What do you do when one karma is ending?

The Watercooler
1

Like suddenly things becoming positive but karma is still ending. What you do? Act toward the positive or not act but just observe?

Hope you understand a little my point

2

Depends on what one’s goal is. There are those that have been karma free yet are taking on other beings’ karma for eons along the Path, to ease their suffering. What does it mean to be a true friend?

3

Because of doing neither white-nor-black karma therefore ending for 3karmars(no action from Ignorance as root) (in 3ways, physical, speech, thought)… therefore, once Karma is ended… NO MORE doing anything…

It’s not the other way round.

The definition of " Karma " is " intention to be action… "

Buddha said,

" cetanāhaᚃ bhikkhave kammaᚃ vadāmi "
Monks, I said that intention is Karma(action).

4

Not producing kamma just means you’re no longer acting out of the 3 poisons/5 hindrances/ignorance, so what you do now is live contently without suffering, spending time in jhana.

However old kamma still must ripen, just like maha moggallana was killed by bandits for old kamma of killing his parents in a previous life for example. You cannot “take on other beings karma” according to the suttas.

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5

But not just that right? When I read the EBTs, it seems to me that the Buddha and his arahant disciples also do some other activities such as teaching dhamma?

6

Before my stroke, I lived like that. But after my stroke. In the first weeks in hospital I meditated alot, but after meditation enjoyment went down and down. I rarely meditate. Its been 4 years. In the 4 years I struggled with anger, now suddenly its almost gone, only rarely showing up. My mind is more under my control. I bought a tent in meanwhile. Just got a small rechargeble fan for inside. Yesterday night I was going meditate but I was tired so I fell asleep first time in the tent head on my meditation cushion. But mentally Im really preparing too use the tent as my sacred place to meditate. For weeks. But I still rarely meditate in it.

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7

Originally the Buddha’s mind inclined towards seclusion and not teaching the dhamma.

Then Brahma Sahampati, having known with his own awareness the line of thinking in the Blessed One’s awareness, thought: “The world is lost! The world is destroyed! The mind of the Tathagata, the Arahant, the Rightly Self-awakened One inclines to dwelling at ease, not to teaching the Dhamma!”

It’s only once he convinced him that there are some people with little dust in their eyes that it’s worth teaching, but it seems like teaching the dhamma is a hassle for monks

And if I were to teach the Dhamma and if others would not understand me, that would be tiresome for me, troublesome for me."

So teaching the dhamma, something that is extremely subtle and easily misunderstood, and dealing with foolish people, is a burden, and therefore a huge act of compassion for an enlightened being to sacrifice their peace to help others.

The melinda-panha says that if someone becomes an Arahant and doesn’t ordain, they will die within 7 days, and I take that to mean that once a non-ordained Arahant is in nirodha samapatti and they have no desire for any existence/experience then they’d rather just stay in that state and starve until the body dies than leave it and return to experience. That’s just my takeaway though. I’ve also myself had consecutive days where meditation felt amazing and I had no desire to eat and would rather sit in meditation than get up (and I consider myself a huge food addict), and I could only imagine that being amplified 100x more for Arahants.

Aside from that the dhamma-viharin sutta says that a monk only dwells in the dhamma when they’re studying the dhamma for a part of the day, and in jhana for the majority of the day, and the sutta ends with a warning to monks to not neglect jhana. So I take it to mean if you’re not teaching/studying the dhamma, you should be in jhana, but I believe this goes without saying to anyone who is a non-returner+, since if you can enter jhana at will, you would rather stay there and only come out to fulfill sangha duties (like teaching dhamma), which goes back to the non-ordained Arahant who would rather die in nirodha samapatti than deal with “duties”.

8

I broadly agree, though I’d probably not put it that way, as “they’d rather” sort of implies a desire on the part of the arahant. Maybe something like - the default mind-state of a puthujjana is papañca, and the default mind-state of an arahant is jhāna. But yes, I agree that all of this activity with puthujjanas by the Buddha seems to be done through the pull of great compassion. Thank goodness the world works like that!

I think that whatever comes our way (positive or negative), there is a great benefit to welcoming it with open arms; with kindness, gentleness, love and compassion. Like the Buddha does for all of us, be us sekha (noble learner) or n’eva-sekha-nāsekha (neither a noble learner, nor perfected in learning).

9

Well they do have the choice to return to experience and ordain.

Here is the sutta btw

You say that if a layman attains Arahant­ship he must either enter the Order that very day or die and attain parinibbāna.² Yet if he is unable to find a robe and bowl and precep­tor then that exalted con­di­tion of Arahant­ship is a waste for destruction of life is involved in it.”

“The fault does not lie with Arahantship, but with the state of a layman because it is too weak to support Arahant­ship. Just as, O king, although food protects the life of beings it will take away the life of one whose digestion is weak — so too, if a layman attains Arahant­ship he must, because of the weakness of that condition, enter the Order that very day or die.”

So it seems like the Arahant is too sensitive to handle the life of the layman with all its duties, that he would just perish unless someone fed him and housed him so he could remain in tranquility most of the time and not be disturbed, but I guess if they don’t even want to deal with being ordained and the monastic life they would die blissfully in nirodha samapatti.

Whether it’s actually a “choice” or just a natural outcome of how their mind is constituted compared to other Arahants I don’t know but I don’t really think it matters, since eitherway it’s going to be a systemic mechanism rather than a “self” deciding.

10

All this makes me also question why I didnt have the strenght to become a monk after stroke. Even the strong bond Buddha mentioned of wife and son, hit me on the same day I arrived at the monastery. It was reality check also. Because I accepted that same seconds I arrived that I became weak in body because stroke, that I was not able ordain in this life.

For me in this time it seems Dhamma is showing that at this time I need, or we need to focus on Union with Brahma so i.e Metta. Because its just how the world works.

So life has me on a journey to be more faithful toward the unity we have. And be connected to the Source. I feel in suttas there is hints that this supposed to happen natural.