WEBVTT

00:00:31.861 --> 00:00:39.039
My question is: 
Why human beings have different karma?

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:42.640
Thank you.

00:00:44.568 --> 00:00:50.527
Our friend is asking why 
each human being has a different karma?

00:00:56.090 --> 00:00:57.374
Are you sure?

00:00:57.731 --> 00:01:00.928
(Laughter)

00:01:00.928 --> 00:01:06.140
Are you sure that every human being 
has a different karma?

00:01:09.410 --> 00:01:13.336
(Laughter)

00:01:13.336 --> 00:01:17.386
I was quite sure but now....

00:01:17.558 --> 00:01:28.718
(Laughter)

00:01:32.008 --> 00:01:38.100
Karma is action, 
the word karma means action

00:01:40.857 --> 00:01:46.224
My name Nhat Hanh means one action only.

00:01:47.064 --> 00:01:57.399
Nhat means one, Hanh means action, 
and I don't know what action it is.

00:01:57.399 --> 00:02:01.414
(Laughter)

00:02:05.914 --> 00:02:11.972
Karma may be cause or may be effect.

00:02:12.412 --> 00:02:24.804
Karma hetu is action as a cause and 
karma-phala is karma as a fruit.

00:02:25.104 --> 00:02:31.286
And cause and effect they are together.

00:02:31.286 --> 00:02:34.739
You cannot remove 
the cause from the effect...

00:02:35.136 --> 00:02:38.765
...and you cannot remove 
the effect from the cause.

00:02:39.728 --> 00:02:49.120
It is like the corn kernel is the 
cause and the corn stalk is the effect

00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:53.752
but they are not two separate entities.

00:02:53.752 --> 00:02:58.611
You cannot remove the corn kernel 
from the plant of corn

00:02:58.611 --> 00:03:04.360
and you cannot remove 
the corn plant out from the corn kernel.

00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:12.424
So cause and effect 
are not two different entities.

00:03:12.424 --> 00:03:16.928
And one is the continuation of the other.

00:03:17.478 --> 00:03:20.536
The plant of corn is a 
continuation of the seed of corn

00:03:20.536 --> 00:03:23.134
in the direction of the future;

00:03:23.134 --> 00:03:26.740
and the kernel of corn 
continues the plant of corn

00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.286
in the direction of the past.

00:03:29.286 --> 00:03:39.900
Thanks to the corn kernel, the plant 
of corn has access to the ancestors.

00:03:40.145 --> 00:03:45.989
And thanks to the plant of corn, 
the ancestors have access to the future.

00:03:46.290 --> 00:03:53.368
It's a wonderful collaboration 
on the base of no-self.

00:03:53.368 --> 00:04:00.768
There is only a continuation and 
that is from the point of view of time.

00:04:02.358 --> 00:04:07.720
From the point of view of space,
it's the same.

00:04:07.720 --> 00:04:16.162
There is what we call collective karma 
and individual karma

00:04:17.782 --> 00:04:22.324
and you are talking about 
individual karma.

00:04:22.717 --> 00:04:26.394
And it's different from other karma,

00:04:26.394 --> 00:04:32.645
but if you reflect on the notion 
of individual and collective,

00:04:32.645 --> 00:04:37.156
you already make a big step.

00:04:37.586 --> 00:04:41.497
Because the notions of 
individual and collective

00:04:41.497 --> 00:04:46.290
are also a pair of opposites 
to be transcended.

00:04:50.713 --> 00:05:00.724
When a young person 
tells his father that:

00:05:00.724 --> 00:05:04.408
"This is my body. This is my life,"

00:05:04.408 --> 00:05:12.582
"I have the freedom, I have the right 
to do anything with my body, my life."

00:05:12.582 --> 00:05:17.433
That is a view that I am not you.

00:05:17.433 --> 00:05:20.867
"I have my own body, 
my own feeling, my own life."

00:05:20.867 --> 00:05:25.271
"I have the right to dispose my life
the way I want."

00:05:25.271 --> 00:05:27.752
And there are young people say like that.

00:05:27.752 --> 00:05:32.994
They don't know that they are the 
continuation of their father, their mother.

00:05:32.994 --> 00:05:41.683
And in fact they cannot harm, they do not 
have the right to harm their father, their own body.

00:05:41.683 --> 00:05:44.725
To commit suicide is an offence.

00:05:44.725 --> 00:05:47.009
You are killing your father,

00:05:47.009 --> 00:05:51.640
you are killing your mother, 
your ancestors when you commit suicide.

00:05:51.640 --> 00:05:54.910
This body is not yours.

00:05:54.910 --> 00:05:59.727
This body is a property of your father's, 
of your ancestors'.

00:05:59.727 --> 00:06:06.675
And with that kind of insight, you cannot 
behave like the way many people behave,

00:06:06.675 --> 00:06:09.317
based on wrong view.

00:06:10.513 --> 00:06:14.315
So to meditate is to see 
the nature of interbeing,

00:06:14.317 --> 00:06:20.389
non-self, which allow you to act properly.

00:06:20.389 --> 00:06:22.907
and not to cause suffering that is karma.

00:06:22.907 --> 00:06:31.483
And your body is not 
your individual property.

