Question

My understanding will have to progress a lot further and science also, before I can comprehend Kamma. Something like genes and DNA that hang in there for generations. That everyone in the past for example, Pol Pot or Hitler or the Chinese deserve what they got. This is possible of course, but this leads to the fact that we are all sinners especially since our mind stream has been accumulated forever. How is this useful?

Answer

In the ending here, this person claims that this leads to the fact that we are all sinners. Buddhism doesn't use the term, "we are all sinners". Buddhism says that we are all ignorant, we have all made mistakes, we've got some bad Kamma in our background, we've got some good Kamma in our background. For those of us that have more good Kamma in our background rather than bad Kamma, we have a chance to progress quicker. And we will progress so long as we continue to create the right conditions for our good Kamma.

People who are not creating good Kamma are going to go the other way, of course. For situations where there were people caught up under dictators like Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. Buddhism uses a term, "group Kamma". This means that for some reason, all those beings were in the same place and had to die in the same way. If you try to figure out why, you will go insane. Although the question is unanswerable, this doesn't stop us from practicing.

As I mentioned the other day, we don't have to believe in Kamma, we don't have to believe in rebirth in order to do this practice. We don't have to wait for some extra information in order to find out that the Law of Kamma exists in this moment. That if we are loving now, we will probably be loving in the next minute. If we are angry now, we will probably be angry in the next minute. You don't have to wait for some extra information for that. That's what you are supposed to prove for yourself in your own formal meditation practice.

That's why we are teaching you to watch your mind, that's why we are teaching you to observe your body when you have a hindrance attack in your mind that won't go away. Find out for yourself. When you are thinking angry thoughts about your mother, father, sister, brother, whatever - when you are thinking angry thoughts, where's the pain? You sit in the hall here and you are thinking angry thoughts, do your mother, father, brother or sister have the problem? No, you have the problem. We are teaching you to understand that you are the creator of your own pain as far as mental pain goes. Physical pain, yes, there's a lot you cannot understand and that's ok. Don't try to understand it all because there's often no answer for it.

There are theoretical answers. That's fine. Buddhism has a great deal of theory. Some people love it so much, all they do is read the books and talk about the theory, but we are telling you to understand it on an experiential level. Try not to get too worried about the theory of Kamma, enlightenment and all of that, do the practice and see if you get happiness or not from it.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.