July 7, 2014
Venerable Wuling in Karma and Causality, Wandering thoughts

Do not spend time wondering

what another’s karmic consequences will be.

It is our own consequences

that we should be concerned with.

 

While it may seem instructional for our understanding of causality to figure out what someone else's consequences will be, in reality, we do not have the ability to do this. So why try?

To ascertain someone else’s consequences, we would need to know many things including their intentions. But experience tells us how difficult it is to figure out what our own intentions are. How can we hope to discover someone else’s? It would all be wandering thoughts.

It would be much wiser to spend our time examining our own intentions, layer by layer. Am I acting out of anger?

Perhaps carelessness?

Did I mean to help but made mistakes so was unsuccessful?

Or did I perhaps act out of jealousy?

Or selfishness?

Since we will have to live with our own consequences, learning why we act the way we do—and how to change for the better—is what a wise person focuses on.

 

Article originally appeared on a buddhist perspective (http://www.abuddhistperspective.org/).
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