The Limits of Old Kamma

January 29, 2009 Focus your attention on the breath and see how it feels. Where do you notice it in the body first? Where does it seem most prominent? You might notice the passage of the air through the nostrils, the rise and fall of the chest, the expansion of the rib cage: There are lots of di erent places in the body where you can sense the mo!ement of the breath. Whiche!er area seems most prominent, focus there. "nd notice if the breath feels comfortable there. #f it doesn$t, you can let it change. %et it be longer or shorter, or thin& of it as becoming longer or shorter. You don$t ha!e to make it be that way or force it to be that way. 'ust pose that thought in mind: What would longer breathing be li&e? "nd you$ll find the body will breathe longer. What would shorter breathing be li&e? (ea!ier, lighter, faster, slower? )xplore the possibilities of the breath right now. Thin& of the breathing as a whole*body process and see what that does to your sense of what &ind of breathing feels best or what the body needs in terms of the breath. +ometimes it needs to be energi,ed, sometimes relaxed. -et a sense of the breath potentials right now. We$re sitting here with lots of di erent potentials.potentials in the body, potentials in the mind. "s we meditate we explore to see which potentials lead to the greatest happiness, the greatest pleasure. "llow the breath to be pleasurable and 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 you de!elop? "t the moment we$re trying to emphasi,e the thoughts that focus you on the breath in the present moment0 and we$re trying to be in/uisiti!e, trying to learn about the breath. Those two factors.thin&ing of the breath or focusing on the breath, and being in/uisiti!e.count 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 feels comfortable, gi!ing rise to feelings of refreshment and pleasure. "nd as you probe and explore, you begin to reali,e that there is this potential right here for the body to feel comfortable from the inside, for the mind to be willing to settle down. There are lots of other potentials you could ha!e focused on right now, but you don$t ha!e to. 3a&e the most of your freedom to focus on your ability to expand s&illful potentials. 4ccasionally you$ll find yourself running up against some bloc&ages, or pains that, no matter how s&illfully you breathe, are going to stay as pains. 4r there may be some chatter away in the mind that won$t go away. You don$t ha!e to focus on it0 1ust let it be there in the bac&ground. 5ut it does impinge a little bit on your awareness. #n other words, you find yourself running up against old &arma obstructions. Fortunately, though, the present moment is not totally shaped by old &arma. #f it were 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 course would ha!e been determined by something that went before that and on bac& in

an infinite regress. This is why the 5uddha re1ected the idea that e!erything was determined by a creator, or e!erything was determined by old &arma. 4therwise the practice would be pointless. 5ut it$s not pointless. We do ha!e a measure of freedom here in the present moment. There may be some restrictions that come from past &arma, but you can learn to wor& around them. This is a principle that applies across the board in the practice, not 1ust while you$re sitting here meditating, but in your acti!ities throughout daily life. You find yourself running up against di iculties that, no matter how s&illfully you try to respond to them, are still there. You ha!e the choice of focusing on the di iculties to the point where you can$t do anything about them, and get more and more entrapped and frustrated by them. 4r if you try to ignore them and pretend they$re not there, that doesn$t wor& either. +o you$!e got to find another approach. "nd fortunately, the best approach is always possible. The present moment is a limited moment but it does ha!e its openings. #t does ha!e its potentials. The wise approach is to admit the limitations but also to want to 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 /ualities of the mind. That$s what the 5uddhist teachings about the paramis or the perfections are all about. )!en as you go through your e!eryday responsibilities, you ha!e the opportunity to de!elop good /ualities of mind.patience, persistence, determination, truthfulness. +ome of us ha!e a romantic notion about the ideal situation to meditate. You$re o by yourself. 6o responsibilities at all. Totally free to meditate all day long. 5ut e!en in places li&e that, you find there are limitations, di iculties. "nd if the meditation is not going well, what do you ha!e to blame it on? 7an$t blame it on anybody else. #t$s 1ust yourself. # &now a lot of mon&s who$!e been out in the forest. They say sometimes they can go for months and months and months with no progress in the meditation. +o it$s not the case that going o alone and ha!ing no responsibilities is going to sol!e e!erything. #f you do ha!e responsibilities, remind yourself that you don$t ha!e to carry them around in the mind all the time. Your outside wor& is your outside wor&. Your inside wor& can always &eep going on.learning patience, learning to ha!e a good humor about the whole thing. " couple years bac&, we had a problem in the electric room here. The county inspector came and said that it was totally unacceptable. )!erything was going to ha!e to be torn out and redone within 1ust a few days. +o a couple of the "mericans came and wor&ed on it and complained the entire time about how di icult it was, how much they were ha!ing to do without sleep, and 1ust on and on and on. "nd it wasn$t helping the 1ob at all. # &ept thin&ing about how things were o!er in Thailand when we$d ha!e di iculties li&e that. 8eople there seem to ha!e a much better humor about things. They seem to ha!e a better understanding of the perfections, that e!en when things are di icult outside or inside, you$!e got the opportunity to de!elop good /ualities of mind. Whate!er the situation, you want to figure out the s&illful way to approach it so that you minimi,e the di iculties and maximi,e your potentials for freedom. #f you$re dealing with more than 1ust present responsibilities.say, with the results of past mista&es where you$!e harmed people.the same principle

