Good evening, everyone. Tonight’s talk is titled “The Buddhist Understanding of Karma,” as you probably saw in the announcement. I must say right at the start that the teaching on karma and, of course, dependent origination – these two teachings represent the very heart of Buddhism. It is certainly not possible to exhaust this topic in a single evening lecture, so I will highlight what I think is important and share that with you.

I will briefly touch upon different understandings of karma that exist in other traditions – primarily Hinduism, or rather various schools of Hinduism. I will only mention them briefly because the topic itself is vast, and discussing theories of causality in other systems would not be realistic. I will just mention them in passing, without going into detail.

Theories of Causality in the Buddha’s Time

Let’s begin with the theories of causality that existed in the Buddha’s time. I’ll mention just a few, so you get a sense of what people were thinking about and how they tried to understand their destiny – or, rather, their lives.

One of these theories held that the supreme god Brahma controls the entire universe, including human beings and their actions. Such an understanding naturally made any personal effort to change one’s life futile, because everything was God’s will. According to this belief, sacrifices and rituals were considered the most effective way to appease the gods, which would then reflect on a person’s quality of life.

There were also fatalistic theories that held everything is determined by karma from previous lives, that our past karma completely defines our life today, here and now, and that nothing can really be changed. Furthermore, it was believed that everything is determined by one’s caste position, and that this position cannot be changed either. As you know, Indian society was – and still is – divided into castes, and it was believed that nothing could truly be changed about that. Being born into a particular caste largely defined one’s life.

Others believed that everything in our lives is determined by how the great elements – earth, water, fire, and air – come together at birth. They firmly believed in that.

Then there were those who believed that everything happens spontaneously. They denied any existence of cause and effect, holding that everything in life happens by chance. And there were materialists who claimed that after death there is nothing – essentially advocating a form of nihilism. And I won’t go on listing them all. There were truly many different views and opinions about our position as human beings and what we can do about it.

The Buddha’s Revolutionary Teaching

With the appearance of the Buddha, there was a drastic shift in thinking regarding the position of human beings and, of course, the law of karma. The Buddha actually rejected all of the above theories and explained the real connection between cause and effect.

There are two ways in which his theory differs from those that existed at the time. First, the Buddha focused on direct experience, rather than dealing with absolutes beyond human comprehension. The fundamental characteristic of the Buddha’s teaching on karma is that it is based on direct experience.

The second aspect, which is extremely important, is that the Buddha asserted that appropriate conditions make every cause produce a specific effect. In other words, for a cause to produce its effect, the right conditions must exist. Without those conditions, even if the cause exists, the consequence – the effect – will not occur.

He rejected the idea that human destiny is arbitrary, random, or determined by any single fixed cause. This was truly revolutionary in India at that time, and to a certain extent, it remains revolutionary today.

What Does “Karma” Actually Mean?

Let’s come back to this – we’ve been talking about karma as if it’s understood what it means. Karma is definitely a word that has entered our language and we’ve been using it for a long time. However, what people actually mean by it can be very, very different. It seems to me that in general usage, people understand karma as fate.

So they say: “When something happens to someone, that’s your karma. That’s your destiny.” There doesn’t seem to be any deeper understanding there. Of course, people who follow Hinduism or a Hindu school are certainly a bit more familiar with how karma is interpreted within their teaching, and they understand and interpret it accordingly. The same applies to those who follow Buddhism. But in the general way the term is used, it seems to be most associated with fate.

Naturally, when we talk about the Buddhist understanding of karma, that is very far from its true meaning. What should be said first is that karma is a Sanskrit term that translates as “action.” In other words, when you say someone has this or that karma, you are saying that someone acts this or that way. It has nothing to do with fate, nothing to do with such understandings. Karma, literally translated, means action.

However, we are talking about theories of causality – about causes and consequences. So how does karma relate to causes and consequences? There is action and there is the result of action – the consequences that action brings. When we usually speak of karma, we have in mind both the cause and the consequence – that causal relationship. In Sanskrit, this is called karma-vipaka – action and the result of action. That is what we are really talking about here.

