Good actions will lead you to be able to meditate

Question:  If I do good actions, I gain kusala karma and if I do bad actions, I acquire akusala karma. Both ways, I am going to be reborn again and again. If I don’t do anything, I won’t accumulate any karma. Why should I do good actions because if I accumulate a lot of kusala karma, I may be reborn in the Rūpa or Arūpa realms whose lifespan is in maha-kappa. I will be wasting my time there since my goal as a Buddhist is to attain Nibbāna. So why should I do good kamma?

Than Ajahn:  You have to do good actions before you can move up to the level where you can do nothing. Normally your good actions are to counter your bad actions. Usually you think that your bad actions are good actions. You don’t know it. What are the bad actions that you think as good actions? For example, making money, having fun, travelling, or having all sorts of happiness through the body, to you, these are good actions, but according to the Buddha these are bad actions.

Therefore you need to do dāna to counter these bad actions. Instead of spending money on traveling, you can spend it for charity. This will stop your bad actions. The more you spend money on your desire to travel, to have fun, the more you are accumulating the cause of rebirths. You have to stop this desire by spending money on charity.

When you give to charity it makes your mind to have less desire. You don’t have to travel in order to make you happy because the happiness that you gain from doing good kamma is far better than travelling. So that’s the reason that you have to do good actions. If you still do bad actions with your money, you need to give your money away to charity. This good action will make your mind becomes peaceful, calm and content, and then you can meditate.

Good actions (kusala kamma) will lead you to be able to meditate.  If you don’t do this good actions, you will keep spending your money looking for happiness by using money and it will cause you to have to make more money. You will then have no time to meditate to stop your desire. It is your desire that drives you to the next rebirth.

If you don’t want to be reborn again, you have to stop your desire and to do so you have to meditate. To meditate you have to have the time. In order to have the time to meditate, you have to stop making money and spending money.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto