Bringing Wisdom to Life. Anita Carter

and develop. The quality of our moment by moment experience of life is most determined by the quality of our own mind.

      There are approximately forty volumes of Buddhist texts explaining what the Buddha found out, and the methods Buddha taught his students so they could develop their own minds to see ultimate reality directly, for themselves. How do we get a vantage point that can help us use this knowledge to move forward in our own lives?

      One natural law that is used in Buddhist philosophy is the law of kamma. If we understand it correctly, it is a key to learning what Buddhist practice is all about and setting out on the Path to our own true wellbeing and happiness. This is the Law of Kamma or the law of cause and effect.

       Law of Kamma

      The Buddha taught that the origin of reality itself is from cause and effect. The Law of Kamma holds that every action we do intentionally, either through our body, speech and mind produces an effect that will be experienced by the doer at some time in the future. These actions we do may be:

      1 Morally good, kind and helpful actions to ourselves or others - which by nature produce outcomes that are beneficial and conducive to the happiness and well-being of the doer.

      2 Morally neutral actions - which by nature do not contribute either positively or negatively to the well-being of the doer.

      3 Morally bad, unkind and harmful actions to ourselves or others - which by nature produce outcomes of harm, difficulty and unhappiness for the doer of the actions.

      As some Christian teachings put it, "as you sow so you will reap".

      The Law of Kamma applies not only to our physical world, but also to our mental world and is the origin of the unfolding experience of every living being.

      It is described that each action of our body, speech and mind we do with intention plants a “seed” or cause in our consciousness which will fruit at some future time into an event or experience we will have.

      When we actually experience the result or effect of these seeds is similar to what happens in nature. If we plant a seed of a tree it does not grow up instantaneously. It is in the soil unseen by us. When the natural supporting conditions such as moisture, heat and light are right it germinates and then we see it.

      It is described in Buddhism that our kammic seeds are the causes for all the events and experiences we have in our lives. As we live each event and each experience we use up and exhaust some of our kammic seeds. As these kammic results are being experienced, according to our mind’s responses, we are also making new causes.

      Our morally bad or unwholesome kammic seeds fruit when we experience hardship, sorrow and difficulty, our morally good or wholesome kammic seeds are used up when we experience such things as honour, wealth and happiness.

      Accordingly, Buddhist Teachings explain how we live our life each day, the type of actions, speech and thinking we generate are the raw ingredients, the source from which our future experience arises. All the forms and types of Buddhist practice, all the different traditions, are based on this premise.

      Therefore, we begin with this explanation about kamma. As we look at the different aspects of Buddhism, we can start to appreciate how and why Buddhism works and how it can work for you in your life if you choose to practice it.

      Chapter 2 – Happiness Map

      Words like “love” or “happiness” can mean a lot of different things to different people, or can mean different things when used in different circumstances. In the context of Buddhism what are we referring to when we talk about our well being and happiness?

      We are not really talking about the happiness that comes when we experience something we like or acquire something we wanted. That form of happiness from a Buddhist point of view is not very reliable or stable. As soon as we lose the thing we were happy about or as soon as the experience we like stops, our happiness can shrivel up.

      The pleasure of hearing a great new song fades, our new clothes become old fashioned, our new car becomes outdated, our cutting-edge computer is soon too slow, and maybe even a past friend becomes a new enemy. The person we once loved now seems to irritate us.

      These scenarios we all know too well. Getting what we want doesn't ensure our happiness. Maybe it looks like it will make us happy at the time, but from a Buddhist viewpoint it is transitory and unreliable. Sooner or later everything wears out.

      Also, this type of happiness that depends on something outside us often has too much dependency and attachment in it.

      This dependency tends to work against our happiness. For example, we may experience some happiness with our partner yet at the same time; because of our attachment to them, we may experience such things as jealousy, possessiveness, insecurity and resentment because they won't be what we want them to be.

      We are focused too much externally. We see external improvement as our main investment for our wellbeing and our family's wellbeing. Consider all the things we believe we need to improve; home improvement, wealth improvement, car improvement, status improvement, job improvement, relationship improvement and so many things. How much of our perception and mental space is caught up in this belief that improving our external situation is all that is needed to be happy?

      Do we really get to be happier over our lifetime as we attain these things? In any case, can we be sure which of these things will last for us?

      It's not that these things are of no value. They are certainly important and necessary and we must attend to them. However, in essence, these things are fundamentally our mechanics for living. They are our supply chain of what is needed to support our life such as our food, our shelter, our clothing, our transport, our health, our education, and so on. But we can easily believe they are ends in themselves. We hope that this life support system when developed to a certain level will provide real security and happiness for us.

      If our existing view of how happiness is produced was accurate, we would understand how to become happier over time and we would see many others who followed a similar path appearing to be really happy, most of the time. Is this what is happening?

      It becomes evident if you do the analysis that our happiness will never have a secure base if it is tied to external events and conditions which are outside our control. By contrast, the Buddhist approach comes from the understanding that to develop real happiness in our mind we need to focus on improving our mind, and the way we experience living.

       Happiness Map

      Virtue Platform

      If we pick up a book on Buddhism we won’t find in it such a thing as a Happiness Map. However, this map is a way of expressing the foundations or platform upon which a happy life can be created.

      To begin with it is essential to understand that mental states such as worry, regret, stinginess, ill will, doubt, laziness, dullness of mind, greed, restlessness, attachment, conceit, aversion, boredom, jealousy and envy are all producers of unhappiness now and in the future. If we harbour these mental states they are drivers of unhappiness now, and because of the law of kamma they make causes for similar mental states to come back to us again in the future. Together they make an unhappiness-producing platform, or a stress-producing platform, or a confusion-producing platform.

      As the Buddha says in the Dhammapada, Chapter 1:

      "Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief: they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of an ox" 1.

      We gradually train ourselves through Buddhist Practice to stop the negative or unwholesome minds from arising - now, and in the future. We apply restraint to our negative behaviour in