with society’s values, learn to do it in a way that’s not confrontational. After all, you’re going your own way. You’re not a permanent earthling. You’re not here to settle down for good. You’re here primarily to practice, to train your mind. If, having trained your mind, you can help other people, that’s fine. But if you can’t, make sure that at least you get your own mind in shape." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "An Anthropologist from Mars"

"It’s like when you’re playing tennis. The first lesson is keep your eye on the ball. You never forget that. Even when you become a great pro, you still have to keep your eye on the ball. In the same way, when you practice, keep your eye on your actions, because that’s where everything will become clear." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Reflections on Kamma"

"When the Buddha advises you not to kill, he also recommends that you be gentle and protective of other beings. The same with the precept against stealing: You also protect other people’s belongings as best you can. The precept against illicit sex: You respect people’s rights; you don’t let your lust overcome the bounds of propriety. The precept against lying: You try to be a person who tells the truth, you try to promote friendships, you try to promote goodness in other people as well. So there’s a positive side to virtue, too." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Spread Goodness Around" (Meditations9)

"We have this inbred difficulty of looking at our own actions, but that’s precisely what the meditation is: looking at your own actions. It’s not so much self-purification as action-purification. It requires that you see your intentions and the actions and their results. Often these are things we don’t like to look at. Sometimes it’s just simple dishonesty. Other times we don’t like to look at these things because we don’t know how to handle what we see. How can you look at your mistakes without getting all tangled up in self-hatred, self-frustration? This is where the right attitudes come in. Look at those instructions the Buddha gave to Rahula. He said that when you see an action that you’ve done has caused harm, you should feel shame and loathing — not shame and loathing for yourself, shame and loathing for the action. That’s an important distinction. Shame around the action means that you realize you’re a better person than that. You shouldn’t have done it. It doesn’t mean tha...

"When [the Buddha] talks about staying in the present moment, it’s always in the context of thinking that death could happen at any time. It could happen tomorrow; it could happen today. There was one time when he was asking the monks if they thought about death often. One of them said, “I think about it once a day.” Another said, “I think about it twice a day.” It got down to one monk saying that “I think about it while I’m chewing my food, ‘May I live to the point where I can swallow this food and in that amount of time, I’ll practice.’” Another one was saying, “When I breathe in, I tell myself, ‘May I live throughout this breath so I can practice for the extent of this breath.’” The Buddha said the last two were the only ones who really counted as heedful. You realize, okay, you don’t know how much time you have, but you do have this little span of time right here. So make the most of it while you can, because it’s not going to be here all the time. Death could come at any m...

"You want to settle down here with the purpose of understanding the intentions acting here in the present moment, because that’s the only place where you can really observe your intentions in action. If there’s any greed, anger, or delusion in the intention, you’re going to see it only in the present moment. After it’s passed, that intention is just a memory — and you know how memory tends to color things depending on what you want to see, how it fits into a good or bad narrative about yourself. But it’s just a narrative. There’s no guarantee that it’s going to get you to the reality of the intention. The only way you can really see is by looking in the present moment." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Story behind Impatience" (Meditations3)

Question 14. Can you get out of the consequences of unskillful actions by getting other people to do them for you? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: No. In fact, one of the worst ways you can harm others is to get them to act in unskillful ways, because those actions then become their kamma. And the fact that you got them to harm themselves would be bad kamma for you. ~ Karma Q & A, a Study Guide

" You can still make up your mind, “I’m going to do good in this world, regardless of what other people say.” As long as you know for sure that it’s good, stick with it. Don’t let other people’s opinions get in the way. After all, the goodness you do will be yours. The words they say are theirs, so leave them as theirs, and things are a lot more peaceful in the world." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Hurtful Words"

"There are a lot of things in life that, if you thought, “This is your one lifetime, this is your one chance,” would strike you as very unfair. It would be hard to live with the idea that, say, someone smeared your name and you couldn’t get it un-smeared. Other people who don’t seem to have any right to power have taken over a lot of power. But if you take the long view of things, you realize that this is going to pass, and this is not your only chance. It makes it a lot easier to live with the things you can’t change, and focus on the ones you can." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Patience & Hope"