Karma, Suffering, and Ignorance

When we speak of the Buddhist understanding of karma, it’s important to emphasize that this understanding is connected with our effort to understand how suffering, distress, and dissatisfaction arise in our experience, and how to put an end to them. When we talk about suffering in Buddhism, the fundamental cause of that suffering is considered to be ignorance.

Ignorance – not in any general sense, but ignorance about the very nature of life, ignorance about who we are, what life is. And when we speak of ignorance, we should know that it manifests in our experience as greed and aversion. Greed and aversion are actually the ways in which we act. Driven by ignorance, we act – conditioned by ignorance, we act. And that action has consequences. When we act out of ignorance, the consequences of that action cannot be good. They are necessarily more or less bad.

Although ignorance is considered the fundamental cause of human suffering, we can see here that it is actually karma that makes us suffer in life. Because we act and later face the results of that action, and those results make our lives difficult, complicated, and entangled. That is the vicious circle.

The Basic Principle of Karma

When we speak of action, there is a general principle that tells us good actions result in good consequences, and bad actions result in bad consequences. That is the fundamental principle of karma. But what exactly are good actions? How do we ensure that our actions – and therefore the consequences of those actions in our lives – are good, favourable, and conducive to happiness for ourselves and everyone around us? That is the key question.

Beyond this basic principle, we can also distinguish karma by its strength. The consequences of some actions can be like something carved in stone – strongly present, long-lasting; they can be like something written in sand, where it’s clear that the duration of such a karmic action is not long-lasting; and karma can be quite weak, so to speak, compared to writing with a finger on water. While you write on water, it’s present in that moment; when you stop, it disappears and leaves no trace. So we distinguish the weight of karma by the weight of those actions, which can of course be both good and bad.

The Five Factors of a Complete Karmic Act

Furthermore, when we speak of action, we should know that we act through mind, speech, and body. A complete karmic act involves all three. For an action to be complete in the karmic sense, it must include mind, speech, and body. But when we speak of a complete karmic act, that act has five factors.

First is intention, will – a clear intention and will.

Second, there must be an object – that in relation to which we want to act.

Third comes the action itself – something we do with that object.

Fourth is the completion of the action – that action must be fully carried out.

Fifth, if there is satisfaction with what has been done, then it is considered a complete karmic act.

It can be favourable or unfavourable. We can plan – have the intention – to harm someone. There may be an opportunity, that person may be nearby, there may be a chance to harm them. We may say or do something and carry out that plan to the end. And when we have done it, we may feel satisfaction with what we have done. If all these factors exist, then we can speak of a complete karmic act.

Why do I mention this? Because it’s not the same if you just think about harming someone, compared to when you think about it and then say it, and again compared to when you actually physically carry it out. There is a difference in the weight of karmic results in relation to these three ways. Of course, merely thinking about harming someone will not have the same karmic consequences as saying it, or as doing it.

So when we speak of a complete karmic act, it’s important to understand this. I’ve spoken about the situation where we want to harm someone, but we can also speak of favourable, beneficial karmic action – when we want to do good to someone. Then we also plan it, find an opportunity, do what we intended, and are later satisfied with what we have done. Of course, the consequences of one and the other will be drastically different.

Immediate and Delayed Consequences

With the first intention – to harm someone – we are acting under the influence of negative emotions, which in itself is already a karmic result. When someone is in a state of anger, that is already a result. You cannot be angry and feel good. That is a bad mental and physical state. Anger puts us in a mental and physical state that is actually extremely bad. Mentally, our consciousness is narrowed. We want to hurt someone, we want to harm someone. That is a very, very unpleasant state in itself. So when we speak of results, we shouldn’t think that the result necessarily happens with a large time gap. That result happens simultaneously while we act, but it also happens later. It happens later because such a way of acting causes other people who are hurt to retaliate in kind. And they may not do it immediately, but at some other time, later. In any case, you cannot spread hostility and hurt others and expect favourable returns from such actions. As they say: as we sow, so shall we reap.

