Past kamma gives you the potentials for the present moment, but your present kamma is actually what shapes your experience from those potentials.

Question: When you are in mindfulness, are you remembering and by this act soliciting the past, or are you firmly in the present?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: With mindfulness, you are trying to bring only what you need to know from the past. Through the quality of alertness, you focus on the present. Try to bring the two of them together, so that you remember what you need to know from the past so as to shape the present moment well. Remember, too, that the present is not just given to you. It’s also something that you’re shaping in the present moment as well. Past kamma gives you the potentials for the present moment, but your present kamma is actually what shapes your experience from those potentials.

~ "The Karma of Mindfulness: The Buddha's Teachings on Sati and Kamma"

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