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Working with Karma
by Ven. Thubten Chodron©
This morning we will speak about
karma, a topic that arises in a lot of conversations among Buddhists.
The term "karma" is used in many different ways. Please
define what karma is.
Karma is action, volitional action; that is,
action which is done with intention. In philosophical terms, some
Buddhist schools define karma as the mental factor of intention.
Others say that karma is intention but it is also the actions done
with that intention - what we say or what we do (our physical and
verbal actions).
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How is karma created?
Karma is created through the three doors: body,
speech, and mind. It's what we intentionally do, say, and think.
If we act without an intention then there is no karma created. Whether
the action is virtuous (skillful), non-virtuous (unskillful), or
neutral is primarily dependent upon the intention. There may be
other mitigating factors, but the primary value of the action and
the effect it is going to produce are dependent upon our motivation.
Some people believe in karma, but what they
see as skillful, unskillful, or neutral actions may be different.
For example, some people believe animal sacrifice is good karma
because it pleases a deity, but from the Buddha's view, it's negative
karma, in this case because it's motivated by ignorance. Some people
believe that people create more and more good karma, so automatically
one rebirth will be better than the previous one. But according
to Buddhism, if we create negative karma and one of those seeds
ripens at the time of death, people can be born in an unfortunate
rebirth. In cyclic existence, we may go up and down considerably,
depending on what karma we create and what ripens at the time of
death. Even within one day, we create so many actions. What rebirth
comes about is not a sum-total of all our karma, but depends on
which particular karmic seeds ripen at the time of death.
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It is said in the Majjhima Nikaya
that all of us are heirs of our own karma. What does that mean?
We experience the results of what we have created.
In other words, there's not an external being, creator, or manager
of the universe who determines our experiences. For example, what
we get reborn as, what we experience while alive, where we are born,
and what kinds of habits we have are all due to karma. Our mind
is the creator. Our intentions motivate our actions, which bear
effects. Hence, we are the heirs of our own karma.
Because we create the causes for our own future,
we have responsibility. If we want happiness, we must create the
causes of happiness; no one else can do it for us. Since we don't
want suffering, it's up to us to abandon the causes of suffering.
So this places the responsibility for our lives directly upon us.
We do not propitiate a deity to grant us boons and good fortune.
It is dependent on us to create the causes of what we want to experience.
I consider this a great blessing. If our happiness
and suffering depended upon an external being, we would be entirely
at the mercy of that being. But since the law of cause and effect
is a reality, we can influence our future by being aware of the
causes we create now.
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Sometimes people think of karma as
fate. If our present life is totally conditioned or wholly controlled
by our past actions, then karma is regarded as fatalistic and our
experiences are seen as predetermined. Is this correct?
Karma does not imply predetermination. In fact,
the law of karma indicates the opposite. The Buddha taught dependent
arising or dependent origination, in which he explained that all
functioning things depend on a multiplicity of causes and conditions.
It may happen that if people think of karma
in a simplistic way, they misunderstand it as predetermination;
but karma is not that simple. In fact, it is said that only the
omniscient mind of a Buddha can completely explain all the different
causes of any particular event. The Buddha said trying to understand
the full workings of karma is quite impossible as he called it one
of the "four unthinkables" (catu acintayani).
When people are initially taught about karma,
it may be explained in a very simple way: if you kill, you will
be killed and if you steal, people will steal from you. A simple
explanation like this is given because it corresponds with the level
of understanding of a beginner. But that's not the full understanding
of karma.
Any action has many components. For example,
there are the motivation, the object, the way the action is done,
whether it is done repeatedly, and whether it is purified or not.
All these conditions affect the strength or weakness of a karma.
In addition, within our mindstream, there are many different karmic
seeds because we have done many different actions. For these karmic
seeds to ripen, it depends upon the cooperative conditions and what's
going on in the particular lifetime in which they ripen.
If we kill or harm someone, we create the causes
for our own suffering. That's definitely true. But exactly how that
karmic imprint ripens depends on many conditions. For instance,
if we do purification practices, it may not ripen at all or it may
ripen in a very weak way. So its result is not predetermined.
