KARMA CLASS: Deeds of Rob Reiner's son

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  Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus) JewBu Nazarene/Essene

  Jews who follow Judaism (as opposed to most Jews who just wear the label "Jew" like a secular identity, race, ethnicity, claim to fame, burden, or way of showing support for genocide and Western imperialism to build "Greater Israel") subscribe to a belief in kismet rather than karma.
• What is KISMET? KISMET = The Jewish Koan (fate, luck, fortune, chance, destiny, predestiny, "God's plan," capricious universal indifference to anything we do because it's all written in advance and plays out by the force of the Fates).
• KISMET translation question? : r/hebrew
• Kismet is "predestination" in Abrahamic Islam

Karma-shmarma, Judaism only believes in kismet (fate, destiny)

The historical Buddha, the greatest Karmavadin

Karma means "deed" or "deeds." There are all kinds of karma, that is, a great variety of intentional actions capable of bearing a result anytime in the future. The Buddha or "Awakened One" talked about karma so much that in his day he was not known as a "Buddhist." He was known as a Karmavadin, a "teacher of the efficacy of karma (action)." What we do comes back to us. The Dharmic religions, in contrast with the Abrahamic ones, teach the power of our personal action. Our deeds got us into this mess, and they can get us out (with help from others like the Buddha, the best friend of all beings, the gods, God, noble friends, parents, but mostly our own striving to develop compassion and wisdom, which lead to calm and insight).

Sadly, we often do not realize what we do in this sense. According to the Abhidhamma, a systematic explanation of the Buddha's "Doctrine in Ultimate Terms," what we are doing anytime we are committing an action is laying down a great number of cittas ("mind-moments") that act like "seeds" as it were. (What worse is that they have javanas, "impulsions," sub-moments of motivation, sub-cittas, a citta being uncountable numbers of "mind moments" not thoughts, as the term is sometimes mistranslated).

How many frames does it take to complete one "action" in a film? Karma has many more cittas.

• A "thought," if one thinks about it is like a sentence. What is a sentence? It is at least one complete thought, which requires an actor and an action, even if life is not this way. Grammar imposes rules on our thinking so that noun and verb must at least be implied to speak a sensible sentence in modern English. A citta, in that case, would be like all the atoms used to write out that sentence, far from sentences themselves. (Imagine a molecule. What is it made of? Atoms. How many? An uncountable number). Cittas (the stream of consciousness or viññāna kicca) in the immaterial world of intangible software are like kalapas ("particles of perception") in the material world of tangible hardware and things.
• A better way to think about it is to imagine seeing a movie clip, a short scene. It only lasts a moment, but what is it really made of? It is made of many many individual frames, which are the sub-moments of the film. The higher the fidelity of the film, the more sub-moments. There might be 100 frames for 1 second of movie runtime. A complete "scene" might then have millions of frames. A frame is not a scene; it's not even a second of a scene.
• Now imagine that when we act (karma), our action does not take one second but a few seconds to complete. How many sub-moments elapsed? It is hard to say. Each of those mind moments has many impulsions. If each impulsion could produce a result when it ripens, one act will give results for a long time. The number "500" comes up a lot in Buddhism, but it rarely if ever means five hundred. It is an indeterminate number and a handy way of saying "many." One act of killing could easily result in 500 miserable rebirths of being killed or being sickly or having one's life shortened, and so on. The Buddha expressed this as "for a long time," meaning in many many future births.

The force or deciding factor behind a deed is the intention. What is decided? At the decisive moment of acting, what we in our normal consciousness might think is happening is just one thought.

But that is not at all what is happening. The best comparison to understand this is physics. When something happens, it appears to us that only one thing is happening, such as lighting a match. It is often, we do an act, and it is lit. However, physics tells us that many things are happening in the sub-moments. Fire itself is not a single thing at all but rather a process.

Each moment of "fire" is many (at least five) sub-moments of process:

1. Heat is heating,
2. oxygen is oxidizing,
3. fuel is fueling,
4. wick is wicking, and the 
5. process of combustion is processing.

Abhidhamma (Sayalay Susila & Seven)

So what? Here's what. How long does it take to kill someone? With a gun, not long. An instant is enough. With a knife, as used in the infamous case of Nick Reiner murdering his parents, longer, a few instants. How long is an instant? For us in ordinary consciousness, it is just a finger snap's duration, right? But how long is it really, say, to a physicist or a psychologist? If we analyze it, that is, break it down to sub-moments, it's a long time.

Here's why it all matters: It isn't that one karma (one deed) will bear one result. This is completely wrong, but it's how nearly everyone talks, as if one action would bear just one result one time. One karma, one intentional action, will bear MANY results. Some might say an uncountable number of results. Now why is that? It is because each single "act" (deed) is built out of many impulsions, and it is these impulsions (as if they were seeds) that will bear results. So one single deed = a hard to count number of potential results.

