No self, Just Karma

Good morning, everyone. Good to see everyone here. I'm waiting, too. So, on Wednesday, I don't know if you had a chance to listen. I think it was just posted last night. Talked about karma. And it's gonna take a while. It's gonna take a while for you to understand. And I'll have to explain in various different ways. And you have to look it up as well. Study what it means. I try to always explain in the most simplest way possible. So I'm a very simplistic person. I don't know very difficult vocabularies anyways. But karma, to kind of reiterate, is just activities of the world. You see all this change going on, right? That's karma.

But when you look at it closely, you see the law of existence that we talk about, right? The Three Dharmas. That law of impermanence. Everything is transitory. Everything is changing all the time. Right? Everybody agrees to that. I think we've advanced in our science enough, everybody learns that in elementary now. It wasn't as apparent in the past, a long time ago, right? Thousands of years ago. Because everything seems so solid, so real. But everything's changing. But even with that knowledge, we don't look at things as transitory, do we? We look at things as solid, that'll last forever, to include ourself. And the second law is non-self. The second law of existence is no independent, inherently existing self. What does that mean? That means everything that exists, because this is a law, meaning it applies to everything, only exists based on supporting conditions, right?

It has to have supporting conditions, causal conditions, for anything to manifest. So if you can understand that, everything is changing based on condition. Everything is transitory and conditional.

There is no solidity. There is nothing to be identified with. Because if you identify with it, it is no longer it. That you are identified with. But we are identified, right? Everybody has "I" in this, right? Self. Myself. Me. I. I. Yeah. That is the first major, original, you know, misperception. We call it illusion. Avijja, meaning ignorance. Misperception of the reality. Because we don't see it as ever-changing, impermanent, conditional. We somehow use our stories, our memories, to create this identity. And that's hard to accept, or for somebody to believe. Because we have been holding on to that belief for so long. So when I challenge that person, the ego fights back. And the ego wants to survive. So... Just because of that truth, some people resist and doesn't want to be part of this path.

So when I talk about attachment, some people take it as, "Well, I gotta throw everything away now." Right? No. It's about our inner attachment. Identification. Because the reality is that everything is changing based on its conditions. And if you see that, we have to be able to accept the truth that I can't really have anything.

I can't really claim it as mine. Maybe temporarily use it, but it all goes away. Right? Everything. Not only things we have, but people we love. You know? Everything that we want to hold dearly to our heart has to be removed. It has to be gone. We have to lose it.

Right? We came here, we were born with nothing. When we leave, we leave with nothing. Not a thing. We take our karma. In fact, that is just karma. Yeah. Karma is not a thing. It's all activity that is happening right now. It's karma.

So your karmic energy is just making formation based on that causal condition. Your body is right now consequences of your karmic conditioning. Your mind, your state of mind, your preferences, your identification. everything is a result of karma. Karmic conditions forming into what is right now.

So it's not a punishment, not a reward. Sometimes we express it that way, positive and negative, karmic merits, karmic debt, to help you easily kind of see of energy. But that energy is making formation. When that supporting condition is no longer there, then what happens to our body?

We can no longer sustain this formation, this life, right? But the life continues along with that karma and has to make another formation because this body can only last for so long. But based on all the choices we've made in the past, all the choices we're making now, we're creating karmic formation in the future.

And we call that birth and death.

Rebirth. So everybody conceptually understand it as reincarnation where we jump from one body to the other. But there's nothing there to jump. There's no soul to jump because there's no self, right? Then what's being reborn? Reborn? What's being reincarnated? It's always the question that gets asked back to Buddhists when we say there's no self.

Because you don't understand what non-self means. That's what I'm trying to explain. Non-self means that there's, everything's made up of causal condition. So you understand that. But somehow, you're conceptually thinking about something else and say, "This doesn't match." That's why it's not the right question.

Because if you understand that everything is in formation, based on this condition, it's like ice melting to water. Did the ice die? No. It just changes form based on the supporting condition. And when it gets hit it, what happens? It turns into steam.

