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Why should we care what karma is?

What does it apply to us?

Are the original insights in some way grounded in

contemporary clinical psychology or otherwise testable empirical research.

All of those questions and more I will attempt to answer in tonight's talk. So settle in

in relax. Find your most comfortable seats and here we go. What the Buddha taught, which was an actually

of a very nuanced psychological insight to the nature of the human mind and how the human mind internally feels

as a result of the intentions that we follow in our life. So I'm going to be reading from some of the

original Suits from 2,500 years ago which lay out the original insights into karma in what's known as the middle-length discourses,

number 57, the Buddha lists and gives a very clear definition of the nature of karma. There's many other places he does as well.

He says that actions born of ill intention, which would for example be speaking

harmfully or acting aggressively and violently to someone not out of self-defense,

becoming intoxicated, causing harm through sexuality or other means,

that all actions born of ill intent have the capability of creating dark

states of mind in the future, dark states of mind, dark states of being. So he's talking about as we'll see internal feelings result.

Actions born of harmless motivations such as generosity, goodwill,

gratitude, compassion, equanimity, appreciation of others' joys, lead to happy states in the future.

And then acts that are born of muddled intentions

or kind of wrote actions where we don't even think about what we're doing lead in the future

...