Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"We do have the potential to be cruel. Our tongues are like knives, our arms and our hands are like guns: We can do all kinds of good or harm with these things. So this is why heedfulness lies at the base of goodwill [mettā] . It’s a question of getting your motivation straight." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Goodwill & Heedfulness"

"Now, there are some people, of course, whose behavior is such that you may not want to be connected with them. But at least have sympathy: To whatever extent they’re doing unskillful things, they’re suffering. In some cases, the best course of action is to wish them well but to realize that you’re going to have to go separate ways." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Faith in Goodness"

"If you act with skillful intentions, the results are going to be good. You’re convinced of that. If you act with unskillful intentions, the results are going to be bad. This is very different from what the world tells us. Success in their eyes can often come from being very devious. But the Buddha says genuine success, genuine well-being, requires that you start with a good heart, that you desire to harm no one. You have goodwill [mettā] for all. You take that good intention and you work on it to make it skillful." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "True Values"

"Wise goodwill [mettā] is based on the realization that we have to live in this world together with all kinds of people, all kinds of beings. There are some that are threatening, there are some that are hard to like, but you can’t let yourself have ill will for them. So you have to talk to yourself, because if anything is natural, fear is. Fear can cause you to want somebody to go away, want them to disappear, want them to just not be in this world. That state of mind that wants total security by wiping out threatening things actually ends up causing a lot more trouble than it resolves. We have to realize: We have to live in the world with all kinds of people, all kinds of beings, and we have to protect ourselves first — with our goodwill. So, think your way to goodwill. If you find yourself reacting to somebody in a negative way, just stop and remind yourself: You don’t have to like the person or like  the being, but you have to think about that person or that being’s well-bein...

"Everybody deserves compassion. Everybody deserves goodwill [mettā], empathetic joy. But again, it’s not so much what they deserve, it’s: What do you want to do with your life? How are you going to shape your experience? How do you want to shape the world around you? Give your goodwill as a gift, your compassion as a gift to others and to yourself. That’s a good way of shaping things." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Goodwill & Karma"

"We saw all that insanity after 9/11, where people were willing to throw morality out the window because they were so scared. There was even that Buddhist teacher who said, “This principle that hatred is never appeased by hatred, that it’s only appeased by non-hatred [i.e. goodwill,]” was totally useless. Didn’t have any practical application when things were so uncertain. Actually, though, that principle was designed for times when people really are seething with hatred, when they have to be reminded that you can’t put aside your principles in a situation like that. When life is in danger, your first impulse may be not your best impulse at all. You need clear-cut precepts to keep reminding you that under no circumstances would you kill, steal, have illicit sex, lie, or take intoxicants. That’s why the precepts are so simple, to be easy to remember in difficult situations." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Ennobling Path"

"If you develop a mind state where you realize you have no ill will for anyone, it gives you a sense of strength and nourishment, and as the Buddha says, it provides protection for you in all directions, into the past and into the future. What this requires, though, is that when you’re developing goodwill [mettā], you don’t simply think over and over again, “May so-and-so be happy, may they be happy, may they be happy.” You also have to think, “Is there anyone out there for whom I cannot have genuine goodwill? Why can I not feel goodwill for this person?” If they’re misbehaving, genuine goodwill means that you’re wishing that they will have a change of heart: that they’ll change their ways and behave more skillfully. Now, is there anyone out there who you would like to see suffer before they change their ways? If there is, ask yourself, “Okay, why? What are you feeding on?” It’s usually a sense of revenge. And even though they say revenge is sweet, it’s miserable food. It woul...

"So it’s in your own best interests to learn how to feel goodwill [mettā] toward others, no matter whom, no matter where, any person, any situation. When people have wronged you, you have to ask yourself, “What good would you get out of their suffering?” The little child that likes to see revenge: Do you want to identify with that little child, that nasty little creature?" ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Emotion"

"We’re saying, “May all beings understand the causes of true happiness and act on them.” It’s not the fact that our thought of goodwill [mettā] is like a magic wand that’s going to spread happiness and light in whichever direction we point it. What we’re doing is getting our intentions straight: that we don’t want to cause anybody any harm and we’re happy to help other people as they work on their own quest for happiness." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Reflection on Kamma"

"Your main possession consists of your actions. And what’s going to keep them going well in bad circumstances? Strong goodwill [mettā] . Here in America we’d say, “industrial strength” goodwill, that no matter how bad someone else is going to be, you’ve got to have goodwill for them. Because your main concern is how skillfully you’re going to behave toward that other person. And it may happen that they pick up on the fact that you do really mean well for them. You see that they’re simply misguided. As the Buddha said, when someone is doing something unskillful, you have to have compassion for them. If there are no redeeming characteristics in the other person at all, you have to have even more compassion, because they’re just digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole. And as for the damage they can do to you and people you love or the people you care for, the Buddha said that kind of damage is much less a concern than damage to your virtue and damage to your right views. N...

