090129 the limits of old kamma

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The Limits of Old Kamma

January 29, 2009

Focus your attention on the breath and see how it feels. Where do you noticeit in the body rst? Where does it seem most prominent? You might notice the

passage of the air through the nostrils, the rise and fall of the chest, theexpansion of the rib cage: There are lots of dierent places in the body whereyou can sense the mo!ement of the breath. Whiche!er area seems mostprominent, focus there.

"nd notice if the breath feels comfortable there. #f it doesn$t, you can let itchange. %et it be longer or shorter, or thin& of it as becoming longer or shorter.You don$t ha!e to makeit be that way or force it to be that way. 'ust pose thatthought in mind: What would longer breathing be li&e? "nd you$ll nd the bodywill breathe longer. What would shorter breathing be li&e? (ea!ier, lighter,faster, slower? )xplore the possibilities of the breath right now. Thin& of thebreathing as a whole*body process and see what that does to your sense of what

&ind of breathing feels best or what the body needs in terms of the breath.+ometimes it needs to be energied, sometimes relaxed. -et a sense of thebreath potentials right now.

We$re sitting here with lots of dierent potentialspotentials in the body,potentials in the mind. "s we meditate we explore to see which potentials lead tothe greatest happiness, the greatest pleasure. "llow the breath to be pleasurableand also notice what your mind is doing, what potentials you ha!e in your mind:What thoughts could you be thin&ing right now? What /ualities could youde!elop? "t the moment we$re trying to emphasie the thoughts that focus youon the breath in the present moment0 and we$re trying to be in/uisiti!e, trying tolearn about the breath.

Those two factorsthin&ing of the breath or focusing on the breath, and beingin/uisiti!ecount as directed thought and e!aluation, two of the factors of 1hana.2se them to see how you can stay with the breath in a way that feelscomfortable, gi!ing rise to feelings of refreshment and pleasure. "nd as youprobe and explore, you begin to realie that there is this potential right here forthe body to feel comfortable from the inside, for the mind to be willing to settledown. There are lots of other potentials you could ha!e focused on right now, butyou don$t ha!e to. 3a&e the most of your freedom to focus on your ability toexpand s&illful potentials.

4ccasionally you$ll nd yourself running up against some bloc&ages, or painsthat, no matter how s&illfully you breathe, are going to stay as pains. 4r theremay be some chatter away in the mind that won$t go away. You don$t ha!e tofocus on it0 1ust let it be there in the bac&ground. 5ut it does impinge a little biton your awareness.

#n other words, you nd yourself running up against old &arma obstructions.Fortunately, though, the present moment is not totally shaped by old &arma. #f itwere there$d be no point in practicing. There$d be nothing you could do.)!erything would be determined by something that went before, which of coursewould ha!e been determined by something that went before that and on bac& in


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an innite regress. This is why the 5uddha re1ected the idea that e!erything wasdetermined by a creator, or e!erything was determined by old &arma. 4therwisethe practice would be pointless.

5ut it$s notpointless. We do ha!e a measure of freedom here in the presentmoment. There may be some restrictions that come from past &arma, but you canlearn to wor& around them. This is a principle that applies across the board in

the practice, not 1ust while you$re sitting here meditating, but in your acti!itiesthroughout daily life. You nd yourself running up against diiculties that, nomatter how s&illfully you try to respond to them, are still there. You ha!e thechoice of focusing on the diiculties to the point where you can$t do anythingabout them, and get more and more entrapped and frustrated by them. 4r if youtry to ignore them and pretend they$re not there, that doesn$t wor& either. +oyou$!e got to nd another approach. "nd fortunately, the best approach is alwayspossible.

The present moment is a limited moment but it does ha!e its openings. #t doesha!e its potentials. The wise approach is to admit the limitations but also to wantto explore the potentials for what$s s&illful. #f you ha!e certain responsibilities,

learn how to carry them out but at the same time, you$re wor&ing on the /ualitiesof the mind. That$s what the 5uddhist teachings about the paramisor theperfections are all about. )!en as you go through your e!eryday responsibilities,you ha!e the opportunity to de!elop good /ualities of mindpatience,persistence, determination, truthfulness.

+ome of us ha!e a romantic notion about the ideal situation to meditate.You$re o by yourself. 6o responsibilities at all. Totally free to meditate all daylong. 5ut e!en in places li&e that, you nd there are limitations, diiculties. "ndif the meditation is not going well, what do you ha!e to blame it on? 7an$t blameit on anybody else. #t$s 1ust yourself. # &now a lot of mon&s who$!e been out in theforest. They say sometimes they can go for months and months and months with

no progress in the meditation. +o it$s not the case that going o alone and ha!ingno responsibilities is going to sol!e e!erything. #f you do ha!e responsibilities,remind yourself that you don$t ha!e to carry them around in the mind all thetime. Your outside wor& is your outside wor&. Your inside wor& can always &eepgoing onlearning patience, learning to ha!e a good humor about the wholething.

