1
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Why do some people simply possess brilliant minds, are born geniuses, etc.?

2
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Actually, do you think geniuses are born or made?

3
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May one of the reasons be their previous life in some of the higher realms?

4
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Well, not even necessarily in the higher realms, but some aspiration in the past.

5
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definitely quality of the mind, even inclination for certain things, so people who are inclined towards music, people who are inclined towards science.

6
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It's interesting, last night I went to one of my supporters' houses, and they're meditators, and their two daughters are also meditators, and talking to their two daughters about their university studies and comparing, you know, just chatting about university and about the way we learn,

7
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The one daughter is very very much math oriented, pure math oriented, so she doesn't like practical applications.

8
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There's these two sides of science studies.

9
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One is people who like the pure stuff where it's just theory, doesn't have any basis in reality because reality is muddy, reality is organic and there's uncertainty in it and so on.

10
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And then the other side hates that stuff and loves getting the hands-on kind of organic, natural stuff that has uncertainty and is practical.

11
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And we're talking about it, and it's quite clear that they're two very, very different people.

12
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So science understands that, and they have this left brain, right brain kind of thing, genetics and the idea that people are different.

13
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But from a Buddha's point of view, it's also interesting to see how different two daughters can be, two siblings can be.

14
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And obviously we see that in people.

15
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So we're born differently and we would attribute this at least partially to past karma.

16
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But the idea of the quality of brilliance, like some people have great memory.

17
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I have great memory.

18
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It just happens to be a trait.

19
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And this other monk who ordained

20
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ordained after me but he's been a meditation teacher for quite some time in our tradition he has a terrible memory and yet he's a brilliant teacher and he's now I think world renowned he's a great guy he's also on YouTube a little bit people put his videos on offer he's in Israel but terrible memory and he admits it so we're

21
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comparing this and it's just interesting how we have different qualities of mind, different abilities and so definitely we attribute this and we speculate on the fact that this is probably something to do from the past.

22
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Karma really isn't

23
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You know, that's not really the important questions about karma that we ask.

24
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The most important questions or knowledge that we try to understand and we try to cultivate is about karma right here and now, what it's doing to us, how it's changing us.

25
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The idea that

26
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you might be reborn in a better place, in a better way, is kind of incentive to help you do that, to help you understand.

27
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If people knew what their actions were leading them to, then they'd be a lot more concerned about learning about them, about studying about them.

28
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So the important thing is that you come to the present moment and study your karma.

29
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But by telling people about past and future lives, it helps them see the importance of doing that.

30
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So if there is a future life and if your karma, your state of mind is going to influence that, then gee, you better come and look and see whether what you're doing is the right thing to do and learn more about how to do the right things.

31
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So it's a lot more basic preliminary stuff to talk about karma in terms of past lives, future lives and so on.

32
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The ultimate goal is to understand karma as it works here and now, how our bad deeds are making us bad people, are corrupting our minds and how our good deeds are purifying our minds, are making us calmer, more peaceful, more gentle and beneficial beings.

33
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But yeah, so definitely plays a part, something to

34
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Well, not really something to think about, but there you have it.

35
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Definitely, karma is most likely to play a part.

36
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It seems reasonable to say that, and that's the Buddhist theory, is that past lives do determine a lot, or do condition our lives in the present, and the present will condition the present.