Transforming Afflictive Habits and Karmic Causality through Cultivation

Question: Is everything that happens to us the best arrangement, destined to occur, with no element of chance? I often feel guilt and pain over being unable to control many of my own actions.

Answer: Actions are led and governed by the manas. When the manas's afflictive defilements have not been cultivated away and subdued, all bodily, verbal, and mental actions are dominated by the manas's afflictive habits. The mind consciousness wishes to control one's own bodily, verbal, and mental actions but cannot, and therefore, upon seeing one's own unreasonable bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one feels ashamed and self-reproachful. In fact, this is still blaming the manas; it is just that the mind consciousness does not understand that this is a problem of the manas and mistakenly believes it is the mind consciousness's own problem. If it were the mind consciousness's own problem, then once the mind consciousness became aware of it, it could correct it immediately, which would not be difficult. But with problems of the manas, the mind consciousness sometimes feels helpless, and can only study the Dharma more, understand the principles more, and master more skillful means to persuade and cultivate the manas; only then will the manas's afflictive habits gradually subside.

Most of what we encounter now is something we helplessly must bear; it is our own causes, conditions, and karmic retribution, which we cannot evade or choose, and we must passively accept it. The best arrangement would be an arrangement like the Buddha's, with karmic retribution and circumstances like the Buddha's. However, within our circumstances and experiences there are also some elements of chance and unexpected events, through which we can actively and passively change cause and effect. When one cultivates to a certain degree, one gains the ability to control and change cause and effect, and at that time body and mind become relatively at ease.