The same is true, of course, in the case of beneficial action – when we want to be of benefit to someone, when we want to help someone, when we want to do a good deed. Then the results are immediate, because we act from positive emotions, and that in itself is a good, favourable mental and physical state. And likewise, the results of such action will also come later – in the form of favourable, beneficial, good returns.

The Complexity of Cause and Effect

However, in life we are often confused by the complexity of events and cannot always establish the causal connection between events in our lives. And of course, as I said, consequences can arise much later than the cause itself, and may even come from past lives. In that sense, what we experience cannot always be connected to specific causes. It is not always clear to us why we experience something. That inability is, of course, confusing. However, what is important to know is that whatever we experience is the result of actions we have committed in the past.

This is not a common way of thinking, let’s understand each other. We are often inclined to blame others for all the bad things that happen to us – whether it’s our closest family, parents, or other people, circumstances, the political system we live in, etc. We tend to always find someone else to blame for our troubles. Such thinking about what we experience negatively is not useful because we shift responsibility for these results elsewhere. We shift it to other people, circumstances, the system, and so on. By shifting responsibility to others, we actually turn ourselves into victims of external circumstances. If we do that, by not taking responsibility, we also take away from ourselves the opportunity to do something ourselves and change what we experience in life. Because if responsibility lies elsewhere, then something must happen elsewhere for our life to change. And that is definitely not the attitude to take from the perspective of Buddhism.

The Most Important Moment Is Now

There is a saying in Buddhism: if you want to know your past, look at your present. And if you want to know your future, again look at your present. What lies behind that saying is the fact that what we experience now are the results of our past actions. So from what we experience now, we can, in a way, see our past. In what we experience now, our past is revealed. However, what the future will be also depends on what we do now. In that sense, the present moment, when we speak of the Buddhist understanding of karma, is actually the most important moment.

The big question is: why is this moment the most important? If in this moment we experience the results of our past actions, where is the space, or what is it that we can do? Or how can we relate to these results? That is the question.

When we encounter unfavourable results – difficulties in life – we can respond to those difficulties in different ways. If we respond to these difficulties according to a pre-established pattern that led to those very difficulties, then of course we will only perpetuate that same state, perhaps even make it worse. If we respond to difficulties with aversion, if we respond impulsively, if we look for blame elsewhere, if we are simply bitter about what is happening to us – then that is the situation the Buddha once described when he spoke about what a person should or should not do when struck by an arrow. When you are struck by an arrow, you don’t think about who shot it, what kind of bow they used, why they shot it – you think about how to heal the wound, how to survive, what is the wisest, what is the best thing to do in that situation.

That is what we should be thinking about. So, when we encounter difficulties, if those difficulties trigger additional negative emotions in us and lead us to a state of bitterness and dissatisfaction, then we are actually sowing new seeds that are the same as those that produced the difficulties. In that way, we perpetuate our negative karma further. In fact, we determine our future, we could say. So this present moment is crucial in relation to what happens next.

Responding Wisely to Difficulties

If in the face of difficulties we are collected, patient, composed, and relatively calm, then we will initially be without that negative reaction. We will be without that negative emotional response; instead, we will actually be open and strive to clearly see what those difficulties are, what they consist of, what their essence is, what it’s all about. Such an approach creates space, creates a certain freedom and the possibility of seeing that situation – however difficult it may be at that moment – in a much deeper way than would otherwise be the case. And this then gives us the possibility to see many more options for our own action than would otherwise be the case. Otherwise, we have no possibility to act differently than what our unconscious response demands. Here, if we maintain collectedness, if we maintain calmness, if we meet those difficulties in such a way, we actually see a whole range of options regarding what to do with those difficulties, how to act concretely. And we can also do nothing. Maybe the situation calls for us to do nothing and wait for things to change. All these are options, all these are possibilities that open up when we meet difficulties with collectedness, calmness, and patience. We have a choice that simply doesn’t exist in the first case.

