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Venerable Ajahn Sucitto -
Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way:
An Overview of the Buddha’s Teachings on Kamma
What is ‘kamma,’ and what does it have to do with Awakening? Well, as a
word, ‘kamma’ is the Pali language version of the Sanskrit term ‘karma,’
which has slipped into colloquial English as meaning something like a
person’s fate or destiny. Taken in this way, the notion can support a
passive acceptance of circumstances: if something goes wrong, one can
say ‘it was my karma,’ meaning that it had to happen. Where the idea
really goes astray is when it is used to condone actions, as in ‘it’s my
karma to be a thief.’ If karma meant this, it would rob us of
responsibility for our lives. Furthermore, there would be no way in
which we could guide ourselves out of our circumstances or past history:
which is what Awakening is about. However, ‘kamma’ in the way the Buddha
taught it means skilful or unskilful action – something that we do now.
It's the active aspect of a cause and effect process known as
kamma-vipaka, in which vipaka or ‘old kamma’ means the effect, the
result of previous actions. And, for the most part, we get bound up with
the results of our actions.
However, as ‘action’, kamma supports choice. We can choose what actions
we undertake. Cause and effect governs the activities of volcanoes,
plants and planetary systems, but kamma relates specifically to beings
who can exercise choice over what they cause – which means you and me.
Also, not everything that we experience is because of past kamma (other
than that of being born).1 So if you’re sick or caught up in an
earthquake, it’s not necessarily because of you did bad things in a
previous life. Instead, kamma centres on your current intention or
‘volition’ (cetana). 2 The teachings on kamma therefore encourage a
sense of responsibility for action; the responsibility to give attention
to the many conscious and half-conscious choices we make in terms of
what we do. What this means is that in this present moment we do have a
choice as to how the future pans out: whether we will feel joyful and at
ease with ourselves, or anxious and depressed depends on our actions
now. And similarly, through our actions now, we can be liberated from
the past, present and future. That’s what Awakening to kamma brings
about.
Bodily, verbal and mental kamma
‘Kamma’ means ‘action’ in a more than physical sense; it also includes
verbal action – whether we insult and yell at people, or say truthful
and reliable things; and that includes the ‘internal speech’ of
thinking! But actually the kamma of our emotive responses – ‘mental’ (or
‘heart’) kamma – is the strongest.3 Responses – and the inclinations
that they’re based upon – govern the actions of body and speech, and
also engender results in the domain of emotions, attitudes, and
mind-states. Similarly, we only do things physically or verbally because
of convictions, assumptions, interpretations and attitudes – mind. By
itself, the body does neither good nor evil; these ethical qualities are
rooted in the mind that initiates the physical deed. It's the same with
speech and thought: language is neutral – it's the kindness or malice of
the mind using the language and concepts that brings fortunate or
unfortunate results.
Considering kamma in this light motivates us to clear the mind of
ill-will or greed, because these lead to verbal and physical actions
that leave an unpleasant tone: they engender harshness and grasping and
demanding and later on, worry, regret, and doubt. On the other hand,
actions and thoughts based on compassion give the mind clarity and
warmth. Hence the teachings on effect: they remind us to check,
investigate, and purify the mind-state associated with any action. As
our actions bring conflict or harmony into the context within which we
live, taking hold of kamma allows us to have a positive effect on the
world around us. Understanding kamma then also offers us the significant
realisation that our own well-being is not separate from how we act
towards others.
The dynamics of kamma
The law of kamma is that an effect or result is inevitable from an
active cause. If I curse and abuse someone today, the effect of that is
that they get hurt – and that means that they’re probably going to be
unpleasant towards me in the future. It’s also likely that that action
will have immediate effects in my own mind: agitation and remorse. Or,
it may be that I get accustomed to acting in that way: so I continue to
act abusively, develop an insensitive mind and lose friends. So effects
accrue both in terms of states of mind (offence and remorse) and also
behavioural structures (a pattern or program of being loud-mouthed or
self-centred). The really problematic stuff is the ongoing programs,
‘formations’, or, in Buddhist language, sankhara. These behaviour
patterns become part of our identity, and because we don’t see past our
own ingrained habits, these patterns and programs sustain the
rolling-on, or samsara, of cause and effect.
