Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"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"

"Our actions really do make a difference, the difference between causing and not causing suffering really does matter, and the principles of skillful and unskillful action are patterned enough that we really can learn useful lessons from our mistakes." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Practice in a Word"

"It’s easy not to believe that the quality of your intention is going to determine the results of your actions, because you see a lot of people acting out of greed, hatred, and delusion, and yet they seem to be pretty happy, in the short term at least. So it is a matter of belief. And the Buddha’s proof simply is a pragmatic one: If you believe in your actions, you’ll act more skillfully. He adds that if you really want to put an end to suffering through your own efforts, this is what you have to believe. You have to take this as your working hypothesis." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Believe in Your Actions"

"Here we’re meditating on what the mind is doing, because what the mind is doing is going to make all the difference between suffering and not. What you’re doing right now is shaping your experience right now, and if you’re not satisfied with what you’re experiencing right now, then, as they say, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” If you don’t like your experience now, you can change what you’re doing to shape it. Try to detect what you’re doing to shape your experience and change it for the better. This is why we meditate, because the source of all our actions, the source of all our experience, is the mind. So you’ve got to look at your mind. The best way to look at it is to get it into the present moment where it’s fabricating things. We use the breath as our topic because it’s right next to the mind and it’s our anchor in the present." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Dispassion Isn’t Depression" (Meditations10)

"Everything talked about in the Dhamma relates to actions. When people talk about interconnectedness: We’re connected through our actions. We’re not connected through anything else. What kind of connections do we have? It’s not something we are born with, aside from the results of past actions. These connections are created right now as we’re acting. Then act well so that the connections are good, as long as you need connections. But ultimately you find the mind is a lot better off without connections to anything at all." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "It's All about Action"

"Your actions are what are real, that have the most reality. The world out there is not the issue. The world that you experience comes from your [intentional] actions [kamma]. Your actions are more solid, more powerful than your experience of earth, wind, water, fire, and all the other elements. That’s a pretty radical statement. This is why the Buddha keeps focusing back on what you’re doing right now because what you’re doing right now is the big shaping force in your experience." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "So Little Time" (Meditations8)

"So have a strong sense that your actions really do make a difference. The fact that we’re meditating here does make a difference. Every aspect of the path makes a difference. Because after all, we do start out with a difference: There is pleasure and there is pain. And there’s a lot of needless pain in the world. If we don’t do something about our unskillful actions we’re going to be adding more unnecessary pain to the world." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Making a Difference"

"[The Buddha] didn’t ask that his listeners all commit themselves to an unquestioning belief in the possibility that their actions might lead to rebirth, but he wasn’t interested in teaching anyone who rejected that possibility outright. As we’ve already noted, he saw that heedfulness lay at the root of all skillful qualities. If a listener couldn’t be persuaded to develop an appropriate level of heedfulness around the risks of action, any further teaching would be a waste of time." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Truth of Rebirth and Why It Matters for Buddhist Practice"

"Your actions are the only things that will provide happiness. When you look everywhere else around you, you see that the things you could hold onto will slip through your fingers. It’s like trying to hold onto a handful of water. But the results of your actions stick with you. So this reflection focuses your attention on your actions. Your actions are going to make the difference between whether you suffer or not." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Encouragement"

"So in a world where people are engaging in wrong actions and wrong speech, there are times when you’re put at a disadvantage. But those disadvantages are only temporary. The fact that you’re holding to the precepts means you have something of solid worth that gives you a good future over the long term." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Values of the Noble Ones"

"Of the various forms of wrong speech and wrong action, the Buddha regarded the telling of lies as the most serious and most destructive — perhaps because if you cause your listeners to misunderstand the truth, it can cause them to act unskillfully not only in this lifetime, but also in future ones as well. Furthermore, as he said in [Iti 25], if a person feels no shame at telling a lie, there is no evil that that person will not do." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Right Speech & Right Action"