Did it die? It just changed form. It's a causal condition changing formation. And it's really hard to see that for ourselves because we're so identified with this identity of me. I am this body. I am this mind. This I-ness. Everybody has this I-ness versus him or her or you, right?

Have you really inquired into that? Instead of just making claim, have you really looked into that I? What is that? Can you really claim your body as I? The obvious answer is no, right? Can you claim this mind that's ever-changing? It's like a river.

Right? You've heard this saying you can't step into the same river twice. Right? Some people have heard that. Why? Because it's always changing. It's always flowing. So, once you step in and step out, that river is no longer the same river, right? Just like that. Moment to moment, you're a different person.

You're a different body, different mind. But our story, our memory, is utilized to maintain that. In a way, for survival, it is necessary. That's why we have that function. Survival. Of the ego.

Of the self. Yeah. So this is very deep, uh, understanding I'm sharing. Um, because even though you may not completely get it, you know, some people will. But it's a seed that will blossom later. Because once you start to pay attention to yourself, increase that self-awareness, initially, the basic practice is what?

To watch so that we don't follow our karmic tendencies to react. Okay? So, for those of you that are benefiting this, benefiting from this practice, will see that you're less reactive to what's going on to the people. Why? Because you're aware. You're aware of your emotions.

And you consciously choose. I'd rather choose peace and joy versus anger, frustration, jealousy, sadness. All of those negative energies that we don't want to experience. But we are subconsciously, unconsciously choosing all those negativity based on our karmic reaction meaning our habitual way of being.

Habitual way of being is how we're trained to be. So how do we change that? On Wednesday, somebody asked, how do we change that karma? And I talked about if you're driving 100 miles an hour, can you make a right turn? Or a left turn? You know? Can you make a 90 degree turn?

Can anybody do that? You have to first slow down. Right? So even though you want to become awakened and liberated, you know, you can't just you get hurt. There are some people who have become enlightened like that because of all the past life practices that they've done.

So, recognize that. So, some of you understand what I'm saying, but it talks about how I can't control my ego, my attachment is too strong. Well, just look at it and recognize it. That's all. That's all you need to do. If you judge yourself, you're adding on additional negative energy to it.

We call it the second arrow. Okay? After getting hit by the first arrow, you're getting hit by the second arrow. you're adding on negative energy to it. So that's why we're practicing when we meditate, to simply be here, simply watching, allowing everything to be as is.

That's really, really important to remember. Not just paying attention to the present moment. We have to become more open to what is. When you train yourself that way, then people will say things, do things, things will happen. You cannot allow it to be. There may be reaction.

Okay? Because that's the energy we've been accumulating. That reactive energy. But more and more you become aware of that. Easier it becomes to letting go. Becomes more conscious choices as you get triggered. You say, "Oh, okay. I'm triggered. Let's take a look at this."

So you're paying more attention on yourself first before you respond. Right? So you can respond consciously based on our intention to be beneficial to ourself and to others. So we have to train our minds to be that way. It doesn't just happen. It's because you agree.

Right? And you want to. So how do you train your mind? You know? It has to be consistent. There has to be a commitment to that intention. That's why I continuously harp on this daily practice. Okay? Daily practice. And have the daily practice gala. You will all get it, you know, for the first timers here.

On the email. Take a look. See if you're willing to commit to that. Okay? It takes practice. It takes retraining of the mind. To be disciplined. Even to become compassionate. Compassion is a skill that you can actually develop.

If we... But you have to want to. So wisdom and compassion. Compassion is really the baseline for all of our practice. That's why we call ourselves Bodhicitta. Bodhicitta means awakening heart. Meaning, everything that we do, we do it to benefit others. The reason we seek awakening and liberation from all suffering, so we can become more beneficial to others.

Because if we do it for ourselves, that's where you lose the path. Why? Because, I would ask, where is that self you're doing it for? Right? Is it for others, really? It's really for all. When we start focusing on others. So, when I talk about renunciation, renunciating our desires, don't take that wrong, you know, by saying, "Okay, now I've got to go, you know, in all my relationships."

