Kamma is action by way of body,
By speech and by mind.
It is the development and gathering of one's karmic disposition.
It begins from one's thoughts,
Such as from our thoughts that will go to make merit,
Thinking to chant,
Thinking to sit meditation,
Thoughts of going to the monastery and to listen to the Dhamma.
It is a thought that arises.
It is a good intention that is correct,
Thoughts that are within merit and goodness.
When we have thoughts and we believe in that thought that it is something good,
Then we act in a good and skilful way.
And for the bad thoughts,
Being pleased with that thought,
Then we will do something bad.
Both good kamma and bad kamma arise from mano kamma,
Mental action first,
From thoughts.
In the mind that attaches to that thought,
In something good,
Then it will do something good.
Like giving dana,
Keeping sila,
Moral conduct,
And bhavana,
Meditating,
Chanting,
Going to a monastery and practicing dhamma,
When we have the chance and time,
Like every Sunday.
Or we have the time and we come to give alms.
And if we are able to do it,
We have the strength of mind,
Have faith,
Then we can do it.
When we have thoughts of building goodness like this arise often,
Then ultimately we go through with doing it.
Doing it by way of body and by way of speech.
We train and gather our karmic disposition within our heart to be better by stages.
Because we believe that these actions are good acts.
And the things which are bad to do,
Which is bad kamma,
We don't do it.
We do good kamma.
We believe in these actions.
And when we do it often,
Then it becomes one's inner dependent supports.
It becomes easy to do.
This is the case for whatever we do often.
Like someone who gives offerings and alms often.
When they think of going to give alms,
Think of listening to dhamma,
Think of sitting meditation,
It is very easy to do.
Because they have done it this way till they're used to it.
It's a karmic disposition that we do regularly.
It's really easy.
And if we don't do it,
Then we feel uneasy.
We have a feeling that comes up where the mind is uneasy and doesn't feel right.
So the merit we have done,
We have inner happiness from it.
We can do good deeds easily.
And if we stop doing it,
We feel bad.
But for those who don't do good deeds,
It's hard for them to do it.
Even to have the thought to build goodness is hard already.
It's very hard to think that.
And more so when they see others doing goodness.
They will have thoughts come up,
But they are thoughts of jealousy to them.
They don't do the good deed,
But they also make bad kamma as well.
One person goes towards merit,
While the other person goes towards the bad.
They build bad kamma each day,
Every day.
Instead of giving their anumuttana,
Rejoicing with them,
Saying satu,
Satu,
And being meritorious each day,
Every day,
It's not like that then.
They think bad,
Are jealous,
Speak disparagingly.
They speak to make the one doing good to lose their motivation to do it.
And this happens a lot.
So there is in the Vinaya,
The monk's discipline,
That if there is a monk who can chant the patimokkha,
The 227 rules of a monk,
And a monk says to them not to chant it,
Or why bother chanting it,
Then it's an offense.
And a monk is unable to move out a monk who can chant the patimokkha from their dwelling.
So it has benefits.
One must give support to them,
The one who is building goodness.
So we see someone doing goodness,
Who gives dana,
Keeps sila,
Practices dhamma,
And then we think anumuttana,
Satu,
Satu.
If someone is offering sankhudana,
We say satu,
Satu,
In our hearts.
We can say satu softly,
And we get merit as well.
We rejoice in their goodness as well.
The good deeds that we do,
And the good kamma that we build,
It grows our karmic disposition in that way more and more.
It becomes deeply embedded in our hearts.
This is called an underlying latent tendency of goodness in our hearts.
It's a deep ongoing trait of ours that is goodness.
It is in our natural character disposition which has been built in our hearts.
And those who do bad are the same.
Those who act breaking the five moral precepts make only bad kamma.
It goes into their character traits as well.
It goes into the heart.
It's on the side of the unskillful,
Demeritorious.
For kamma,
There is the side of merit and the side of demerit.
When we do good kamma to each other,
And do this type of kamma a lot,
Then we will progress.
The mind will progress from giving dana,
Which we're able to do often,
Then able to chant and do group pujas.
Then in any times of danger,
The words of the chanting,
Puto,
Dhammo,
Sankho,
Will arise by itself without us intending it to.