• BOOK: Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body Through Abhidhamma (by Pa Auk Sayadaw through student Sayalay Susila and editor Seven)

The intention behind an act is so crucial that the Buddha equated intention (cetanā) and karma. They are not really the same thing, but so vital is that intention that it determines the classification of a deed. There are three obvious classes (good, bad, or neutral). That is, we can classify by results: This deed, when it ripens, will bear an unpleasant (possibly unbearable), unwelcome, unwanted result, so we call it bad. This other deed, when it ripens, will bear a pleasant, welcome, wanted result. Many deeds, being mixed, will bear mixed results. One might say other deeds, being neither good nor bad, will bear neutral results.

If I give even one unit (ancient kapana, dollar, rupee, coin), the motivation or intention behind it will reap many results many times because that one single act of giving was only accomplished through many sub-moments, many-many impulsions. If each citta (mind moment) is composed of many sub-moments, many impulsions, and each has the power to produce a result, one can see how even a little giving is great. However, this is simultaneously saying that even the slightest wrong (misdeed, unskillful act, bad action) has the power to produce many-many unwanted results.

This is all well and good and easy enough to understand. The Buddha went further to point out things that are not at all obvious. In fact, it is unlikely that anyone but a supremely enlightened buddha could point all of these things out. Why? The first thing that is needed is access to more than normal consciousness. This even an average, normal, instructed "worldling" can master.

Never having heard the Buddha's Dhamma (Dharma, Doctrine, Teaching), we are "uninstructed [ignorant] worldings." Having heard it, we are instructed worldlings. Putting it into successfully practice, we experience a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu), awaken, and are counted among the "noble ones," the enlightened in about seven stages (now universally reduced to four main divisions (stream entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and arhats or fully enlightened ones).

• NOTE: It may be a little confusing, but "full" enlightenment is not "supreme" enlightenment. That distinction is reserved for people like the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (Siddhattha Gotama) who awaken to the utmost WITH the capacity to teach. Nonteaching (pacceka) buddhas awaken to the utmost, that is with the intrepid powers of a buddha or the dasa-(tathāgata-) bala.

He led us to understand one more extremely important distinction to be made. And here come to the point of all this discussion. There is a fivefold kind of karma (kamma in Pali) that might be called "the worst in the world." These are the ānantarika-kamma or:

The Five Heinous Deeds

The are five acts (five kinds of karma) that the Buddha classified as "actions with immediate destiny." They are:

1. parricide (killing one's father),
2. matricide (killing one's mother),
3. killing an arhat (a fully enlightened person),
4. wounding a buddha (a teaching [samma-sam-buddha] or nonteaching [pacceka-buddha] supremely enlightened person),
5. creating a schism in the Buddha's Monastic Order (Bhikkhu or Bhikkhuni Sangha).

In A.V. 129, it is said: "There are five irascible and incurable humans destined to the lower world [dismal subhuman planes of existence] and to hell [avici, the waveless], namely: the parricidal, matricidal, homicidal [if the victim is an arhat], the wounder of a buddha, the creator of a schism in the sangha of a buddha."

About this fifth kind, see A.X. 35, 38. With regard to the first heinous crime, it is said in DN 2 that if [greedy son] King Ajātasattu had not deprived his father [the Buddha's student and supporter King Bimbisara] of life, he would have reached the path of stream-entry when he heard the Buddha teach as did all of his companions (App.)

Because he did commit this act, even though he was full of remorse for having done so, he was lost. His mind/heart could not reach the necessary calm and serenity (samatha) to attain liberating-insight (vipassana) to awaken to the ultimate truth. He did not become free of his destiny [his immediate next rebirth in the hells] as a result of his heinous deed nor of all further rebirth and suffering in samsara, the unending Cycle of Rebirth and Suffering (the Wheel of Life and Death).

• Nick Reiner, son of Rob Reiner, TMZ, 12/18/25; Five Heinous Deeds (definition) Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Explanation: Dhr. Seven, editing: Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Why ME? The 'Law' of Karma

(Buddhist Audio books) Invisible Law Controls Our Life: Kamma (Karma) in Buddhist Abhidhamma

First of all, what is Abhidhamma? It is the systematic treatment of the Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings, in ultimate terms.

Second, what is karma in Buddhism? It is a deed, willed action, which the Buddha divided as either physical, verbal, or mental, singling out intention or motivation (cetana) as the key to determining what it is and what it will produce.

If I do something, why I do it matters. A Manhattanite is walking down the boulevard on a dark and rainy night. She looks down an alley as see me over someone, lifting a blade that glints in the light of a dingy streetlamp about to bring down a blade on the body.

There's always a solution, a fix it.