"Some people resist the idea that, for example, children born into a warzone, suffering from brutality and starvation, are there for a karmic reason. It seems heartless, they say, to attribute these sufferings to kamma from past lives. The only heartlessness here, though, is the insistence that people are worthy of compassion only if they are innocent of any wrongdoing. Actually, people who are doing wrong are just as deserving of our compassion as those who are being wronged. There’s no need to like or admire the people for whom you feel compassion. All you have to do is wish for them to be happy. Then you do what you can to alleviate the suffering that comes from past mistakes and to stop the mistaken behavior that causes suffering now and into the future. The more you can develop this attitude toward people you know have misbehaved or are misbehaving, the more you’ll be able to trust your intentions in any situation." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Sublime Atti...

"Given that the principle of kamma is quite complex, the results may not come as quickly as we’d like. That’s where patience and maturity come in. If you’re patient about learning from your actions and learning from your results, and mature in having a good sense of humor about your mistakes, that’s when your focus is on target. So being focused on results is a really necessary part of the practice." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Focused on Results" (Meditations9)

"The main message here is that suffering, which is something you directly experience from within, is caused by other factors that you experience from within — as long as you approach them unskillfully — but it can also be cured from within if you learn how to approach them with skill. In fact, suffering can only be cured from within. My lack of skill is something that only I can overcome through practice. This is why each of us has to find awakening for ourselves and experience it for ourselves — the Buddha’s term for this is paccattam . This is also why no one, even with the most compassionate intentions, can gain awakening for anyone else. The best any Buddha can do is to point the way, in hopes that we’ll be willing to listen to his advice and act on it. Now, this is not to say that the Buddha didn’t recognize our connections with one another, simply that he described them in another context: his teaching on kamma." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "We Are Not One"

Question 11. If hurting others tends to lead to illness in the next lifetime, is illness in this lifetime always the result of past kamma? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: As with every other experience of pain, illness can come from a wide variety of kammic factors, past and present. You’ve already noticed this yourself: When you intentionally stick your finger in a fire, the resulting pain doesn’t come from an action in your previous lifetime. It comes from a choice you made here and now. The Buddha himself argued against the idea that all pain comes from past kamma, and in the course of his argument he provided a list of other factors that could give rise to illness. The list comes from the medical beliefs of his day, and although it includes a lot of other causes besides past kamma — things like a chemical imbalance in the elements in the body, the change of the seasons, or poor care of the body — all the causes included in the list come under what, in another discourse, he identifies either ...

"Taking delight in developing skillful qualities and abandoning unskillful ones means that you’re not simply content with whatever level of skill you have. This is the area where the Buddha actually encourages you not to be content. If you see something in the mind that’s not skillful, you try to make it your sport seeing how to let go of it and how to develop something skillful in its place. Notice that word, “delight.” You do make it your sport. You don’t regard it as a chore. You don’t regard it as a duty. You regard it as something you delight in doing, seeing that your mind can improve and seeing all the good things that come as you develop skillful qualities: all the skillful things that come when you abandon unskillful qualities." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Free Like a Wild Deer"

" Dhammo have rakikhati dhammacāriṃ: The Dhamma protects those who practice the Dhamma. Sometimes it seems like those that practice the Dhamma are at a disadvantage. Other people get to lie, but we don’t. Other people can push for their own advantage without any scruples, but we have to stick by our principles. But those principles are what protect us. The advantage that people gain by harming themselves, harming other people, doesn’t last very long. It’s good to remember that, because we’re here for long-lasting well-being. That’s what wisdom is all about. Which means that we have to train the mind to be patient." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Dhamma Protects"