No, that's if you want to become a monk. But if you want to maintain your life and still be free, just increase that boundary. Okay? Everybody has a boundary. Right? The boundary you set for yourself to be me. That may include your family.

But we need to increase that boundary. Little by little. How do we become more kind and compassionate to other beings? Okay? There's a way we increase that boundary. If we're only focused on ourself, inevitably, you'll have to suffer. That's just the fact of life.

because you're trying to fill up something you can't fill up. When you're only focused on yourself, it's like, you know, a bottle in a glass we're just continuing to pour and pour and pour. You'll never be satisfied. No matter what you obtain, what you accomplish, there's never satisfaction when you're only focused on yourself.

But when you focus on others, at least you're increasing that boundary and your life becomes more meaningful when you're trying to make a positive impact on other people's lives. So set that intention and you have to empower that intention to make positive impact on other people's lives.

It has to become the purpose of your life. the reason to exist to make positive impact. If we don't, then it's so easy to fall into our ego's traps of just looking after myself, competing with others, stepping on others, creating all this negative karma, negative energy without even knowing.

So, selflessness it's not, you know, harming yourself for the others. It's how do you find benefit for all. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, everything starts with intention. Right? The goal, to get to somewhere, you have to know where you're going to get to.

So, for beginners, set that as your intention. How do I make a positive impact on other people's lives? And then, spiritually, to become awakened and complete liberation for the benefit of all. Okay? But right now, you may not see it, but everything is interdependent. Everything is interconnected because of that dependence.

Everything is dependent on everything else. So, because of that interconnection, it's inevitable to be compassionate because it's like saying we're all one. And saying that is not really accurate, but it's still it's like that because we're so interdependent, so interconnected that by hurting somebody else, you're actually hurting yourself.

that's why being kind and compassionate to others is really being kind and compassionate to yourself. Does that make sense? Or is that kind of confusing? Yeah. Because of that interconnectedness and because of that illusion of selfness, I-ness,

all this selfish, you know, karma develops. And that's what creates all the suffering in our life. Stress. Resistance. Frustration. Depression. I've been going on and on and on. All these negative things we don't want to experience, but we're choosing them unconsciously. We're choosing miserableness.

And some people want to justify being miserable. That's the ego. That comes from that me. My way of thinking. But that negative energy, no matter how you justify it, is still negative energy. We talked about how you can justify being sad for losing your pet.

You know? But what I'm asking you is not, don't be sad, but understand the causal condition for that. The causal condition for being sad for losing your dog. We talked about that on Wednesday. It's about me. It wasn't, it's not just about that dog, 'cause if it was, then you'd be sad on every dog that dies.

But you're particularly sad about that particular dog is because of that relationship there, of mine being mine. My relationship. Right? The connection to me. Right? Same thing for your family member. I'm not devaluing that relationship at all. Don't take that wrong way. Don't misunderstand that.

But understand the suffering that we feel is because of that. Understand the causal condition for it. So you can still maintain positive energy. If you understand the causal condition, meaning that everything is transitory and conditional. You can be loving unconditionally to all the relationships you have, but expand that boundary to be more inclusive.

Which elevates your consciousness level. Elevates your positive karmic energy. That changes the experience. So when you lose your loved ones. Okay? It's how you experience it is based on your choice. Does that make sense? This can be taken the wrong way. So many different ways.

I'm not saying ignore or not care. You can experience things more positively. Depending on how you perceive and how you respond. Has to be your choice, your conscious choice. Not just a reaction. Because when you say, "This is so important that I have to react this way."

When you start justifying that negative energy, that negative energy accumulates and makes you become negative in other things, too. That's why we're always experiencing negative experiences.

And you can never escape it all until you reach final enlightenment. When you become completely free from your karma. Even then, when you still have the body, you know, there will be things that are happening that are not positive. but you're not impacted by that.

So, that's why if you study Buddha himself, Gautama Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, his life, and experiences that he had, to me, it seems like he showed examples on everything. So, after he became the Buddha, completely awakened, there are things he experienced, you know, by his own disciple, or his cousin, Devadatta, tried to kill him, to replace him.

