The teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
13 January 2024
Question: I heard that kamma is just ‘cause and effect,’ so, if there is no ‘self’, there is no ‘I’ and we are just the physical bodies, then who is doing the wrong act?
Than Ajahn: Well, kamma deals with the mind. The mind is the one that is doing the action. But the mind itself is not a ‘self,’ yet we call the mind, ‘self.’ A ‘self’ is a concept created by the mind.
So, the one who is doing the action is the mind and the one who bears the consequences of the action is the mind. When you do good kamma, the mind feels happy.
If you do bad kamma, the mind feels unhappy. So, it’s the mind who is being subjected to the law of kamma, not the body. The body is only an instrument of the mind.
Let me give you an example. If a driver drives a car, the driver and the car are two separate entities. The driver is the one who drives the car and the car is just an instrument used by the driver. When the driver drives the car and the car hits somebody, it’s not the car that has to pay the price, right? It’s the driver. So, it’s the same way, when the mind does something through the body, the mind is the one who bears the consequences.
If the mind does bad kamma, the mind will feel bad. If the mind does good kamma, the mind will feel good.
The body doesn’t know anything. The body is only like a car.
But the question you asked is not really important.
What you want to know is how to make your mind happy. Once your mind is happy, you understand that all the things that you don’t understand will become clear to you after you have studied the mind and know how to make your mind happy. And when you are happy, if you don’t know anything, it doesn’t matter because what you know or what you don’t know doesn’t matter as long as you are happy.
“Dhamma in English, Jan 12, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
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