“When you make other people happy, that happiness will come back to you.”

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.

7 November 2024

“When you make other people happy, that happiness will come back to you.”

Question (from Indonesia):   “I encountered many difficulties and obstacles since I was a child. But since several years ago, I start accumulating many good merits, like making donation to meditation centre, to forest temples, which is led by those who are believed to have at least attained the Sotāpanna level. I also donated to the austists, old people, sick people, etc. My merit making actions are not little merits because it involves much sacrifice, involves Holy People as recipients so why obstacles often come to me?”

Than Ajahn:  “You have to understand that the result of your actions today may not happen today or this life. The result of what you do today may take time for it to develop and it may appear in your next life. 

What is happening in this life is the past kamma you did in your previous life. 

Sometimes you get confused. 

It’s like planting a tree today, you expect to get the fruit from the tree today, while you have a few other trees you’ve planted 10 years ago which are giving fruits. What you do today doesn’t give you the result that you want today. 

This is how things work. It takes time for things to develop and to give results. 

There are experiences which you can reap the results right away after you do it: that is the feeling you get inside. 

Like when you give people some money, you feel good right away. This feeling happens right away. But if you expect that you’ll get this money back, you might have to wait next life. 

You have to separate the two types of consequences that you get from your kamma: the one in your mind – the one you can get it immediately. If you did something bad to somebody, you feel bad right away. If you did something good to somebody, you feel good right away. This is the consequence of your kamma that will arise in your mind immediately; the returns that you’ll get from your good or your bad kamma – the one that will take time to bear fruit, like if you go rob a bank, you might not get caught in this life, but next life you might get robbed by somebody. 

So the result doesn’t happens right away. 

You have to understand that some of the bad things happening to you right now is not because you’re doing good kamma today, but because of the consequence of your past kamma that you did in your past lives or a few years back. If you can understand this fact, you will not be discouraged from doing good kamma.  

Look at your heart, look at your mind when you do good things. How do you feel, happy or not happy? If you are not happy, it means you do it with a condition. You should not do good actions with a condition. If you do something for somebody, you shouldn’t expect anything in return from that person. If you expect some returns and if they don’t return it to you, you’ll feel bad. This is not doing good action, but this is doing business. 

So, you have to separate your actions, whether you’re doing good action or you’re doing business. If you’re doing business, you expect return. For example, if you loan money to people, you want them to return the money plus interest, and when they don’t return you with interest, you’ll feel bad. But if you give the money to other people, you don’t expect to get any money back, then you’ll feel good. 

So, this is what doing good action means: helping other people, making other people happy. When you make other people happy, that happiness will come back to you.”

Q&A, Apr 7, 2017.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

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