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Meditation: Sowing Wholesome Seeds

Hello friends, and welcome. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time zone you're in. Lovely to be with you in this moment in time, on this day.

As we bring this week of exploring karma together—this important, profound teaching of karma, not as something intellectual, something to be afraid of, something unknown, magical, weird, or strange, but a teaching that can empower us right here, right now in our lives. It affects the way we live, the way we show up, the way we serve, the way this being is in this world. Karma is an empowerment.

So without further ado, let's sit together, and I have some reflections prepared, of course, for later for the dharma talk. I'd like to invite you to land, to arrive in your posture.

Here.

In this moment of intention. Intending gently. Intending doesn't have to be heavy as a hammer; it can be a gentle turning towards peace, towards awareness, towards stillness, towards kindness.

An action of the body, mind, and heart to release. To release and let go. To arrive here wakefully.

Landing. You're releasing the holding in the mind. Releasing, releasing, landing here, and releasing any tension in the body. Any holding in the body.

Inhabiting this moment in time fully, expansively, with an expansive heart.

Just here, trusting. Trusting that if we are intending, inclining our hearts, our minds to awareness, to kindness in this moment, and meeting whatever arises with awareness, kindness, peace, and acceptance... when the future moments, whatever they hold, become the present moment, trusting in this capacity to meet them too in the same way. Building, sowing seeds of trust through these moments of awareness.

Peace. Inclining to peace in the body, releasing the mind, the heart, releasing, letting go. Inclining to peace here, and knowing peace. Tasting, even if for just one moment. Letting go, tasting peace in this moment here.

It's seeds we are planting in this moment. In this moment, right here, wake up. What are you planting right now? Becoming aware, choosing to plant wholesome seeds. It's that simple.

If you find the mind lost in thoughts, or engaged in emotions, contracted in ways that are not helpful, become aware. Become kindly aware. Not resistantly, not grudgingly, but kindly aware. Release what's not profitable in this life for you, for others, in this moment.

If it was a thought of ill will, perhaps judgment towards yourself or towards others, let there be a thought of kindness. Planting a seed of kindness intentionally, with intention. Kindness, forgiveness, generosity for yourself or others, for the world. Releasing, releasing, giving.

Planting wholesome karma both in the way you become aware—not with aversion, but with kindness—in the action of the mind that then follows into peace, into goodwill, into awareness. Presence here, here.

Begin again, and again, and again if needed. It's okay.

And as we bring this sit to a close together, let there be a moment of appreciation. Planting the seed of gratitude, appreciation for yourself, for the sangha^[1], for the opportunity to come together and to practice. Whatever arose or did not arise in these 30 minutes, you have showed up. You've done your best. Let there be kindness.

Appreciation for the goodness that has been created, has been co-created with generosity. Offering, sharing that merit, that goodness with all beings everywhere. All that we do in our life is not for us to keep any goodness of it; it's an act of service, it's an act of goodness to be shared with others.

So offering this practice, this act of goodness, may it be a support for all beings everywhere. And cultivating goodness, kindness, freedom for myself and all beings everywhere. May all beings be free, including myself.

Thank you for your practice.

Karma (5/5) 4 Types of Karma According to the Priority of Effect

Hello and welcome, friends.

This week we have been exploring the teachings of karma together, and I'd like to share just a few minutes of review of what we've covered this week so that if you've missed any of the talks, or if you feel inspired to go back, you can. And also, I'll add a few more teachings today.

We discussed karma not as a teaching of this magical something that has been passed down from some previous life, where whether I'm doing well or poorly, or others are, we say, "Oh, it's the fault of what they did in a past life." Ouch. That is a very painful way to contract around that teaching. But actually, we can see it as an empowerment, as an empowering teaching of how our intentions and actions here and now can form and shape who we are, who we become, and how we serve in the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment. This is actually quite concordant with what neuroscience nowadays tells us about how plastic our brains are. We are so plastic in our actions; the way we behave and act changes and shifts the river of our thoughts, our actions, and who we become in the world.

We talked about the three aspects of karma. Karma is action. There's the leading edge, which is the intention. There is the action itself, which is the doing—the doing of the mind (thoughts are considered actions of the mind), actions of speech, and actions of the body. And then there's the trailing edge of the action, what is left. These ossified karmic relics that we create and leave in our bodies and minds as we become. We used the image of a potter intending to create, shaping, forming, and then leaving the creation in the kiln to become ossified. In that way, we create all these momentums, all these relics.

We then talked the next day about how wakefulness can actually change our karma in every moment. Intending to wake up and make another choice is possible through mindfulness, not just on the cushion, but in daily life. The practice of karma awareness and shifting your karma isn't just limited to sitting silently on the cushion; it becomes a daily life practice of awareness. Awareness in each moment: "What am I thinking? Oh sweetheart, do you really want to be thinking about that? Do you really want to beat that dead horse that you've been beating for 10 years when it's not really helping you or anyone?" So, moments of awareness with kindness: "Darling, please, let's try something differently. May you be well, may I be well." Planting seeds of kindness.

