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(Sounds of birds and a bell)

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

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(Bell sound)

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And we are the way we are because there is Karma

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

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Every morning we wake up to a new day.

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

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To the life that we have created.

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(forest sounds as the monk walks through it)

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Last week.

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Last year

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Last life

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This is our Karma.

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We cannot escape it.

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(Chanting)

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

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We can easily see some of our Karma.

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Let's just think what we did.

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Yesterday.

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Last year.

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In our childhood.

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Or in our last life.

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If we can remember that.

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What ever we did, this is our Karma.

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This has become our life.

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Now.

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The Buddhist says "Life is about suffering".

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Very often we create suffering.

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For ourselves

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or for others. We know that.

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We say bad things.

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We're impatient.

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We hurt.

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We do create suffering around us.

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This means we fill our own world with suffering.

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How can we expect to find anything else in this world

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other than suffering?

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We will find exactly what we had previously provided.

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We can create our own hell,

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but we can just as well create heaven.

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(People talking, market and traffic sounds)

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Wherever we look in this universe,

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there is cause and effect.

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Nothing ever happens out of thin air.

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This law of cause and effect also applies

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to our destiny.

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To the way our life evolves.

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Whatever we do, whatever we even think

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will have some effect on our life.

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Even if just a tiny little bit.

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Our thoughts and feelings

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form the world within us.

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Our words and actions

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form the world around us.

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We are constantly shaping our world.

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And we are shaping our life, little by little.

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Because for every cause,

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there must be an effect.

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(Birds chirping)

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Whatever we do or think

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shapes our world, a tiny little bit.

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Be towards greed and anger

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or be it towards love and kindness.

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We can increase suffering in our world

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or we can prevent suffering.

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It is up to us.

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So our actions directly affect our world.

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Our own as well as other people's world.

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Because from a Buddhist perspective all is one.

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Nothing is separate. All is connected.

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We are all connected.

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Our own future and the future of others.

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They interact like cogwheels in a clock.

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They are one.

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(Birds continue chirping. Piano sound)

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Let's see our life as a garden.

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If we take good care of it,

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it can be beautiful.

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Obviously, this will take time and effort.

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(water sound)

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And obviously there are a lot of things in our garden

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beyond our control.

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The weather,

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the seasons or maybe some other people

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whose intentions are different from ours.

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But, after all, we are the gardener.

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We will determine what our garden

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will finely look like.

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(Birds chirping and men chanting)

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Our present life is created by our Karma

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We cannot escape it.

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Since we have created suffering in the past,

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there will be future suffering too.

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The future is just the echo of our past actions.

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For a long time, we have been filling

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the world around us with our

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anger and greed.

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And now it is still there.

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For example, in the reactions and the feelings

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of the people around us, in various situations.

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The suffering we have previously created

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will now create new suffering.

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So, is there a way of actually prevent

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future suffering?

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Yes, there is.


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Our past unwholesome Karma is like

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a drop of dirty water on the bottom

108
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of a big jar.

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It is there.

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We cannot change it.

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We cannot remove it.

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But we can add clean water.

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Drop by drop. Little by little.

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After some time, the jar will contain

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almost perfectly clear water again.

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Since we cannot get rid of our

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unwholesome Karma,

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we need to dilute

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and thereby neutralize it.

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Rather than creating new suffering again and again,

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we need to prevent suffering.

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Therefore, we need to replace our anger

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and greed with love and kindness.

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We need to be in control.

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By meditating we learn to be mindful.

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We learn to be in control of our actions,

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our thoughts and feelings.

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So, finally,

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we will be able to create

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less suffering

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for us and for others.

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Our Karma is the bond that ties us

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to past suffering

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and that will create

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future suffering too.

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If we want to be free, we need to cut

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this bond.

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We need to prevent the creation of

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new suffering.

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So our life can be better

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next week,

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next year,

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next life.