It’s important then if we want to get free, to get a hold on how we’re
operating. And it’s possible, because the kamma-vipaka process forms
feedback loops of mental feelings of stress or agitation or ease that we
can contemplate and consider. Moreover we can respond in different ways
to the results of our actions – so each effect does not inevitably
engender a corresponding cause. Here’s the choice: I can pause, come out
of the mind-state of irritation or recklessness, give it due
consideration, and try to do better in the future. That’s the first step
towards liberation.
The teaching on kamma is most readily accessible in the context of
external behaviour. The Buddha saw that clarity in regard to behaviour
offers a pragmatic way in which suffering and stress can be avoided, and
peace, trust and clarity generated. Hence he spoke of dark kamma –
actions such as murder, theft, falsehood and sexual abuse that lead to
bad results; and bright kamma – actions such as kindness, generosity,
and honesty – that do the reverse. He also referred to a mixture of
bright and dark kamma – actions which have some good intentions in them,
but are carried out unskilfully. An example of this would be having the
aim to protect and care for one’s family but carrying that out in a way
which abuses one’s neighbours.
Kamma is also dynamic – we act according to input, and as we receive the
feedback of agreeable or disagreeable results, that moderates our
further actions. However as some feedback doesn’t occur immediately, and
may even take years to occur, aspects of the feedback loop are chaotic.
This means that our rate of learning doesn’t necessarily keep up with
the rate at which we can commit further action. We were blithely
polluting the atmosphere for decades before it became clear what was
going on; by which time other actions had taken place – establishing
industries and lifestyles dependent on unsustainable resources – that
make it difficult to bring about change. The only aspect that we can
really become certain about with regard to our actions is the extent to
which they are affected by carelessness, greed, or aversion. This point
is significant: it encourages us to put effort into clarifying awareness
of the mind and its impulses. We need to pause, check and investigate
our minds more often. Then it’s possible to interrupt the feedback loop
with input that arrests or moderates our impulses. This input is the
kamma that leads to the end of kamma, and it is the hinge-point of the
Buddha’s teaching.4 In it’s deepest fulfilment it can lead not just to
changes in behaviour, but to complete liberation.
Birth: the inheritance of cause and effect
Complete liberation means stepping out of the whole cause and effect
process. This process is what we’re experiencing right now. Being born
is old kamma; and it has brought us into the predicament of existing
within the domain of cause and effect, with the potential to keep
rolling on in it. Having inherited the effect of being embodied, we are
affected by food, health and climate. And along with this comes the
potential for defending, seeking nourishment, and procreation. Mind is
attuned to respond to all this instinctively, with fight-freeze-flight
drives that can kick in at a moment’s notice. And with mind, there comes
the awareness of ageing, sickness and death; and with that separation
from the loved, and being disagreeably affected by that; and furthermore
being seemingly impotent to do anything about it. Thus, the rolling-on
of samsara traps us in its spin.
Old kamma is also all the powerfully social and behavioural programs
that tell us how to operate in terms of customs and attitudes.
Psychologically we experience the need to belong, to understand and to
otherwise feel at peace with our circumstances. This is a basis for
fresh kamma: one of our most continual mental actions is that of
interpreting and filing away experience to derive meaning and purpose.
