Abandon wrongdoing. It can be done. If there were no likelihood, I would not ask you to do it.
But since it is possible and brings about blessings and happiness, I do ask you to abandon wrongdoing.
Cultivate doing good. It can be done. If it brought deprivation and sorrow, I would not ask you to do it.
But since it brings blessings and happiness, I do ask you: Cultivate doing good.
—Buddha Shakyamuni, Angutara Nikaya
Source: It Can Be Done!
The Buddha gives this instruction in the Griha Vinaya (Rules for Householders, Dharmika Sutra, Kshudraka Agama):
Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed,
any life at all, or sanction the acts of those who do so.
Let him refrain even from hurting any creature,
both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world.
If we fail to understand the universality of this injunction, the Buddha clarifies (Kshudraka Agama):
Whether they be creatures of the land or air,
whoever harms here any living being,
who has no compassion for all that live,
let such a one be known as depraved.
And in the Anguttara Agama:
I am a friend of the footless,
I am a friend of all bipeds,
I am a friend of those with four feet,
I am a friend of the many-footed.
…
May all creatures, all breathing things,
all beings one and all, without exception,
experience good fortune only.
May they not fall into any harm.
Should we intend to skirt the First Precept by claiming innocence of the deed if others do the killing for us, He adds (Kshudraka Agama):
One should not kill any living being,
nor cause it to be killed,
nor should one incite any other to kill.
Do never injure any being,
whether strong or weak, in this entire universe!
Source: Let´s not fool ourselves
To manifest any given emotional state, we develop a pattern:
We focus our attention on a specific feeling (pleasant or unpleasant) and magnify it
We generate a supporting discursive thought process and identify with it
We assume a compatible breath pattern and physical posture
If you want to change your emotional state, change your focus, your self-talk, your breath, and your posture.
Source: Change Your Emotions
: The Dharma teaches that the manifestation of a consequence requires the confluence of multiple causes and conditions. Wrong views, afflicted emotions (attachment, aversion, and indifference), and the habits and tendencies that impel us to act in ways that are unskillful or undesirable constitute the fundamental causes of unbeneficial actions. The conditions that favor such conducts include material circumstances, similarly-inclined company, and situations.
If we desire to avoid those habitual tendencies, it is essential that we avoid conducive conditions for its manifestation. A well-known example is that of a person with alcoholic tendencies, who must avoid proximity and access to alcohol (material circumstances), persons with similar conducts (company), and those events in which this behavior is normative (situations).
We can successfully apply this strategy to all unskillful tendencies, identifying and avoiding the triggers that favor the repetition of any conduct we may wish to eliminate.
Consciousness (mind and mentation) is “the stuff” what we mistake to be subject and object, me and mine, us and things. There is no substantial me, mine, us, things, but only internal representations in our experience.
When you see a movie, the actors and the scenery are not there in the theater. They are images on film, projected on a screen. These images look like various persons and things, but they are all “made” of the same stuff: light and shadow.
In the same way, our every experience is only in and of consciousness, taking the form of (transforming into) subject and object, self and beings, phenomena and their characteristics. Our experience is never extra-mental. It is always internal.
Source: Projections
Now, while there is freedom to act,
I should always present a smiling face
and cease to frown and grimace.
The first to extend my hand in kindness,
I shall be a friend to the whole world.
—Shantideva, Bodhisattvacaryavatara
Here and There;
Post by Tashi Nyima
As a river, when full, must flow
and reach and fill the distant plain,
so what is given here, indeed,
will reach and bless the beings there.
As water on a mountain top
must soon descend and fill the plain,
so what is given here, indeed,
will reach and bless the beings there.
—Buddha Shakyamuni, Nidhikanda Sutta, Khuddakapatha
Source: Here and There
Learn this from the river’s flow
in mountain cleft and chasm:
the rivulets gush loudly,
the great stream moves silently.
Empty things boom loud.
The full are ever quiet.
The fool is like an empty pot;
the sage is full.
—Buddha Shakyamuni
Source: Empty & Full
Let me be able and upright,
straightforward and gentle in speech,
humble and not conceited,
contented and easily satisfied,
unburdened with duties and frugal in my ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
not proud or demanding in nature,
let me not do the slightest thing
that the wise would later reprove.
In gladness and in safety,
may all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be
—whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
the great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
the seen and the unseen,
those living near and far away,
those born and to-be-born—
may all beings be at ease!
Let me not deceive another,
or despise any being in any state.
Let me not through anger or ill-will
wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
her child, her only child,
so with a boundless heart
will I cherish all living beings.
I will radiate kindness over the entire world
—spreading upwards to the skies,
and downwards to the depths,
outwards and unbounded—
freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking,
seated or lying down,
free from weariness,
I will sustain this recollection.
This is the sublime abiding.
—Buddha Shakyamuni, Maitri Sutra
Source: Sublime Abiding
Assigning blame is emotionally charged. Whether we assign blame to others or ourselves, the negative emotion that accompanies blame is unskillful.
Blame entails not only assigning responsibility for an unwelcome consequence, but also imputing malice or evil intent to the one performing the act.
The law of karma, as taught by the Buddha Shakyamuni, lies beyond all concepts of human morality, right and wrong, good and evil. It is merely the understanding that causes produce effects. Gravity does not intend for us to fall and hurt ourselves when we trip; fire does not intend to cause us pain when our skin is burned by a flame.
When water comes in contact with a surface, that surface becomes wet. We do not blame the water for making the surface wet –that is its nature. Similarly, when our wrong views (ignorance of the nature of self and all phenomena) and afflicted emotions (attachment, aversion, and indifference) lead us to act in unskillful ways, there is no question of guilt and blame.
The purpose of acknowledging the law of karma is instructive, not punitive. When we understand that there is a relationship of cause and effect between our actions and the consequences we experience, we are liberated from victimhood. We are no longer subject to a random universe where evil befalls us without rhyme or reason. We are free to make our own way.
We do not study the law of karma to learn the specific reasons ‘why’ something happens. That exercise is futile. We understand the law of karma in order to make the determination to place positive, skillful causes in the continuum of our experience from here onwards.
The law of karma, of cause and effect, is not meant to lead us to recrimination, guilt, and blame. On the contrary, it is the acceptance of our capacity to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, and embrace happiness and the causes of happiness.
Source: Karma and Blame
GoodnightNina. 
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