The Buddha's teaching on karma (literally, "action") is nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are: our thoughts and actions determine our future, and therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. Yet this supremely useful teaching is often ignored due to the misconceptions about it that abound in popular culture, especially oversimplifications that make it seem like something not to be taken seriously. Karma is not simple, as Traleg Kyabgon shows, and it's to be taken very seriously indeed. He cuts through the persistent illusions we cling to about karma to show what it really is - the mechanics of why we suffer and how we can make the suffering end. He explains how a realistic understanding of karma is indispensable to Buddhist practice, how it provides a foundation for a moral life, and how understanding it can have a transformative effect on the way we relate to our thoughts and feelings and to those around us.
Karma What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 176 pages, 2015, $15.95

Traleg Kyabgon (1955-2012) was born in Eastern Tibet and educated by many great masters of all four major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder of the Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute, which is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with a major practice center in upstate New York and a practice community in New York City. He taught extensively at universities and Buddhist centers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia beginning in 1980, and is the author of numerous books that present Buddhist teachings to Western readers, including The Essence of Buddhism and Mind at Ease.

Contents: Karma: What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters
Foreword by Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Seventeenth Karmapa	vii
Introduction	1
1. The Origins of the Concept of Karma	13
2. The Buddha's View of Karma	27
3. The Yogacara School's Contribution to Karmic Theory	59
4. The Bardo Teachings on Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth	65
5. No Karma - Emptiness and the Two Truths	73
6. Meaning in Life and the Fear of Death	85
7. Immortality, Reincarnation, and Rebirth	97
8. Karmic Theory as a Possible Foundation for Ethics	105
9. The Empirical Aspects of Karmic Theory and Rebirth	121
10. Working with Karma	135
Conclusion	145
Notes	151
Bibliography	153
Index	155