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Yes, Neurons that Fire together, Wire together. We can rewire our brains.

The best 12 minutes of my week. Authentic wisdom. May many others be fortunate enough to hear this very special aspect of karma, so brought to light. Karma and rebirth can be a stumbling block to those coming to Buddhism with a Western background, and thus I've been reading widely on the subject. But this is an outstandingly original perspective (and bypasses the rebirth issue). Your perspective here is a major breakthrough for Buddhism's Westward journey, in my opinion.

I have been binge watching your videos now and again and everytime I do it clicks in my head how problems im my own come to be and how to deal with them. I really like how you explain these topics and give examples that are relatable. One thing that I think might needs a remake is the 8-fold path videos because the newer style of your videos really help your explanations :)

Your videos are a gift to mankind Doug. Your ability to explain things in a manner that is comprehensible and relatable to modern lay-people is very rare. Taking into account that Gautam Buddha, upon obtaining enlightenment, believed himself to be ill equipped to teach others, makes it even more amazing.

We might think that criminals, drug dealers etc. are having a good life because of their money and flamboyant lifestyle. Still, we forget they must pay for bodyguards and extra security at home for fear of retribution; they can't trust anyone and find it difficult to sleep and relax. The error is comparing others' external appearance against our internal standpoint. Min 1:57: Why do bad things happen to good people? My take is that if everything is interconnected, so is Karma. We are biased to notice only the bad things, even concerning Karma, but we are also receivers of good Karma. Example: A group of doctors saved my life from cancer in 2021. I benefited from their hard work of studying for many years. I received their good Karma! You are watching this on a computer right now thanks to the hard work of many people who made it possible using the tools of Science and Technology; the same is true for your clothes and food in your fridge; they are all made by other people (society) You are being the receiver of the good Karma (work) of many other people. On the other hand, if a deranged person walks into a crowded place and starts shooting, the bullets will not change direction because of your good Karma. In that unfortunate case, you would be the receiver of others' bad Karma (bad actions due to their ignorance and mental instability) In our daily lives, we are constantly getting misfortunes or benefits from the actions of others; be grateful for the good ones and work through generosity and wisdom to eliminate the bad ones. We all live within a society; that is the sociological name for interconnection. Causes and effects (Karma) can be divided into physical, mental, personal or social, but most people seem to focus only on the personal and forget they are part and parcel of a bigger thing. The ultimate reason why we can get cancer, diabetes, flu, arthritis etc., is because we were born within a human form; all that is potentially within the human condition; all we can do is put the odds in our favour and have healthy habits, but there are no guarantees. Old age, disease and death are no bad Karma; they are human conditions, it has to happen, and it will happen. We should learn to accept them and even welcome them to live and die with a good state of mind. Ideally, we should start learning these skills before they arrive. To conclude, everything is interconnected, and Karma is not an exception. Note: These are some of my current thoughts on this subject (2023), but they are not written in stone. I am looking forward to reading the comments or corrections made by the clever people who watch this type of channel. Thanks, Doug, for sharing these amazing videos; big fan here.

This is a wonderful reflection, Doug. Probably one of your best videos. I will take this idea as my basis for thinking about karma from now on. Combined with Alan Watts' theory that the karma concept also relates to the idea that there's no clear-cut separation between what we do and what happens to us and that there are many situations that we can consider from either standpoint.

_The perfuming of our own mind stream_ is a brilliant and heuristically very useful metaphor! Thanks for that! 😊

You've chosen the perfect metaphor to deliver the message. Since there is no intrinsic reality, it would always be subjective to how we perceive it.

One of the objectives of Vipassana Meditation is to rid ourselves of the conditioned states of our mind ie Sankaras. I see that connection with Doug's explanation of the early Buddhist's definition of Karma. It resonates with the philosophy that our sufferings is linked to this.

Just bought my first lessons from your website, I forgot to enter the New Years code but its still worth every penny. Can't wait to watch them all. Thanks for all your work

A beautiful video. Thank you.

Very helpful. Thank you!

My favourite of all your videos to date.

Thank you! Your videos are helping me to overcome bad times!

Wonderful exposition. Indeed, whenever I talk to people who see corruption in everything and everyone, I always wonder what that says about their own state of mind. If someone can look at, say, the Dalai Lama, and see a corrupt selfish human being, then it reflects that the idea of compassion simply doesn't compute in their own stream of being.

Thank you for explaining this 🙂

Well explained. Thank you 👌🙏😊

I was not sure about shorter videos but it seems to work great :)

Hello and love from Malaysia ❤️

There is a Sutta called Acintiya Sutta where 4 things are never to be understood.. how karma functions, the origin of the universe and more

I must see more videos of yours 👍🏻

Hello Smith.... Namo buddhay 🌷☸

Think the biggest misconception about buddhist idea of karma is that idea that everything happenes to u because of karma(the hindu concept). but it is just one of the five other phenomenons that affects u.

10:00 just remind me to see things positive in the world

Thank you for the wonderful video Doug! I was wondering if you could recommend any books/literature, containing the essential Sutra/Sutta collections of the respective canons. There are some collections in my native language but nothing as exhaustive as in English. Which Books (translations) do you use personally for Sutra reading or would you recommend? Thank you again for your videos, they help immensely in my understanding of the Dharma!

I have a question about right livelihood. Is it wrong to sell insects? I breed and sell feeder and pets insects but they Buddha mentioned trading of lives to be wrong livelihood. What do you think of this?

So how exactly do we get enlightened/raise kundalini? Far as IK yoga is the path to self realization an may take couple years.

There is still a question in a buddhist persepective : Why do buddhist try to escape Karma rather to generate good karma. You associate a positive persepctive on the world with a good benevolence, but, from my zen readings, it seems that an enlighted view of the world come from a diminution of karma, be it good karma or bad karma. (whatever, thanks for all these vids)

But its karma just a phenomenal of the present? So if how we see the world creates our kamma, why it influences in future rebirths? Because the seeds that puts in our ""minds""?

Can you tell me who you refer by "the absolute earliest tradition" and "the tradition that soon comes after" in this context? When and where did they come from?

Hi Doug! I'm a new subscriber of yours from Bangladesh. Your contents are brilliant! I wanna request you to make a video on Atiśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna (982-1054 CE), the great Bengali Buddhist scholar.

Karma is not real. There is no doer only Atman witnessing an illusionary stimulus of prospective, then falsely identifying itself as the relationship between the two.

Sorry, but Karma is Just World. It has so much potential to be used to say people deserve what they get... and so on... that it's just not a good concept to salvage. You seem to advocate that we close our eyes to exploitation, wars, genocide, patriarchy, heterocisnormativity... and that's out of touch if compassions means anything