Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

 "Sometimes there’s the question of where the suffering came from in the past, but that’s not the big issue. The fact is that we continue producing it over and over and over again right now. That’s the issue, and that’s also where we can attack things. You can’t go back and attack the past, you can’t go back and change the past, but you can change what you’re doing right now. This is important." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Karma-ism"

"Like the teaching on not-self, or the teaching on all three of the three perceptions [inconstant, stressful, not-self]: There are certain cases where, he says, you don’t apply them. You don’t draw out inferences, like inferring from the fact that all feelings are fabricated that all feelings have to be regarded as stressful, painful. He says that when you’re talking about karma, that’s not the inference you should draw. You should talk about the three types of feelings that result from karma: pleasant, painful, neither pleasant nor painful, because they’re related to skillful, unskillful, and neutral actions. You’re talking about karma to get people to know what kind of actions they should and shouldn’t be doing. If you say that all feelings resulting from action are painful, who’s going to bother trying to be skillful? That’s a case where there’s a wrong inference." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Give of Yourself"