Good Karma: The importance of motivation
Good Karma 15
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Good Karma Annual Retreat 
May 28, 2023 Part of a series of talks given during the annual Memorial Day weekend retreat based on the book Good Karma: How to Create the Causes of Happiness and Avoid the Causes of Suffering, a commentary on “The Wheel of Sharp Weapons” by Indian sage Dharmarakshita.
- The value of ethical conduct
- The importance of motivation
- How keeping precepts creates freedom
- Lowering unrealistic expectations based on self-centeredness
- Thee mental nonvirtues: coveting, malice, wrong views
- Making peace with our past
- Commentary on verse 15
- Questions and answers
- How to develop genuine renunciation
- Whether coveting must involve a specific object belonging to someone else
- Working with malice
- Admiring versus coveting
- Whether we can influence cooperative conditions
- Are parties bad?
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
