Here we are together at the breakfast table, blown by the winds of karma. It is not by accident, it is not predestined, and it is not under somebody’s master plan. It is due to causes and conditions, and specifically due to our previous actions, that we find ourselves here. The events in our lives are conditioned by the causes and specifically the karma that came before them. Sometimes we have happiness, sometimes we have misery, and sometimes the feeling is neutral, but from a Buddhist perspective, what happens to us is not so important. How we react to what happens is important. What happens has been conditioned, and we are experiencing it right now, but how we react to what we experience is creating the cause for the future. By being aware of how we react, and how we respond to things, we can either create the causes of suffering or the causes of happiness.

With our ignorant minds, when we have a pleasant ripening of karma, we usually react with attachment, thus creating more negative karma for the future. When we have an unhappy ripening, an unhappy experience, we react with hostility, thus creating more negative karma for the future. When we practise the thought training teachings, we are trying to train our minds to respond to whatever happens with a Dharma mind, that is, with a mind that sees the experience as empty and yet appearing, and with a mind that sees it through the eyes of compassion. We try to train our minds to respond to all circumstances with the feeling of compassion for the others involved and with the perspective of wisdom, of understanding the situation. In that way, we create the two collections, or accumulations, of merit and wisdom. That result does not hinge on what happens to us, but on how we respond to what happens.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!