What's happening? Can we judge? What's the karma (deed, action, doing)? She screams, "bloody murder!" and I look up and show her my scalpel. She looks down and sees a woman on the ground unable to breathe. And I explain that I was about to stab her in the throat, draw blood, and let air into her windpipe because she has something jammed into her mouth and is about to go unconscious and die if I do not intervene. "Oh, are you a doctor?" she asks me. "No, of course not, but I do watch lots of reruns of MacGyver," I answer.

Now that we know all this, what's the karma? The horrible act of attempted murder or the exact opposite, the precious act of preserving life?

It's hard to say, so we should reserve judgment at least a little, until we can discern my MOTIVE, my INTENTION, my VOLITION, my cetanā or underlying impulse to act.

The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts

That mental motive is the real "karma," the real determinant of the deed, and it doesn't matter what others think, approve of, or condemn. She may hate me, she may get a beat cop to shoot me to prevent what she thinks is going on, a judge may imprison me based on her testimony, but all of that is HER karma, not mine. I will be "judged" impersonally by myself or the universe for what I was actually doing when that ACT matures and comes to fruition.

Importantly, there are only six root motives for an action, a deed, any kind of karma. See The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts translated from the Pali (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel Series 251-253) by Western monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera.

There are other divisions, such as the Ten COURSES (kamma-patha) of Unwholesome Action and, of course, Ten Courses of Wholesome Action. There are probably millions of deeds, but getting to the root (radix, radical) of the matter, we have only six roots:

1. greed (lobha, lust, craving, clinging, desire, wanting)
2. hatred (dosa, aversion, fear, anger, annoyance, ill-will)
3. delusion (moha, ignorance, wrong views, confusion)
4. nongreed (alobha, letting go, selflessness, sharing, giving, generosity, dispassion, detachment)
5. nonhatred (adosa, loving kindness, compassion, mudita or joy in others' joy, unbiased onlooking)
6. nondelusion (amoha, wisdom, knowledge, knowing-and-seeing, understanding, penetration).

• See the Discourse on Right View or Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta.

We can divide karma (acts) into ten kinds:

• Three of body

1. destroying life

2. stealing

3. sexual misconduct

• Four of speech

4. false speech

5. divisive speech

6. offensive speech

7. senseless speech

• Three of mind

8. covetousness

9. malice

10. wrong view.

Ah, what does the Buddha know anyway?

What is there to notice here? Most karma is produced by the mouth or other means of VERBAL expression. The body may do things, but when does it do them that it is not being motivated (directed, willed) by the mind? Not acting out, not speaking out, it is still possible to produce karma (deeds with the power of producing a subsequent result) JUST BY THINKING. There really is mental karma. The RESULTS of karma are not karma, even though we in an offhand, shorthand way often refer to results as karma when we say, "It is my karma," referring to something that happened to us. That is never our karma, technically, but we all understand that what we think we're saying is, "This is a result of my deeds," and that may well be. Not everything that happens is due to karma. There are other causes. But most of the important things that happen to us that we notice and think are unfair, that's likely due to our bright and dark karma. This is a world of mixed results. To live in a world of predominantly bright results, there are karmas (acts) for that. Similarly, to live in a world of darkness and even worse suffering than we have here on the human plane (which is regarded as the lowest of the worlds one can be reborn in that is still considered "good"), there are deeds for that. Unless we get real with ourselves, privately, and recognize our motives, our intentions, what is impelling us to act, we cannot be surprised what we get as a result.

Remember, what we experience is not what we are doing now. We have a massive cache of past karma (from this and countless past lives even if we disbelieve those former lives and rebirths ever happened) that is trying to mature and come to fruition, to ripen and produce results.

The two names for karmic results are vipaka (resultants) and phala (fruits). The distinction seems to be, although we cannot prove it but remember Ven. Nyanatiloka (the Western translator of the Buddhist Dictionary) always making the distinction being mental-resultants and outward-circumstances. If we act, we immediately feel some way about it -- regret, remorse, anxiety about being found out or caught or punished, and so on, or rejoicing, approving, carefree or proud to be found out or recognized or rewarded, and so on, depending on the kind of action.

There is a terrible kind of karma, one that is possibly the worst of all karmas, and what is strange about it is that most of us most of the time would not even think there's anything wrong with in our Western society. What is it?

• What is the worst thing in the karmic world, the producer of the most amount of bad (unskillfulness, demerit, evil, misery)?

Wrong view (micchā ditthi), sometimes manifesting as the perversions or distortions (vipallassa). This is the one to be most wary of, for we will be held responsible for what we think, what views we cling to and act on. If we believe something is good because that's what people around us told us or it's the way we were raised, that DOES NOT make it good or okay. It is what it is, in accordance with the six roots mentioned above, and will produce corresponding results that are either welcomed and wished for or unwelcome and unwished for. Proceed cautiously before acting. A little or a lot of introspection helps.