00:06:34.095 --> 00:06:36.404
It is also collective at the same time.

00:06:36.404 --> 00:06:41.403
Your body is a collective product 
of your nation's,

00:06:41.657 --> 00:06:44.692
of your people's, of your culture's,

00:06:46.567 --> 00:06:48.938
of your ancestors'.

00:06:49.188 --> 00:06:51.511
So you are not strictly individual,

00:06:51.848 --> 00:06:53.930
you are partly collective,

00:06:54.527 --> 00:07:00.252
and it depends on a way of looking 
that you are more or less collective.

00:07:05.803 --> 00:07:16.075
Suppose you say that 
you have your nerves,

00:07:16.332 --> 00:07:21.914
your optic nerves behind your eyes.

00:07:22.828 --> 00:07:28.998
Your optic nerves look like 
something strictly individual.

00:07:32.271 --> 00:07:34.981
It only concerns you, 
your optic nerves,

00:07:35.248 --> 00:07:38.617
that is something absolutely individual.

00:07:39.531 --> 00:07:45.001
People don't see it, 
they are not concerned by it.

00:07:45.001 --> 00:07:47.436
It concerns only you.

00:07:48.201 --> 00:07:54.441
That is a notion of 
individual and collectiveness.

00:07:54.691 --> 00:07:56.673
But if you are a bus driver,

00:07:57.451 --> 00:07:59.630
our lives depend on your optic nerves.

00:07:59.630 --> 00:08:03.932
So your optic nerves are not 
individual any more,

00:08:03.932 --> 00:08:09.524
they belong to us because 
our lives depend on your optic nerves.

00:08:10.444 --> 00:08:15.381
So your optic nerve is something 
you describe as individual

00:08:15.381 --> 00:08:18.631
but in fact they are collective.

00:08:19.070 --> 00:08:25.056
So we have the notion of 
collective karma and individual karma.

00:08:25.326 --> 00:08:33.983
And any karma whether it is collective
or individual affects the whole.

00:08:36.797 --> 00:08:42.494
And the karma, the action 
might be better or worse.

00:08:42.494 --> 00:08:46.616
When 600 people come for a retreat,

00:08:48.234 --> 00:08:53.290
they read something together as collective action.

00:08:53.580 --> 00:09:00.798
They do sitting, walking, breathing, 
smiling, sharing,

00:09:00.798 --> 00:09:07.514
and this is a collective action 
and we profit from that.

00:09:08.214 --> 00:09:13.594
There are those in the world 
at this time they don't practice like us.

00:09:13.594 --> 00:09:22.810
and they drink and go dancing, and they 
spend their time in a very different way.

00:09:25.784 --> 00:09:36.077
And we have been able to set aside 
three weeks to come together

00:09:38.176 --> 00:09:43.797
and we are sharing a kind of 
collective action here

00:09:44.003 --> 00:09:46.996
that we believe to be a good action.

00:09:47.253 --> 00:09:51.406
because every day 
we water the seeds of mindfulness,

00:09:51.627 --> 00:09:57.100
understanding, compassion in us 
and the collective.

00:09:57.606 --> 00:10:01.879
But in the collective, 
you can see the individuals -

00:10:02.104 --> 00:10:05.751
there are those that 
do better than some others,

00:10:06.133 --> 00:10:11.442
there are those of us 
who can find it possible to transform,

00:10:11.654 --> 00:10:19.918
to leave behind the burden of worries 
in the first five days;

00:10:20.252 --> 00:10:25.987
there are those who also 
need more than that,

00:10:26.191 --> 00:10:32.509
only on the third week that 
they can release, put down their worries.

00:10:32.902 --> 00:10:35.567
So in the collective, 
there is the individual

00:10:35.785 --> 00:10:40.337
and in the individual,
there is the collective.

00:10:41.030 --> 00:10:46.717
And there is no absolute individuality, 
there is no absolute collectivity.

00:10:46.909 --> 00:10:52.432
That is the truth. And that is why 
it is another pair of opposites.

00:10:52.773 --> 00:10:57.876
And if you practice looking deeply,
you can remove them.

00:11:00.431 --> 00:11:07.602
And you see that 
any karma affects all of us.

00:11:08.634 --> 00:11:17.965
Whatever good we are doing here 
is helping the world,

00:11:17.965 --> 00:11:21.125
so we have to be confident that 
the karma is not lost.

00:11:21.125 --> 00:11:27.378
any thought of compassion and forgiveness 
that we produce not only can help us heal

00:11:27.605 --> 00:11:29.299
but can help the world.

00:11:29.588 --> 00:11:37.076
So during the 21 days, we have been 
producing thoughts of compassion,

00:11:37.239 --> 00:11:41.944
of loving kindness, 
that is our best contribution to the world.

00:11:43.357 --> 00:12:00.401
And that is why our action of karma 
is neither different nor the same

00:12:00.447 --> 00:12:05.200
because sameness and otherness 
is also a pair of opposites.

00:12:05.655 --> 00:12:08.482
So right view lies in the fact that

00:12:08.660 --> 00:12:13.229
you are able to remove 
all these pairs of opposites.