Kamma & the End of Kamma [antikvár]

This book evolved out of some talks I had given in the space of a few years, mostly at Cittaviveka Monastery. In these talks, I had been exploring the relevance of the Buddha's teachings on kamma to the practice of meditation. At first glance the two topics may not seem that closely related: kamma is a teaching on behaviour, and meditation is apparently about doing nothing, isn't it? Or we might have the idea that: 'Kamma is all about who I was in a previous life, what I'm smck with now, and what I'll get reborn as. Kamma is about being somebody, whilst meditation is about not being anybody.' Not so. I hope that the ensuing texts, which have evolved from talks into essays, help make it clear that the principles of kamma link 'external' behaviour to the 'internal' practice of meditation. And that meditation is one kind of kamma - the kamma that leads to the end of kamma. In fact 'kamma and the end of kamma' is a useful summary of what the Buddha had to offer as a path to well-being and to Awakening.The Buddha's three knowledgesThe foundational experience of the Buddha's Dhamma is in the 'three knowledges:' realisations that are said to have occurred to the Buddha in a sequence, on one night. Despite practising meditation and asceticism to a very high standard, he felt that they had not borne fruit in terms of his quest for 'the Deathless.' But then, through practising more peacefully, three realisations arose; and with these his aim was achieved.The first of these was the awareness of previous lives. This knowledge transcended the most fundamental definition of our lives - the division that occurs at bodily death. The realisation arose that what is experienced as a 'person' is