• Outline of Buddhism

If there were just ONE primer to understand the complexity of karma in Buddhism, Wisdom Quarterly would say it is American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi's treatment of the subject here:

Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, Talk 5, "Rebirth and Kamma"

• Buddhist Audio Books (video), June 8, 2025; Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Rebirth and Kamma"; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Planting Karma Seeds: a Meditation Journey

Planting Wisdom: Karma Reflections and a Meditation Journey

Man, it would be so cool to learn meditation.

Here's a story about reconnecting with my first meditation teacher after nearly two decades.

The focus is on the seeds we plant continuously through our karma (deeds). What kind of seeds are we planting right now?

• VIDEO: The Seeds from Long Ago (YouTube)

Beat poet Jack Kerouac

I remember when I first learned how to meditate [by being mindful of] my breath some time in 1990, during my university years.

Back then, meditation was not as well known. The Beat Generation’s Zen trend in the 1960s had died out with disco in the 1970s.

Barnes and Noble had maybe only a few shelves in a single bookcase labeled with “Eastern Philosophy” that covered all Eastern religions, including Buddhism.

Ram Das’s cryptic book Be Here Now was the only book I had read prior to reading my World Religions book, which included a chapter on Buddhism for a class I took.

Be Here Now (Ram Dass for Neem Karoli Baba)

It was different in the early 1990s. There wasn’t a World Wide Web, Google, or even a digital Yahoo. We didn’t have Idiot or Dummy books back then. While there were books out there, you really had to explore a subculture, and you had to know someone in order to know what the subcultures were and where to find them.

Luckily, I had a friend who was into Zen, and he was considering becoming a Catholic priest at the time. He recently transferred from UC Berkeley, not far from San Francisco, which might be called the subculture mecca of the United States, certainly for the "weird" things like meditation. I asked him to teach me. I thought it would be good for me to learn from him.

He agreed and came over to my apartment one night to teach me a lesson I would never forget. I remember we were sitting on the floor of the living room during the lesson. I was thinking about TV’s depiction of meditation and what should be happening. Then I said, “Should I light a candle?” He said, “If you want to, you can.”

“Should I light an incense stick?”

Mindfulness of Breathing, Four Elements Meditation

“If you want to, you can. You can have representations of the Four Elements.”

He explained it to me, but I did not really know what he meant, so I lit a candle and an incense stick to fit my world view of what "meditation" should be like. Before we started, he gave me a little bit of a lesson on the story of the Buddha and how he became enlightened.

He then told me some things about the sitting posture and to press my tongue against the roof of my mouth and to swallow a lot in a natural way. “They say it is good for you,” he said.

Then he taught me how to count my breaths “Zen style.” I would silently and inwardly count the exhales of my breaths one by one until I got up to ten. Then I would count backwards back down to zero. Then up to ten again, and then back to zero. I would repeat these cycles until it was time to stop. If I lost my count, I would just start all over again from “one.”

After our session was over, he left and that was more or less “The Lesson.” After that, I do not know why, but I continued with this practice and other forms of meditation almost every day, more or less for the rest of my life (with some exceptions of course).

Twenty years later, in 2010, I visited Ulpathkanda, Hantanna (Spring Hill Monastery) near Kandy, Sri Lanka, where I was able to use the Internet for the first time in a very long time. I sometimes joked about how I was doing an “Internet retreat” from my full-time life as a forest monk in Na-uyana.

Nevertheless, I was still at a high mountainous jungle forest monastery. I looked up my old friend, my meditation instructor, on the Internet. When we were in college together, he had changed his major from philosophy to whatever one needs to become a Spanish teacher.

It looked as though he had really lived the Spanish lifestyle and moved all over the globe to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. The Internet kept track of all the different countries he lived in. It is true that “Big Brother is watching,” just like George Orwell warned, so I could now watch with an Internet connection.

After all of that globetrotting, he settled down in a Connecticut town not too far from where he originally taught me how to meditate. I picked up the monastery phone, dialed the phone card codes, then I dialed his number. The phone rang, and a woman’s voice answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, my name is Bhikkhu Subhūti, and I was wondering if a Brett [J.] lives here?”

“Yes, he does.”

“May I speak with him please?”

“Uh, okay,” she said in a cautious voice to the stranger on the phone. Perhaps I was a telemarketer to her. They did not know what to expect. There were muffled voices coming through the phone’s speaker, then eventually the phone was passed to Brett.

“Hello, this is Brett.”

I instantly recognized his voice, which had stayed the same all these years.

Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhuti (Jeremy Glick)

“Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhūti. You once knew me as Jeremy Glick from Central. Do you remember me?” (Central is a shorthand name for Central Connecticut State University).

“Yes, I remember you, Jeremy.”

I continued, “A long time ago, you came over my place and taught me how to meditate and how to count my breaths. With a few exceptions, I practiced nearly every day, and my practice grew and grew, and eventually I decided to become a Buddhist monk in 2001. Now my name is ‘Bhikkhu Subhūti.’ I looked you up on the Internet so I could call you and say, ‘Thank you.’”

