Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"[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"

"You understand the principle of karma inside, because karma is not just something that acts between lifetimes. It’s happening all the time. With every intentional action, there’s going to be a result. Some of those results show up right away, and some of them show up over time. You want to be able to see those connections. Observing the precepts — having precepts that are pleasing to the noble ones — means you’re going to stay right here. That’s your intention, and the results will have to be right here as well. That’s why it’s easier to see the connection between the two. That’s how the practice of virtue and concentration then leads to discernment, because discernment is all about seeing cause and effect. You start out by taking the Buddha’s word for it: You take his teachings as a working assumption. But then, when you’re really here — focused, still — then you can start seeing the truth of those teachings for yourself. So, the emphasis on virtue, concentration, and discernmen...

"This is where our culture at large is really lacking. The basic assumption is that there has to be a lot of strife and a lot of conflict. The newspapers thrive on conflict. If everybody were at peace, you couldn’t sell a newspaper — except for the Sudokus and the comics — and so they try to stir up as much controversy as possible. They thrive on that. There are other people, too, who profit off of conflict, who try to keep it all stirred up. The image they project is that we can’t live in peace with one another. It’s either them or us. In this kind of culture, the idea of a happiness that spreads around, a happiness that’s shared, gets trampled. The people who do good are the fools: That’s the attitude of the culture. You’ve got to fight for yourself. It’s interesting that many people who don’t believe in biological Darwinism do believe in social Darwinism. The people who fight are the ones who will get ahead: That’s the attitude. It’s a very unhealthy culture. So you can’t expec...

"If you have any friends or family members who are sick or dying, I know of no one who would tell you to treat them in a hardhearted way. Everyone would agree that you should be as compassionate as you can. The problem is that there’s little agreement on how compassion translates into specific actions. For some people, compassion means extending life as long as possible; for others it means terminating life — through assisted suicide or euthanasia — when quality of life falls below a certain level. And neither of these two groups sees the other as compassionate at all. The first sees the second as criminal; the second sees the first as heartless and cruel. For those of us trying to negotiate the murky territory between these two extremes, there’s not much reliable guidance. Ours is a culture that doesn’t like to think about illness and death, and as a result, when faced with someone who’s sick or dying, we’re at a loss as to what to do. Some people will advise you simply to do wha...

"All too often, the Buddha’s teachings on karma are viewed as a holdover from his culture — that without really thinking, he just picked up an assumption that everybody else shared and tacked it on to his teaching. The reason people say this is because they don’t want to have to take on the teaching in karma — which is a shame, because it’s central to the Buddha’s teaching. As he said, it’s the beginning of right view, and it’s totally in line with his teachings on the four noble truths. If you check through the Canon, you find there are only two sets of teachings that he says are categorical, in other words, true across the board. One is the distinction between skillful and unskillful action — the word here is “karma” — and the fact that skillful actions should be developed, and unskillful ones abandoned. The other categorical teaching is the four noble truths. And the two teachings are connected. Craving is an unskillful action because it leads to suffering; all the other factor...

"What’s attractive about having conviction in the power of your actions is that there’s nothing unreasonable about it, and it places power in your hands. The Buddha teaches a path of action to put an end to suffering, so to follow that path you need to make certain assumptions about action. • The first assumption is that actions are real and not illusory . • Second, your actions are the result of your choices . They’re not just the result of some outside force acting through you. In other words, they’re not determined simply by the stars or your DNA. You’re actually making the choices. • The third principle is that actions do have effects . You’re not writing in water, where everything you write immediately disappears. When you do something, it will have an effect both in the present moment and lasting through time into the future. • The fourth principle is that the effects of your actions are tendencies . They’re not strictly deterministic; they don’t lead to ironclad o...

"Think about it. When the Buddha taught people how to put an end to suffering, he didn’t ask them first, “What kind of bad karma do you have in the past? Only if you have no bad karma can I teach you.” That wasn’t his approach. His approach was based on the assumption everybody has bad karma, everybody has some good karma. That’s how you get into the human realm. The question is: What can you do in the present moment so that you don’t have to suffer from the bad karma, and not suffer even from the good karma? That’s where his emphasis is. When he’s teaching karma, this is where the emphasis is — on what you’re doing right now, and on your ability to reflect on it and learn." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Return of Wisdom for Dummies"

"The Buddha teaches a path of action to put an end to suffering, so to follow that path you need to make certain assumptions about action. • The first assumption is that actions are real and not illusory. • Second, your actions are the result of your choices. They’re not just the result of some outside force acting through you. In other words, they’re not determined simply by the stars or your DNA. You’re actually making the choices. • The third principle is that actions do have effects. You’re not writing in water, where everything you write immediately disappears. When you do something, it will have an effect both in the present moment and lasting through time into the future. • The fourth principle is that the effects of your actions are tendencies. They’re not strictly deterministic; they don’t lead to ironclad outcomes. • The fifth principle is that the effects of your actions are dependent on the state of your mind, one, while you’re doing the action, and two, when you’re re...

