QUESTION: So we arc not determined by our kamma, we can change it.
ANSWER: Of course we can. That is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort. It depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong the habit is. But it is true that some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits, without making an effort to change them and falling victim to their unpleasant results. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change their negative habits. The longer the negative habits remain, the more difficult they are to change. The Buddhist understand this and take advantage of each and every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop ones that have a pleasant result. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habit patterns of the mind as does speaking or refraining form speaking, acting or refraining from acting in certain ways. The whole of the Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the mind. For example, if being patient and kind were a pronounced part of your character in your last life, such tendencies would re-emerge in the present life. If they are encourages and developed in the present life they will re-emerge even stronger and more pronounce in the future life. This is based upon the simple and observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break.
Now, when you arc patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not easily ruffled by others, you don’t hold grudges, people like you and thus your experiences tends to bc happier. Take another example. Let us say that you came into life with tendency to be patient and kind due to your mental habits in the past life. But in the present life you neglect to strengthen and develop such tendencies. They would gradually weaken and die out and perhaps 1w completely absent in the future life. Patience and kindness being weak in this case, there is a possibility that in either this life or in the next life, a short temper, anger and cruelty could grow and develop, bringing with them all the unpleasant experiences such attitudes create.
‘We will take one last example. Let us say that due to your mental habits in the last life, you came into the present life with the tendency to be short—tempered and angry and you realize that such habits only cause unpleasantness. If you are only able to weaken such tendencies, they would re-emerge in the next life where with a bit more effort, they could be eliminated completely and you could he free from their unpleasant effects.
ANSWER: Of course we can. That is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort. It depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong the habit is. But it is true that some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits, without making an effort to change them and falling victim to their unpleasant results. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change their negative habits. The longer the negative habits remain, the more difficult they are to change. The Buddhist understand this and take advantage of each and every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop ones that have a pleasant result. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habit patterns of the mind as does speaking or refraining form speaking, acting or refraining from acting in certain ways. The whole of the Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the mind. For example, if being patient and kind were a pronounced part of your character in your last life, such tendencies would re-emerge in the present life. If they are encourages and developed in the present life they will re-emerge even stronger and more pronounce in the future life. This is based upon the simple and observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break.
Now, when you arc patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not easily ruffled by others, you don’t hold grudges, people like you and thus your experiences tends to bc happier. Take another example. Let us say that you came into life with tendency to be patient and kind due to your mental habits in the past life. But in the present life you neglect to strengthen and develop such tendencies. They would gradually weaken and die out and perhaps 1w completely absent in the future life. Patience and kindness being weak in this case, there is a possibility that in either this life or in the next life, a short temper, anger and cruelty could grow and develop, bringing with them all the unpleasant experiences such attitudes create.
‘We will take one last example. Let us say that due to your mental habits in the last life, you came into the present life with the tendency to be short—tempered and angry and you realize that such habits only cause unpleasantness. If you are only able to weaken such tendencies, they would re-emerge in the next life where with a bit more effort, they could be eliminated completely and you could he free from their unpleasant effects.
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