Aside from the functioning of cause and result
in terms of karma and its effects, there is the functioning of cause
and effect in the physical world. Here, too, a simple explanation
of causality may be given, but if we look deeper, things are much
more complex. For example, we say wood is a cause of this table.
But when we look closer, there are also nails and other elements.
In addition, the end product of the table depends on the person
who designed it, where it was made, who made it, where the wood
grew, and many other factors. If we look closely, there's lots going
on there. Similarly, karmic causality is not a simple topic.
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If someone is born in an unfortunate
situation, for instance into a very poor family, we explain it as
due to past bad karma. We try to do more good karma this life in
order to ensure we have a better rebirth. Is this chasing after
happiness in life after life correct?
Some people say, "Those people are poor
because of their bad actions; therefore they are morally inferior.
We shouldn't try to improve their situation because that would interfere
with their karma. Rather, they should accept being in a lower class
and try to create positive actions so they will be rich in future
lives."
This is a misunderstanding of the Buddha's teachings
that is used to keep unwholesome regimes in power and suppress lower
classes. This is not a proper understanding of Buddhism. First of
all, nobody deserves to suffer. We cannot say that people are morally
inferior because they suffer. It's true that people create the causes
of what they experience, but that does not mean that they deserve
to suffer. In Buddhism, we do not judge or criticize people when
they suffer. Suffering is not a punishment for what we did; it is
simply a result. Happiness is not a reward; it's a result of our
good karma. It's just a result. Whether we experience happiness
or suffering has nothing to do with being punished or rewarded or
with being morally inferior or superior.
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Then suffering is something we can
learn from, and if we can transform it through how we view it, the
scenario changes. Is this right?
Right. When we experience the results of our
negative karma, we train ourselves to think, "It's good I'm
having this problem because my negative karma is being consumed.
This karma could have resulted in horrible suffering that lasted
a long time in a miserable rebirth. I'm glad it's ripening now as
a comparatively lesser suffering which I can manage. Because this
karma is finishing, it will now be easier for me to progress on
the path." We habituate ourselves to this way of thinking,
and with it, we build up strength of character to endure suffering.
This way of thinking works for Buddhists, but I wouldn't advise
telling people who don't understand karma to practice like this.
They could easily misunderstand.
Similarly, when we experience happiness, we
should not get puffed up and think that we are morally superior
and deserve to be happy. Happiness is the result of our own good
karma, so we should create more good karma if we want to continue
to receive favorable results. Our happiness should be used as an
inspiration for us to act in constructive ways.
Some people say that when someone is suffering,
we should not interfere or help because we are "interfering
with their karma." That's totally wrong. For instance, if someone
gets hit by a car and is lying in the middle of the street bleeding,
do you walk by and say, "That's too bad. This is the result
of your bad karma. If I take you to the emergency room, I'd be interfering
with your karma. So I'm going to just let you sit there and bleed."
That's absurd, isn't it?
Whenever there's a chance to help someone, we
should definitely help. After all, that person may also have created
the karma to receive help! When we help others, we create the karma
to receive help ourselves. I would think that selfishly ignoring
others' plight when there is the opportunity to directly help is
the karma (action) causing us to experience suffering in the future.
We should not tell poor people that they are
poor because of their karma; hence they shouldn't ask for or expect
fair wages. That's a distortion that the rich use to oppress the
poor. If a poor person works, they deserve to get as much money
as anybody else.
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Normally we don't reflect on karma
unless something unfortunate happens to us or our loved ones. How
should we reflect on this important law in our daily lives?
Everything we experience is influenced by our
karma, our previous physical, verbal, and mental actions. When we're
unhappy we always ask, "Why Me?" But when we are happy,
we never say, "Why Me?"! We never questioned what we did
to receive fortunate circumstances. Instead, we remain stuck in
selfishness and think, "I want more!" We don't think that
we have to create causes for happiness.