" couple years bac&, we had a problem in the electric room here. The countyinspector came and said that it was totally unacceptable. )!erything was goingto ha!e to be torn out and redone within 1ust a few days. +o a couple of the"mericans came and wor&ed on it and complained the entire time about howdiicult it was, how much they were ha!ing to do without sleep, and 1ust on and

on and on. "nd it wasn$t helping the 1ob at all. # &ept thin&ing about how thingswere o!er in Thailand when we$d ha!e diiculties li&e that. 8eople there seem toha!e a much better humor about things. They seem to ha!e a betterunderstanding of the perfections, that e!en when things are diicult outside orinside, you$!e got the opportunity to de!elop good /ualities of mind. Whate!erthe situation, you want to gure out the s&illful way to approach it so that youminimie the diiculties and maximie your potentials for freedom.

#f you$re dealing with more than 1ust present responsibilitiessay, with theresults of past mista&es where you$!e harmed peoplethe same principle


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applies. You admit the mista&es. You admit the limitations that they place on younow, but then you try to wor& around them. 9on$t let yourself be hemmed in byyour past mista&es or be hemmed in by your past &arma, because these thingsdon$t ha!e to totally shape the present moment. We ha!e some freedom righthere, right now, and a lot of the practice is learning how to recognie that factand maximie it to get the best use out of it.

5ecause all the aspects of the path are possible, whate!er the limitations fromyour past &arma are. You can learn how to be generous. You can learn how to be!irtuous. You can learn how to de!elop good /ualities of mind. When you$!emade a mista&e, you admit the fact. "nd you say, #$m going to learn from that.#$m not going to repeat that mista&e.; "nd that$s as far as you ha!e to go. Youdon$t ha!e to punish yourself, that somehow by feeling really, really sorry thepunishment will go away. That$s a dog$s way of thin&ing. #t &nows it$s donesomething bad. #t gets on its bac& and wags its tail and loo&s really sorry, andhopes that by doing that it$s going to appease you. 5ut you$re not a dog. You$re ahuman being. "s a human being, all you$re as&ed is to recognie the mista&e,resol!e not repeat it, and then try to de!elop goodwill for yourself and for

e!erybody elsefor the people you$!e already wronged, for the people you mightpotentially wrong in the future. +pread goodwill to them, maintain that attitudeof goodwill, and you$ll be less li&ely to wrong them.

4r e!en 1ust the fact that you$re sitting here in a human body: That has itslimitations but it has its potentials as well. #f you$re feeling trapped in the body,as& yourself, Why are you trapped?; Well, you ha!e this perception that it$s youor it$s yours. You pic&ed up the perception because there were times when it feltuseful to identify with the body. #t was a means for gaining pleasure. 5ut nowyou$re beginning to realie that identifying with the body has its drawbac&s aswell. "s you get older, illness comes. 8ains come. )!en 1ust the illness of hunger,the 5uddha said, is the foremost illness. That$s something we all suer from

e!ery day, e!ery day. This is why we ha!e the re


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"s you thin& of all the dierent energy channels in the body connectingtogether, it gets easier and easier for you not to ha!e to breathe at all. Thedierent parts of the body aren$t ghting with one another. Your pores feel open.The breath comes in, goes out. )!erything feels connected. )!erything ischarged with breath energy to the point where the breath gets more and moregentle, more and more gentle, and nally grows still. " lot of this has to do with

the perception you hold in mind.You begin to realie, as the sense of boundary around the body begins todissol!e, that your perception of being in the body was something you$!e chosento do. You$re not really trapped in the body. You$!e trapped yourself, but you canfree yourself. You can focus on space: around the body, permeating throughoutthe body, between all the atoms. You can focus on the awareness thatencompasses e!erything. Your sense of what$s happening in the body is going tochange. "nd that$s 1ust a concentration practice. 5ut the potential forexperiencing innite space or the potential for experiencing inniteconsciousness is all right here. You learn how to ferret it out and ma&e the mostof it.

+o this is how we li!e with our past &arma: "ccept whate!er limitations thereare, but also loo& for the areas that are not limited, to see in which directionfreedom lies. This means that when you$re accepting the situation in the present,it$s partly accepting the limitations and learning how to be e/uanimous aboutthem, but also accepting that there are lots of potentials for freedom here. #f youreally want true happiness, you try to ma&e the most of those. The 9hamma isnot for people who want to be told they 1ust ha!e to accept the way things are,and that$ll be totally ne. The 9hamma doesn$t stop right there, because thepresent moment is not always a wonderful moment. #t can be pretty miserable."s& the !ictims of torture, of natural disasters. 5ut e!en in extremely miserablesituations, the same principle holds: You accept your limitations but you also

accept that there are potentials for freedom, potentials for true happiness thatcan be de!eloped. There$s wor& to be done but it$s good wor&, regardless of thesituation. #f you &eep that attitude in mind you can practice the 9hamma andbenet from the 9hamma where!er you are.

090129 the limits of old kamma

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