We are not heedless.
We can see those that escape danger,
Who can survive.
They bring up sati,
Mindfulness,
Beforehand.
They can see that things are going to go badly in a situation.
The car is driving too fast,
And so they already start chanting.
And doing chanting,
What arises?
Mindfulness arises.
The mind is not panicked.
The mind is not sent anywhere else.
By chanting,
Mindfulness arises in the present moment.
When mindfulness comes up,
Wisdom arises.
When there is a dangerous situation,
We can find a way out.
We can deal with the situation with mindfulness at that time when danger arises.
We can find a way out of it.
There's a fire,
And we can find a way out by having mindfulness.
There is flooding,
Or the car flips over,
And various other situations,
But one can get out of it.
Why?
Because of having mindfulness.
And so this chanting is a method to make our minds peaceful.
It can overcome panicking in the mind going out of control.
We can bring up our firm faith and confidence in the triple gem.
We chant with mindfulness,
And it supports wisdom to arise.
So we are able to progress our practice from giving dana,
From sila,
Then gaining the benefit of dana and sila,
And then progressing to bhavana,
Mental development.
And chanting is bhavana.
And it's dangerous if our heart doesn't maintain mindfulness.
If mindfulness is too weak,
Sometimes there can be the current of mindfulness from another that comes to control over our mindfulness.
It can make us have various derangements of the mind.
We aren't able to control our minds.
Our mind is too weak.
Mindfulness is too weak.
It's like a house that doesn't have a good fence around it.
Then other people can wander in.
Someone who is wandering about with no house wants to come and take over this house.
They take our house as theirs.
If the house owner has a weak mind,
They might be sick with no strength,
And someone coming in has more strength,
And they take over this house as their house.
They manage and become attached to it as their house.
This sick person can go plead to the one who has barami,
Spiritual goodness,
Like for the police or army to come to take the bad person out of the house.
And also to help the owner of the house have strength,
And to be free from sickness so they can look after that house.
And our mind is the same as this.
It is like our house.
If our mind is too weak,
The mindfulness is weak and little,
And we also don't meditate as well.
And in the time that we are sick,
Our mindfulness is weak.
It gets especially weak because we experience pain.
Here we may have the current of another mind involve themselves with us and it can enter our heart.
It makes our heart to be all stirred up and even more in a mess.
The mind is impacted,
Or our mindfulness is fully broken.
And with our mindfulness broken,
It can have another mind to come and control over our mind.
Something can then arise.
Our mind goes following with the moods and sense experiences.
Whatever sense experience,
Whatever it thinks,
Our mind will run with that.
It will run with all the perceptions and nimittas,
Mental visions that arise in the mind.
And this is dangerous.
If the mind goes off,
But can still be stopped,
Then this can be treated.
But if the mind runs off so much and it becomes completely torn,
This is like a person who has lost all their mindfulness,
A crazy person.
But if it's not to that level,
Our mindfulness is very weak.
But we then try to rescue it,
To make it better,
To get it back to normal.
We're able to take back control.
So the time that we train in mindfulness is very important.
And at the time danger happens,
We will be able to maintain and control ourselves.
Through chanting,
Buto dhammo sangho,
Or itipiso bhagava arahang sama sambuddho.
Keep repeating it so it enters the heart.
Some people get into a dangerous situation.
They're sitting on a motorbike,
And someone approaches to take their life.
But that person who's going to do them harm sees a monk sitting on the back of that motorcycle.
There is someone sitting there as well,
And so they stop.
So it shows by this chanting,
By repeating internally a meditation word,
And then the virtues of the Buddha,
Dhamma,
Sangha will protect us so that we're safe and free from danger.
So let us try to train and improve the mind with good kamma,
By way of wajji kamma,
Speech,
Kaya kamma,
Body,
And mano kamma,
Mind.
The good thoughts that arise,
Try to maintain it,
Nurture good thoughts,
And act following it.
This is building good kamma.
The good deeds will become our karmic disposition,
And we can do it easily.
Going to the monastery,
Sitting meditation,
Chanting,
Keeping five precepts,
Eight precepts,
And practicing dhamma is really easy then.