applies. You admit the mista&es. You admit the limitations that they place on you now, but then you try to wor& around them. 9on$t let yourself be hemmed in by your past mista&es or be hemmed in by your past &arma, because these things don$t ha!e to totally shape the present moment. We ha!e some freedom right here, right now, and a lot of the practice is learning how to recogni,e that fact and maximi,e it to get the best use out of it. 5ecause all the aspects of the path are possible, whate!er the limitations from your 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$!e made a mista&e, you admit the fact. "nd you say, :#$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. You don$t ha!e to punish yourself, that somehow by feeling really, really sorry the punishment will go away. That$s a dog$s way of thin&ing. #t &nows it$s done something bad. #t gets on its bac& and wags its tail and loo&s really sorry, and hopes that by doing that it$s going to appease you. 5ut you$re not a dog. You$re a human being. "s a human being, all you$re as&ed is to recogni,e the mista&e, resol!e not repeat it, and then try to de!elop goodwill for yourself and for e!erybody else.for the people you$!e already wronged, for the people you might potentially wrong in the future. +pread goodwill to them, maintain that attitude of goodwill, and you$ll be less li&ely to wrong them. 4r e!en 1ust the fact that you$re sitting here in a human body: That has its limitations but it has its potentials as well. #f you$re feeling trapped in the body, as& yourself, :Why are you trapped?; Well, you ha!e this perception that it$s you or it$s yours. You pic&ed up the perception because there were times when it felt useful to identify with the body. #t was a means for gaining pleasure. 5ut now you$re beginning to reali,e that identifying with the body has its drawbac&s as well. "s you get older, illness comes. 8ains come. )!en 1ust the illness of hunger, the 5uddha said, is the foremost illness. That$s something we all su er from e!ery day, e!ery day. This is why we ha!e the re<ection on the four re/uisites. #f we didn$t ha!e food, clothing, shelter, and medicine, the body would die. We$re born with these gaping needs. 5ut at the same time, you can learn how to use the body as a basis for the practice. You can focus on the breath. "s you get more and more sensiti!e to the breath, you can use the breath as a mirror for the mind. #f you get into di icult situations with other people, you$ll notice that there will be a change in your breath. What can you do to wor& with the breath in a way that you$re focused not on the di iculties posed by that other person, but on the fact that you can still maintain your e!enness of mind regardless of the situation outside? You can use the breath to help you with that. "s you wor& with the breath, you begin to see the power of your perceptions in that the way you concei!e of the breath is going to ha!e an in<uence on how you actually breathe. #f you thin& of the body as a big solid that you$!e got to push the breath through.it feels li&e this big lump of fat sitting here and you$re trying to force air through the fat.it 1ust doesn$t wor&. #t$s laborious. #t$s tiring. 5ut if you percei!e the body as an energy field.when you breathe in, it$s 1ust more energy 1oining with the energy already there.it all <ows in smoothly, and you don$t ha!e to push anything through anything else. #t changes the way you breathe, changes the sensation of the breath.

"s you thin& of all the di erent energy channels in the body connecting together, it gets easier and easier for you not to ha!e to breathe at all. The di erent parts of the body aren$t fighting with one another. Your pores feel open. The breath comes in, goes out. )!erything feels connected. )!erything is charged with breath energy to the point where the breath gets more and more gentle, more and more gentle, and finally grows still. " lot of this has to do with the perception you hold in mind. You begin to reali,e, as the sense of boundary around the body begins to dissol!e, that your perception of being in the body was something you$!e chosen to do. You$re not really trapped in the body. You$!e trapped yourself, but you can free yourself. You can focus on space: around the body, permeating throughout the body, between all the atoms. You can focus on the awareness that encompasses e!erything. Your sense of what$s happening in the body is going to change. "nd that$s 1ust a concentration practice. 5ut the potential for experiencing infinite space or the potential for experiencing infinite consciousness is all right here. You learn how to ferret it out and ma&e the most of it. +o this is how we li!e with our past &arma: "ccept whate!er limitations there are, but also loo& for the areas that are not limited, to see in which direction freedom 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 about them, but also accepting that there are lots of potentials for freedom here. #f you really want true happiness, you try to ma&e the most of those. The 9hamma is not for people who want to be told they 1ust ha!e to accept the way things are, and that$ll be totally fine. The 9hamma doesn$t stop right there, because the present 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 miserable situations, the same principle holds: You accept your limitations but you also accept that there are potentials for freedom, potentials for true happiness that can be de!eloped. There$s wor& to be done but it$s good wor&, regardless of the situation. #f you &eep that attitude in mind you can practice the 9hamma and benefit from the 9hamma where!er you are.