But, hey, um, hello! I'm Jiminy Glick (Martin Short)

There was a long pause. It was five or six seconds of delay before he spoke, so it seemed long. He finally broke the silence and said, “You know, we never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”

I did not expect him to still be a teacher of mine, but those were words of wisdom. We caught up on some old times. He was indeed a Spanish teacher and married a woman from Spain. His brother, who was an electrical engineer, quit the industry and now counts caribou in Alaska for a living.

I told him that I never went into teaching, which was expected at college, so I became a computer programmer instead for about six years before leaving all that behind me.

Times have changed and so did the both of us. I told him that I had my brother make me a Facebook account (with two friends), and although as a schoolteacher he was against Facebook, he thought I might be able use it to do something worthwhile for other people. I did not do much with social networks until last year, but I kept his thoughts in mind.

We talked some more and then we parted. If you ever have a chance to thank someone who has affected your life, I highly recommend it. Often, we do not think we make a difference, but we do, positively and, unfortunately, negatively. We always plant seeds in ourselves and others. Some germinate, while others do not.

Sometimes we believe they are trivial sprouts, but some can grow into towering redwoods. It can change a whole person’s destiny. So always plant happy seeds because, “We never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”

• Ven. Subhuti (americanmonk.org, Feb. 11, 2024, originally 2014, reposted | American Monk: Life with Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Exposition on Karma (American Monk)

Ven. Subhuti (Jeremy Glick), Pa Auk Monastery, Burma; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

This begets more of this, as we sow so we reap, what comes around goes around, do unto others

.

What is the Pa Auk training?

Planting Wisdom: Reflections on the "Lesser Exposition on Karma Discourse" or "Shorter Analysis of Deeds Sutras" (Cula-kamma-vibhanga Sutta, MN 135) is the name of today's talk by Western Buddhist monastic Bhante Subhuti (AmericanMonk.org).

Ven. Subhuti is a long-time American Theravada Buddhist monk and student of the famous enlightened Burmese Meditation Master Pa Auk Sayadaw. Here he gives a cursory review of a significant sutra with the astounding tale from the Commentary on the rebirth story of Todeyya and Subha, a rich stingy man reborn as a pet dog in his former house, who becomes a close companion of his son.

Todeyya: I was a millionaire, but I was stingy.

The Buddha informs Subha that the dog in a former rebirth was his father, which comes as a massive insult. To prove it, the Buddha asks if his stingy father didn't by any chance leave inheritance money ungiven. He did. He died suddenly without revealing where he kept his treasure, which caused hardship to the family. The Buddha advises him to feed Todeyya the dog a rich meal until he's drowsy and then ask him to go to the treasure. The dog, still stingy, goes to take a nap over the spot her buried the money. This convinces Subha that the Buddha knows what he's talking about and that karma and rebirth are real phenomena. So he becomes a student and practices the Dhamma (Sanskrit Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings on Awakening).

• Meditation - Pa-Auk Tawya (paaukforestmonastery.org)
• Pa-Auk Meditation Centre, Singapore (pamc.org.sg)

Can I meditate in the forest, too?

PaAukForestMonastery.org, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

He is named after the monastery

The system of Buddhist meditation taught at Pa-Auk Tawya (Pa Auk Forest Monastery) is based on the instructions by the historical Buddha as found in the Pāli language canon and its commentaries.

The system taught is called the Threefold Training:

1. strict observance of precepts (sīla),
2. developing stillness (samādhi), and
3. as a basis for attaining wisdom (paññā).

It is further subdivided into the Seven Stages of Purification, which provide a step-by-step formula for systematically purifying one’s karma (deeds) of body (physical actions), speech (verbal actions), and mind (mental actions) of defilements in order to realize nirvana in this very lifetime.

Use the breath or Four Elements

In brief, the main practice is to begin with samatha (stilling, tranquilizing, making the mind content and joyous) meditation, which is to develop the meditative absorption called jhānas.

A yogi (Buddhist meditator) is free to choose any of the 40 serenity-meditation subjects as taught by the Buddha. At Pa-Auk Tawya, most yogis develop the absorptions or jhānas using mindfulness-of-breathing (ānāpānassati).

Having developed stillness (samma-samadhi or samatha), a yogi may proceed to practice insight (vipassanā) meditation.

There's also Pa Auk in Georgia

As an alternative, a yogi may omit the development of the absorptions, which a subtle and difficult for many who are not naturally inclined (from past life practice of the jhānas).

One will be taught instead to develop the less powerful "access concentration" with the serenity-meditation subject of Four Elements Meditation, prior to the practice of insight meditation.