"Then there will be part of the mind that says, “I don’t want to think about [the Dhamma right now] because it means I’ve been acting unskillfully in the past, and it just hurts too much to think about that.” That’s where the Buddha recommends developing the right attitude toward your past mistakes. It’s not inevitable that you’re going to have to suffer a lot from your past mistakes. As the Buddha said, if you can develop an attitude of limitless goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, that’ll mitigate the results of your past bad actions. If you can train yourself so that the mind isn’t overcome by pleasure, isn’t overcome by pain — in other words, you don’t let these feelings get in the way of your seeing what’s actually going on — then again, the mind is immune, or at least the results of your past mistakes will be mitigated. So the proper attitude to have toward your past bad actions is, one, realize that remorse is not going to undo them. Simply ...

"Sometimes there’s the question of where the suffering came from in the past, but that’s not the big issue. The fact is that we continue producing it over and over and over again right now. That’s the issue, and that’s also where we can attack things. You can’t go back and attack the past, you can’t go back and change the past, but you can change what you’re doing right now. This is important." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Karma-ism"

"So regardless of what raw material your past karma keeps popping up in the present moment, as long as you’re not in the hell of totally unpleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas, and as long as you’re not in the heaven of totally pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas, you’re in a good position to practice. And don’t think of how long you’ve been on the path or of how long you’re going to have to be on the path. It’s a good thing to be on the path. Some people get discouraged, thinking about how far away the goal is at the end of the path. But the way to deal with that is not to stop having goals. It requires learning to have a more mature attitude about being on the path: learning how to enjoy the path, remembering what life would be like if you didn’t have this path — and how lucky you are that you have this opportunity to practice it. So keep the goal in mind. After all, if we didn’t have a purpose in bei...

"We can’t wait until the world gets straightened out before we straighten out our own minds, because the cause is in the mind. The world out there is the realm of effects. The realm of causes is in here: That’s one of the basic lessons of dependent co-arising. All the causes of suffering come prior to your engagement with the world. If you want other people to change their behavior, you’ve got to straighten out your behavior. You have to walk your talk, so that your talk is compelling. You can’t force other people to follow your example, but at least you establish that example here in the world. It’s good to have these examples in the world. Otherwise the world would be a totally depressing place." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "True Protection for the World"

"In his effort to master kamma in such a way as to bring kamma to an end, the Buddha discovered that he had to abandon the contexts of personal narrative and cosmology in which the issue of kamma first presented itself. Both these forms of understanding deal in categories of being and non-being, self and others, but the Buddha found that it was impossible to bring kamma to an end if one thought in such terms. For example, narrative and cosmological modes of thinking would lead one to ask whether the agent who performed an act of kamma was the same as the person experiencing the result, someone else, both, or neither. If one answered that it was the same person, then the person experiencing the result would have to identify not only with the actor, but also with the mode of action, and thus would not be able to gain release from it. If one answered that it was another person, both oneself and another, or neither, then the person experiencing the result would see no need to heighten...

"You have to see everything as an action. You have to see yourself as being responsible for what you’re doing. Your level of stress right now comes partly from past actions but the important element is what you’re doing right now. Particularly any stress you feel in the mind: It’s a result of what you’re doing right now. So learn how to look at your actions. And learn how to notice your mistakes, admit your mistakes, and not get all flustered by them. The judgment here isn’t the kind of final judgment that some judge is going to place on you, to determine guilt or innocence. It’s the judgment of a craftsman judging a work in progress: something that an artist or a carpenter or a musician would do. You look at what you’re doing, you’re looking at the results, and then you take what you’ve noticed and you improve what you continue to do, without tying yourself all up in knots. So remember that it’s all about action. The Buddha’s asking you to be responsible. This is why the element ...

"As [the Buddha] says, no one can purify you; you can’t purify anybody else. You don’t go to heaven because of other people’s good actions; you don’t go to hell because of other people’s bad actions. It’s your actions that determine that. So there is that sense in which you’re separate. And of course you’re the one who chooses your friends to begin with. So in that way, the separateness of our selves comes first." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Separate Self"