1
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My question is: 
Why human beings have different karma?

2
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Thank you.

3
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Our friend is asking why 
each human being has a different karma?

4
00:00:56,090 --> 00:00:57,374
Are you sure?

5
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(Laughter)

6
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Are you sure that every human being 
has a different karma?

7
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(Laughter)

8
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I was quite sure but now....

9
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(Laughter)

10
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Karma is action, 
the word karma means action

11
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My name Nhat Hanh means one action only.

12
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Nhat means one, Hanh means action, 
and I don't know what action it is.

13
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(Laughter)

14
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Karma may be cause or may be effect.

15
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Karma hetu is action as a cause and 
karma-phala is karma as a fruit.

16
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And cause and effect they are together.

17
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You cannot remove 
the cause from the effect...

18
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...and you cannot remove 
the effect from the cause.

19
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It is like the corn kernel is the 
cause and the corn stalk is the effect

20
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but they are not two separate entities.

21
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You cannot remove the corn kernel 
from the plant of corn

22
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and you cannot remove 
the corn plant out from the corn kernel.

23
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So cause and effect 
are not two different entities.

24
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And one is the continuation of the other.

25
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The plant of corn is a 
continuation of the seed of corn

26
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in the direction of the future;

27
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and the kernel of corn 
continues the plant of corn

28
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in the direction of the past.

29
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Thanks to the corn kernel, the plant 
of corn has access to the ancestors.

30
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And thanks to the plant of corn, 
the ancestors have access to the future.

31
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It's a wonderful collaboration 
on the base of no-self.

32
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There is only a continuation and 
that is from the point of view of time.

33
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From the point of view of space,
it's the same.

34
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There is what we call collective karma 
and individual karma

35
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and you are talking about 
individual karma.

36
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And it's different from other karma,

37
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but if you reflect on the notion 
of individual and collective,

38
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you already make a big step.

39
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Because the notions of 
individual and collective

40
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are also a pair of opposites 
to be transcended.

41
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When a young person 
tells his father that:

42
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"This is my body. This is my life,"

43
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"I have the freedom, I have the right 
to do anything with my body, my life."

44
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That is a view that I am not you.

45
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"I have my own body, 
my own feeling, my own life."

46
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"I have the right to dispose my life
the way I want."

47
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And there are young people say like that.

48
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They don't know that they are the 
continuation of their father, their mother.

49
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And in fact they cannot harm, they do not 
have the right to harm their father, their own body.

50
00:05:41,683 --> 00:05:44,725
To commit suicide is an offence.

51
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You are killing your father,

52
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you are killing your mother, 
your ancestors when you commit suicide.

53
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This body is not yours.

54
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This body is a property of your father's, 
of your ancestors'.

55
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And with that kind of insight, you cannot 
behave like the way many people behave,

56
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based on wrong view.

57
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So to meditate is to see 
the nature of interbeing,

58
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non-self, which allow you to act properly.

59
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and not to cause suffering that is karma.

60
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And your body is not 
your individual property.

61
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It is also collective at the same time.

62
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Your body is a collective product 
of your nation's,

63
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of your people's, of your culture's,

64
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of your ancestors'.

65
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So you are not strictly individual,

66
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you are partly collective,

67
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and it depends on a way of looking 
that you are more or less collective.

68
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Suppose you say that 
you have your nerves,

69
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your optic nerves behind your eyes.

70
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Your optic nerves look like 
something strictly individual.

71
00:07:32,271 --> 00:07:34,981
It only concerns you, 
your optic nerves,

72
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that is something absolutely individual.

73
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People don't see it, 
they are not concerned by it.

74
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It concerns only you.

75
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That is a notion of 
individual and collectiveness.

76
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But if you are a bus driver,

77
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our lives depend on your optic nerves.

78
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So your optic nerves are not 
individual any more,

79
00:08:03,932 --> 00:08:09,524
they belong to us because 
our lives depend on your optic nerves.

80
00:08:10,444 --> 00:08:15,381
So your optic nerve is something 
you describe as individual

81
00:08:15,381 --> 00:08:18,631
but in fact they are collective.

82
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So we have the notion of 
collective karma and individual karma.

83
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And any karma whether it is collective
or individual affects the whole.

84
00:08:36,797 --> 00:08:42,494
And the karma, the action 
might be better or worse.

85
00:08:42,494 --> 00:08:46,616
When 600 people come for a retreat,

86
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they read something together as collective action.

87
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They do sitting, walking, breathing, 
smiling, sharing,

88
00:09:00,798 --> 00:09:07,514
and this is a collective action 
and we profit from that.

89
00:09:08,214 --> 00:09:13,594
There are those in the world 
at this time they don't practice like us.

90
00:09:13,594 --> 00:09:22,810
and they drink and go dancing, and they 
spend their time in a very different way.

91
00:09:25,784 --> 00:09:36,077
And we have been able to set aside 
three weeks to come together

92
00:09:38,176 --> 00:09:43,797
and we are sharing a kind of 
collective action here

93
00:09:44,003 --> 00:09:46,996
that we believe to be a good action.

94
00:09:47,253 --> 00:09:51,406
because every day 
we water the seeds of mindfulness,

95
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understanding, compassion in us 
and the collective.

96
00:09:57,606 --> 00:10:01,879
But in the collective, 
you can see the individuals -

97
00:10:02,104 --> 00:10:05,751
there are those that 
do better than some others,

98
00:10:06,133 --> 00:10:11,442
there are those of us 
who can find it possible to transform,

99
00:10:11,654 --> 00:10:19,918
to leave behind the burden of worries 
in the first five days;

100
00:10:20,252 --> 00:10:25,987
there are those who also 
need more than that,

101
00:10:26,191 --> 00:10:32,509
only on the third week that 
they can release, put down their worries.

102
00:10:32,902 --> 00:10:35,567
So in the collective, 
there is the individual

103
00:10:35,785 --> 00:10:40,337
and in the individual,
there is the collective.

104
00:10:41,030 --> 00:10:46,717
And there is no absolute individuality, 
there is no absolute collectivity.

105
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That is the truth. And that is why 
it is another pair of opposites.

106
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And if you practice looking deeply,
you can remove them.

107
00:11:00,431 --> 00:11:07,602
And you see that 
any karma affects all of us.

108
00:11:08,634 --> 00:11:17,965
Whatever good we are doing here 
is helping the world,

109
00:11:17,965 --> 00:11:21,125
so we have to be confident that 
the karma is not lost.

110
00:11:21,125 --> 00:11:27,378
any thought of compassion and forgiveness 
that we produce not only can help us heal

111
00:11:27,605 --> 00:11:29,299
but can help the world.

112
00:11:29,588 --> 00:11:37,076
So during the 21 days, we have been 
producing thoughts of compassion,

113
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of loving kindness, 
that is our best contribution to the world.

114
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And that is why our action of karma 
is neither different nor the same

115
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because sameness and otherness 
is also a pair of opposites.

116
00:12:05,655 --> 00:12:08,482
So right view lies in the fact that

117
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you are able to remove 
all these pairs of opposites.