In either case, the stillness/concentration attained by a yogi produces the "light of wisdom" or "sign" (nimitta) of progress in practice. More

• Like cures like is the homeopathic saying. Is it true for our actions and their results? Giving little begets getting little. Having chosen an action in response to a situation, I can expect that kind of result from the world for a long time. Just one act of stealing, because it occurred over so many mind-moments (which are laid down like seeds in consciousness), will result in exponentially more of that. A good choice -- giving, being friendly, being possessed of right view -- will result in reaping exponentially more happiness than we've sown. It may seem unfair, but it's "lawful," that is, working out in some rule-bound way, according to universal law, in accordance with the nature of the world. Or else all that we did would come to nothing, mean nothing, and be merely random events happening to us with no rhyme or reason, nothing to learn, nothing to improve, no aha moments when it all makes sense and everything is just as it is supposed to be (given what we chose and did previously). The hope is that we can NOW do something different and begin, eventually, to get pleasant, welcome, wished-for results.

Luck? Fate? Chance? Miracle? (video)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Ñanamoli Thera (Osbert Moore, trans.) Cula-Kamma Vibhanga Sutta, "The Shorter Exposition of Karma"; (video), Orig. 8/20/13

Before you act, remember: "KARMA: It's everywhere you're going to be."

When devas intervene? See especially Minute 1:08, a classic Keystone Cop comedy of errors!

Introduction

Ven. Bhikkhu Khantipalo

Many of us want long life, health, beauty, power, riches, high birth, and wisdom...

 

These things do not appear by chance. It is not luck that one is healthy or a lack of luck that one is foolish.

Though it may not be clear to us now, variations and disparities among living beings come about because of their karma (their store of deeds, intentional actions, ripening as fruits and resultants).

 

Each being reaps its own results according to one's past and present actions and attitude (mental action).

If one has a short life, is sickly, ugly, insignificant, poor, low born, or stupid and does not like being these things, there is no need to accept that that is the way it is. 

 

The future (starting the very next moment) need not be like that, provided one makes better karma now, including an attitude adjustment. Just viewing things differently, viewing things with wisdom rather than wrong view, is great karma.

Knowing which karma (deeds) to perform and which to avoid, that is the mark of a wise person. It is also the mark of one no longer drifting aimlessly.

Has one a sense of direction in life in order to begin to exert conscious control over the sorts  of events that will occur?
 

The Buddha, Phnom-Ek-Battambang (Captain Kimo/flickr.com)

 

The Shorter Exposition of Karma

Ven. Ñanamoli Thera

1. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was residing in Savatthi, at Jeta's Grove, in Anathapindika's Park.

 

Subha the student (Brahmin), Todeyya's son, went to the Blessed One and exchanged greetings. And when this courteous and amiable talk was finished, he sat respectfully to one side, and said:

 

2. "Master Gotama (Gautama), what is the reason (what is the cause), what is the condition, why inferiority and superiority are met with among human beings?

 

For one meets with short-lived and long-lived people, sick and healthy people, ugly and beautiful people, insignificant and influential people, poor and rich people, low-born and high-born people, foolish and wise people. Why is this?"

 

3. "Student, beings are owners of karma (kinds of karma, karma being plural), heirs of karma, they have karma as their progenitor, karma as their kin, karma as their homing-place. It is karma that differentiates beings according to inferiority and superiority."

 

4. "I do not understand the detailed meaning of Master Gotama's utterance spoken in brief without expounding a detailed meaning. It would be good if Master Gotama taught me the Dharma (Doctrine) so that I might understand it in detail."

 

"Then listen, student, and heed well to what I shall say."

 

"Even so, Master Gotama!" Subha the student replied. And the Buddha said:

 

5. "Here, student, a person is a killer of living beings, murderous, bloody handed, given to blows (to beating others), violent, merciless. Due to having performed and completed such deeds (karma), on the dissolution of the body, after death, one [if any of those karmic seeds ripen in consciousness at the time of passing] reappears in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in a hell. 

 

"If, on the dissolution of the body after death, one instead reappears in a state of deprivation, in an unfortunate destination, in perdition, or in a hell, one comes again to the human state, one is short-lived wherever one is reborn.

  

This is the way that leads to a short life -- that is to say, to be a killer of living beings, murderous, bloody handed, given to beating, violent, and merciless.

 

6. "But here [in this teaching] someone, having abandoned the killing of living beings, abstains from killing living beings, lays aside rod and knife, is considerate and merciful and dwells compassionately for the welfare of all living beings.

"Due to having performed and completed such deeds (karma), on the dissolution of the body after death, one reappears in a fortunate destination, even in one of the many heavenly worlds [sagga or deva-loka].

"If, on the dissolution of the body after death, instead of reappearing in a fortunate destination or a heavenly world, one comes again to the human state, one is long-lived wherever one is reborn.

"This is the way that leads to long life -- that is to say, to have abandoned the killing of living beings, to abstain from killing living beings, to lay aside the rod and lay aside the knife, to be considerate and merciful, and to dwell compassionate for the welfare of ALL living beings.

