Karma

Karma means "action" or "doing"; whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma. In Buddhism, the term karma is used specifically for those actions which spring from the intention of an unenlightened being.

These bring about a fruit or result, either within the present life, or in the context of a future rebirth. Other Indian religions have different views on karma. Karma is the engine which drives the wheel of the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth  for each being. In the early texts it is not, however, the only causal mechanism influencing the lives of sentient beings.

Rebirth

Rebirth in Buddhism is the doctrine that the evolving consciousness or stream of consciousness upon death, becomes one of the contributing causes for the arising of a new aggregation. The consciousness in the new person is neither identical to nor entirely different from that in the deceased but the two form a causal continuum or stream.

In traditional Buddhist cosmology these lives can be in any of a large number of states of being including the human, any kind of animal and several types of supernatural being (see Six realms). Rebirth is conditioned by the karmas (actions of body, speech and mind) of previous lives; good karmas will yield a happier rebirth, bad karmas will produce one which is more unhappy. The basic cause for this is the abiding of consciousness in ignorance when ignorance is uprooted, rebirth ceases. One of the analogies used to describe what happens then is that of a ray of light that never lands.

Saṃsāra

Saṃsāra or Sangsara which translates as "continuous movement" or "continuous flowing", which, in Buddhism, refers to the concept of a cycle of birth, and consequent decay and death, in which all beings in the universe participate, and which can only be escaped through enlightenment. Saṃsāra is associated with suffering and is generally considered the antithesis of Nirvāṇa or nibbāna. 

Chapters 26 The True Master

Wanting nothing
With all your heart
Stop the stream.
When the world dissolves
Everything becomes clear.
Go beyond
This way or that way,
To the farther shore
Where the world dissolves
And everything becomes clear.
Beyond this shore
And the father shore,
Beyond the beyond,
Where there is no beginning,
No end.
Without fear, go.
Meditate.
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work, with mastery.
By day the sun shines,
And the warrior in his armour shines.
By night the moon shines,
And the master shines in meditation.
But this day and night
The man who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit.
A master gives up mischief.
He is serene.
He leaves everything behind him
He does not take offence
And he does not give it.
He never returns evil for evil.
Alas for the man
Who raises his hand against another,
And even more for him
Who returns the blow.
Resist the pleasures of life
And the desire to hurt -
Till sorrows vanish.
Never offend
By what you think or say or do.
Honour the man who is awake
And shows you the way.
Honour the fire of his sacrifice.
Matted hair or family or caste
Do not make a master
But the truth and goodness
With which he is blessed.
Your hair is tangled
And you sit on a deerskin.
What folly!
When inside you are ragged with lust.
The master's clothes are in tatters.
His veins stand out,
He is wasting away.
Alone in the forest
He sits and meditates.
A man is not born to mastery.
A master is never proud.
He does not talk down to others.
Owning nothing, he misses nothing.
He is not afraid.
He does not tremble.
Nothing binds him.
He is infinitely free.
So cut through
The strap and the thong and the rope.
Loosen the fastenings.
Unbolt the doors of sleep
And awake.
The master endures
Insults and ill treatment
Without reacting.
For his spirit is an army.
He is never angry.
He keeps his promises.
He never strays, he is determined.
This body is my last, he says!
Like water on the leaf of a lotus flower
Or a mustard seed on the point of a needle,
He does not cling.
For he has reached the end of sorrow
And has laid down his burden.
He looks deeply into things
And sees their nature.
He discriminates
And reaches the end of the way.
He does not linger
With those who have a home
Nor with those who stray.
Wanting nothing,
He travels on alone.
He hurts nothing.
He never kills.
He moves with love among the unloving,
With peace and detachment
Among the hungry and querulous.
Like a mustard seed from the point of a needle
Hatred has fallen from him,
And lust, hypocrisy and pride.
He offends no one.
Yet he speaks the truth.
His words are clear
But never harsh.
Whatever is not his
He refuses,
Good or bad, great or small.
He wants nothing from this world
And nothing from the next.
He is free.
Desiring nothing, doubting nothing,
Beyond judgement and sorrow
And the pleasures of the senses,
He had moved beyond time.
He is pure and free.
How clear he is.
He is the moon.
He is serene.
He shines.
For he has travelled
Life after life
The muddy and treacherous road of illusion.
He does not tremble
Or grasp or hesitate.
He has found peace.
Calmly
He lets go of life,
Or home and pleasure and desire.
Nothing of men can hold him.
Nothing of the gods can hold him.
Nothing in all creation can hold him.
Desire has left him,
Never to return.
Sorrow has left him,
Never to return.
He is calm.
In him the seed of renewing life
Had been consumed.
He has conquered all the inner worlds.
With dispassionate eye
He sees everywhere
The falling and the uprising.
And with great gladness
He knows that he has finished.
He has woken from his sleep.
And the way he has taken
Is hidden from men,
Even from spirits and gods,
By virtue of his purity.

