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  • Why is my life the way it is?

  • (Sounds of birds singing and a bell)

  • This world it is the way it is because we are the way we are.

  • (Bell sound)

  • And we are the way we are because there is Karma

  • Karma Bond to the Past and Future

  • (Sound of birds chirping, bells ringing, and a dog barking)

  • Every morning we wake up to a new day.

  • but every morning we also wake up to our old life.

  • To the life that we have created.

  • (forest sounds as the monk walks through it)

  • Last week.

  • Last year

  • Last life

  • This is our Karma.

  • We cannot escape it.

  • Karma Our Life

  • (Chanting)

  • Karma is a sanscrit word. It means "action".

  • We can easily see some of our Karma.

  • Let's just think what we did.

  • Yesterday.

  • Last year.

  • In our childhood.

  • Or in our last life.

  • If we can remember that.

  • What ever we did, this is our Karma.

  • This has become our life.

  • Now.

  • Karma Whatever we did.

  • The Buddhist says "Life is about suffering".

  • Very often we create suffering.

  • For ourselves

  • or for others. We know that.

  • We say bad things.

  • We're impatient.

  • We hurt.

  • Karma We create suffering.

  • We do create suffering around us.

  • This means we fill our own world with suffering.

  • How can we expect to find anything else in this world

  • other than suffering?

  • We will find exactly what we had previously provided.

  • We can create our own hell,

  • but we can just as well create heaven.

  • Karma Heaven or hell.

  • (People talking, market and traffic sounds)

  • Wherever we look in this universe,

  • there is cause and effect.

  • Nothing ever happens out of thin air.

  • This law of cause and effect also applies

  • to our destiny.

  • To the way our life evolves.

  • Whatever we do, whatever we even think

  • will have some effect on our life.

  • Even if just a tiny little bit.

  • Our thoughts and feelings

  • form the world within us.

  • Our words and actions

  • form the world around us.

  • We are constantly shaping our world.

  • And we are shaping our life, little by little.

  • Because for every cause,

  • there must be an effect.

  • Karma Cause and effect

  • (Birds chirping)

  • Whatever we do or think

  • shapes our world, a tiny little bit.

  • Be towards greed and anger

  • or be it towards love and kindness.

  • We can increase suffering in our world

  • or we can prevent suffering.

  • It is up to us.

  • Karma We shape our world.

  • So our actions directly affect our world.

  • Our own as well as other people's world.

  • Because from a Buddhist perspective all is one.

  • Nothing is separate. All is connected.

  • We are all connected.

  • Our own future and the future of others.

  • They interact like cogwheels in a clock.

  • They are one.

  • Karma All is one

  • (Birds continue chirping. Piano sound)

  • Let's see our life as a garden.

  • If we take good care of it,

  • it can be beautiful.

  • Obviously, this will take time and effort.

  • (water sound)

  • And obviously there are a lot of things in our garden

  • beyond our control.

  • The weather,

  • the seasons or maybe some other people

  • whose intentions are different from ours.

  • But, after all, we are the gardener.

  • We will determine what our garden

  • will finely look like.

  • Karma Time and effort

  • (Birds chirping and men chanting)

  • Our present life is created by our Karma

  • We cannot escape it.

  • Since we have created suffering in the past,

  • there will be future suffering too.

  • The future is just the echo of our past actions.

  • For a long time, we have been filling

  • the world around us with our

  • anger and greed.

  • And now it is still there.

  • For example, in the reactions and the feelings

  • of the people around us, in various situations.

  • The suffering we have previously created

  • will now create new suffering.

  • Karma Suffering creates suffering.

  • So, is there a way of actually prevent

  • future suffering?

  • Yes, there is.

  • Our past unwholesome Karma is like

  • a drop of dirty water on the bottom

  • of a big jar.

  • It is there.

  • We cannot change it.

  • We cannot remove it.

  • But we can add clean water.

  • Drop by drop. Little by little.

  • After some time, the jar will contain

  • almost perfectly clear water again.

  • Karma Drop by drop.

  • Since we cannot get rid of our

  • unwholesome Karma,

  • we need to dilute

  • and thereby neutralize it.

  • Rather than creating new suffering again and again,

  • we need to prevent suffering.

  • Therefore, we need to replace our anger

  • and greed with love and kindness.

  • We need to be in control.

  • By meditating we learn to be mindful.

  • We learn to be in control of our actions,

  • our thoughts and feelings.

  • So, finally,

  • we will be able to create

  • less suffering

  • for us and for others.

  • Karma Control instead of suffering.

  • Our Karma is the bond that ties us

  • to past suffering

  • and that will create

  • future suffering too.

  • If we want to be free, we need to cut

  • this bond.

  • We need to prevent the creation of

  • new suffering.

  • So our life can be better

  • next week,

  • next year,

  • next life.

  • Karma It is up to us

  • Everything wholesome. Nothing unwholesome. A Pure mind.

  • This is the past, present and future Buddhas' teaching.

  • A film by Jorg Dittmar

  • Spiritual Guidance Pra Acham Tippakorn Sukhito

  • Production Manager Mae Chee Brigitte Schrottenbacher

  • Narration Morgan Deare

  • Special Thanks

  • All Monks at Ban Sawang Jai, Kate Kamolmas Sringam, Jeffrey Wahl

  • Music Kosinus

  • Start February 2012 in Thailand at Ban Sawang Jai, Pak Chong

Why is my life the way it is?

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