Good Karma: Pernicious thoughts
Good Karma 26
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Good Karma Annual Retreat 
May 25, 2025 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.
- Questions and answers:
- Karma in the news, social media and AI
- Recognizing anger that is not explosive
- Learning to draw Buddha images
- Connecting with people versus idle talk
- Confidence in rebirth
- Virtue, nonvirtue and karma
- A correct understanding of karma
- Designation of virtue and nonvirtue versus our motivation
- Importance of knowing when karma was created
- Why we aren’t used to dying
- Mental factors and karma
- Generating compassion instead of anger in relation to current events
- Respecting our interest in the Dharma
- Verse 39: When all meditative practices fail
- The pernicious view of the self-centered thought
- Verse 40: Having an untamed mind
- Wanting others to believe the image we project
- Eight worldly concerns
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.