"Our experience of the world is defined through our actions, our choices. Take that home and think about it quite a bit. It’s not that the world is imposed on us, willy-nilly. We’re looking for things, making choices, and in making choices, we develop our sense of the world, of what’s here and what’s over there. What comes first? What comes second? That’s how space and time are defined. So we’re defining space and time by our actions. When there’s no action, there’s no experience of space or time. The Buddha’s teachings are that radical." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Action & Result"

"Right view teaches you that your actions are important, that you have to hold on to your actions no matter what’s happening outside. No matter what other people are doing, you make sure that your actions are skillful, and to that extent you’re safe. That, of course, applies to your virtue as well. You think of all the ways in which you could harm yourself and harm others, and all the excuses you can give for doing those harmful acts, and you realize that if you give in to those excuses, you’ve sold away your most valuable possessions. You’re the one who squanders them. Because the world outside can take away your health, it can take away your wealth, it can take away your relatives. But you have to let it  take away your right view, and let it  take away your virtue. You’re the one who gives these things away. You’re the one who smashes those treasures. If you don’t smash them, they’re in good shape. The world can do nothing to destroy them." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Ref...

"Admirable friends can’t do the work for you. As [the Buddha] says, no one can purify you; you can’t purify anybody else. You don’t go to heaven because of other people’s good actions; you don’t go to hell because of other people’s bad actions. It’s your actions that determine that. So there is that sense in which you’re separate. And of course you’re the one who chooses your friends to begin with. So in that way, the separateness of our selves comes first." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Separate Self"

"There’s a passage in the Dhammapada when the Buddha says that you don’t go to heaven or to hell because of other people’s actions. Yet all too often we find ourselves in our own mental heaven or hell because of what someone else did. Actually, though, we’re the ones who create that heaven and hell. It’s through our own actions that we take what they did, what they said, or even what we think they thought, and turn it into our own private heaven or our own private hell." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Other People"

"The news may tell us that other things in other parts of the world are really important, really worth getting worked up about. And people do get worked up about them. But as the Buddha said, you’re not going to go to hell or to heaven because of other people’s actions. It’s your  actions that take you to hell, your actions that can get you to heaven, your actions that can get you beyond heaven and hell, taking you all the way to nibbana." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "On Top of Your Actions"

"As the Buddha said, “You don’t go to heaven or hell because of other people’s actions. You go because of your own actions.” Those can take you to heaven; they can take you to hell. So why are you taking yourself to hell? And why are you upset with what other people are doing, which really has nothing to do, really, with you? It’s your actions that make all the difference." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Look at Yourself"

"[The Buddha] recommends assuming that the law of kamma is 24/7. It’s not like a traffic law, for instance, where no parking is allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but you can park all you want on other days of the week. All too often we have the attitude that the effects of kamma should bend to our will. In other words, with some actions we tell ourselves, “I hope this action has a result,” but with others we like to tell ourselves, “I hope this won’t have a result. It doesn’t matter.” But the Buddha says that you have to take on the basic assumptions of kamma consistently if you want to follow the path consistently. In other words, skillful actions lead to good results and unskillful actions lead to unpleasant results. Always." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Five Faculties: Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind"

"[The Buddha] said that what you do right now can have an impact on what you’re experiencing right now. Your kamma coming in from the past is raw materials: the twigs and the branches. But what you’re doing right now makes a difference between whether the twigs and the branches just sit there on this side of the river or whether you tie them together and make them into a raft. Or worse than just sitting here, the worst thing, of course, is piling them up on your shoulder and carrying them around. You have the choice. When the Buddha points out that “Yes, your actions in the present moment, your thoughts, your intentions in the present moment do make a difference,” he’s giving you a real basis for deciding, that there is such a thing as what should be done and what shouldn’t be done. As he says, if you have a teaching that doesn’t even give you a basis for having the concept of what should and shouldn’t be done, you’re still left bewildered the way you were when you were a little ...

"Figure out what your actions are and what the results are, how they’re connected, and which actions give rise to better results than others. This is why we meditate — to develop those powers. So it’s not a matter of you versus the system outside, where you are trustworthy and the system outside is not. Rather, it’s learning how to sort out inside you which perceptions and which thought constructs are actually more trustworthy than others." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Trust in Heedfulness"