And then we talked about how it's not so much the object in awareness that arises, but how we relate to it. It's the way that we engage that really shapes and forms the karma. It's our engagement, the emotional quality of our engagement, the actions of the mind and heart. How we intend and engage really shape and form us. This is, again, concordant with neuroscience in the ways that an emotion regarding an event or object in the sensory space fixes it more in place in terms of a pattern.

Yesterday, we talked about reconsidering and re-imagining rebirth. If rebirth were true, it wouldn't be this magical thing or this thing that we are powerless against, but something to hold in the way of gratitude. Just as we have physical ancestors, we perhaps have a karmic ancestor that has sent us goodness and sent us into the future. How can we take what we have received and make the best of this karmic potentiality? How can we make it beautiful with wholesome thoughts and wholesome seeds to pass it down? With the teaching of the self being made of causes and conditions, the idea of rebirth really becomes an understanding of gratitude, appreciation, and generosity. How can we make this karma as beautiful and shining as possible and pass it down to this other human being who is going to have a different nationality, perhaps gender identity, color, circumstances, and different sets of neuroses? We want to pass on the best to this "child" of ours. This is a different way to relate to rebirth, if you wish.

What I wanted to bring in today, in the limited time left after this brief summary, is that there is a lot more detail in the teachings of karma. In fact, I pulled out this book by my teacher, The Workings of Kamma by Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw^[2]. You could read 400 pages on karma in The Workings of Kamma, and yet, what is really important is how this moment's action is conditioning the next, and the next, and the next, with awareness. Practically, that's what we need to engage with in our lives.

But just to bring a little more detail here, there are many different types of classifications in the teachings, especially in the Abhidhamma^[3] and the Visuddhimagga^[4], the higher teachings. I'm going to share just one type of classification, which I think is actually helpful for us in the way we relate to it. This classification is according to the priority of effect, and there are four different types.

The first is the heaviest, the highest priority level, which is called weighty karma, or garuka karma. Weighty karma can either be good weighty karma—karma that has heavy weight, but it's good—or unwholesome karma. In the teachings, weighty unwholesome karma is considered killing one's parents, the murder of a fully enlightened being, and also the creation of a schism in the sangha. To think about this in neuroscience terms, there are some actions that are so heavy, not just for ourselves but for everyone else, that they have lasting consequences. If you create a schism in a community, that has repercussions for yourself and for everybody else. So we can see why that's number one in terms of weighty karma. In terms of weighty wholesome karma, moments of awakening, freedom, peace, and deep states of absorption are considered wholesome weighty karma.

Number two is proximate karma (āsanna karma). The teachings actually talk about this in terms of the moment immediately before you die—the proximate karma for the next rebirth. But actually, it's a lot more general. We can observe proximate karma and really see it in neuroscience terms: if you've been grumpy, or if you've been thinking thoughts of ill will, then there is proximate karma. If the previous moment you've been angry and upset, the chances are that the next moment you're going to be angry and upset, right? The proximate mind moment really gives shape to how you show up and how you act. It is interesting to observe this in your own actions in daily life.

Number three is habitual karma, āciṇṇa karma. Habitual karma makes sense too, right? It's what you do most habitually. If, after work, you just turn on the television or watch Netflix for hours, and that's just habitually what you do when you finish working, then that's what you will continue to do. That is habitual karma.

Then the last one is called reserve or cumulative karma. This is kind of a catch-all category in these Buddhist classifications, and it literally means "because done." This includes all the actions that were not included in the previous categories. If an action isn't weighty karma, if it isn't proximate, and if it isn't habitual, but it's something you have done in the past—some tendency of the mind that is not immediate, not necessarily habitual, and not heavy—that is what finds fruition.

I think of these categorizations as being helpful ways to study and really see our own actions, and how the way we think, act, and intend in the world can shape the next moment. All of these interact in many different ways.

Just to say at the end, it is said that on the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha woke up and saw the workings of karma. Karma is deeply connected with dependent origination^[5] and the laws of causality. These teachings are intertwined. He woke up to seeing the workings of karma, which are complicated, and yet all we really need to know for our liberation—for how this being lives, serves, is happy or unhappy, and causes happiness or unhappiness in the world for all beings present and future—is just awareness in this moment. What are we doing? What are we planting in this moment?

So thank you, dear ones. Thank you for your presence, thank you for your practice, and thank you for your awareness and attention this past week. It's been an honor to share these beautiful teachings with you. I wish you well. I wish you wholesome karma, wholesome deeds, happy actions, and happy results for the sake of yourself, for the sake of all beings everywhere, and for your future selves, past selves, present selves—all the selves that we are in every moment. So thank you all.

Let's dedicate the merit of a week of practice. May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, wake up to their own goodness, to the capacity to wake up, to be free, and to be of service. May all beings be free.

Thanks, everyone. Be well.