Selflessness matters

When I was growing up as a monk in a Thai forest monastery, we had to make the robes we wear ourselves. It was not an easy task. Not only do we had to take the cloth, cut it out and sew it, we also had to dye it ourselves by boiling chips of wood from the jackfruit tree to get the sap. Even without sleep, it took literally days to make them. I remembered there was this group of monks who had no rest due to making the robes for 36 to 40 hours. Out of compassion, I decided to help them after the evening meeting to mind the fire for the dye throughout the night so that they could get some sleep. I went without sleep that night. But do you know, instead of being drowsy and tired that morning, I had lots of energy. I couldn’t understand why I was more awake that morning than most other mornings, so I asked a teacher, “Why?” My teacher told me if you sacrificed your sleep to help others, and you get more energy than you had a good rest, that proved that I had done some good karma. Because of my selfless service to others, I had gotten immediate karmic rewards of energy, happiness and, of course, the friendliness of other monks.

If you act with selflessness, kindness and care to other people, even for other beings, you get immediate reward and positive mental energy, which is happiness. Sometimes, you also get a reward afterwards that last for a very long time. The law of karma is the law of happiness. If you want to be happy, don’t think that the world conspires against you, or that you have to be stuck in a difficult situation, go out there and do something about it. The karma from your past gives you what you have to work with. But the most important part of karma is what you are doing about it right now.

For instance, if, due to your past karma, you have a terrible boss who gives you all his work and goes off to play golf the whole day, what are you doing with your present karma? Because whatever you have to experience in life you can always do something about it. You can get friendly with your boss. Take him out to lunch or dinner, find out what he likes or what his problems are. Talk to him, but choose your opportunities, at the right time and place, and not when he’s busy.

Generally, in life, be it in relationship, business or others, it is about finding the right time and the right place to say the right things. So you wait. If you have a girlfriend who’s giving you trouble, take her out to an expensive restaurant. Give her a sumptuous meal and when she’s at her final course, speak to her so soft and malleable that you can ask her anything you like and she won’t get angry.

When a person is treated kindly, they like to treat you kindly in return. It’s just the law of karma. You may experience a difficult situation due to your past karma, but what you are doing in the present is most crucial. Are you using that experience to be a better person? To learn from it?

Transforming the negative into positive

In my life as a monk, I’ve been in sticky situations. I’ve counselled other people in difficult situations and I’ve always found this active law of karma (“Well this is what you’re experiencing, something negative, and what you’re doing about it.”) very, very powerful.

Once, there was a woman who told me she had been raped. I looked at her and used my mindfulness to find out what sort of woman I was talking to. I quickly found out this was quite a strong and wise person who had enough good karma from the past to be able to deal with it in a special way. So I told her how lucky she was. She looked at me in utter surprise. I don’t usually say this to everyone who had been in this terrible situation. I told her, “I’m not saying that it’s good or whatever but you can actually use that experience and turn it into something wonderful, by contemplating and understanding, to get beyond your pain and to help other women move beyond that experience into freedom.”

“Only people who have had those experiences had an opportunity to help others,” I said. “I, as a monk, as a man can never know how you feel but I can tell you if you make use of that terrible experience you can turn it into something amazing. You can be the counsellor, the friend, the wise one. Only you because you’ve been there. You’ve felt that pain, that abuse so only you can take somebody else’s hand from the place you’ve been and lead them out into freedom.” That I said is how you use a terrible karma and turn it into something wonderful and beautiful. She nodded. She understood and I think she’s on the way not just to her own recovery but also to be a special person in our society who can lead other people out of that terrible situation. Sometimes, only those who felt the very worst of emotional suffering that gets deep inside, not just the physical pain, can actually take the hand of somebody else and say “I know not just how hard it feels but I also know the way out. Come.”

This is an example of how we understand the law of karma even if a devastating thing happens in our life. We can make use of that for the benefit of all other beings. Sometimes you are hurt and tortured by the untimely death of a child, a loved one, maybe a fiancé whom you’re about to get married to, due to an earthquake, a tsunami, a heart attack, or an accident they die. So close to happiness and they’re taken away. Sometimes you ask why. Why do these things happen? I say stop asking that question and get out and do something about it. When we waste time asking why, we are not actually doing something about the situation.

Death comes to all, young and old

During the aftermath of a tsunami, an earthquake, we can give donations, go help look after the injured and the sick, rebuild their homes, rebuild their lives, but most importantly is to learn just how precious life truly is. How easy it is to die, even for a young person. When you realise that, you don’t have time for arguments. You don’t have time for being selfish. If you want to tell someone how much you love them how much you care for them, you do it now. If you have hurt someone you say sorry now. Because the earthquake tells you that sometimes we don’t know how long we have to say these important things to the important people in our life. For life can be snuff out in an instance. This is what an earthquake does, a sudden death, a tragedy. It jots us back to what is truly important in life. And what’s important in life is not wealth or fame but your loved ones and your own spiritual heart. Your goodness, your kindness. This is another example of the law of karma. How can we take what most people call tragedies and turn it into something wonderful and beautiful?

