Even though the Buddha wasn’t the sort of person who would go out and start arguments with people, there were times when he would go to argue with people who were teaching that what you’re doing right now didn’t have an impact right now.

"“I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, whatever I do for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.” So we do have the power of our actions.

This was so important in the Buddha’s teachings that even though he wasn’t the sort of person who would go out and start arguments with people, there were times when he would go to argue with people who were teaching that what you’re doing right now didn’t have an impact right now. Three different groups of people stand out:

1) those who taught that whatever you experience right now is the result of past actions; it’s your vipāka, so you’ve got to put up with it;

2) those who taught that whatever you experience right now is the result of some creator god having created the world, so you’ve got to put up with it; and

3) those who taught that whatever you experience right now is totally random, there’s no pattern of cause and effect that you can understand or master to make a change in things. So put up with it.

As the Buddha said, all these people are basically teaching a doctrine of non-action, even the ones who taught about the power of your past actions. He said that if everything you experience right now were dependent on your past actions, people would be killers right now because of past actions. They would steal right now, have illicit sex, lie, take intoxicants because of past actions. In other words, they wouldn’t be responsible for the choices they’re making right now and the way they’re shaping their experience right now. There would be no path that you could follow.

So he was making the point that you can make a difference right now. Of course, given the power of past actions, sometimes you’re stuck with certain things because of what you did in the past, but you don’t have to suffer from them. They don’t have to invade the mind and remain. That’s the phrase that the Buddha uses: “invade the mind and remain.” They may present themselves to your awareness, but they don’t have to come inside."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Defilements at the Door"

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