My question is: 
Why human beings have different karma?

Thank you.

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

Are you sure?

(Laughter)

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

(Laughter)

I was quite sure but now....

(Laughter)

Karma is action, 
the word karma means action

My name Nhat Hanh means one action only.

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

(Laughter)

Karma may be cause or may be effect.

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

And cause and effect they are together.

You cannot remove 
the cause from the effect...

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

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

but they are not two separate entities.

You cannot remove the corn kernel 
from the plant of corn

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

So cause and effect 
are not two different entities.

And one is the continuation of the other.

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

in the direction of the future;

and the kernel of corn 
continues the plant of corn

in the direction of the past.

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

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

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

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

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

There is what we call collective karma 
and individual karma

and you are talking about 
individual karma.

And it's different from other karma,

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

you already make a big step.

Because the notions of 
individual and collective

are also a pair of opposites 
to be transcended.

When a young person 
tells his father that:

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

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

That is a view that I am not you.

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

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

And there are young people say like that.

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

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

To commit suicide is an offence.

You are killing your father,

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

This body is not yours.

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

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

based on wrong view.

So to meditate is to see 
the nature of interbeing,

non-self, which allow you to act properly.

and not to cause suffering that is karma.

And your body is not 
your individual property.

It is also collective at the same time.

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

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

of your ancestors'.

So you are not strictly individual,

you are partly collective,

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

Suppose you say that 
you have your nerves,

your optic nerves behind your eyes.

Your optic nerves look like 
something strictly individual.

It only concerns you, 
your optic nerves,

that is something absolutely individual.

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

It concerns only you.

That is a notion of 
individual and collectiveness.

But if you are a bus driver,

our lives depend on your optic nerves.

So your optic nerves are not 
individual any more,

they belong to us because 
our lives depend on your optic nerves.

So your optic nerve is something 
you describe as individual

but in fact they are collective.

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

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

And the karma, the action 
might be better or worse.

When 600 people come for a retreat,

they read something together as collective action.

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

and this is a collective action 
and we profit from that.

There are those in the world 
at this time they don't practice like us.

and they drink and go dancing, and they 
spend their time in a very different way.

And we have been able to set aside 
three weeks to come together

and we are sharing a kind of 
collective action here

that we believe to be a good action.

because every day 
we water the seeds of mindfulness,

understanding, compassion in us 
and the collective.

But in the collective, 
you can see the individuals -

there are those that 
do better than some others,

there are those of us 
who can find it possible to transform,

to leave behind the burden of worries 
in the first five days;

there are those who also 
need more than that,

only on the third week that 
they can release, put down their worries.

So in the collective, 
there is the individual

and in the individual,
there is the collective.

And there is no absolute individuality, 
there is no absolute collectivity.

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

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

And you see that 
any karma affects all of us.

Whatever good we are doing here 
is helping the world,

so we have to be confident that 
the karma is not lost.

any thought of compassion and forgiveness 
that we produce not only can help us heal

but can help the world.

So during the 21 days, we have been 
producing thoughts of compassion,

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

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

because sameness and otherness 
is also a pair of opposites.

So right view lies in the fact that

you are able to remove 
all these pairs of opposites.