I've noticed that most of the big concepts in Buddhism can be used as tools for practice (DO, emptiness, 3C, 5 aggregates, etc). But I don't think I've ever come across an insight practice based around deepening understanding of karma. So how do I practice with it?

Hi Geoffrey,

My experience is that all insight practices give a deepening insight into karma because you naturally examine past experiences and learn from them.

In my TWIM practice, I recently learned a technique to access past lives, so that is probably the closest thing I know to the kind of tool that you are looking for. I think that Ken McLeods realms techniques (from his "Wake up to your life" book) are in a similar vein, but I haven't used them.

Conal

I feel like this still doesn't give insights into karma itself?

like I know the idea of karma is tied to rebirths, but like experientially I don't have the faintest clue what karma is

To be honest, I think a lot of nonsense is often talked about karma. It's simply the "issues" that come up for you when you meditate. If you see it in terms of dependent origination, it's the habitual tendencies (bhava) i.e. issues that keep coming up for you until you can see them clearly enough to let them go!

​​​​​​​Conal

2nd Path will teach you this! Once you realise what Karma is you get the 2nd Path. 

Becoming aware of and releasing neurosis is karma practice, is insight practice, is liberating.

Karma - intention
Sankhara - constructs that get created due to intentions and subsequently colour the working of the sensorium
Sensorium - Nama-rupa - That which is sensed conjoined with the act of sensing. Vijanana, rupa, vedana, samjna

When we take intentional actions of relaxing, putting down engagement with 'distraction' and keep returning to our meditation object, we create/strenghten constructs within the mind that further make it easy to manipulate our attention. This manipulation of attention affects the state of the sensorium. When we stop intentionally practicing stable attention the sankharas we create fade/ lose strength and it becomes difficult to manipulate our attention. This is an example of how we can see karma in action.

Oh interesting, so a sort of weird combo of karma, sankhara and nama-rupa is what we are talking about when we talk about "view" then?

Papa you gotta teach me so I can cheat the system and jump ahead!

No idea either, but I suspect if you play with that 12 step dependent origination diagrams or wheel of life thangkas you might be able to trace back what caused a rebirth in the sense of getting angry or jealous or happy etc (e.g. was it a memory of something good or bad). After you understand the mechanics you could just label some part of process karma?

Everything operates according to the principle of cause and effect (karma). Even your mind. When you look closely at the activity of the mind you see that one bit of mental activity (thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experience, sense of self) leads to another through cause and effect (memory, association, reason) . You can't find any entity in control, it's just cause and effect. Everything you (and everyone else) say and do and think and feel is a result of cause and effect.

Also there is more to practice than meditation. Karma should inform your practice of sila (virtue) and dana (generosity). And right action is the second step of the eight-fold path.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/index.html

Rebirth and Karma are the foundation of morality - doing good and not doing harm is in your self-interest.

Geoffrey, you might like this: Karma (arobuddhism.org)