"If people misbehave toward you, you want to overwhelm them with goodwill [mettā] . After all, just look at this world: People are so poor in goodwill. With the least little bit of disagreement, people draw lines and get all upset and want to attack the other side. For what? We keep battling, battling, battling, then we die. We have nothing to show for it except a lot of bad kamma. But goodwill raises the level of the mind." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Metta Math" (Meditations12)

"Goodwill [mettā] is a wish for happiness — true happiness — which means it’s happiness that comes from within. As we know from the Buddha’s teachings on karma, people are going to be happy, not because you simply wish them to be happy, but because they create the causes for happiness in the skillfulness of their thoughts, their words, their deeds. Which means that when you’re extending goodwill to yourself, extending goodwill to others, there’s no question of whether you or they deserve goodwill, whether you or they deserve happiness. When the Buddha was teaching the end of suffering to people, he didn’t ask them first, “Do you deserve to suffer?” Everybody he met had karma that could induce them to suffer, but they didn’t have to suffer from it. That’s what the teaching was all about. You don’t have to suffer. And again, he didn’t hold people’s past against them. This is the way out. That should be the attitude you have to others as well. There are a lot of people out there wh...

"So goodwill [mettā] for yourself means not harming others. And then you start thinking about them. They want happiness too, just like you. It’s just that we live in this world where people have lots of different levels of understanding and levels of behavior, and you have to be forgiving. So when anger comes up, you’ve got a tool to deal with it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Guardian Meditations"

"The Buddha goes on to say that by helping other people you also help your practice. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give an image, but you might think of when you polish a mirror: As you put energy into the polishing the mirror, your reflection in the mirror becomes brighter. The Buddha talks about four qualities that are important to bring to your relationships with other people that are helpful to you . They’re endurance, harmlessness, goodwill, and a mind of kindness or sympathy. When you develop these qualities in your treatment of other people, those qualities will come back and help your meditation." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Helping Yourself by Helping Others"

"Now, there are some people, of course, whose behavior is such that you may not want to be connected with them. But at least have sympathy: To whatever extent they’re doing unskillful things, they’re suffering. In some cases, the best course of action is to wish them well but to realize that you’re going to have to go separate ways." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Faith in Goodness"

"There’s the equanimity that’s part of the four brahmavihāras. This is the kind of equanimity that functions well together with goodwill [mettā] and compassion. You might call it the equanimity of a good doctor. Every good doctor has goodwill and compassion for the patient and wants the patient to be cured, but may find that there are some symptoms he cannot cure. But he doesn’t give up totally on the patient. He develops equanimity toward the symptoms he can’t cure so that he can focus on those he can — or at least on ways in which he can alleviate the patient’s pain and suffering. Instead of trying to force things in areas where he cannot make a difference, he channels his goodwill and compassion for the patient in other ways that are more fruitful and productive. In this way, he doesn’t waste his time and energy on areas where he cannot give help so that he will have the time and energy to focus on areas where he can be of help." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Go...

Question: I was in a situation where I was forced to do something that harmed someone else. How do I live with this fact so that it is not too heavy to bear? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Remember that kamma depends on many different factors. When you’re forced into doing something harmful, the kamma is much less heavy than if you had done it on your own initiative through anger or ill will. Remember, too, the Buddha’s recommendation that you not get involved in thoughts of remorse. Instead, simply recognize that it was a mistake and resolve not to repeat the mistake. Then spread thoughts of goodwill to yourself, to the person you harmed, to the people who forced you to do the harm, and then to all beings. You spread goodwill to yourself to give yourself more encouragement to do good now and into the future. You spread it to others to strengthen your desire not to harm anyone at all. ~ "The Karma of Mindfulness: The Buddha's Teachings on Sati and Kamma"

"In the guilt cultures that we have, especially in monotheism, there’s the sense that justice has to be done one way or another. Whereas Buddhism doesn’t talk about justice at all — it talks about being skillful in your behavior. Now, sometimes skillfulness does involve punishing people who are wrong, but you’re not necessarily trying to get justice done. Think of the case of Aṅgulimāla: all those people he’d killed, and yet the Buddha saw that he had a potential. So he taught him. Aṅgulimāla was able to give up his murderous ways and become an arahant. The karmic consequence of all the killing he’d done was simply that, as he was on his alms rounds, there were people who were probably upset that he’d literally gotten away with murder and they would throw things at him: sometimes tearing his robes, sometimes bashing his bowl, sometimes bashing his head. But as the Buddha said, that was a lot less than the consequences would have been if he hadn’t gained that attainment. So the who...

"In the Buddha’s teachings, character is an important part of the practice. We tend to miss that as we come into contact with Buddhism here in the West, because we meet it either through an Internet chatroom, or in an academic setting when we’re taking a class in school, or through a meditation retreat center where we’re taught a technique. We may be taught a bit about loving-kindness [mettā], which comes across as a kind of a general niceness. But in none of these contexts is anything much taught about character, the principle that you have to be truthful and harmless in your search for happiness." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Peace Requires Character"

"Think of the ajaans going into the forest. Before, when they were lay people, they would take their weapons with them. But then as monks they were going totally unarmed, and their protection was taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha: in other words, trying to develop the qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, in their hearts, in their activities. And they learned over time that that really was a much more solid protection: the protection of being inoffensive, the protection of being unburdensome, the protection of having goodwill [mettā] for all." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Free Like a Wild Deer"