So this week we'll begin with a series of talks about two streams of our lives.
The karmic stream and the dharmic stream.
So the dharmic stream is about what unfolds,
Like what can be developed when we're free from,
When we kind of free ourselves from the karmic stream.
We free ourselves from the the karma that we carry.
And in particular the way the stream of karma contributes to our ongoing suffering.
So one of the reasons why Buddhism focuses on karma and the karmic stream is because of how much suffering it perpetuates.
It's kind of like being caught in a perpetual renewal of suffering and challenges.
And karma evokes in people all kinds of complicated ideas.
So hopefully I'll speak in a way that normalizes it somehow so we can see it operating in our day-to-day life,
The day-to-day activities of our life.
We can put aside the idea of karma being something that influences us over lifetimes.
So the way that we live day to day in the present moment can influence how we live in this life.
So if we live a life that is with recurring or chronic hostility that kind of puts together certain conditions that are very different than if we go through our life with generosity and with love.
If we go through our lives with greed and lusting and that's the predominant mind stream that will keep flowing and then life opens and moves in a very different way than someone who is just moving from generosity and kindness and thinking about the welfare of others.
So one of the ways that we can see the operation of karma is in our thought stream and that's probably the most single effective way to understand karma.
To see it its influence on how it operates day by day in our thinking.
It said that the rumination is one of the leading causes of depression and if we're ruminating and thinking in such a way that our thoughts are deflating,
That the thoughts are discouraging or that they're critical,
That discouragement and fear is chronically moving through our system.
Our whole body,
Our mind,
Our heart will be influenced by these ongoing thoughts and we can feel the impact on us and sometimes it's so chronic it's almost it almost becomes invisible to people.
It's kind of like you know the story of the fish that they don't see the water that they swim in.
We don't see the water,
The mood,
The attitude that we swim in because it's reinforced and it's ongoing.
So sometimes karma is described as the habits,
The ongoing habits and some of our karmic habits are healthy.
You can have great habits of generosity and love and that has a very different influence on us.
Then there's the stream we enter into,
We participate in and part of the stream is that momentum from the past that continues into the present.
There's a way in which we keep adding to the momentum of the past in the present moment.
So what Dharma practice is trying to do is it's trying to free us from continually reinforcing and adding momentum to the stream.
Just kind of step back onto to dry ground and watch it without adding to it.
That's the Dharma extreme.
So when we step back it's kind of like it's kind of like when the hand is clenched like closed in a fist for a long time and then we open it things begin to happen.
There's an unfolding that has an influence on us.
It sort of sets into motion a goodness inside us,
A movement towards freedom.
We get a sense like oh the hand is releasing that's nice.
I'll bet my shoulders can relax a little bit.
Maybe this clenching stomach has a possibility of relaxing.
So there's kind of like once we release one thing there's a path that begins to open up and some of that path is a natural unfolding which could be called the Dharma,
The Dharma stream.
The Dharma stream is that stream of releasing ourselves from our contractions and our tightness or our holdings and then really just experiencing the goodness of that,
The well-being that comes from flowing from that.
Every day we have both these streams like both of these streams are available and a lot of people spend their time living in the karmic stream.
Again a very easy way to notice this is when you're thinking as you go about your day.
If you're thinking about something which is not in the present moment that's the karmic stream.
You might be sitting in that stream thinking about the future or a past fantasy anything like that and if you take the time to see well what is this?
What influence is this kind of thinking?
You know what kind of is this influencing me in a positive way in a beneficial way or is it not?
Is this thought process neutral?
What is the influence of this pattern this habit?
So to stop and take a look at that it is another way it's an also a way of stopping that reinforcement of that stream.
If we just let our minds flow along you know thinking about resentments of the past or desires that we've won in the future then we're just adding to that stream that momentum and so we're just keeping it going basically.
And if we don't engage in the thought pattern or we see it then we allow this whole other stream to unfold the Dharma stream where we're just seeing and allowing and being.
So this is our topic for the next couple of weeks this karmic stream and Dharma stream.
So thank you for your kind attention this morning.
I'll open it up to some questions or comments.
