The Impact of Actions on Our Future Lives : หน้า 85/164

Suzanne Jeffrey “If we do something good, then we have this good energy floating around out there, and we should make a wish to create something good. If we do something bad, then something bad will be created in the universe. So we must always be careful with our actions. Our actions are also created by our feelings which are recorded inside. If we are feeling good, then this will help other positive things to occur. These feelings are multiplied and they create habits. These will carry over to all of the things we do. If we give easily, then we gain love and a good reputation. With those two things, we will get support in return. If we give easily, then we will get easily in return. So, when we die, we will be reborn in a good family. The affects of bad habits are the same. All of our habits affect not only this life, but all of our future lives. “This is true for all people of all religions. Meditation, however, is our common ground. “One of the first times that I met Khun Yai, I asked her about making resolutions. She said that we have to be exact when asking otherwise it just spreads out and doesn’t have the meaning attached to it that we want. If we share easily, then the fruit will be in this life and the next, and so on and on. But we have to be careful of how we spend the fruit of our boon. We must spend it in the right way. And we must always make a wish to be born in the right family who has the right livelihood. So I took all of this into consideration when I decided on my resolutions. The first time I made a resolution, I said, ‘I wish to be born in Thailand.’ And Khun Yai said, ‘Are you sure that there will be Buddhism in Thailand in the future?’ So then I wished, ‘In any country (wherever that may be) I want to be born where Buddhism is.’ And Khun Yai said ‘Have you ever seen anyone living by the Temple who says bad things about the Temple and doesn’t practice Buddhism?’ And so, I learned that I needed to be more thoughtful about my resolutions and to extend them to exactly what I wanted: To visualize my dream. And then my resolution became, ‘May I be receptive to always be pure of mind…and so on…and to be born with the right family who holds with the right view. “And so, whatever we are thinking, we should not have negative thoughts, or thoughts of retribution. We must always be centered… middle of the middle. But life is not always like that, is it? Why? Because defilement is our disease of the mind. We are born with bad habits and defilements from our last life. How much defilement? We don’t know! We have a lot of boon, but we have a lot of baap, too! We need to remind ourselves every day to stay centered. Every day, we need to refuel. But every day, through our senses, our mind wants to jump out. We are so easily trapped if we are not centered. And then it."