Tricycle | Awake in the World

What is happening when we’ve made extensive efforts at living mindfully and purifying karma through meditative practices, then we experience a deluge of major, difficult, and no doubt karmic experiences? Is this a “karmic cleansing”? I’ve had trouble not only in threes, but in nines and twelves. Is there some way to avoid this, or is this the type of growth that is necessary on the path to enlightenment?

(signed) Kate Robinson

Thanissaro Bhikkhu responds:

There’s no technique for burning off old karma. In fact, the Buddha was especially critical of teachers in his time who thought old karma was something you could burn away (see Majjhima Nikaya 101). Meditation doesn’t purify old karma; it gives you the skills to deal with it without suffering. One way you can lessen the impact of old karma is by developing the brahma-viharas -- unlimited goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. The Buddha compared these unlimited mind states to the water in a river, while limited mind states are like the water in a cup. (See Anguttara Nikaya III.101.) If you put a large salt crystal into the cup, you couldn’t drink the water; but if you threw the crystal into a river, you could still drink the water because there’s so much of it compared to the salt. So try to develop an attitude of good will for everyone, without exception, so that the billions of good will in your mind can take the nines and twelves in stride.