Also we pick up a lot of information – including biases and redundant
information as well as sound advice – from other people. This mental
kamma forms the program, the mind-set, through which we interpret our
present experience. Installed and occasionally modified, at any given
moment this program applies an interpretation to a present experience to
tell us what a thing is ‘like.’ And this goes for much more than
objective definition: ‘Is it safe; is it friendly, is it allowed, will I
be valued by acquiring this’ and so on, become impression-filters that
help us make many spur-of-the-moment decisions in our lives. Yet how
reliable is that crucial process? Memories rise up that incline us one
way, bodily conditions arise that affect our mood, attention span
fluctuates, and the result of a conversation we had an hour ago is still
stirring our hearts. Meanwhile our social context connects us to the
effects of other people’s minds, each with their own interpretations and
misinterpretations, so we’re also affected by that. Programs get
transferred, or trigger off other programs, and our minds get caught up
in a flood of impressions, any one of which can trigger off impulses at
any moment.
The really crucial part of what we inherit then is ‘mind’ – a complex
affective-responsive consciousness which carries a huge potential for
further kamma. Through mind, we can be conscious of, reflect on and
develop in accordance with the results of what we do and say. We can
learn. And as our responses amplify and intensify our experience, we can
be creative. We can get focused on an idea and develop that into a
wonderful invention or beautiful work of art. Yet on the other hand we
can get overwhelmed by an escalating emotion. If the mood is one of
mistrust or resentment, we can produce demonic world-views and commit
atrocities. The possibilities have a wide range: the Buddha refers to
many unfortunate and hellish realms that are the result of immoral
actions, or ‘dark kamma.’ The good news is that there are even more
numerous fortunate and heavenly realms that one may be born into as a
result of good or ‘bright’ kamma.5 At any rate, it isn’t all over in one
lifetime! Nowadays people like to interpret these cosmological ‘realms’
as psychological states – but even in that view, kamma, bright or dark,
is action that will give rise to a future state of being. And at first
it seems there’s no way out of that: we experience our lives as taking
place within a dynamic continuum that affects and shapes us – just as we
affect and shape it.
All in all, the process of kamma-vipaka is like that of an ocean that
can lift us up, engulf us, or sweep us in any direction. It operates
through continual interplay between inherited effects as they arise in
the present and the range of consequent responses and inclinations to
act. The past is not dead; its effects carry potential. And the future
will arise according to how we act on that. This is the seemingly
boundless ocean of samsara.
Awakening to cause and effect
At first this vision of kamma seems to be one of imprisonment, rather
than liberation. But when you’re in a jail cell, you start to
investigate it more fully to see firstly how to make it more liveable,
and then how to get out of it. Firstly, if we must generate kamma, we
can at least determine whether it will be bright or dark. Remember,
there’s a choice: kamma depends on mental volition, or intention,
whether this be a carefully considered intention or a compulsive drive
or a psychological reflex. In this sense, ‘intention’ is not just a
deliberate plan. In fact right at the heart of our conundrum is the fact
that we’re not always that clear about what we’re doing and why. We may
be operating on automatic, or with blurred or biased attention, but
still attending to and moved along by the ‘push’ of a passion or a
habit. For many of us, the main problem is not deliberate evil
intention, but action based either on confusion, inattention or
misunderstanding. Many of our troubles come from being pre-occupied or
getting stuck in habits; then we don't bring clear attention into
association with our actions. Or we think things are OK so why bother,
or that they’re not but we have no choice in the matter. But there is
always the choice to at least investigate kamma, and that’s where the
turn-around begins.
This is because mental volition can be understood and directed if we
give it wise attention. We can direct attention to our thoughts and
impulses, pause and receive them more fully, and thereby get a feel for
the bright or dark quality that they bring into the mind. This helps us
understand what to act upon, and how. For example, a feeling for bright
kamma encourages someone who inherits good fortune such as wealth or
intelligence, to share it. They will then be making the best use of that
old kamma by turning it into bright new kamma. In fact for a person who
doesn’t share good fortune, the pleasure of it goes stale: wealthy
people who are selfish and complacent generally want more, or get stingy
and self-obsessed.
