Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Karma & Rebirth

"There’s no wrong that goes unpunished, no good that goes unrewarded. That’s simply the way kamma is. Therefore, we don’t have to carry around ledger sheets — which person did this, which person did that — with the fear that if the ledger sheet disappears then that person’s not going to get the retribution he or she deserves. The principle of kamma takes care of that. But remember that it also takes care of you as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Story-telling Mind"

"This is where true happiness is going to be found: in learning how to train your actions. Any loss of that conviction would be fatal to a pursuit of happiness that could be reliable, trustworthy. So that’s going to be a serious loss. Fortunately, the things that would be a serious loss are things that are under your control. You can maintain your virtue. People can offer you all kinds of rewards for breaking the precepts, but you can say No. You can maintain your right view. As for loss of relatives, loss of wealth, loss of your health, that’s going to happen at some point anyhow, sooner or later. You lose these things; you get them back. You get them back; you lose them again. But with loss of right view, loss of your virtue: If you lose that, you’re going to be acting on wrong view, acting in unskillful ways, and that’s going to be for your long-term harm. That’s why it’s a serious loss. But it is under your control. You can prevent that. So you work on that — y...

"This body we have, the mind we have: They’re like the gold you hear about in fairytales. The gremlin or the goblin gives you the gold, but it turns out that if you try to hoard the gold, it turns into ashes. It turns into feathers. But if, when you get the gold, you give it away, it keeps replenishing itself. It keeps repaying you in more and more ways. So as long as you have a body, as long as you have a mind, give them to whatever you find is noble, whatever you find is inspiring." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "You Bet Your Life"

"The Buddha once said that concentration, when nurtured by virtue, has great fruit, great reward. Now, he wasn’t saying that you can’t do concentration without virtue. There are many examples around of people who have very strong powers of concentration but very little virtue at all. What he was saying is that if you want your concentration to yield great fruit — in terms of bringing about the discernment that leads to release — it has to be done in the context of life where you’re trying to be virtuous in your actions, taking your actions and your words seriously, and also taking seriously their impact both on yourself and on others. This sensitivity to your actions and their results is what helps to bring your concentration to the state where it can lead to great fruit. If you go through life not really being careful about what you do, or not being sensitive to the impact of your actions, it’s going to be very hard for you to be very careful about your meditation, and to be sens...

"There’s a sense of joy in seeing that the teachings on kamma really work: You do skillful things and there will be rewards. That’s a somewhat more impersonal principle, but it lifts the mind to a higher state, because it’s getting “you” out of the way. Think about it: What are the attitudes in your mind that would interfere with empathetic joy? They’re all very childish. One is if you see someone who has something that you want but you don’t have, and you feel resentment, jealousy, envy. But when you’re able to overcome that and take yourself out of the picture, that heightens the concentration. There are also cases where people have done things that lead to happiness, who acted skillfully in the past, but they’re not skillful anymore. In fact, they’ve taken the results of their past skillful actions and now they’re abusing them — and you don’t like it, you don’t want to see them be happy, you feel they don’t deserve their happiness. But when you think in the terms of the princip...

"There’s no wrong that goes unpunished, no good that goes unrewarded. That’s simply the way kamma is. Therefore, we don’t have to carry around ledger sheets — which person did this, which person did that — with the fear that if the ledger sheet disappears then that person’s not going to get the retribution he or she deserves. The principle of kamma takes care of that. But remember that it also takes care of you as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Story-telling Mind"

“There are, headman, some contemplatives & brahmans who hold a doctrine & view like this: ‘All those who kill living beings experience pain & distress in the here-&-now. All those who take what is not given… who engage in sexual misconduct... who tell lies experience pain & distress in the here-&-now.’ “Now there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned, freshly bathed & groomed, with hair & beard trimmed, enjoying the sensualities of women as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned... as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man attacked the king’s enemy and took his life. The king, gratified with him, rewarded him. That is why he is garlanded & adorned... as if he were a king.’ “Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope with his arms pinned tightly against his back, his head shaved bal...