And this is the way we change our karma. By acting differently – by acting not unconsciously, impulsively, and identically to the action that produced the difficulties in the first place, but by acting consciously, prudently, wisely, from a certain mental stability – we create that space in which we see many more options than would otherwise be the case. Otherwise, there are no options – there is only that conditioned, impulsive, unconscious response.

And by such action, as I said a moment ago, we sow seeds that will give different results in the future. Results of a different nature – they won’t be difficulties, but favourable events in our lives, something that will be useful, something that will make us satisfied and happier. However, what is important to highlight here is above all that different relationship to difficulties. From this perspective, difficulties are challenges, difficulties are opportunities, difficulties are conditions in which we can understand ourselves more deeply, understand life more deeply, and gain the opportunity to change that life.

The Pattern of Avoidance and Attachment

Why do I say this? Because there is a very strong pattern in us of avoiding discomfort and seeking pleasure. When we encounter any kind of discomfort, we react impulsively with aversion – this is something we don’t want, and there is no space, no reflection, nothing really. We know we want what is pleasant, what is nice, what is agreeable, what we consider good for us, and we don’t want what is unpleasant, what is bad, what we simply don’t want in our lives. That is the pattern by which we act. And that pattern is our karma, it constitutes that karmic force. That pattern is the karmic force that shapes our lives. So if we want to change that, it is necessary, in meeting both difficulties and favourable circumstances – which are the results of our good karma and good action – in both cases it is important to pause, to collect ourselves, to view what is happening from that stable mental position. Whether it’s good or bad, favourable or unfavourable. Because, here I’ve spoken about difficulties, but the same applies when something good happens to us in life. Just as in meeting the bad we act impulsively, unconsciously, sowing the same seeds again, so in meeting something good we also lose our footing, and often don’t know how to recognise the potential that good things, when they happen in our lives, have. And we don’t know how to use that for our benefit and the benefit of others.

The Story of the Beggar and the Bamboo Stick

For example, here’s a simple example that comes to mind – people who win the lottery. Great luck, right? Suddenly they get an enormous amount of money, and statistics say that 90% – I don’t know if it’s 99%, but over 90% of people who come into a lot of money that way actually ruin their lives. Not only their own lives, but often the lives of those around them.

There is a story from Chan that I often tell when I speak about karma and how to relate to good things that happen to us. It’s about a beggar who truly had nothing except some tattered clothes and a bamboo stick he used to help himself walk. However, it happened that someone gave him something, and with that money he bought a lottery ticket. And to keep it safe, he hid it inside that bamboo stick. I don’t know if you know what bamboo looks like. In the East, bamboo is used a lot, and between those segments of the stick there are hollow spaces where things can be stored and hidden. So he hid the ticket and remembered a number. When the draw came, at some point he realised he had won the grand prize. In one moment, his life changed. He was no longer a beggar, he no longer needed that tattered clothing, he no longer needed that stick. So, running along the riverbank in his joy, he threw everything away from himself, and so he also threw that stick into the river with the lottery ticket. And so that lucky life floated away down the river. This actually illustrates our relationship to good things that happen to us in life.

My teacher, Master Sheng Yen, once said that we shouldn’t be euphoric when good things happen in life, because it’s like withdrawing money from our bank account. Because those good circumstances, or that good thing that happens to us, is also the result of our past good actions. We shouldn’t fall into euphoria because of it, but again maintain collectedness, calmness, and see how we can best use those favourable conditions – whatever they are, in whatever form – in the best possible way.