As another instance, we can be experiencing the dark effect of being
abused or hurt or anxious, but determine not to take it out on someone
else. Or, start investigating and relaxing that mood, and perhaps learn
what caused those effects. In this kind of action, volition is not
moving towards some future state, but towards penetrating the present
state. Penetration isn’t a matter of understanding all the whys and
wherefores of kamma: in fact the details of why we experience a
particular mood or intuition or urge at any particular moment are too
complex to understand – like trying to figure out which river or
rain-cloud gave rise to which drop of water in the ocean.6 The important
point about penetration is enter the underlying currents of the mind and
turn the tide of effects. And to do that we need to cultivate an
awareness that’s firm, clear and not flustered by moods and sensations.
This recognition, based on ‘right view,’ brings ‘right aim’, the
activation of the Eightfold Path out of suffering and stress.7
One point that becomes clear about the current of the mind is that
whatever way it’s flowing, we tend to get bound up with it. We want to
protect and sustain a happy state and feel bad about its eventual
decline and disappearance; our identity gets based on that state. On the
other hand we feel stuck with and desperate about unhappy states. In
this way, all kamma gives rise to, defines, and psychologically locates
us. Hence even good kamma has a certain disadvantage, because we still
have an investment in the arena of kamma. Within that arena, the wheel
of fortune can turn downwards: we may be attacked, and will certainly
suffer disease, pain, death and separation. We may also get caught up
with some overwhelming passion or impulse and do something we regret for
the rest of our lives. So the Buddha pointed to a better option: to get
out of the arena. In other words, to deepen awareness beyond the range
of kamma and vipaka. This is the aim that leads to Awakening and
complete liberation.
Kamma and the sense of self
In its fullest sense, liberation from kamma is liberation from cause and
effect in the mind. It’s a process of mentally, emotionally, stepping
back from any state and seeing it just as a state, without reactions and
attitudes. This simple skill, which most of us can do from time to time,
is what we develop in Buddhist practice. More radically, it means
stepping out of the program that asserts that my life gets fulfilled by
having or being some state or another…in this world or another. This is
the view that perpetuates kamma. When this view is the lens, I keep
looking for, or imagining some unchangeable subjective state that I
could be, have, or in fact already am. Have you ever found one? This
‘self-view’ attaches to bodies, feelings, notions, mental programs, and
sense-data as ‘this is me, this is mine, this is my self.’ But have you
ever found one that you can have forever and that never lets you down?
And who is the self that could have something, and what could he or she
be? How can I own a feeling, when the pleasant ones go when I don't want
them to, and the disagreeable ones roll in uninvited? How could I be my
impulses, ideas, or moods when they arise, condition each other and pass
away like a tag team? You can’t call the feelings a permanent self
because they come and go and they change. You can’t even call the
propensity to feel ‘a self’ because that too is subject to whether we’re
asleep or awake, numbed, inattentive or hyper-sensitive. Moreover, the
personal meanings that we project onto life, and the reactions and
psychological responses that are our thumbprints, are also subject to
change. The dynamic of this process is so continual, that it gives rise
to the sense of solidity, but a core permanent essence or entity can’t
be found.
If you consider the topic further, anything that is ‘self’ would have to
be independent – just ‘self’, and not part of anything else. But the
existence and constitution of the body, for example, is dependent on
parents and food and many other things. It doesn't arise independently.
When you cut your hair or nails, you don't lose your sense of self, so
self cannot be associated with embodiment. And aren’t feelings and the
propensity to feel dependent on something ‘other?’ We see some thing, we
feel some thing – what kind of seeing or feeling could occur without an
object? Furthermore, the self cannot be associated with mind states and
activities – don’t they arise dependent on physical states or other
mind-states or activities? Then again, if body, feelings and sense data
were my self, surely I could say ‘let them be like this and not like
that.’ But actually, they go their own way, the way of cause and effect.
So what self? And what is going on?
