The Karmic Seeds of Our Thoughts, Words, Acts

Karma is a term used regularly but understood rarely. I think that this is because we have adopted the term in the West to refer to some kind "destiny" This is not true.

During the question and answer times of retreats, its one of those "always comes up" subject. I want to talk today about a small subsection of the subject of karma. I want to look a little into karmic seeds.

Every thought, every word, every action carries with it own power. It's propelling momentum. Taking momentum from what was just before and leading to what is immediately ahead. Khenpo Choga Rinpoche calls karma the "Power of our thoughts - the power of our thinking." At every instance, we have the momentum from the previous moment. At that moment we create the momentum towards the next moment.

(I want to point out that in fact there is not truly a connection between one moment and the next moment. It is only the momentum. We connect one moment to another just like connecting one frame of movie film to the next. The film is made up of one still photo after another. It only appears that there is a connection which comes out as motion.)

We carry the results of all of our past within our thinking. Unless eliminated, that remains part of our thinking - our mind.

This is what it referred to as the karmic seeds. It is that imprint from all past, thoughts, words, and actions. They can be positive, negative, or neutral. Every moment we are experiencing the karma of the past and are creating the karma for the future.

A master once said "If you want to understand the present look to your past actions. If you want to know about the future, look to your present actions."

Karmic seeds will either come to fruitition or they may be purified. This is very important distinction in the View of Buddhism. Nothing is set in the future. There is no predetermined destiny. There is the tendency of a pattern but always changeable. Never confuse this one. Otherwise, you are caught into thinking that Buddhism teaches predetermmined destiny - It absolutely does not!

Whether positve, negative, or neutral, the karmic seeds will eventually come to fruition unless they are eliminated. There is no statue of limitation. No expiration date to these seeds. It is important to remember that this applies to the postive seeds as well as the negative seeds. So be assured, your good deeds will always produce good seeds. (Just don't burn them up with negative actions).

Depending on the situation, we can speak of karmic seeds being purified, burned up, eliminated, destroyed, pr an assortment of other metaphors. All these terms are referring to the same thing.

Purification of negative karmic seeds is approached in various levels of Vajrayana Buddhism according to its their View and methods. Many of the tantric practices of the inner tantras are to purify negative karmic seeds.

The practice of Vajrasattva has its primary purpose to purify of negative karmic seeds of our actions, words, and thoughts not only from this lifetime but also past lives. For most Vajrayana practictioners, the purification practice of Vajrasattva is part of every day's practice. It may be short or extensive but it is usually there.

In the next writing, I will try to led off with karma comming to fruition.

For this discussion, I want to just stay with the importance of remembering that karma is created by every moments actions, words, and deeds. This karma stays with us like seeds waiting for the the right conditions to sprout. There is no expiration. However, the negative karmic seeds can be burned up, eliminated, or purified. There is not predetermined destiny.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff