Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"If the Buddha saw that he was talking with people who didn’t have much experience with [generosity and virtue], sometimes he’d stop there. It’s a principle throughout the Canon that developing right view is not just a matter of thinking about right views. It’s also a matter of having some practical experience in putting them into practice, engaging in some of the actions the Buddha recommends. You can have mundane right view, but you’re not ready for transcendent right view [regarding the four noble truths] until you have some time spent in practicing right action, right speech, right mindfulness, and attempting right concentration. That way, right view is not just theory on its own, it’s theory augmented by practice. You begin to develop your understanding a lot more, because you begin to see that the benefits the Buddha is talking about are real." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Graduated Discourse"

"So as you help others, you help yourself. As you help yourself, you help others. It shows that that old Mahayana issue of having to help others first before you help yourself is a non-issue. The Buddha found a way in which you can do both at the same time, because when you practice both ways, then everybody benefits. Helping yourself, you help others. Helping others, you help yourself." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Help Others, Help Yourself"

Question: My friends ask me why it matters which being I will reincarnate as, because it, she, or he will not remember that it, she, or he was me in the former life? Indeed, I have no memories of my former lives. Maybe they were much better, but I do not suffer from it as I do not know. This system sounds like you work really hard all your life for someone else to get the results from all your good actions. What should I tell them? P.S. Personally, I meditate and practice virtue for the benefits it brings me in this very life. Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Are you the same person that you were when you were a child? Yes and no. However, many things that you did when you were a child, like going to school, are definitely benefiting you now. At the time you were a child you felt that “I am me.” Now you feel, “I am me,” even though you now look and act and think like a very different person. The same sort of principle applies whether it’s in the same lifetime or going over to another lifetime. ...

Question: My friends ask me why it matters which being I will reincarnate as, because it, she, or he will not remember that it, she, or he was me in the former life? Indeed, I have no memories of my former lives. Maybe they were much better, but I do not suffer from it as I do not know. This system sounds like you work really hard all your life for someone else to get the results from all your good actions. What should I tell them? P.S. Personally, I meditate and practice virtue for the benefits it brings me in this very life. Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Are you the same person that you were when you were a child? Yes and no. However, many things that you did when you were a child, like going to school, are definitely benefiting you now. At the time you were a child you felt that “I am me.” Now you feel, “I am me,” even though you now look and act and think like a very different person. The same sort of principle applies whether it’s in the same lifetime or going over to another lifetime. ...