We may not be able to find anything that we can call a self, yet we
continually have the experience of being something, a continual feeling
of ‘I am.’ How is that? It’s because of consciousness – whose normal
function is to discriminate experience in terms of a separate subject
and object. But subject and object are inferences rather than realities;
and they depend on each other – you can’t have a sense of a subject
without some object and vice versa. Now when mental consciousness
attends to our inner, subjective dimension, it again separates subject
from object, with an inference of ‘I’, as the propagator, and ‘me,’ the
inheritor, of mind-states, moods, thoughts and the rest. (As in ‘here I
am feeling confused by myself, because that action is unlike me and I’m
not feeling quite like myself right now.’) Every sensation, every
thought, every feeling that passes through is either tagged as ‘what I
am – this is mine’ (even though they pass and change); or else the
notion is held that ‘I am other than this’ – even though I am defined in
terms of input that affects me). Either of these two instinctive
psychological activities of ‘selfing’ (‘I am this’, or ‘I’m other than
this’) continually determines a sense of self in ways that generate more
specific self-definition. However, because I can’t hold onto what I
want, and can’t get away from what I don't want, the underlying mood of
self is restless and unfulfilled. I keep trying to find the good
state…but this one isn’t quite it. Thus there is dis-ease. Liberation
from this dis-ease and stress is thus synonymous with Awakening out of
the dissatisfied self.
Developing yourself to freedom from self
The strong inclination to sustain a self – called ‘becoming’ or ‘being’
(bhava) stores that sense of ‘I’ and ‘me’ as a notion, a self-impression
that lasts as the reference point for whatever my mind has been involved
with. This self is thus not an entity but a pattern, a
‘self-construction program’ (ahamkara), made up of emotional and
psychological behaviours. These give rise to the sense that: ‘this is
how I operate, these are my opinions, this is my history,' and
accordingly there is the impression of being a self in such and such a
state, with strategies of how to continue to be in it, augment it, or
get out of it. But all that is not an identity, not a fixed thing, but a
process of ‘being this and becoming that.’ ‘Becoming’ is the core
program behind kamma. It’s the reason why there is so much activity in
the mind. But because it’s an activity, it can stop. However, ‘becoming’
is deep-rooted and instinctive: it doesn’t stop through reasoning. As an
instinct it has to be arrested in the depth of the heart – and that is a
process which involves steering the push of intention towards clearing
the ‘selfing’ view.
First we need to develop strength, skill, capacity. So, much of the
Buddha’s teaching favours ‘becoming’ in terms of becoming clearer,
steadier, more warm-hearted.8 We generate good kamma through acts of
generosity, kindness, and through letting go of behaviour that does
harm. We become calmer, brighter people. Right view encourages awareness
of the results of what we do, awareness of sharing this world with
others, and awareness of the importance of our inner, psychological
realm over that of sense-contact. If the deeper sense of fulfilment
through compassion and calm gets established, then we can let go of
getting and gaining and holding on: major causes of stress. We can shift
out of the drive towards short-term efficiency, convenience, success,
comfort, and sex appeal. Then we’re on the right track for liberation.
Consider the social scenario: in the West many of us can live in
physical comfort, yet because we are continually being presented with
more refined commodities or changing standards by which to measure
ourselves, there’s not much contentment. And there are social and group
pressures. A person might very well feel that if they’re not wearing the
‘right’ clothes their job is at risk, so they have to bear this in mind.
People can become depressed, even neurotic, if their bodies don’t match
up to the current standards of beauty, or if their personality is not
smart enough, cynical enough, seedy enough – whatever the fashion is. We
want to avoid losing out on good opportunities, and we fear the
loneliness of not having any friends. So there can be a nervous feeling
of inadequacy and insecurity which deprives us of a sense of trust in
our innate worth as a human being.
