ריפלקסיות על קרמה

התוכנית למתרגלים מסורים

ריפלקסיות על קרמה

מתוך: Dedicated Practitioner’s Program Homework

Spirit Rock

Reflections

1. The Buddha’s teaching of karma is sometimes described as the law of cause and

effect. There are at least five ways we might experience the effects of an action based on

a wholesome or unwholesome intention. We might notice how we feel (a) as we are

considering taking the action, (b) as we commit the act, or (c) as we remember an act we

have done. Then (d) we might notice that a volitional action can strengthen our habitual

ways of thinking, feeling, and acting again. Finally (e) we might notice unexpected

results coming into our lives at some future time that we intuit are related to the past

action.

Can you recall times in your life that you have experienced any or all of these kinds of

effects? Do your experiences seem to follow the law that wholesome intentions lead to

wholesome results, unwholesome intentions to unwholesome results? Please be prepared

to discuss them with your dharma buddy or in the group.

2. Do you have any doubts about the general teaching of karma, that actions from

wholesome intentions lead to wholesome results, and actions from unwholesome

intentions to unwholesome results? How do you feel about the teaching on the effects of

specific actions described in MN 135? Do you believe these, disbelieve them, or hold

them agnostically? Why? If you disbelieve the connections drawn in MN 135, do you

have another explanation for the great variety of mind states and circumstances that

people and animals seem to be born with?

3. The teaching on rebirth is a frequent theme in the Pali suttas. For example, in MN 4,

the Buddha describes two insights related to rebirth immediately prior to his awakening

(recollection of his past lives and seeing beings reappearing according to their actions).

Do you believe in the general principle of rebirth as described in the suttas? Why or why

not? If you don’t believe in rebirth, what do you think happens after death?

4. Views on rebirth can be held purely at a conceptual level, in which case they won’t

deeply affect us. Or we can take the implications of these views into the marrow of our

practice. MN 60 explores some of the implications of different views. Please continue

this exploration. (a) Imagine for a few minutes that the Buddha’s teachings on rebirth

are true, and that you will wander through an endless round of births and deaths with

varying samsaric pleasures and pains until you awaken. What shifts do you notice in how

you view your life, your practice, and this world? (b) Imagine for a few minutes that you

hold what the Buddha called a nihilistic view, that there is no future birth and no result of

karma beyond this life. What shifts do you notice in how you view life, practice, and the

world? (c) Imagine for a few minutes that you rest in the mystery of truly not knowing

what happens after death. What shifts do you notice in relation to life, practice, and the

world?

5. It seems at first paradoxical that the Buddha taught that all aspects of our experience

are not self, and yet that both karma and rebirth happen to the person who initiated the

actions, not someone else. This conundrum pops up in MN 109.14, when a bhikkhu asks

the Buddha, “If all five aggregates are not-self, then what self will actions done by the

not-self affect?” How in your understanding do you resolve this seeming paradox? That

is, how does the understanding of selflessness (anatt_) mesh with the teachings on karma

and rebirth?

6. We can sometimes feel guilt, shame, regret, or remorse when we consider unskillful

past actions, or we might judge ourselves harshly for our past karma. How can the

understanding of anatt_ help to soften such judgments? Are there other practices, such as

the brahma viharas, that you find helpful?

7. Sometimes we evaluate our past karma based on the adverse circumstances of our

lives (past abuse, current physical or emotional pain). But we seldom stop to reflect on

the many favorable conditions of our lives. All of us in this group are richly blessed in

many ways: we have enough to eat, we can stay warm in winter, we have a precious

human birth, we are relatively sound in body and mind, we have encountered the

Dharma, we are motivated to practice the Dharma, and we have the leisure time to be

able to practice the Dharma. It’s said that such conditions are the result of a tremendous

amount of past wholesome karma. When you reflect on this, does it change how you

evaluate your past actions?

8. Ajahn Amaro made a comment at the last DPP retreat something like, “The process of

consciousness going from one birth to the next is hardly different from the process of its

going from one moment to the next in this life.” Do you agree? How do you understand

this?

9. (Optional) Do you understand the Buddha’s teachings on karma to say that everything

that happens to us is the result of some past action of ours? Please read SN 36:21. Does

the sutta answer this question positively, negatively, or ambiguously?