In him there in no yesterday,
No tomorrow,
No today.
Possessing nothing,
Wanting nothing.
He is full of power.
Fearless, wise, exalted.
He has vanquished all things.
He sees by virtue of his purity.
He has come to the end of the way,
Over the river of his many lives,
His many deaths.
Beyond the sorrow of hell,
Beyond the great joy of heaven,
By virtue of his purity.
He has come to the end of the way.
All that he had to do, he has done.
And now he is one.

Chapters 25 The Seeker

Master your senses,
What you taste and smell,
What you see, what you hear.
In all things be a master 
Of what you do and say and think.
Be free.
You are a seeker.
Delight in the mastery 
Of your hands and your feet,
Of your words and your thoughts.
Delight in meditation 
And in solitude.
Compose yourself, be happy.
You are a seeker.
Hold your tongue.
Do not exalt yourself
But lighten the way 
For your words are sweet.
Follow the truth of the way.
Reflect upon it.
Make it your own.
Live it. 
It will always sustain you.
Do not turn away what is given you
Not reach out for what is given to others,
Lest you disturb your quietness.
Give thanks 
For what had been given to you,
However little.
Be pure, never falter.
You have no name and no form.
Why miss what you do not have?
The seeker is not sorry.
Love and joyfully
Follow the way,
The quiet way to the happy country.
Seeker!
Empty the boat,
Lighten the load,
Passion and desire and hatred.
And sail swiftly.
There are five at the door
To turn away, and five more,
And there are five to welcome in.
And when five§ have been left 
Stranded on the shore,
The seeker is called oghatinnoti - 
"He who has crossed over."
Seeker!
Do not be restless.
Meditate constantly.
Or you will swallow fire 
And cry out: "No more!"
If you are not wise,
How can you steady the mind?
If you cannot quieten yourself,
What will you ever learn?
How will you become free?
With a quiet mind
Come into that empty house, your heart,
And feel the joy of the way
Beyond the world. 
Look within -
The rising and the falling.
What happiness!
How sweet to be free!
It is the beginning of life,
Of mastery and patience,
Of good friends along the way,
Of a pure and active life.
So life in love.
Do your work.
Make an end of sorrow.
For see how the jasmine
Releases and lets fall
Its withered flowers.
Let fall wilfulness and hatred.
Are you quiet?
Quieten your body.
Quieten your mind.
You want nothing.
Your words are still.
You are still.
By your own efforts
Waken yourself, watch yourself.
And live joyfully.
You are the master,
You are the refuge.
As a merchant breaks in a fine horse, 
Master yourself.
How gladly you follow
The words of the awakened.
How quietly, how surely
You approach the happy country,
The heart of stillness.
However young,
The seeker who sets out upon the way
Shines bright over the world.
Like the moon,
Come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.