Learning from Both Good and Bad

In any case, life and what happens to us – whether good or bad things happen, and in every life there is both – this teaching tells us that in meeting bad things we shouldn’t sink into depression and allow those difficulties to completely define us negatively. Just as in meeting favourable, happy circumstances, we also shouldn’t allow that state of happiness to completely overwhelm us in the form of euphoria and make us lose that collectedness, stability, and calmness. Because in both cases we are like leaves in the wind, leaves that the wind simply carries. We don’t have the threads of our life in our own hands. And this teaching on karma in Buddhism serves exactly that purpose. It serves to explain why things happen in life, why good things happen, why bad things happen, and it serves to help us establish a relationship with what happens – a relationship that will allow us to develop a deeper understanding of ourselves, of others, and of life in general, and help us progress on the path that leads to liberation.

Karma – that is, freedom from the law of karma in this sense – is possible by eliminating ignorance. When we transform ignorance into wisdom, and when what arises from ignorance – greed and aversion – is also transformed into their opposites, then the influence of karma on us ceases in this sense. That doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen in our lives, but we won’t see them as bad and we won’t be under that negative impression of “bad” happening. We will be free from that.

The Buddha and the Brahmin: A Story of Not Accepting the Gift

Perhaps to finish, I’ll tell you a story about the Buddha. Those of you who come to talks more often have surely heard this story countless times. I always tell it because it seems immensely inspiring and actually speaks about how the Buddha dealt with difficulties. It’s always interesting to hear, I think. I always find it interesting to repeat this story, and I hope you’ll find it interesting too.

It’s the story of the Buddha walking through a village with his faithful attendant Ananda – they were going to beg for food – and on that occasion, a Brahmin attacked the Buddha. A priest, of course, didn’t like the fact that many young people were joining the Buddha’s community. He simply felt threatened, because as you probably know, in the Indian caste system, Brahmins are priests and only they can be priests and teachers in that sense. Therefore, when someone who is not a member of the Brahmin caste does that, it’s a problem for the Brahmins.

And so he attacked the Buddha and said all kinds of things, insulted him, accused him of this and that. The Buddha listened to him the whole time patiently, attentively, and collectedly. And when the Brahmin ran out of words – he simply didn’t know what to say anymore, and he wasn’t getting any reaction from the Buddha – at that moment when he stopped, the Buddha asked him: “Do you have friends?” And this Brahmin said: “Of course” – still upset and not understanding how the Buddha was handling him in that situation where he was attacking him, he was now asking him if he had friends, what did that have to do with anything? However, the Buddha repeated the question: “Do you have friends?” He said: “Yes, I do, of course I have friends.” Still upset. The Buddha then said: “Well, when your friends come to visit you, do they bring gifts?” He said: “Yes, of course, we are good friends and when we visit each other, we bring gifts.” “Yes, they come and bring gifts.” Then the Buddha asked him: “But if you don’t accept that gift, to whom does it belong? If you don’t accept the gift that your friend brought you, to whom does that gift belong?” In other words: “I see you as a friend, and everything you’ve said to me – that is that gift you’re giving me, but I don’t accept that gift. And that gift – to whom does it belong?” It belongs to you. So that is your state of mind, that is your way of thinking, that is something that truly has nothing to do with me.

And here we can see that – objectively speaking, it’s an attack, a verbal attack. Someone is verbally attacking you. And now, how to relate to such a situation? This happens to us often in life. And how to relate to it? First, listen to that person to the end, to what they have to say. In other words, we don’t have to accept that gift. If we accept that gift, then we will also be overcome by anger. That means we will respond impulsively, unconsciously, we will feel attacked, hurt, and respond in kind. And that only perpetuates the same situation indefinitely. And of course, it most often doesn’t end with just a verbal confrontation, but escalates to physical confrontation.

That was the story – brief – about the Buddha and the Brahmin. I’ll finish here this short talk on karma. Much more could be said about karma than I’ve said tonight. It seems to me that it’s important to actually reflect on these causal connections in our own lives. Why things happen to us.