So because of just this, it’s important that we sense and define
ourselves as ‘being’ apart from those currents, if only to get onto some
firmer ground. And what really helps is to be able to calm and collect
the mind, and to develop oneself in what gives greater benefit. To live
one’s own life with authenticity. We can cultivate simplicity of needs,
and a sense of truthfulness and integrity. We can gain contentment
through acknowledging the good in ourselves and others. People have
problems and flaws, but to recognize and honour the goodness in oneself
and others, and to have some empathy and compassion for the reactivity
and confusion of oneself and others is skilful. This is because how you
attend creates the dwelling place of the mind. So if we can begin to
experience clarity and empathy for ourselves and others, we find
ourselves living in a more appreciative and balanced way that encourages
goodness to develop. In this way, we incline towards good kamma, and a
basis develops that really supports our well-being.
Working with the mind’s impressions in this way can bring around radical
changes in life. We discover that the ‘feel-good’ factor required by our
sense of self is most fully acquired through inclining towards
ethically-based, compassionate behaviour. The qualities that arise from
these inclinations are immensely nourishing. This is cultivating ‘self’
in a right way, and it is an essential aspect of Dhamma practice. From
this we realise that we can make meaningful choices in our lives; this
enables us to sense the potential in being human, and encourages us to
investigate it further.
Insight and not-self
All this good kamma is based on mind cultivation; and the skill of
calming and stilling the mind through meditation is another form of
‘good’ or ‘bright’ mental kamma. Broadly speaking, there are two main
meditation themes for stabilising the mind: that of firming up attention
and that of bringing well-being into the heart. These focus on good,
gladdening effects to both bring immediate well-being to the mind, and
to switch off the really destructive programs of resentment, depression,
anxiety and the rest. So we become a ‘good self,’ with a mind that is
calm and open. That makes it possible to investigate how ‘self’ happens,
and how ‘becoming’ can be relinquished altogether. This is the
cultivation of ‘insight.’
These two aspects of mental cultivation – developing a ‘good self’ and
becoming liberated from the self-notion – go together. When we can
develop a good self, we can investigate the basis of that, and realise
that it is based upon states which are dependent on good programs – such
as kindness, resolve, or concentration. They're not inherently yours or
anyone's. This is the view of insight: causes and conditions give rise
to fortunate and unfortunate effects. Moreover the fortunate ones arise
more readily and constantly if the mind isn't preoccupied with affirming
or denying a self who has or doesn't have them. That view of self as
success or as failure adds a bias that the mind gets stuck in – and when
it's stuck it feels stressful, and so lays down the conditions for
restlessness, uncertainty, craving, despond and so on.
But self-view has to be handled to be penetrated and revealed as a
series of stress-producing programs. Trying to get rid of a self
involves intention; and even an attitude of indifference generates
effects. Any nihilistic approach carries the seeds of dark kamma:
wanting to not be anything (vibhava) still operates from the premise
that one is something in the first place, and it entails the intention
to annihilate. All that makes us less confident and warm-hearted in our
actions and relationships. Instead, the process of Awakening has to
shift the emphasis from that of self-construction to one of supporting
and appreciating balance in the mind. We need to feel that inner
stability in the present to be able to let go of the assumptions and
biases of the past, and the becoming drive that strives for or is
anxious about the future. And it is through that letting go of becoming
that a still point, where old kamma ceases to affect the mind, is found.
Daily practice
As everyone who practises it soon realises, this introspective
cultivation has to move against the current of much of mainstream
culture. In a society in which we are encouraged to fill every moment
with some sort of stimulation, we get restless, and so the very basis of
calm and investigation is challenged. We have a massive distraction
industry that encourages us to take time to get away from where we’re at
– read something, eat something, half-watch the TV – and this takes us
away from reviewing or cultivating the mind. It also often puts us into
situations in which we can have no responsible input. Distraction seems
to offer an easy way out of stress, but it doesn’t do us a lot of good.
