Karma

If AI might or might not be sentient, how should we treat it? In this companion video to "AI and the Vagueness of Sentience," I propose "strategic compassion": treating AI systems with kindness and moral consideration regardless of…

Karma can be understood as a this-life, psychological process. It can also be understood as deeply involved in the process of rebirth into other lifetimes. We'll consider both ways of approaching karma, and what the Buddha had to say…

What is Buddhist karma and how does it work? It's most useful to view karma as a natural law of cause and effect, showing how our intentions shape our experiences. I'll demystify some common misconceptions of Buddhist karma, provide some…

Often pursuit of good karma is understood as the path to moral purity in Buddhism. The truth is somewhat different. We will look at one early sutta with a couple of incisive but disturbing parables to make the point.

The workings of karma in Buddhism can reveal some deep psychological insights. One has to do with the role of intention in promoting happiness or misery. We will consider one early sutta to make the point, and look at the example of the…

What is the idea of "the transfer of karmic merit" in Buddhism? We'll look into that and whether it can be found in the early material. We will also see ways we can make use of it in our practice.

What is collective or group karma, and is it found in early Buddhism? We'll consider those questions, whether we might be able to make sense of the concept from a Buddhist perspective, and when and how the concept might prove useful in…

Early Buddhism was an ethical system first and foremost. But what was it? What ethical system did the Buddha propose? We will look at the ethics of early Buddhism with a focus on his advice to a general lay audience as well as the role of…

The Buddha talks of four kinds of karma. I'll go through each of them and what the Buddha says about each. We'll see that the fourth and final one is quite strange and surprising, and may hold a key to how we can understand our practice…

Is everything we experience due to our karma? I'll look at what the Buddha had to say in several early texts to find out his thoughts.

We'll look at one way that karma can be said to work: how our intentions can redound upon us in the future for good or ill. But instead of doing so by way of outside influences upon us, it can also do so by the perfuming of our own…

We'll take a look at how karma can be made sense of as a real phenomenon in nature and in human society through notions such as sincerity and reciprocity. We'll also look at how some ideas from evolutionary biology demonstrate how karmic…

Are we the same over time? We'll discuss the Buddha's answer to this question through various false leads that he rejects. We'll also look at the question of karma and the origin of suffering, and how it all relates to traditional notions…

Karma is partly about the results of our actions. We'll discuss that in this video, using the example of my recent skin surgery. We'll also look at the question of our own persistence through time: are we the same person now who did the…

The Buddha recommended five reflections for regular contemplation by all. We will go through those five and then spend time with some larger considerations on the role of karma.

Wow, it's hard to believe a year has already passed since publishing my first video on YouTube! In the interim we've had a busy time going through some of the dharma of early Buddhism, with a focus on contemporary practice and experience.…

Let's consider karma. We’ll go over three problems with the Buddhist notion of karma. Then we’ll discuss how the Buddha defined the term, and how his usage was innovative and different in its time. We'll see that there is a way to recover…