When we integrate this doctrine of karma into
our life, we will think, "What kind of actions did I do in
the past to bring forth this happiness and benefit?" For example,
in Malaysia there is enough to eat and society is prosperous. But
have you ever wondered what did you do to create the cause to live
in a place like this? Things do not happen without cause. You created
the cause for wealth by being generous in the past - by offering
requisites to live to monastics, by offering food to the poor. Through
the practice of generosity, we create the cause to be born in a
place where we have wealth and enough to eat.
That understanding should make us aware that
the good fortune we have did not come out of nowhere. It came through
our own generosity and if we want to continue to experience such
good results, we should continue to be generous. We use that to
motivate ourselves to do virtuous actions instead of taking our
good fortune for granted and selfishly thinking that others should
serve us and give us more. Similarly when we have problems, instead
of getting angry or blaming someone else for our misfortune, we
understand, "In the past, my own self-centeredness caused me
to harm or neglect others. Now, I'm experiencing the result of my
own actions."
Another example is when we've been criticized.
If we look closely, we must admit that we all have criticized other
people, so why are we so surprised when we are criticized? And,
we have talked behind other people's back, so why are we so outraged
when they talk behind our back? When we are hurt or inconvenienced
by someone's malicious gossip, we should remind ourselves, "I
created the principal cause for this. It's senseless to blame others.
I'm going to patiently bear this suffering. In addition, since I
don't like this result, I have to be careful not to create the cause
for it in the future. Therefore, I will be very careful about how
I use my speech. I will try to avoid malicious gossip that hurts
others or ruins their reputation."
Yes, that makes understanding the law of karma very
practical.
Right. Then, whatever we're doing, whatever
situation we are in, we recognize that this is the time we are creating
karma. For example, right now during this interview, we are creating
karma. When you go to work, you create karma. When you are with
your family, you create karma. When we have this awareness, we are
careful about what we say or do. We are mindful of what we think
and feel. If we are aware that we have a negative emotion, a malicious
attitude, or a greedy thought, we take time out to correct our way
of thinking. We apply the antidote to the disturbing emotion because
we know that if we don't, the disturbing emotion and attitude will
motivate negative action. This process of being aware and monitoring
our mind, applying the antidote to negative emotions, enhancing
our beneficial emotions and realistic attitudes - this is the practice
of Dharma. We train ourselves to do this every single moment of
our life, not just when we kneel in front of a Buddha image, not
just when we're near a monastic, but we do it all the time. We are
the ones responsible for what we experience. We create the causes
for it.
On a slightly different note, I'd like to point
out that there are different degrees of relating to the law of karma
and its effect. At the beginning, a person tends to be rather self-preoccupied
and look at karma from a self-centered viewpoint. In other words,
"I am generous so that in future lives, I will be wealthy."
This person's attitude is like doing business for their future lives.
This is quite prevalent in many Buddhist rituals.
For instance, I noticed at Danas, everyone is wishing that their
food will be chosen by the monk or nun because they want good karma.
I have noticed this attitude during the food
offering to the Sangha, and it makes me sad. Some people push, "Eat
my food because I want the merit." They think that if the monastic
eats their food, they get merit, but if he or she doesn't, they
don't get merit. This is mistaken. It's the act of generosity itself
that creates merit. It doesn't matter if the monastic eats a big
bowl of the food you offered, one bite, or none. Your delight in
giving, your act of generosity is the skillful karma.
It's nice that people offer with respect for
karma. That creates the cause for wealth in their future lives.
Although this reflects an elementary understanding of karma, it's
still good that they offer. It's better than offering with a motive
to get a good reputation or special favors. At least these people
have faith in karma; they have some good motivation. But we should
try to go beyond grasping at our own spiritual merit. That is, we
want to be generous because generosity is part of our practice;
because we take delight in being generous and generosity helps other
beings. We are generous because we aspire for liberation and enlightenment.
So, let's cultivate that motivation rather than just aiming for
wealth in future rebirths.
Although the act of generosity may be the same,
when it is motivated by the wish for nirvana, it will result in
nirvana. If it is motivated by the aspiration for full enlightenment,
that same action will result in full enlightenment. That's why I
stressed that our motivation is the key element in creating karma.