It’s a way of ignoring negative effects that we don’t want to, or know
how to, deal with – but it doesn’t fully remove them. For example, say
your working day is stressful, and then you drive through the jangle and
aggressive behaviour of the traffic: all that random rapid and
potentially risky contact agitates the nervous system. So you arrive
home feeling frayed and stressed, and there's the reflex to contact
something pleasant or easeful. Maybe you just flop down and eat
something, drink something or watch something on TV, you get vaguely
relaxed or amused for a while, but the state of ease is superficial,
induced and dependent on props. In this scenario, the mind becomes weak
and undeveloped, and gradually the forms of distraction need to become
more powerful. If the pattern is allowed to persist, a lifetime can be
spent becoming psychologically and emotionally weak.
Most of us need reminders not to pick up the mood of the social context
willy-nilly. And that we can come out of the program of the daily round.
I always have a Buddha image in my living space, on a small shrine, or
somewhere where I can relate to it. It’s something that reminds me of
the value of being fully present; it encourages me to pause, and
acknowledge and respond to whatever state I’m in. It reminds me that the
first priority is to clear some space in the mind, rather than even make
cultivation another thing to be busy doing. If the day rotates around
fixing things, getting things done and being on the go, it’s good to
learn how to moderate volition by not fixing and not getting things done
or sorted out. When you are in an emotionally rocky state, the most
skilful response may simply be to receive what you are feeling at the
present moment with some clarity and sympathy; to sit quietly and allow
things to blow through. Whatever the state, the initial response has to
be to stay present and cultivate spaciousness. But the way that cause
and effect work is that even five minutes of not acting on or
suppressing the present mind-state results in some kind of ease or
diminution of pressure. Then we begin to recognize a natural sanity, a
seed of Awakening that’s there when the doing stops. It’s not far off.
But we do need to get in touch with and encourage it.
It's always possible
The most significant realisation that comes from a five or ten minute
break from aspects of being and becoming, is that things stop by
themselves. This isn’t to say that a few minutes of just chilling out is
the end of kamma and the dawning of Ultimate Truth, but it does show us
that the mind can have a different direction from zigzagging forwards
(or backwards). The mind can open. And in that opening, the whole
scenario changes: mental awareness is experienced as a field within
which thoughts, moods and sensations come and go. And we can witness,
rather than act upon, that mental content. Furthermore, a good amount of
mental content just whirrs to a halt when there isn’t the view that one
has to do, or fix or even stop, and there isn’t the buzzy urgent self
keeping it going. 9 This in a nutshell is a description of how the kamma
of cultivation leads to the end of kamma.
But it's a subtle process to undertake. Thoughts and moods don’t stop
through trying to make them go away – that trying is more volition, more
kamma. They stop when the identification program, the basis of becoming,
is not switched on. This is worth remembering because when one considers
the complexity of the feedback loops of cause and effect, it’s easy to
imagine that a very complex process of unwinding would be needed. But a
glimpse at how ceasing happens – through not supporting the view and
energy of identification – shows us that the way out of dis-ease and
stress is direct and simple. And that encourages us to set up occasions
wherein we can take non-identification into deeper levels of our
psychological activity. This is through the ongoing process of
meditation; but we all need to, and can, back that up in our daily life.
We don’t have to drink the water we’re swimming through.
To not drink in the ocean of samsara means checking and restraining the
pull of the senses, checking and putting aside the programs of the
mainstream, and cultivating full attention and awareness. In other
words, it’s a whole-life path, the Eightfold Path. And that proceeds
from right view and right aim, not from wrong views of self, fate or
through automatic systems and techniques. Through following it, you
realise that you’re not as embedded in samsara as it might seem. For a
start, you never actually become anything for very long. Sure, you seem
to go through periods of agitation and tension, but with practice there
are periods of joy and humour – and as you get more skilled in attending
to the mind, the habit of holding on to particular states loosens up.
You find yourself identifying with this or that state less and less; and
that reduces the stress and turmoil.
Seen like this, human life is a great opportunity. Regardless of the
effects that we inherit, we can always act skilfully and cultivate the
mind; we can always move towards goodness, happiness and liberation.
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