Question 25. Can the Buddha’s teachings on kamma be divorced from his teachings on rebirth? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Not really. If there were no life before birth, kamma would have no role in explaining pleasure and pain early in life. And as the Buddha said, many people are rewarded in this lifetime for doing unskillful things — he cited people who are rewarded for killing the enemies of a king, stealing from an enemy of a king, or telling a lie that entertains a king — and you can probably think of similar examples in modern business and politics [SN 42:13]. Sometimes the results of those unskillful actions don’t even show until many lifetimes later — because the causal principle underlying kamma is so complex [MN 136]. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Karma Q & A, a Study Guide"

"There’s no wrong that goes unpunished, no good that goes unrewarded. That’s simply the way kamma is. Therefore, we don’t have to carry around ledger sheets — which person did this, which person did that — with the fear that if the ledger sheet disappears then that person’s not going to get the retribution he or she deserves. The principle of kamma takes care of that. But remember that it also takes care of you as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Story-telling Mind"

"Our culture is a very unforgiving one. We have one shot at making it in society, they usually say. Of course, it’s based on a religion that gives you one shot. You’ve got this one lifetime and then there’s going to be either eternal reward or eternal damnation. Which is a very unforgiving way of thinking. This is one of the reasons why the Buddha’s teachings on rebirth are so helpful. If we don’t make it this time, we’ve got another chance. Now, the other chances may not come for a while. As the Buddha said, “Your chance of being reborn as a human being is right away is pretty slim.” But at least you’ve got more chances, and there’s not some arbitrary person up there who’s going to damn you forever for one little mistake, or praise or reward you for one little change of heart. Karma is a lot more fair in that area, and it gives you a chance to start over, start over, start over. So learn to think in a way that “Okay, you make a mistake. Recognize it as a mistake but it’s not som...

"As [the Buddha] noted, you can’t see all the results of actions here in this lifetime. Some people say, “Everything I’ve seen in life is enough to convince me that kamma works.” Well, No, it’s not. There are plenty of people who do all kinds of horrible unskillful things, yet they’re still alive. They thrive. The Buddha has a long list of people who thrive because they kill, steal, engage in illicit sex, lie, or take intoxicants [Saṁyutta Nikāya 42:13]. They do it with the right people and they do it in the right way to please someone in power, so they actually get rewarded by society in one way or another. But as the Buddha commented, those are only the short-term consequences. You’ve got to take the long-term consequences into consideration as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Rebirth is Relevant"

"We live in a world where good actions are rewarded, both in this lifetime and in future ones. We ourselves are beings who will survive death — as we have already survived death many times — to enjoy the results of our actions." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Clinging & the End of Clinging"

"There’s no wrong that goes unpunished, no good that goes unrewarded. That’s simply the way kamma is. Therefore, we don’t have to carry around ledger sheets — which person did this, which person did that — with the fear that if the ledger sheet disappears then that person’s not going to get the retribution he or she deserves. The principle of kamma takes care of that. But remember that it also takes care of you as well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Story-telling Mind"

"We realize that Buddha was right: that acts of merit are another word for happiness. In other words, when you’re generous, when you’re virtuous, as you get your mind under control, this is where happiness lies. As you realize happiness is in your power, you don’t have to go around begging it from somebody else or having to demean yourself. As Ajaan Fuang once said, when we come to the practice, we’re nobody’s servant. We’re here independently because we see that what the Buddha said was right, that it’s our actions that will make a difference. So we take responsibility. We assume that power and then we reap the rewards. That happiness is lasting: a happiness that doesn’t harm anybody in anyway. That’s the kind of happiness you want for a happy New Year. As for the things outside, whether they’re good or bad: A lot of that is beyond our control, but we can control our actions. We can make up the mind that we’re going to do only skillful things. Anything that’s unskillful, we sta...

"We live in a world where good actions are rewarded, both in this lifetime and in future ones. We ourselves are beings who will survive death — as we have already survived death many times — to enjoy the results of our actions." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Clinging & the End of Clinging"

"We live in a world where good actions are rewarded, both in this lifetime and in future ones. We ourselves are beings who will survive death — as we have already survived death many times — to enjoy the results of our actions." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Clinging & the End of Clinging"

“There are, headman, some contemplatives & brahmans who hold a doctrine & view like this: ‘All those who kill living beings experience pain & distress in the here-&-now. All those who take what is not given… who engage in sexual misconduct... who tell lies experience pain & distress in the here-&-now.’ “Now there is the case where a certain person is seen garlanded & adorned, freshly bathed & groomed, with hair & beard trimmed, enjoying the sensualities of women as if he were a king. They ask about him: ‘My good man, what has this man done that he has been garlanded & adorned... as if he were a king?’ They answer: ‘My good man, this man attacked the king’s enemy and took his life. The king, gratified with him, rewarded him. That is why he is garlanded & adorned... as if he were a king.’ “Then there is the case where a certain person is seen bound with a stout rope with his arms pinned tightly against his back, his head shaved bald, marched t...