1 00:00:00,031 --> 00:00:04,343 Is there any way for us to better understand how good acts bring good results? 2 00:00:04,744 --> 00:00:08,214 It seems sometimes that people who do good don't reap a noticeable benefit. 3 00:00:08,736 --> 00:00:10,541 Is it subtle, immaterial, etc.? 4 00:00:11,704 --> 00:00:15,475 The only way to understand karma is through the practice of meditation. 5 00:00:15,455 --> 00:00:19,379 The only way to appreciate it properly is through the practice of meditation. 6 00:00:19,900 --> 00:00:27,288 It's not some magical thing whereby you kill someone and you get killed, or you give someone food and you get food, or so on. 7 00:00:28,750 --> 00:00:31,453 A good deed... I've talked about this before. 8 00:00:31,813 --> 00:00:34,576 The Buddha rejected the concept of karma. 9 00:00:34,696 --> 00:00:37,039 We have this idea that the Buddha taught the law of karma. 10 00:00:37,059 --> 00:00:39,341 The Buddha himself even said he taught the law of karma. 11 00:00:39,722 --> 00:00:42,525 But if you look at what really went on, 12 00:00:42,505 --> 00:01:10,167 what the Buddha really did is he rejected karma totally, completely rejected karma it's not fair to say that because he redefined it but what I mean by that is Hinduism had this concept that an act was in and of itself good or bad and it still does 13 00:01:11,429 --> 00:01:23,143 I believe Hinduism, Brahmanism, the Vedas have this idea that ritual activity brings benefits. 14 00:01:24,473 --> 00:01:31,785 There were even the beliefs that ritual activity was to be done without the idea that it brings benefit. 15 00:01:31,805 --> 00:01:34,208 But not doing it would be unthought of. 16 00:01:36,192 --> 00:01:38,315 There was no idea that there's a benefit that comes from it. 17 00:01:38,335 --> 00:01:39,737 It's just it is done. 18 00:01:40,478 --> 00:01:41,460 You do the rituals. 19 00:01:41,981 --> 00:01:43,984 So the question of why you do them 20 00:01:43,964 --> 00:01:45,507 There's no why. 21 00:01:45,547 --> 00:01:46,810 It's just done. 22 00:01:47,992 --> 00:01:49,014 So this was karma. 23 00:01:49,095 --> 00:01:53,945 Karma was things to be done and things that were bad. 24 00:01:54,025 --> 00:01:56,590 Killing someone was bad because of the physical act. 25 00:02:00,333 --> 00:02:02,999 Eating certain foods is bad karma. 26 00:02:03,059 --> 00:02:06,888 Eating meat, for example, this idea that eating meat is bad karma. 27 00:02:08,050 --> 00:02:09,153 The Buddha rejected all this. 28 00:02:09,955 --> 00:02:17,211 He said, Something like that. 29 00:02:19,604 --> 00:02:28,274 that he said, you know, what really goes on, what is really done is not a bodily action. 30 00:02:28,335 --> 00:02:31,839 What is really done, the act that is done is the intention. 31 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:34,322 And so he didn't reject it, as I said. 32 00:02:34,702 --> 00:02:37,165 He rejected what we would normally think of as karma. 33 00:02:37,225 --> 00:02:41,771 He said, what is really done, the act that is really done is a mental one. 34 00:02:42,672 --> 00:02:44,314 And that's where karma exists. 35 00:02:47,338 --> 00:02:47,738 So, 36 00:02:51,785 --> 00:02:56,911 When we talk about the law of karma in Buddhism, we're not talking about acts of body. 37 00:02:57,052 --> 00:03:02,338 We're not talking about people doing good things and getting a good thing come to them. 38 00:03:02,358 --> 00:03:10,228 We're talking about the changes that occur in one's mind based on one's intentions. 39 00:03:11,009 --> 00:03:21,302 So when one gives rise to an unwholesome intention, when a mind state that is associated with greed or anger or delusion, 40 00:03:21,282 --> 00:03:23,188 then it will give rise to suffering. 41 00:03:25,213 --> 00:03:35,443 If one gives rise to a state of mind that is based on non-greed, non-anger, non-delusion, wisdom, renunciation and kindness or love, 42 00:03:36,824 --> 00:03:39,231 then it brings happiness, it brings peace. 43 00:03:39,893 --> 00:03:46,672 Now, the only way you can verify this is through looking at these states, through watching them, but it's very quick actually. 