That's why we want to continually improve the quality of our motivation.
We are not seeking just good future lives but for liberation and
enlightenment.
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We create karma every moment in our
life. How do we ensure we create only the good ones?
The main thing is to be aware of what we are
thinking and feeling. That's going to determine whether our mental,
verbal, and physical actions are skillful or unskillful, virtuous
or non-virtuous. We have to be aware, "What's motivating me
to do this?" What's the thought or feeling in my mind?"
For example, why do you go to work? You work so many hours every
day, but what is your motivation? Why are you doing this?
Maybe for the money.
Ok, if that's your thought - "I'm going
to work to get money" - then those hours you spend at work
are under the control of the self-centered attitude, aren't they?
All the hard work you do is done only for the happiness of this
life - just to get money for yourself and your dear ones. It's done
with greed.
That doesn't mean you should not go to work.
Rather, you should change your motivation for going to work. Instead
of going to work with a greedy attitude that makes your work become
negative karma, you change the way you think. You think, "True,
I need to go to work because I need to make a living and survive
in society and support my family. But I'm also going to work to
offer service to others. I want my work to benefit society and the
individuals whose lives are made better through my efforts at work."
If you work in a factory, think, "We make things that are of
use to people. I wish these people well. I'm working so that their
lives will be happier." If you work in a service profession,
think, "My work benefits other people. I want to contribute
to society and the well being of the planet and that's why I'm going
to work." Also think, "I'm going to work to benefit the
people at my work place. I want my colleagues, boss or employees
to be happy. By being cheerful, cooperative, and responsible, I
will make their lives easier and more pleasant." If you expand
the scope of your motivation, then the time you spend at work becomes
Dharma practice.
Then our work puts positive mental imprints in our
minds.
Yes. If you discover that you ignore the potential
benefit of your work for others and instead just focus on getting
your pay check and a big bonus at the end of the year, then you
try to change your way of thinking. Every time we fall back to our
old ways, we have to catch ourselves and change our attitude. A
beneficial practice to do is everyday before going to work, take
a minute or two and think, "I'm working to serve others - clients,
consumers, patients. I'm working to benefit society, to help people,
including those in my workplace. I want to create a good atmosphere
in my workplace because that's important." If you do this,
you will be happier and feel more satisfied at the end of the day.
You will be more pleasant to work with, and you will get along better
with others. You will create positive karma that will result in
happiness.
You work with other living beings, so be concerned
about their welfare and generate the motivation to help them. If
you consciously think in this way every morning, soon it will become
your genuine motivation. If you constantly create this imprint,
"I'm here to benefit my colleagues, my clients, and society,"
then you will be nicer to people at work. You will treat them respectfully
and communicate well with them. You will be honest and reliable
because you value other sentient beings. This actually makes us
more prosperous in this lifetime. But our motivation isn't simply
for our own prosperity this lifetime. Our motivation is really a
higher motivation - the benefit of others.
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After attending retreats, I feel
so inspired to practice, but after going to work a few months, my
attitude starts to change and the joy that was there during the
retreat dissipates.
That's why it's so important when you return
from a retreat to continue to practice on a daily basis. Continue
to consciously generate good motivations, to meditate on metta (loving-kindness),
to work with your mind. That's the whole key in keeping the benefits
of the retreat alive in your daily life. Everyday be aware of your
motivations and deliberately generate motivations of love, compassion,
and the altruistic intention to become a Buddha for the benefit
of all beings. That makes your retreat experience and the Dharma
very alive in your daily life.
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What should we do about the negative
karma that we have created in the past?
We have all made mistakes and created negative
karma, so it's very good to purify these. In the Tibetan tradition,
we talk of the four opponent powers. The first one is generating
regret for our mistakes. Regret is different from guilt. Regret
is with a wisdom mind that realizes we have made a mistake, but
we don't harp or dwell on it. We don't get stuck in telling ourselves
how awful we are. Instead, we realize clearly that we have made
a mistake and with remorse, we regret it.
