Why do people have different Karma? Thich Nhat Hanh answers questions

Thay answers questions on 21 June 2014. Question 6.

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Topics: thich nhat hanh, buddhism, 21 day retreat, karma, action, cause, effect, past, future, continuation, parents, collective, individual, interbeing, duality

[christinabroadhead]

It's no random accident I found this teaching today. I'm very grateful for this. Thank you. I feel deeply touched by Thay's words. Partly because I lost a son to suicide, and he was suffering with schizophrenia for many years beforehand. Something in this teaching has brought some acceptance, peace and understanding.

[tillyvickers]

Dear Thay: you will be so much missed down here...Thank you for your smile, your love, your peace, your wisdom, your being...❤🙏

[bth]

Karma. (Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Winter Retreat of 2008)

In Buddhism we speak of karma as the threefold aspect of action; thinking, speaking and acting. When we produce a thought, that thought can change us and can change the world in a good way or in a bad way. If it is right thought, if that thought is produced in line with right thinking, then it will have a healing, nourishing effect on our body and on the world. Just by producing right thinking you can change the world. You can make the world a better place to live, or you can transform the world into hell. That is karma, action; this is not something abstract. For example, the economic crisis is born from our thinking. There is a lot of craving and fear, and the value of the dollar, of the euro is largely created by the mind. Everything comes from the mind. That is why thinking is action and speaking is action. Speaking can release tension and reconcile, or speaking can break relationships. Speaking can destroy someone’s hope and cause that person to commit suicide. Physical action is also energy.

There is individual karma that has an effect on everyone. Everything that happened to you happened to the world. You produce that thought, you are affected by that thought, and the world is also affected by that thought. There is also collective karma. During this twenty-one-day retreat, the friendship, the joy, the healing, the transformation is the work of everyone. Each one of us contributes through our practice, through our insight, through our speech. In Buddhism, we do not believe in a God that arranges everything, but we don’t believe in coincidence either. We believe that the fate of the planet depends on our karma, on our action. It does not depend on a God, it does not depend on chance, it depends on our true action. Karma is the dynamic force that underlies everything. I think that scientists will have no difficulty accepting this.

Man is present in all things and all things are present in man. Man just arrived yesterday in the history of life on earth. Looking into a human being, we can see our non-human elements, namely our animal ancestors, our vegetable ancestors, and our mineral ancestors. In our past life we were a cloud, and we were a rock. Even in this moment, we continue to be a cloud, we continue to be a rock. There is a mountain in us, do you see? There are many clouds in us, do you see?

In a former time, we were fish, we were birds, we were reptiles. And our ancestors are fully present in us, in the here, in the now. We continue as a reptile. We have many reactions that belong to the reptile species. We want to say that we are created by a God in his image. But in fact, we have many ancestors. When a fish swims happily in the water, it is very proud of its talent for swimming. And a fish has the right to say that God must be the most wonderful swimmer in the world. And a rose can say, “God is the most beautiful rose in the world, because he has created me like this.” If you are a mathematician, you tend to think God must be the best mathematician in the world. Your notions of God are anthropocentric. If you are a gay person, you may think that God is the best gay person in the world. Why not? The fish has that right, the rose has that right, so we all inter-are. We continue our ancestors in us now. We are human, but we are at the same time a rock, a cloud, a rabbit, a rose, a gay, a lesbian. We are everything. Let us not discriminate or push away anything, because we are everything. Everything is in us. That’s the right view.

If we see that everything is in man and man is in everything, we know that to preserve other species is to preserve ourselves. That is deep ecology, that is interbeing. That is the teaching of the Diamond Sutra. A good Buddhist should be an ecologist, trying her best to preserve the environment, because to preserve the environment is to preserve yourself. Man contains the whole cosmos.

On the phenomenal level there seem to be birth, death, being and non-being, but ontologically, these notions cannot be applied to reality. Birth and death are just notions. The true nature of a cloud is the nature of no birth and no death. The scientist Lavoisier says that nothing is born, nothing dies. He agrees completely with this teaching. A cloud manifests as a cloud. There is no birth of a cloud, because before being a cloud, the cloud has been the tree, the ocean, the heat generated by the sun. To appear as a cloud is only a moment of continuation. And when a cloud becomes a river, that is not death, that is also a continuation. We know that there is a way to continue beautifully, and that is to take care of our three aspects of karma – thinking, speaking and acting.

Being and non-being are more wrong views. Non-being is a wrong view, but being is also a wrong view. The absolute reality transcends both being and non-being. Before you are born, you did not belong to the realm of non-being, because from non-being, you cannot pass into being. And when you die, you cannot pass from being into non-being. It’s impossible. To be, or not to be – both are wrong views. To inter-be is better.

The dynamic consciousness is called karma energy. Karma energy is not abstract. It determines our state of being, whether we are happy or unhappy. Whether you continue beautifully or not so beautifully depends on karma. It’s possible to take care of our action so that we don’t suffer much now and we will continue to do better in the future. There is the hope, the joy.

[patsimaroney]

Love Thay's sense of humor, gentleness, and patience...<3 <3 <3

[--x]

“Greatest accomplishment in spirit is when one is not trapped in a fool answer”

[pralineys]

As a Hue person, it was so lovely to hear his Hue accent when he said his name :)

[paxnorth]

"Are you sure ?" One more reason why we love Master Hanh. His writing brought me back to Christ.

[jennifers]

Each time I listen to him..the truth helps me immensely...I can then affect others in a better way....like wave

[MrGilRoland]

From 0:50 to 1:25 it’s a really epic moment in a Q&A session. And I mean from both parts.

[nephildevil]

Children may have part of their parents' karma but those gave their control of that away when they created new life. Your life is not about getting the approval of others, it is your life to live it the way you want.

[ilonkaleibfried]

So deep and clear and true is Thay in what we are allowed to continue 🙏🥰☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️🌿🌼🌿🌼🌈🌈🌈

[florenciasananes]

Thank you so much for existing Thay! 💖✨🙏🏻

[heartchakra]

Beautiful perspective! Thay's words and manner bring me so much peace. So grateful for him. Thank you for posting.

[karlinguk]

Two humble thoughts..

1. This is profound and reminds me of Buddha and the lotus flower being used to compare with four types of human beings and their ability to understand. Maybe this explains why some comments here seem to evidence that some people cannot grasp, resist or don't even try to contemplate through meditation what he is teaching/saying.

2. So many thumbs down is proof alone that we all have different Karma... AND that there are many overly critical and I'll-willed people in this world.

[shuttlefish]

Karma is an interesting topic, i used to think i knew what karma was then i started to wake up.. it is much bigger than I could ever have imagined :)

[jnorfleet]

Outside of cause and effect in the physical world, karma is a mental context. Like watching two Blind Men describe an elephant. When one is awake to the prison their mind has created for them, they become the masters of karma, rather than a slave to it.

[מיכאלמרטיןבנדיקטוס]

He has amazing books! Very wonderful, thank you.

[mesCheerios]

the problem with the wording he used to explain non self "your body is the property of your parents " is there are many parents who see their children in the way thst "they are my property it is my right to harm them". Hopefully the people listening understand

[FlipMacz]

Each and every Plum Village video, has large amounts of people suffering in the audience, from sneezes and coughs. This is no accident. I believe there is something deeply wrong with the ventilation system in those gathering halls.

[dan-andreivasilescu]

This subject is genuinely approached with a great, enlivening humour that alleviates the seriousness karma was so often dressed in :) Thank you, Thay, for making things lose their heavy weight!