Book cover of Good Karma

Good Karma

How to Create the Causes of Happiness and Avoid the Causes of Suffering

A commentary that plants a classic Buddhist text, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, squarely into life in the modern world. Good Karma elucidates how we can eliminate the causes of anxiety, fear, and depression and create the causes of joy.

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About the book

Why do things happen the way they do in our lives? How do we create the causes for a happy life? The Buddhist practice of mind training gives us the answer to these questions: it involves overcoming our self-centered attitude and replacing it with an attitude that cherishes others. This, in turn, leads us to act in ways that naturally lead away from suffering and toward happiness—in short, to create good karma. Thubten Chodron offers a commentary on one of the great Tibetan Buddhist poems, The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which shows, clearly and practically, how to eliminate the causes of anxiety, fear, and depression and to create the causes of joyful liberation for oneself and all others.

The story behind the book

Venerable Thubten Chodron reads an excerpt

Teaching series

Talks

Translations

Reviews

With the support of ancient masters, together with her own deep wisdom and compassion, Thubten Chodron lovingly shares the essence of understanding she has gained through many years of study and practice.

— Sharon Salzberg, author of “Lovingkindness” and “Real Happiness”

Thubten Chodron beautifully illustrates the importance of karma, its intricacies and details, using her own personal experience. Her detailed explanation of the important Tibetan text known as The Wheel of Sharp Weapons will be tremendously beneficial to anyone interested in a spiritual path.

— Gelek Rimpoche, author of “Good Life, Good Death”

Thubten Chodron’s commentary on Dharmarakshita’s Wheel of Sharp Weapons is a crash course on transforming pain and suffering into power tools for liberation.

— Chade-Meng Tan, bestselling author of “Search Inside Yourself”

I am seeing a change in my way of thinking. What never used to be a blessing has become one. I haven’t been feeling well and thought it was “stress” and my inability to direct my mind, then a routine check-up showed that I have another kidney stone. Luckily the surgeon had an opening right away so I will have it removed on Monday. I feel so blessed that there is a physical reason for part of my health issues and that it will be taken care of quickly. A while ago I would have seen this as one more difficulty to deal with instead of the blessing it is. I’m learning so much from this book on karma.

— Veda Van Zee, Dharma student