The second opponent power is to restore the
relationship in our mind. When we act destructively, it's usually
in relationship to either sentient beings or holy beings - the Three
Jewels or our spiritual mentors. Our harmful motivations and actions
impinged on our relationship with them, so we restore this by generating
constructive attitudes towards them. In relationship to the Three
Jewels, we take refuge in them. If our negative action was created
in relation to other sentient beings, we restore the relationship
by generating love, compassion and bodhicitta for them. If possible,
it's also good to apologize to those we have harmed. But if the
person is no longer alive, if contacting them would cause them more
pain, or if they are not ready to see us, it's okay The important
thing is that in our mind we have repaired the relationship and
now wish them well.
The third opponent power is the determination
not to do it again. This is a strong resolution to avoid the action
in the future. We may determine to abandon the action forever if
we can truthfully say that. Or we may commit to being very attentive
to not doing it during a certain time period that is realistic for
us.
The fourth is to perform some kind of remedial
behavior. This includes making offerings to the Three Jewels; printing
Dharma books; offering service at a temple, monastery, or Dharma
center; offering charity to the poor and needy; doing volunteer
work in society; meditating; bowing; chanting the name of Buddha,
and any other kind of virtuous action.
Doing the four opponent powers cuts the force
of our negative karma. If we attain nirvana soon, it won't ripen
at all. If we don't, it will ripen in a minor suffering that lasts
only a short time.
Is it something that you do systematically for every
negative action?
We can do the four opponent powers for each
negative action or we can do them for all our negative actions in
general. At the end of each day, it's good to review how we acted
during the day. We regret each negative action individually, take
refuge, and generate love and compassion for anyone we might have
harmed. Then we make a determination to avoid these actions in the
future and do some kind of virtuous practice. If we do this practice
daily, we will sleep well at night and will wake up happy the next
morning, instead of full of regrets or malaise.
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Can we change other people's karmic
imprints or divert them to a certain extent?
We can't change another person's karma as if
it were a thorn we pull out of their foot. However, we can influence
other people, guide, and teach them. Then they will be able to purify
their own negative karma. If someone else could eliminate our negative
karma, the Buddha would have done that already because he has so
much compassion. However, no one - not even the Buddha - can take
away our karma, either our constructive or our destructive actions.
This is because karma is created through the power of our own mind.
The Buddha teaches and guides us so that we will know how to abandon
negative actions and create positive ones. But we're the ones who
have to do that.
There's an expression in the U. S., "You
can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." For
example, our teachers instruct us about karma all the time. They
explain how to abandon negative karma and create positive ones.
But they can't control whether we listen to the teachings, remember
them, or put them into practice. That's totally up to us.
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Can we create the conditions for
someone's karmic imprints to ripen or not ripen? For example, when
someone is ill, we do prayers and meditate on metta.
Yes, when we meditate on metta for somebody
who's ill or make offerings to on their behalf, we create the conditions
for another person's own good karma to ripen. Here we work on the
level of the cooperative conditions - the water and the fertilizer.
But it's up to those people to plant the seeds.
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You said we can go beyond
karma. What do you mean?
This refers to getting out of our cyclic
existence and attaining liberation. The second of the Four Noble
Truths is the origin of suffering. This refers to being under the
control of ignorance, anger, and attachment and the karma we create
under their influence. So going beyond karma involves going beyond
the three poisonous attitudes of ignorance, anger and attachment.
To do this, we must realize emptiness (selflessness), for this wisdom
understanding the actual mode of existence cuts the misconception
of ignorance. When ignorance has been overcome, attachment, anger,
and other afflictions, which arise in dependence upon ignorance
no longer exist in our mind. Thus we are free from creating the
karma that keeps us bound in cyclic existence. Going beyond karma
involves developing the determination to attain nirvana or enlightenment
and the energy to practice and bring that about.
Can we do it within one lifetime?
