Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Joseph Goldstein on Karma

Tricycle's Daily Dharma: January 24, 2007:

The Light of the World

The Buddha identified karma as volitional activity. That is, each volition in the mind is like a seed with tremendous potential of the same way that the smallest acorn contains the potential of a great oak tree, so too each of our willed actions contains the seed of karmic results. The particular result depends on the qualities of mind associated with each volition. Greed, hatred, and delusion are unwholesome qualities that produce fruits of suffering; generosity, love, and wisdom are wholesome factors that bear fruits of happiness.

The Buddha called the understanding of this law of karma, the law of action and result, the "light of the world," because it illuminates how life unfolds and why things are the way they are. The wisdom of this understanding allows us the freedom to make wise choices in our life.

~ Joseph Goldstein, in Insight Meditation, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

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