The Seed and the Soil

One more thing I didn’t mention, but I’ll say now: even if we have done something bad, committed some bad action, whether the result of that action will occur or not, or in what form it will occur, depends on what we do next and how we continue to live. Because that action is like a seed, and our mind, our predominant mental state – that atmosphere in which we live – is like the soil. And that soil can be not only soil, but also air, warmth, water, and everything that makes up that atmosphere. It can be favourable for a certain type of seed or unfavourable. In other words, if we cultivate positive emotions, if we act so as not to harm ourselves or others, then we create an atmosphere that is favourable for the sprouting of positive seeds and unfavourable for the sprouting of negative seeds. And that is very, very important to know, because the quality of our life depends on that, our happiness depends on that. Of course, in the context of Buddhism, especially Chan Buddhism, these favourable life circumstances or this favourable mental atmosphere should not be wasted; they should be used for practice. They should be used to deepen our understanding, deepen our meditation experience, and fundamentally transform our lives in that sense.

That’s all for tonight. If you have any questions, now is the time.

Question & Answer Session

Question 1 – Can You Calculate with Karmic Consequences?

Doug: I have a question that you didn’t touch on – maybe intentionally, maybe by chance, I don’t know. Can one calculate with karmic consequences in the sense that, knowing that good consequences come from good actions, one deliberately does things in a good way, calculating with that – consciously doing something good just so it yields good consequences? Are the consequences of such actions equally valuable as those done spontaneously, simply from the heart?

Teacher: Thank you for your question. Of course there is a difference. In Buddhism, when we speak of karma, we speak of intention. We speak of will – that is actually what moves us to act – our intention. If the intention is egocentric, selfish, if we do good only to gain some merit or benefit for ourselves, then it will certainly have less beneficial effects than when we do it selflessly, out of true compassion for others and a desire for others – and ourselves along with others – to be better. We could say that the benefit of action is inversely proportional to our egocentricity. The greater the egocentricity, even if the action is generally positive and good, it will still be diminished, so to speak, by that amount of egocentricity. The benefit will be reduced by that much. In that sense, it’s very important – our motives are very important. What actually motivates us? Of course, we start from a personal perspective, we all want good for ourselves. However, in the context of deeper understanding and practice, we actually realise that we cannot achieve good for ourselves if we are only focused on ourselves. By helping others, developing compassion, and helping others, we simultaneously help ourselves – but we shouldn’t be focused on ourselves. And the very fact that we are not focused on ourselves, that we are helping others, means we are unconcerned with ourselves, free from self-concern – that is already a positive result, a benefit we enjoy in the process.

Question 2 – Responsibility, Victim Blaming, and Karma

Participant: Thank you for the talk. I wrote in the chat, so I’ll read it. I’m wondering about the responsibility of other people? In what way is the abuse of a child the result of that child’s bad actions? What about sexual violence? How do you understand such situations? I understand our reaction to bad things that happen in life, but I may need a little more clarification on the idea that the situations themselves – the first arrows – are also direct consequences of our actions, because this seems quite problematic in these specific situations. I assume something is missing in my understanding.

Teacher: Yes, I didn’t hear everything clearly, but I think I understood the question. I think the emphasis is on: what about the responsibility of others? How do you understand – concretely – why rape would be the consequence of a woman’s bad actions, or in child abuse, how is that the consequence of the child’s bad actions? I assume it’s not like that in Buddhism, but I lack the understanding of how to bridge that.

Answer: Thank you for your question. This is actually an important question, very important, because the law of karma, even in Buddhism, has been misused throughout history and continues to be misused today. It is often used to justify certain unfavourable positions of people in society. “They have it bad, they deserve to have it bad, and those who are – like an elite in power, who enjoy wealth and so on – that is the result of their good deeds and nothing should be changed, it is as it is.” That is, of course, a wrong interpretation and an abuse of this teaching. You cannot justify or remove the responsibility of someone who is an abuser for an act committed, and interpret it as the victim’s bad karma. That is completely meaningless. We often see this in our society too – “women should dress so as not to be provocative, because they are to blame for dressing provocatively and adding temptation for others to rape them or whatever.” I mean, these are truly nonsense, and I think everyone is responsible for their own actions, and I think society should relate to that in such a way that those who have committed something are held responsible and answer for their actions. Not only in that moral, karmic sense, but also legally. It seems to me that karma should not, in any case, be interpreted in a way that supports any kind of status quo. As I just spoke about our personal situation and how we can change it in light of how Buddhism interprets the law of karma – regardless of what we experience, how we relate to it, we will be able to change it. The idea is in change, not in resignation or understanding that we deserved it. Definitely, understanding that we deserved what happens to us from that personal perspective, I think it’s important to know how to deal with difficulties, whatever those difficulties may be. But that does not exclude our social action aimed at raising awareness about certain things in society, changing things, creating a general climate that is favourable for some collective good karma. I don’t know if this answers your question – much more could be said, but the Buddhist understanding of karma is not such that it justifies abusers and thinks the fault lies with the victims. Definitely.