 

7. "Here, student, some man or woman is one who harms beings with hands or with stones or with sticks or with knives. Due to having performed and completed such karmas (willed actions), on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one comes again to the human state, one is sickly wherever one is reborn.

 

This is the way that leads to sickliness -- that is to say, to be one who harms beings with one's hands or with stones or with sticks or with knives.

 

8. "But here some man or woman is not one who harms beings with hands, or with stones, or with sticks, or with knives. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one comes again to the human state, one is healthy wherever one is reborn.

 

This is the way that leads to health -- that is to say, not to be one who harms beings with hands or with stones or with sticks or with knives.

 

9. "Here, student, some man or woman is angry, much given to rage. Even when little is said, one is furious, angry, ill-disposed, resentful, one shows ill-temper, hate (aversion, disgust, contempt), and surliness. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one comes to the human state, one is ugly wherever one is reborn. 

  

This is the way that leads to ugliness -- that is to say, to be furious, angry, ill-disposed, resentful, and to show ill-temper, hate, and surliness.

 

10. "But here some man or woman is not angry or much given to rage. Even when much is said, one is not furious, angry, ill-disposed, resentful, nor does one show ill-temper, hate, or surliness. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is beautiful wherever one is reborn. 

 

This is the way that leads to beauty -- that is to say, not to be angry or given to much rage; even when much is said, not to be furious, angry, ill-disposed or resentful, or to show ill-temper, hate, or surliness.

 

11. "Here, student, some man or woman is envious. One envies, begrudges, and harbors envy about others' gains, honor, veneration, respect, salutations and offerings. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead he comes to the human state, he is insignificant wherever he is reborn. 

 

This is the way that leads to insignificance, that is to say, to be envious, to envy, begrudge, and harbor envy about others' gain, honor, veneration, respect, salutations and offerings.

• NOTE: Jealousy is said to be also wanting what another has, whereas envy (covetousness) is said to be to be wanting it so that the other person is deprived of it.

12. "But here some man or woman or is not envious, does not envy, begrudge, or harbor envy toward others' gain, honor, veneration, respect, salutations, and offerings. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is influential wherever one is reborn. 

 

This is the way that leads to influence -- that is to say, not to be envious, not to envy, begrudge, or harbor envy about others' gain, honor, veneration, respect, salutations and offerings.

 

13. "Here, student, some man or woman is not a giver of food, drink, cloth, sandals, garlands, perfumes, unguents, bed, roof, and lighting to monastics or Brahmins. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is poor wherever one is reborn. 

 

This is the way that leads to poverty -- that is to say, not to be a giver of food, drink, cloth, sandals, garlands, perfumes, unguents, bed, roof, and lighting to monastics and Brahmins.

 

14. "But here (in this teaching) some man or woman is a giver of food, drink, cloth, sandals, perfumes, unguents, bed, roof, and lighting to monastics and Brahmins. Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is rich wherever one is reborn.

This is the way that leads to riches -- that is to say, to be a giver of food, drink, cloth, sandals, garlands, perfumes, unguents, bed, roof, and lighting to monastics and Brahmins.

 

15. "Here, student, some man or woman is obdurate and haughty; one does not pay respect to whom one should pay respect, or rise up for whom one should rise up, or offer a seat to whom one should offer a seat, or make way for whom one should make way, or honor who should be honored, or revere who should be revered... Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is low-born wherever one is reborn.

 

This is the way that leads to low birth -- that is to say, to be obdurate and haughty, not to pay respect to whom one should pay homage, nor rise up..., nor give a seat to..., nor make way for..., nor honor..., nor revere... who should be revered.

 

16. "But here some man or woman is not obdurate or haughty. One pays respect...reveres who should be revered.... Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is high-born wherever one is reborn.

This is the way that leads to high birth -- that is to say, not to be obdurate or haughty, to pay respect... revere who should be revered.

  

Wisdom, intelligence

17. "Here, student, some man or woman when visiting a monastic or Brahmin, does not ask: 'What is wholesome, venerable sir? What is unwholesome? What is blameworthy? What is blameless? What should be cultivated? What should not be cultivated? What, by my doing it, will be long for my harm and suffering? And what, by my doing it, will be long for my welfare and happiness?' Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one again comes to the human state, one will be foolish wherever one is reborn. 

This is the way that leads to foolishness -- that is to say, when visiting a monastic or Brahmin, not to ask: 'What is wholesome?... Or what, by my doing it, will be long for my welfare and happiness?'

 

18. "But here some man or woman when visiting a monastic or Brahmin, asks: 'What is wholesome, venerable sir?... Or what, by my doing it, will be long for my welfare and happiness?' Due to having performed and completed such karmas, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a happy destination... If instead one again comes to the human state, one is wise wherever one is reborn. 

