When you think about kamma in an emotionally positive way, in terms of gratitude and generosity, you realize that this power we have to make choices is important. It’s to be valued. You want to protect it. You want to train it.

"A lot of our problem with kamma is that we don’t have a sense of how to relate to it in an emotionally positive way. But when you think about it in terms of gratitude and generosity, you realize that this power we have to make choices is important. It’s to be valued. You want to protect it. You want to train it.

As for the knowledge that we’ve done unskillful things in the past, the Buddha said the proper way of thinking about that is that as soon as you realize it’s unskillful, you make up your mind you’re going to refrain from it, you’re not going to make that mistake again. That’s it. As he says, feelings of remorse over the mistake, strong feelings of guilt, the feeling you see in a dog when it knows it’s done something wrong, gets on its back, and wags its tail, hoping you’ll forgive it: That’s not the kind of reaction the Buddha advocates. Because if you let remorse take over, then you feel more negative about yourself, and because you don’t like these negative feelings, that causes you to do more unskillful things. This is why people who go to drink, they go to drugs: to wipe out those negative feelings. Just remember: You’re an honorable human being. You’ve recognized a mistake and you resolve not repeat it. That’s the best that can be expected of a human being.

Then the Buddha says to develop thoughts of goodwill [mettā] — goodwill for yourself, goodwill for all the people around you — as a way of strengthening your resolve not to act in an unskillful way.

Again, goodwill has meaning because of kamma. Goodwill becomes our motivation to do things in a skillful way. If we were windup toys, goodwill would be superfluous. Or if our actions had no impact on anybody, goodwill again would be superfluous. It wouldn’t have any meaning. But we know that we have choices and we want to make sure that our choices are skillful. That means keeping this in mind: You don’t want to do anything harmful. You don’t want to hurt yourself; you don’t want to hurt other people. You want to look for happiness that doesn’t have to cause people to suffer.

So this is why we meditate: It’s because our actions are important. And to get our hands around the teaching on kamma, it also helps to get our heart around it. Have some positive feelings toward this teaching on kamma. It’s not there just to punish you. It’s there to offer you opportunities. It’s there to remind you that your actions are important. And even though you’ve done unskillful things in the past, you’ve got a new opportunity right now to do something skillful. And then again right now. Each right now.

So if you do find yourself in the middle of having made some unfortunate choices, you can say, “Well, I’ll stop.” And the fact that you stopped becomes positive kamma right there. Part of the mind may say, “You’ve been doing unskillful things in the past, you’re going to give in to unskillful impulses in the future., so why bother resisting now?” Fight that. You’ve got to fight it. And you have the freedom to fight it. That’s the important part of our kamma: that element of freedom.

All of these good things associate with the teaching on kamma: gratitude, generosity, goodwill, freedom. So keep those positive associations in mind.

As for the complexities of the teaching, they have to do in the working out. We’re planting seeds here. The way the seeds are going to grow will depend on all the other seeds in the field. Some seeds will crowd other seeds out, sprout faster. You have no control over what seeds you planted in the past, but you do have control over the seeds you’re planting right now. You have control over the seeds you’re watering right now. Which is why we’re meditating right now, and the meditation gets us to stay in the right now, so that regardless of what’s already there in your field, you know that what you’re doing right now is skillful. It’s done with clarity, it’s done with mindfulness and alertness, heedfulness."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Good Side of Kamma"