Chapters 24 Desire

If you sleep,
Desire grows in you
Like a vine in the forest.
Like a monkey in the forest
You jump from tree to tree,
Never finding the fruit -
From life to life,
Never finding peace.
If you are filled with desire
Your sorrows swell
Like the grass after the rain.
But if you subdue desire
Your sorrows shall fall from you
Like drops of water from a lotus flower.
This is good counsel
And it is for everyone:
As the grass is cleared for the fresh root,
Cut down desire
Lest death after death crush you
As a river crushes the helpless reeds.
For if the roots hold firm,
A felled tree grows up again.
If desires are not uprooted,
Sorrows grow again in you.
Thirty-six streams are rushing toward you!
Desire and pleasure and lust...
Play in your imagination with them
And they will sweep you away.
Powerful streams!
They flow everywhere.
Strong vine!
If you see it spring up,
Take care!
Pull it out by the roots.
Pleasures flow everywhere.
You float upon them
And are carried from life to life.
Like a hunted hare you run,
The pursuer of desire pursued,
Harried from life to life.
O seeker!
Give up desire,
Shake off your chains.
You have come out of the hollow
Into the clearing.
The clearing is empty.
Why do you rush back into the hollow?
Desire is a hollow
And people say "Look!
He was free.
But now he gives up his freedom."
It is not iron that imprisons you
Nor rope nor wood,
But the pleasure you take in gold and jewels,
In sons and wives.
Soft fetters,
Yet they hold you down.
Can you snap them?
There are those who can,
Who surrender to the world,
Forsake desire, and follow the way.
O slave of desire,
Float upon the stream.
Little spider, stick to your web.
Or else abandon your sorrows for the way.
Abandon yesterday, and tomorrow,
And today.
Cross over to the father shore,
Beyond life and death.
Do your thoughts trouble you?
Does passion disturb you?
Beware of this thirstiness
Lest your wishes become desires
And desire binds you.
Quieten your mind.
Reflect.
Watch.
Nothing binds you.
You are free.
You are strong.
You have come to the end.
Free from passion and desire,
You have stripped the thorns from the stem.
This is your last body.
You are wise.
You are free from desire
And you understand words
And the stitching together of words.
And you want nothing.
"Victory is mine,
Knowledge is mine,
And all purity,
All surrender.

"I want nothing.
I am free.
I found my way.
What shall I call Teacher?
The gift of truth is beyond giving.
The taste beyond sweetness,
The joy beyond joy.
The end of desire is the end of sorrow.
The fool is his own enemy.
Seeking wealth, he destroys himself.
Seek rather the other shore.
Weeds choke the field.
Passion poisons the nature of man,
And hatred, illusion, and desire.
Honour the man who is without passion,
Hatred, illusion, and desire.

What you give to him
Will be given back to you,
And more.

Chapters 23 The Elephant

I shall endure harsh words
As the elephant endures the shafts of battle.
For many people speak wildly.
The tamed elephant goes to battle.
The king rides him.
The tamed man is the master.
He can endure hard words in peace.
Better than a mule
Or the fine horses of Sindh
Or mighty elephants of war
Is the man who had mastered himself.
Not on their backs
Can he reach the untrodden country.
But only on his own.
The mighty elephant Dhanapalaka
Is wild when he is in rut,
And when bound he will not eat,
Remembering the elephant grove. 
The fool is idle. 
He eats and he rolls in his sleep
Like a hog in a sty.
And he has to live life over again.
"My own mind used to wander 
Wherever pleasure or desire or lust led it.
But now I have it tamed,
I guide it,
As the keeper guides the wild elephant."
Awake.
Be the witness of your thoughts.
The elephant hauls himself from the mud.
In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth.
If the traveller can find
A virtuous and wise companion
Let him go with him joyfully
And overcome the dangers of the way.
But if you cannot find 
Friend or master to go with you,
Travel on alone - 
Like a king who has given away his kingdom,
Like an elephant in the forest.
Travel on alone,
Rather than with a fool for company.
Do not carry with you your mistakes. 
Do not carry your cares.
Travel on alone.
Like an elephant in the forest.
To have friends in need is sweet
And to share happiness.
And to have done something good 
Before leaving this life is sweet,
And to let go of sorrow.
To be a mother is sweet,
And a father.
It is sweet to live arduously,
And to master yourself.
O how sweet it is to enjoy life,
Living in honesty and strength!
And wisdom is sweet,
And freedom.