 

This is the way that leads to wisdom -- that is to say, when visiting a monastic or Brahmin, to ask: 'What is wholesome, venerable sir?... Or what, by my doing it, will be long for my welfare and happiness?'

  

SUMMARY

The Buddha heals the hopeless Kisa Gotami

19. "So, student, the way [course of action, path of practice] that leads to short life makes people short-lived, the way that leads to long life makes people long-lived; the way that leads to sickliness makes people sickly, the way that leads to health makes people healthy; the way that leads to ugliness makes people ugly, the way that leads to beauty makes people beautiful; the way that leads to insignificance makes people insignificant, the way that leads to influence makes people influential; the way that leads to poverty makes people poor, the way that leads to riches makes people rich; the way that leads to low birth makes people low-born, the way that leads to high birth makes people high-born; the way that leads to foolishness makes people foolishness, the way that leads to wisdom makes people wise.

 

20. "Beings are owners of karma (actions willed and carried out), student, heirs of karma. They have karma as their progenitor, karma as their kin, karma as their homing-place. It is karma that differentiates beings according to inferiority and superiority."

 

21. When this was said, Subha the student, Todeyya's son, said to the Buddha: "Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent, Master Gotama! The Dharma has been made clear in many ways by Master Gotama, as though he were turning upright what had been overthrown, revealing the hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, holding up a lamp in the darkness for those with eyes to see what was there.

 

22. "I herewith go to Master Gotama for guidance, and to the Dharma, and to the monastic Sangha. From today onward let Master Gotama accept me as a lay follower who has gone to him for guidance for life."

Rebirth and Karma (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, student of the BPS Editor Ven. Nyanaponika (Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka), Washington, DC Vihara; Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

When these ten Dharma talks were originally released, they were accompanied by a pronunciation guide and a glossary of Pali/Sanskrit terms used in the talks. They were part of a study at home program in cassette form. They have been published on YouTube and other outlets and now as a ten CD set from the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS.org) and Chaung Yen Monastery in Upstate New York with improved audio. This is Talk 5, Rebirth and Karma.

Can we change a deed? (Karma and its Fruit)

Ven. Nyanaponika Thera aka Seigmund Feniger (Kamma and its Fruit via accesstoinsight.org, BuddhaNet edition, 1996) edited by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly 2020 

The causes are our deeds.

The Buddha taught: "If one says that in whatever way a person performs a karmic deed [an intentional action], in that very same way one will experience the result (vipaka, phala) -- in that case there is no [possibility for a successful] spiritual life and no opportunity would ever appear for the complete ending of all suffering [enlightenment and nirvana].

"But if one says that a person who performs a karmic deed [that bears results] that are variably experienceable [that is to say that ripen differently] will reap that deed's results accordingly -- in that case there is [the possibility for a successful] spiritual life and an opportunity for making a complete end of all suffering" (AN 3.110).

I.

Most writings on the doctrine of karma emphasize the strict lawfulness governing karmic actions and results, ensuring a close and clear correspondence between deeds and their fruits.

While this emphasis is good enough, there is another side to the complex working of karma, a very important side that is rarely noted. This is the modifiability of karma.

The fact is that the lawfulness (regularity, predictability) that governs the working out of karma does NOT operate with mechanical rigidity like the "laws" of physics are said to behave. It allows for a considerably wide range of modifications in the ripening of the fruit.

If karmic action were always to bear fruit invariably in the same way and with the same magnitude, and if modification or annulment of karmic results were excluded, liberation (moksha) from the cycle of suffering (samsara) would be impossible. Why?

An inexhaustible past amount of unwholesome karma would always throw up new obstructive results (mental resultants and fruits). So the Buddha taught:

"If one says that a person who performs a karmic action [deeds that have the power to produce a distant result] that can be experienced in a variety of ways will reap the results of that deed accordingly — in that case there will be [a good purpose for leading this] spiritual life [taught by the Buddha as a means of waking up and] making a complete end of suffering" (AN 3.110).

Like any event in physics, the mental process constituting a karmic action never exists in isolation. It always exists in a field. So its efficacy (the power to produce its results) depends on its own potential AND variable factors of its field. These things can modify the results of an action (a karmic deed) in numerous ways.

Hey, that means there's hope! We can be free!!

For example, we see that a particular karma (an intentional physical, verbal, or mental act), either whether it's skillful or unskillful (good or bad) may sometimes have its result strengthened by "supportive karma," or weakened by "counteractive karma," or even annulled by "destructive karma."

The occurrence of the results can also be delayed if the coming together of outer circumstances required for the ripening of a deed are not complete. That delay may then provide a chance for counteractive or destructive karma to operate.

[In other words, there is hope no matter what we have done or are doing. We can turn it around and progress to a "successful" spiritual life crowned with awakening/enlightenment and nirvana, which is the end of all suffering. This is what the Buddha taught when he talked about the hopelessly complex teaching of karma and karmic results.] More