The Limits of Old Kamma (extract)

"Even when things are difficult outside or inside, you’ve got the opportunity to develop good qualities of mind. Whatever the situation, you want to figure out the skillful way to approach it so that you minimize the difficulties and maximize your potentials for freedom.

If you’re dealing with more than just present responsibilities — say, with the results of past mistakes where you’ve harmed people — the same principle applies. You admit the mistakes. You admit the limitations that they place on you now, but then you try to work around them. Don’t let yourself be hemmed in by your past mistakes or be hemmed in by your past karma, because these things don’t have to totally shape the present moment. We have some freedom right here, right now, and a lot of the practice is learning how to recognize that fact and maximize it to get the best use out of it.

Because all the aspects of the path are possible, whatever the limitations from your past karma are. You can learn how to be generous. You can learn how to be virtuous. You can learn how to develop good qualities of mind. When you’ve made a mistake, you admit the fact. And you say, “I’m going to learn from that. I’m not going to repeat that mistake.” And that’s as far as you have to go. You don’t have to punish yourself, that somehow by feeling really, really sorry the punishment will go away. That’s a dog’s way of thinking. It knows it’s done something bad. It gets on its back and wags its tail and looks really sorry, and hopes that by doing that it’s going to appease you. But you’re not a dog. You’re a human being. As a human being, all you’re asked is to recognize the mistake, resolve not repeat it, and then try to develop goodwill for yourself and for everybody else — for the people you’ve already wronged, for the people you might potentially wrong in the future. Spread goodwill [mettā] to them, maintain that attitude of goodwill, and you’ll be less likely to wrong them."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Limits of Old Kamma"