If we practice consistently and diligently,
nirvana is possible to attain within this lifetime. It may also
take many lifetimes. Aim to attain enlightenment in this lifetime,
but don't expect to! This means we aspire for enlightenment in one
lifetime and generate the joyous effort to create the causes for
that. But we aren't selfishly fixated on that goal. That is, we
don't impatiently ask, "How come I'm not enlightened yet?"
or "How close am I to enlightenment?" Instead, we take
joy in the process of going towards enlightenment.
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You said that the Buddha mentioned
karma as one of the four unthinkables. Should we even bother to
think about it then?
We should definitely think about it! We can
understand the workings of karma to some extent, but only the Buddha
can fully understand all the intricacies. For example, you and I
are sitting here talking together. Only a Buddha clearly knows each
and every specific cause in both of our previous lives that are
ripening in our meeting today. Many people's karma are involved
in what's happening right now: yours, mine, the people who could
benefit from this interview. Only a Buddha knows very clearly all
these details.
Nevertheless, we limited beings can understand
something about karma, and it's worthwhile for us to think about
karma and its results. For example, just the fact that we are sitting
here discussing the Dharma indicates that sometime in the past we
accumulated positive karma. Our human rebirths result from keeping
ethical discipline in previous lives. The fact that we had breakfast
this morning indicates that we did some generous actions. We're
choosing to talk about the Dharma because we've cultivated faith
in the Three Jewels in the past. We can understand in a general
way some of the karmic causes that have brought about the event
that is happening right now, but we don't know all the details of
which lifetime each of us accumulated these causes, how we did that,
and how the cooperative conditions came together for these causes
to ripen at this moment. Only the Buddha can know these details.
But we know the general principles, and it benefits us to think
about them.
Is this enough for us to be closer to enlightenment?
Knowing the general principles is very important
because it enables us to start to discern what is a skillful thought
or emotion and what is an unwise one. Then we can choose our actions
with more awareness instead of living on automatic. However, observing
the law of karma and its effects is not sufficient to become enlightened.
It is a necessary and valuable component upon which we can cultivate
other virtues and wisdom that bring about full enlightenment.
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Do we create karma when we are dreaming?
It depends on how we look at our dreams when
we wake up. For instance, you dreamt you harmed somebody, but when
you wake up, you don't feel good about even dreaming of doing this
and feel regret. In this case, no negative karma was created from
the dream. But if you wake up and think, "Hmm, I got revenge
and feel good about this dream. I wish I could really harm this
person," then you create negative karma.
Or let's say you dreamt you made beautiful offerings
to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and upon awaking, you thought,
"What's the use of that? I should have kept them for myself
in the dream!" Then no good karma is created in the dream.
But if you wake up thinking what a wonderful dream it was and you
aspire to make offerings like this - then positive karma is created.
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Sometimes I find myself chanting
in a nightmare. Am I creating karma?
When you have a nightmare and take refuge while
you're dreaming, that's very good. It indicates that the force of
the Dharma has gone into your mind at a subtle level. In addition,
there are no lingering unpleasant feelings when you wake up.
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Any final thoughts on how we could
start working with our karma?
Since the principal factor determining the value
of an action is motivation, it's good to train our minds in the
following. Every morning when we wake up, think, "The most
important thing today is that I don't harm anyone by what I say,
think or do." We generate that as a positive motivation for
that day. Secondly, we think, "The most important thing to
do is to benefit sentient beings whenever I can." Then we think,
"I'm going to cultivate bodhicitta - the aspiration for full
enlightenment for the benefit of all beings - and hold my spiritual
goals dear in my heart."
Generating those three thoughts in the morning
will put our mind in a positive state. Then try to remember them
periodically throughout the day. For example, every time you stop
at a red light, come back to those three thoughts. The more we remember
those thoughts, the more they become a part of us and will transform
our actions. When we have those motivations, we will become more
mindful throughout the day of acting from that space in our heart.
We will become more conscientious of the karma we create and will
be able to stop our negative actions sooner and overcome the laziness
that keeps us from creating positive actions.
Thank you very much Venerable for sharing such practical
Dhamma for us to apply in our daily practice.
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