"There is a true happiness that can be obtained through human effort. It’s not in a lot of the activities that most people assume will lead to happiness, and that’s something you do have to accept. But, [the Buddha] says, your desire for true happiness is something you should honor. That’s what he himself did. He gave his life to his desire for true happiness. And he got results." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Defeatism? - Anything But"

"When you come to meditate you’re already acting on certain assumptions. One is that the training of the mind is worthwhile. That means you believe that your actions are important and that knowledge and training will make a difference in how you act. Those are big assumptions right there, but when you look at your life, you’ve seen that acting on those assumptions has brought you at least some happiness. That’s called a pragmatic proof. It’s not an empirical proof. An empirical proof would be able to trace the energy that goes from our decision to act to the actual action, and from the action to the results that we experience. You’d have to run experiments with controls and actually be able to measure happiness in a very precise way. But you can’t do that. All those tests that they say they’ve run about measuring the happiness in different countries or measuring the happiness of people in different social groups, with different levels of income: When you ask people to rate their h...

"Simply stating, “I don’t know,” is not an adequate response to the questions of rebirth and the efficacy of karma. The attitude behind it may be honest on one level, but it’s dishonest in thinking that this is all that needs to be said, for it ignores the fact that you have to make assumptions about the possible results of your actions every time you act. It’s like having money: Regardless of what you do with it — spending it, investing it, or just stashing it away — you’re making an implicit wager on how to get the best use of it now and into the future. Your investment strategy can’t stop with, “I don’t know.” If you have any wisdom at all, you have to consider future possibilities and take your chances with what seems to be the safest and most productive use of the resources you’ve got. So it is with all of our actions. Given that we have to wager one way or another all the time on how to find happiness, the Buddha stated that it’s a safer wager to assume that ...

"What’s attractive about having conviction in the power of your actions is that there’s nothing unreasonable about it, and it places power in your hands. The Buddha teaches a path of action to put an end to suffering, so to follow that path you need to make certain assumptions about action. • The first assumption is that actions are real and not illusory . • Second, your actions are the result of your choices . They’re not just the result of some outside force acting through you. In other words, they’re not determined simply by the stars or your DNA. You’re actually making the choices. • The third principle is that actions do have effects . You’re not writing in water, where everything you write immediately disappears. When you do something, it will have an effect both in the present moment and lasting through time into the future. • The fourth principle is that the effects of your actions are tendencies . They’re not strictly deterministic; they don’t lead to ironclad o...

"Even though you may not know that the Dhamma’s true, it makes sense both in pointing out the dangers and in pointing out the ways to avoid the dangers. In pointing out the dangers, the Buddha said we get reborn and it’s based on our actions. As we come to the practice we don’t know this for sure, but it’s a wise premise to take on as your working hypothesis. As the Buddha pointed out many times, if you take on a hypothesis that says everything is beyond your power, you’re cutting off any possibility that you could learn or could develop a skill. So even though you don’t know that there’s rebirth and you don’t know that karma’s going to affect rebirth, it’s wise to take that on as a working hypothesis. You can’t just say, “Well, I don’t know” and leave it at that, because every time you act, you’re making a calculation: “Is the effort that goes into this action going to be worth it in terms of the results I’ll get?” You have to make up your mind: Are you going to calc...

"Simply stating, “I don’t know,” is not an adequate response to the questions of rebirth and the efficacy of karma. The attitude behind it may be honest on one level, but it’s dishonest in thinking that this is all that needs to be said, for it ignores the fact that you have to make assumptions about the possible results of your actions every time you act. It’s like having money: Regardless of what you do with it — spending it, investing it, or just stashing it away — you’re making an implicit wager on how to get the best use of it now and into the future. Your investment strategy can’t stop with, “I don’t know.” If you have any wisdom at all, you have to consider future possibilities and take your chances with what seems to be the safest and most productive use of the resources you’ve got. So it is with all of our actions. Given that we have to wager one way or another all the time on how to find happiness, the Buddha stated that it’s a safer wager to assume that actions bear r...

"What’s attractive about having conviction in the power of your actions is that there’s nothing unreasonable about it, and it places power in your hands. The Buddha teaches a path of action to put an end to suffering, so to follow that path you need to make certain assumptions about action. • The first assumption is that actions are real and not illusory . • Second, your actions are the result of your choices . They’re not just the result of some outside force acting through you. In other words, they’re not determined simply by the stars or your DNA. You’re actually making the choices. • The third principle is that actions do have effects . You’re not writing in water, where everything you write immediately disappears. When you do something, it will have an effect both in the present moment and lasting through time into the future. • The fourth principle is that the effects of your actions are tendencies . They’re not strictly deterministic; they don’t lead to ironclad outcomes. •...

"Even though you may not know that the Dhamma’s true, it makes sense both in pointing out the dangers and in pointing out the ways to avoid the dangers. In pointing out the dangers, the Buddha said we get reborn and it’s based on our actions. As we come to the practice we don’t know this for sure, but it’s a wise premise to take on as your working hypothesis. As the Buddha pointed out many times, if you take on a hypothesis that says everything is beyond your power, you’re cutting off any possibility that you could learn or could develop a skill. So even though you don’t know that there’s rebirth and you don’t know that karma’s going to affect rebirth, it’s wise to take that on as a working hypothesis. You can’t just say, “Well, I don’t know” and leave it at that, because every time you act, you’re making a calculation: “Is the effort that goes into this action going to be worth it in terms of the results I’ll get?” You have to make up your mind: Are you going to calculate the r...