Several attempts, where he caused bodily harm, right? His clan, Shaka clan, got completely decimated. There are things that happen, based on the karmic condition, that even the Buddha didn't interfere, because it just had to happen. Was he sad? It was never expressed as that, but he said it was inevitable. He did try to stop the kings, the king that was going to take revenge on his clan, three times. Everything is like three times. You ask him three times, if he still says no, that means you got to give up.

You ask three times, and he says yes, and he calls. But, he tried three times to go out there and stop, and they did stop. and the fourth time, he let it just happen. Yeah. Because, it's a karmic energy. It's inevitable. That's why he said, "I can't wash away your karma."

So, praying to Buddha, you have to pray for the Buddha nature within. Okay? So, understand your own karma. Understand, everything we say, do. Okay? Actions. Creates vibration energy, even your thoughts. Okay? So, try to look at everything positively, because we're creating that vibrational energy that becomes causal condition for something else to manifest.

Is that clear? So, just by doing this, lifting my finger, somehow, it's like a butterfly effect. It will have different orders of impact it's gonna make. That's why we have to be mindful. That's what right mindfulness is. The Eightfold Noble Path start with the right intention, right? Right? Or right understanding of these principles.

And right intention. And your actions and speech and your livelihood all follow that intention. And the effort is there. The mindfulness is there. As a vigilant guard of yourself, of your senses. Because everything that we experience, we experience through our senses, right? All of your experience.

Through your senses. We have to guard it. That's what mindfulness really is. That's why we're paying attention to our self. Increasing the awareness of our self. To understand all these karmic, you know, consequences that I'm experiencing, and all the karmic conditions that I'm creating in the present moment.

So by being fully awake, you can start making conscious choices. Even though somebody says something that triggered me, I know that if I just react, it's going to create negative consequences for me. So we try to turn that into a more compassionate way.

Yeah. It takes effort. I know. It takes effort. Yeah. But we have to continue to try. That's what practice is. That's why we are practitioners. We are practitioners. We're devoted. We're devotees as well. But what are we devoted to? Our devotion is to the truth.

To the truth. Okay. Not to a being. But to the truth. Because truth will liberate. And in order to see the truth. We call it wisdom. To see things as they are. See the reality as it is. Not through all the filtering systems that we have.

But see what? That everything is transitory. Everything is conditional. Another word for that is empty. It's empty. The emptiness, shunyata we use. It's empty of inherent existence. Everything comes and goes. Okay? Any questions? Yes, ma'am. I want to go back to your initial thing about rebirth.

Mm-hm. And how do you explain, because obviously, you know, I mean, we're kind of grasping the fact that we are not the body. Mm-hm. We're not. But, and I also conceptually understand there is that. Although I'm not going to the point to recognize it, I do understand. Mm-hm.

What is it that the body is God? It's the karmic energy. It's just energy. Yeah. It's a karmic energy. Sometimes you can call it consciousness, but it's not a consciousness you're conceptualizing right now. It's utilized just to help people who think linearly to grasp onto something, you know, for understanding purpose.

But it's not the truth, because it's still a concept. So you can call it consciousness. And what is consciousness? Consciousness is also ever-forming, ever-changing. So rebirth is happening moment to moment. Right now you're being reborn. Your cells are dividing you in. Right? You're changing. So rebirth is happening.

What's being reborn? Just karmically changing. That's all there is. Everything is just conditionally manifesting. That's how you have to understand it as, so you don't become identified with another thing. Like something's gotta be reborn. It's not a thing. It's an energy. It's just energy formation.

Then it's carrying your debt to the next. Yes. The karma. It's just happening. It's just happening. I have another question about prayer. I know I've gotten into arguments about prayer. Asking for something is not the right way. You don't ask, "Oh, I pray because I want something."

And I know a lot of people do that. How do you tell someone, or maybe I should not even be telling anybody anything, but the concept of prayer or asking for self? There's nothing wrong with the prayer. Prayer is okay, but ask. Or even asking for something.