44 00:03:46,852 --> 00:03:51,846 If you take a meditation course for three days or five, you know, say five days, 45 00:03:51,826 --> 00:03:53,208 I would say even three days. 46 00:03:54,029 --> 00:03:57,913 If you do three days of intensive meditation, you'll begin to see the workings of karma. 47 00:03:58,674 --> 00:04:20,601 You can enter into, if you're with proper guidance, in about three days of insight meditation, you can understand what we call the ability to see the causes and effects, knowledge of cause and effect. 48 00:04:20,581 --> 00:04:27,740 which is karma, the ability to see that when the mind gives rise to this state, this state has to follow. 49 00:04:29,264 --> 00:04:36,042 Once you start to look at greed, look at anger, look at delusion, you can't look at delusion, but looking at greed and anger, 50 00:04:36,022 --> 00:04:42,128 you will come to see the suffering associated with them. 51 00:04:42,188 --> 00:04:44,370 As soon as the greed arises, there's tension in the mind. 52 00:04:44,831 --> 00:04:46,532 Anger arises, there's suffering in the mind. 53 00:04:47,553 --> 00:04:48,894 These are associated states. 54 00:04:49,635 --> 00:04:56,722 And you see how it changes the mind, how it dulls the mind, how it reduces the clarity of the mind. 55 00:04:58,224 --> 00:05:01,827 And as a result... 56 00:05:03,967 --> 00:05:08,513 And not only the mind, but it disrupts reality. 57 00:05:08,954 --> 00:05:10,716 So the whole world around you is affected. 58 00:05:10,876 --> 00:05:13,360 As you get more angry, you tend to act. 59 00:05:13,820 --> 00:05:17,045 For example, people who are angry tend to be less careful. 60 00:05:18,086 --> 00:05:30,583 So people who trip and fall or hit their heads or cut themselves or so on, it can often be because of the karma of cultivating anger in the past. 61 00:05:30,603 --> 00:05:33,467 So we say hurting yourself is caused by karma. 62 00:05:33,447 --> 00:05:38,113 But on a basic level, it's just because you're less careful. 63 00:05:39,154 --> 00:05:44,861 A person who is greedy will be less indulgent. 64 00:05:47,224 --> 00:06:01,142 So a person who is stingy, for example, people who can't give up and can't let go, who try to steal things from others or take things from others, 65 00:06:02,371 --> 00:06:16,988 will as a result be constantly unhappy, constantly dissatisfied and as a result you will see that will eventually become less 66 00:06:18,773 --> 00:06:28,371 less accepting of peace and happiness and will engage in stressful activities. 67 00:06:29,313 --> 00:06:35,905 People who are stingy will be less likely to find 68 00:06:38,180 --> 00:06:39,461 find happiness themselves. 69 00:06:40,322 --> 00:06:42,305 Generalization, there are many different types of people. 70 00:06:42,925 --> 00:06:57,522 But they will be, they will have, as a result of their state of mind, will have less peace, obviously because of their general, in a general sense, the desire in the mind will make them less peaceful because they'll always be thinking about this. 71 00:06:58,043 --> 00:07:02,788 As soon as they sit down, their mind will jump away to the object of their desire. 72 00:07:03,489 --> 00:07:04,170 If it's a 73 00:07:04,150 --> 00:07:20,404 another human being that you're in love with, you say, you obviously can't meditate, you're always thinking about this person, for example, if it's food, then you're always thinking about the food, if it's computer games, then you're always thinking about computer games, and so on. 74 00:07:22,105 --> 00:07:23,907 I remember I used to play computer games in it. 75 00:07:25,089 --> 00:07:39,729 I tried meditating when I was younger, but I realized I had gotten to such a point where I couldn't even sit alone in the room because I would be constantly thinking about the computer, going to the computer, playing computer games. 76 00:07:39,749 --> 00:07:41,952 Anyway, so yeah, meditate. 77 00:07:42,012 --> 00:07:46,999 Best way to understand karma, how good acts bring results, is to practice meditation.