As you go through life and you realize you’ve made mistakes, you admit the mistakes and you try to develop right view. Then your actions really do make a difference. Believing in that gives you the energy to try to do your best.

"As [the Buddha] saw, people would fare through the world up and down, based on their actions. Their actions were shaped by their intentions. Their intentions were shaped by their views. The way these things worked out was pretty complex, but the basic principle was simple: You act on skillful intentions, the result is happiness. You act on unskillful intentions, the result is suffering, pain. Of course, you look at your life, and it’s not the case that you do nothing but good actions, nothing but bad actions. There’s a mixture. But what’s important is that, as you go through life and you realize you’ve made mistakes, you admit the mistakes and you try to develop right view. Then your actions really do make a difference. Believing in that gives you the energy to try to do your best.

There are people out there, just as there were people in the Buddha’s time, who say that you’re powerless. Either actions are not real at all, or even though they are real, they have no impact on shaping your life. Or they have an impact, but it’s totally deterministic. In other words, what you did in the past determines what you do now. With views like that, there’s not much hope to change your ways. But as the Buddha saw, what we experience in the present moment is shaped partly by our past actions, but more importantly by our present actions, our present intentions. And our present intentions can be freely chosen. They don’t have to be determined by the past. Which means we can learn."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Delight in Conviction"

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