A Buddhist from UK visited and volunteered to work in a refugee camp in Africa some years back. It was a terrible situation there, with many starving children and women but limited food to distribute. Every morning, this lady was given a number. This number represented the number of people she could let in that day. Only that many. The rest had to be kept outside. She knew those who could come in would survive and those outside would die. But if they share the limited food thinly with everyone, nobody would survive. For weeks, this lady had the horrible job of literally choosing who would live, and who would die. Those who heard her story thought that must have been so terrible. But strangely, she told us no, it was one of the most inspiring times of her life. Because every morning when she went outside and said six of you could come in, the starving African women and children said,” Don’t take me, take her, that one over there.” Even though they knew they would die, they gave up their chance so that others may live. It was most inspiring for her to witness the fact that in the face of death, there were people who were so selfless and compassionate. They would rather sacrifice themselves and give life to somebody else. Her faith in humanity, kindness, compassion, selflessness which a religion speaks about but very rarely act upon was fully restored. This is another example of how the law of karma works. The situation that you’re put in, even terrible ones in which you’re about to die, can allow people to be selfless, dying with such grace and inspiration to soar way up into the high heavenly realms.

An act of kindness doesn’t just brighten you up, it also brightens up for all sentient beings. It brings inspiration and goodness into our lives. Instead of lamenting and asking why is this happening to me, learn from it, learn from the mistakes and become a better person.

If you really want you can do whatever and anything you like in this life. You can make a beautiful picture out of something you think is hopeless. I have seen it happened and its wonderfully inspiring to know that is what the law of karma means. All possibilities are open to you; its just some possibilities take more hard work than others. The law of karma means that you are free, you are free to make your future. The present moment, you’re confined to that. You may suffer from a relationship problem, cancer, a loss of job or a divorce but you can always turn it around. You can make a beautiful cake out of the worst ingredients, that’s what it says in my book. That’s what the law of karma means. You create your world. You are in charge. Whatever you got to deal with now, you can make it wonderful and beautiful. You don’t need to be rich to be happy, you don’t need to have the most beautiful girl in the world to have a wonderful wife, you don’t need to have a husband who is earning two hundred thousand a year to have the most wonderful man by your side. It’s up to you what you make of what you’ve got.

Beauty of the heart

I remember once when I was cleaning the hall in Thailand, sweeping behind the cupboard, a girl ran in. At first, I thought she was a burglar because she was looking around to make sure no one was there. I soon recognised her. She was the village girl who was brain damaged from birth. She could not speak, or go to school and could hardly do anything. I wondered what she was doing. I hid and looked from behind the cupboard so she could not see me. I saw her place something in front of the Buddha statue in the main hall. She put her palms together very quickly, looked around and dashed out again. Once she was gone, I went to see what she had left on the altar. It was a paper lotus that she had made. Only a small one, and not very pretty. When I saw that, and I knew where it had come from, how hard it was for her to do that, and how embarrassed she was that she had to sneak in and put it in front of the Buddha statue, I almost cried. I told the other monks when they came in and the abbot who was much senior than me, “Don’t move that paper flower. If you do, I’m going to ge

t angry at you. I’m not going to stand there because I know where that had come from.” That had been a gift, which was so hard for that brain damaged girl to do and she had gone to such extreme lengths to sneak it in and put it in front of the Buddha statue.

To me, that was one of the most beautiful offerings I’ve seen. Because it came from such a pure, generous heart. Even in her difficulty and the need to put in much effort, she made something, and that was a beautiful offering. This is what we mean by karma. It is a joy, a beauty of your heart when you do something like that. It doesn’t matter how big the lotus is, how much the donation is, it doesn’t matter what the act is, it is where it comes from that matters.

When I see people doing inspiring things, I know that is huge good karma. Huge good karma like that creates happiness in this world, for you and for all the other people. So take the opportunity, any chance you have to help someone who’s crying, someone in pain, don’t think about being late for work. Take that chance, do something beautiful and you will never regret it.

Be a good person, a kind person, a virtuous person, a wise person. The Buddha said, the person who sees the Buddha sees the Dharma. So having faith in Buddha is having faith in the Dharma, having faith in truth, in goodness, virtue and purity. Keep then right at the heart of things and you will make huge good beautiful karma.

According to the seed that is sown, So is the fruit ye reap therefrom.

A talk given by Ven. Ajahn Brahm at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery