This two part course begins with the eight week study of the Buddha’s teachings on karma and the conditional nature of experience. In part two we continue and deepen our study of conditionality through the study of the Buddha’s profound teaching on dependent origination. In this teaching, the Buddha offers insight into the cyclical unfolding of our experience of suffering and how it is possible to realize freedom from these cycles of stress and suffering.
Audio
Readings for our study of Karma
- Kamma and the End of Kamma by Ajahn Sucitto (When you click on link you will need to scroll down to find the beginning of the pdf)
- Chapter 10: Understanding Karma: Cause and Effect from Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield
- Good, Evil and Beyond: Kamma in the Buddha’s Teaching, by P. A. Payutto
- The Issue at Hand – Chapter 7: Karma By Gil Fronsdal
- Kamma and its Fruit by Nyanaponika Thera
- Kamma: A Study Guide by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Boundary of Freedom by Ajahn Sucitto
- Two Guardians of the World by Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Changing Your Mind by Andy Olendzki in Tricycle, Winter 2006
- Sutta Class: Morals and Ethics by Ajahn Thiradhammo
- Primordial Soup Wrestling with wholesome and unwholesome impulses Andrew Olendzki
- We Are What We Do, by Andrew Olendzki, Tricycle, Winter 2008
- The Truth of Rebirth: And Why it Matters for Buddhist Practice by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Panel: The Law of Karma by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Jan Chozen Bays, Jeffrey Hopkins from BuddhaDharma, The Practitioners’ Quarterly, Fall 2002
Additional Resources
Additional Audio/Video:
- Dharma Talk: Two Guardians of the World, Hiri Ottappa, by Kamala Masters
- Dharma Talk: Bright Guardians of the World, by Anushka Fernandopulle
- Dharma Talk: Equanimity and Karma, by Sally Clough Armstrong
- Dharma Talk: Karma, by Marcia Rose
- Dharma Talk: The Law of Karma, by Annie Nugent
Additional Study Materials:
- Cause and Effect: Reflecting on the Law of Karma, by Joseph Goldstein
- The Issue at Hand – Chapter 7: Karma, by Gil Fronsdal
- The Buddha’s Baggage: Everything you wanted to know about karma but were afraid to ask, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Tricycle, Winter 2016
- Kamma and the End of Kamma, by Ajahn Sucitto
- Understanding Karma: Cause and Effect, from Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, Chapter 10, by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield
- Mastering Causality, From Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s book, Meditations 1: Forty Dhamma Talks
- Guardians of the World, by Bhikkhu Bodhi
- What is Karma and Why Should it Matter to You, by Toni Bernhard
- Buddha Dharma Forum: Is Karma Fate or Freedom? Rita Gross, Andrew Olendzki, and Larry Ward explain what karma is, how it works, and why it’s not all bad news. Introduction by David Loy.
- Kamma is Intention, Ayya Khema
- Karma and Rebirth by Ajahn Sumedho, Karma: The Co-Arising of Doer and Deed by Joanna Macy
- Primordial Soup: Wrestling with wholesome and unwholesome impulses, by Andrew Olendzki, Tricycle Winter 2011
- The Sutta located here page 1 page 2 can be used to do a moral inventory once every day if possible. Pay attention to thoughts, images, and memories that arise as you review what is wholesome and unwholesome. What causes your moral conscience to arise?
After Week 2 (2012 class) of Karma – Comments
Monday night I heard Mark discuss two kinds of wholesome regret: regret for wrong things done and regret for right things left undone. That point resonated with me and I did a little research. In the Buddhist Dictionary, Nyanatiloka, (available online) I stumbled across the term kukkucca which says “… it is the repentance over wrong things done, and right things neglected.” From there I found the term “hiri-ottapa,” a term I had never heard before. It is defined as “moral shame and moral dread” and says this is associated with all karmically wholesome consciousness and this protects the world.
I googled that term and printed out two articles. One was by Bhikkhu Bodhi, a writer I respect, called The Guardians of the World. He says, “In the present-day world, with its secularization of all values, such notions as shame and fear of wrong are bound to appear antiquated, . . . Yet the Buddha’s stress on the importance … was based on a deep insight. … The protect of self-cultivation … requires that we keep a critical watch over the movements of our minds … in the practice of self-examination, the sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing play a crucial role. … By cultivating within ourselves the qualities of moral shame and fear of wrongdoing we not only accelerate our own progress along the path to deliverance, but also contribute our share toward the protection of the world. …”
The second article was by Ajahn Jayasaro, a teacher I had not heard of before. He says that we tend to confuse Hiri and Ottappa with guilt, repression, and neurotic reactions. Later he says that the more we reflect upon these aspects of our behavior, the more we train our mind which becomes more refined, sensitive, confident and protected.
Both of these articles support the clear teachings we heard Monday night.
Craig Vollmar