We may come to the monastery on the lunar observance day.
On this day we keep sila,
We make good kamma by way of body,
Speech,
And mind.
So those who have a lot of strength can keep the brahmacharya,
The celibate life,
On this day.
Or we can add one more day to what we normally do.
So we are training in it.
For instance,
For someone who has not gone without eating in the evening before,
To go without dinner,
They feel like they'll die if they miss it.
But those who have done it before and passed it,
Then they aren't concerned whether they would die from it.
And so practicing like this will have a lot of resulting benefits.
Like there was one of the workers of the wealthy merchant Anattapindika,
Who had worked hard all day and was exhausted from the manual labor.
He came back home,
And on that day it was the lunar observance day of keeping the eight precepts.
Oh,
But he was determined to do it.
He wanted the merit,
So he kept the eight precepts.
But he had severe stomach reflux come up,
And it was going to take his life.
The people around him said to eat a little.
Eat this or eat that.
Eat some porridge.
But he wouldn't eat it.
He would rather die.
And it turned out that he actually did die.
Why?
Because this sealer doesn't make a person not die.
It makes the mind radiant and being meritorious.
But having died,
One dies with merit and goodness.
So he was reborn well,
Having happiness as a child of a king.
This is the resulting benefit of keeping the eight precepts.
Even keeping it for just half a day.
But for us,
We do it following our spiritual development.
If keeping the eight precepts becomes too much for us to handle,
We can relax the practice and we take care of our life.
Unless we have firm and solid inner strength,
And we don't want anything else but to keep sealer,
Even if we have to die.
And there are some who can escape death because of the power of sealer.
So for our bodily kamma,
Verbal kamma and mental kamma,
We need to train in it to be good.
It's very important.
Why?
Because the kamma we do,
We will receive the results of it.
We are the owner of our kamma.
The kamma follows us.
Whatever kamma we do,
For good or for ill,
We will have to receive it.
So we need to establish our life with good kamma,
So that we will be reborn in a good place.
Building kamma and we will get something that is complete and abundant,
Proficient and fulfilled.
And ultimately,
We will get to the path and fruits of Nibbāna.
So giving dāna are supplies that will follow us.
Keeping the five precepts well,
We will be inwardly at ease and happy.
We chant and meditate,
Which develops our mindfulness,
Which is especially important to our life.
This is building our karmic disposition,
Our latent tendencies.
The deeds we do a lot become our latent tendencies,
Our good habits.
The good and skillful latent tendencies that we build a lot of are embedded deeply in our hearts and it follows us every life and existence.
We will then only meet with good things.
Like Venerable Yasa,
He had built good kamma from the past and was born as a child in a wealthy family in the city of Varanasi.
He had accomplished dāna and sila.
He had an attractive physical appearance and had a large following.
He had mindfulness and wisdom,
But he was weary of his wealth and money.
He met the Buddha at Isipatthana Deer Park.
He listened to a Dhamma talk the Buddha gave on dāna and sila and he had rapture and fullness of heart arise because he had already built a lot of dāna and sila.
And then the talk progressed about cultivating the mind,
Talking of the drawbacks of the world.
And Yasa knew this already because in the past he had kept the eight precepts and ordained a lot.
And then until he could hear the Buddha give the dhamma on the four noble truths and could attain to becoming a Sotāpanna,
The first level of enlightenment.
Then Yasa listened to the dhamma for the second time and his parents attained to becoming Sotāpannas and he himself became an Arahant,
Fully enlightened.
Do we see?
How did it come to be like this?
It was because of his karmic dispositions and causes that he had built and developed already.
Like here we have made all good kamma by way of our actions,
Speech and mind.
So we can also encourage others as well and pull them to make merit and give dāna,
To keep sila and to meditate.
We can talk to them about it and teach them about it a bit.
And this grows our merit even more.
And whoever does acts of goodness,
We rejoice anumodana sādhu with them and we spread our merit and goodness to others as well.
May all living beings receive our merit.
And then this merit arises with us constantly.
Merit is the refuge of living beings in this life and the next life.
So may you accumulate merit.
And this merit is what will make you meet with true happiness all the way until Nibbāna.
May you grow in blessings.