But you have to understand the mechanism behind it. So when we ask for something, typically we're asking for outside, right? But what I like to encourage is you ask to your own self. Okay? Because when you do ask sincerely, your mind, it's powerful enough to recreate that, create that with the solution you want.

But what's happening is, to simplify this answer, you're using up your karmic merits. Isn't it all about I then? Because I want something. Even then, you can still tap into the creative side of your mind, to manifest, based on the positive karmic energy that you have, can manifest things.

But you don't blind even then, because you don't know how it's being manifested. So, first of all, prayer, I ask you, even when you prostrate towards the Buddha, it's just a symbol. Buddha is not there. That's just a reminder. It's a symbol reminder that is needed by people.

But we're prostrating to our Buddha nature within. Our true essence. And when you pray sincerely for something to happen, okay? Especially when it's more based on altruistic way. That's why all the prayers that we do is for who? For all beings. So, the prayer that I recommend is the loving-kindness prayer that we do for all sentient beings.

Because when you do that, you're extending the boundary, increasing the power, okay? You're increasing the positive karma, positive karmic energy, and you include it in there too. Right? When you do that. So it doesn't become selfish. Yeah. There are people, they're selfish, they don't get what they want.

Right? But because it's the karmic energy that they have from the past, has enough karmic positive energy to manifest. So you can manifest if you have the right karmic energy to do so, that potential energy to come into kinetic energy. It has to be there to even use it.

And when you use it up,

then you're using up the supporting condition, the energy. And it's no longer there. So you want to continue to deposit. I don't like that, but, you know, by being kind. Not because you want something back. So even the same act of kindness has different levels of karmic energy based on your intention behind it.

Is it purely to help that person? Is it because I want something back? Or if I want recognition? And B, you have to pay really close attention when you do good things. Is there a pride? You know? Is there a recognition seeking? A lot of people want to do good things, right? When I say make positive impact on other people's lives, you say yes, I want to make positive impact. But when you do that, you have to be very careful of the ego.

Because when you seek recognition for it, when you seek somebody else to notice, because you want something back, or just feel proud that I'm able to do this, that's all ego-based. So even though an act of kindness was there, that's why you don't really want to taunt, keep it quiet.

That way it becomes true, compassionate action. And you do it without anybody knowing is the best way. Yeah. You don't want people to know your capacity. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. It could be confusing to some people. Yeah. So it depends on your level of ego that wants a recognition. That's part of the five desires. You know, the fame and fortune.

You know, fame is not just being famous, but being acknowledged and validated by others. That desire to be recognized, you know, to be loved, to be cared for. All ego-based. That's why we want to practice compassion so that we take that energy towards outside.

We're trying to do other, you know, to make positive impact on others more. Become selfless. Selfless. Okay? That's what we have to practice. That's why I want to encourage everybody, not just donation, but give your time and effort to the Sangha. That's why I want to encourage volunteering, you know, come help with this and this and that.

Okay? And sometimes I may sound demanding, but it's for your own karmic merits. You have to establish positive karmic energy even to practice. Without it, there's always going to be too much obstacles that you can't overcome because you don't have enough karmic merit to help you through those.

Okay? So, time, energy, donation, all of those count. Gentle smile, you know, lending a hand, even prayer for other people, all of those accumulate positive karma. Okay? So, that's why I encourage in our daily practice guideline, what does it say? One random act of kindness. Make sure you at least think about others.

Okay? Of course, you want to do more. It's to incite that.

So, we will no longer stay selfish. Just focus on my, and what I have to gain. Okay? Okay, it's past twelve. We're going to meet downstairs. Let's end with our, metta prayer. If you have any additional questions, we can address it downstairs. So, let's bring our palms together.

Repeat after me. May we pray for all sentient beings. May all beings be safe. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be joyful. May all beings be joyful. May all beings awaken to their true nature.

May all beings awaken to their true nature. May all beings be free. May all beings be free. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you, God.