Question 3 – Dependent Origination Moment by Moment

Participant: Good evening. I’m joining with my brothers. I’ve put my question in written format, but I’ll summarise. When we look at dependent origination, some traditional interpretations would have it unfolding over a lifetime. However, karmic processes are easier to explain for me if viewed as something that happens with every contact, with every sense contact. When we, thanks to avidya and some conditioning of ours, very likely karmically lead to some vipaka that will be the product of all that – all our ignorance, etc. Every vipaka is in a way the end of one period and the beginning of a new one. I don’t want to intentionally call it a new birth, but in principle the whole theory of dependent origination could be reduced to a moment, not just a lifetime. I’m more interested in your attitude towards this less traditional theory?

Teacher: This puts me in a position to explain the theory of karma from another perspective. I mentioned those seeds, those are impressions stored in our consciousness when we act. Every action and every experience is stored in what in Buddhism is called the storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana). In that consciousness are seeds from all our previous lives – if you believe in rebirth in Buddhism. And those seeds sprout in conditions favourable to their sprouting. For example, when you come somewhere into a situation and smell a certain scent in a room. That scent immediately brings back childhood memories. It could be the smell of baking bread, or fire, or some first scents we experienced in childhood that made a strong impression on us. But that scent will cause an entire situation from the past to emerge in our consciousness. In the same way, when we encounter certain circumstances in our lives, those seeds sprout. They then colour our consciousness and lead us into a certain emotional state that then prompts us to act in a certain way.

And it cannot be said that with the cessation of one result, that particular result has completely ceased, or that that specific result has disappeared forever, spent. Because, as I said before, in that consciousness all those impressions are stored. And if we again find ourselves in conditions and circumstances favourable to its sprouting, it will sprout again. For example, we can speak of anger. Anger sprouts in certain conditions, and if anger has sprouted once and we have actually let it go, that doesn’t mean it won’t appear again. It will appear again when what favours its sprouting appears. And that’s why we need to cultivate the mind. That’s why we need to keep the mind in a state of wakefulness, collectedness, presence. Because then there are no negative emotions that are fertile ground for the sprouting of such seeds – on the one hand – and on the other hand, we come into a position to see things clearly and understand them more deeply than would otherwise be the case.

Question 4 – How to Cultivate the Mind?

Participant: I think there’s something else in the chat: “How is the mind cultivated?”

Teacher: That’s a big question. Well, by being relaxed, by being present, by being mindful of what we are doing at any given moment – so that presence, with our whole being, that holding of mind and body together in what we do throughout the day, is the way we cultivate the mind. The cultivation of the mind is perhaps best described as simply being in the present moment. That’s when we cultivate the mind – when we are in the present moment. When we are in the past, when we are in the future, then we are open to the sprouting of all negative emotions. Those negative emotions are fertile ground, in meeting various situations, for the sprouting of those seeds. And we enter that vicious circle. So we cultivate the mind by training ourselves to be present, present in the present moment, here and now. But also through patience and through kindness – towards ourselves and towards others.

Thank you all for coming tonight. And thank you for your patience. I hope you found it useful, and see you some other time.

This is an edited transcript of a public talk by Chan master Žarko Andričević