Karma, Dependent Arising and Emptiness (3 June 2008)

0:00 Not karma in the mental afflictions. That was a... That just slipped out. That kind of just slipped out. Karma and emptiness. Okay. Although I noticed on the publicity it says karma, emptiness and dependent arising, which is maybe convenient considering what I have in mind for this evening. So anyway, we were talking about some of the general characteristics of karma, like karma is definite and so on. And then... Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:29 about the person who creates the karma, in order to… Report an error in the passage at 0:29 Highlight the passage at 0:29

0:37 order to get some kind of understanding about the nature of the person that creates the karma. Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Report an error in the passage at 0:37 Highlight the passage at 0:37

0:50 Rinpoche. were talking about the nature of the body and mind, the continuity of... Report an error in the passage at 0:50 Highlight the passage at 0:50

1:04 look at Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:08 Calm and emptiness and actually the relationship between calm and emptiness by way of the topic of dependent arising and Report an error in the passage at 1:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08

1:21 specifically somehow I just sort of woke up with the idea, I might have thought about it last night or anyway sometime around then, to talk about the twelve links which you might have heard of before. Is this loud enough? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:43 Anyway, the 12 links is something which, when you learn about the 12 links, the 12 links of dependent arising, this gives you, this is very useful for getting an insight into how it is that we take birth in cyclic existence and likewise, once you understand the way that one takes birth, then the way to stop that, to sort of reverse that process, how to gain liberation from cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

2:19 This is something that the Buddha taught, the rice seedling sūtra. I think so-called because maybe in response to a question the Buddha held up a rice seedling and talked about the way that a rice seedling is produced. So that's the external sort of example of how dependent arising works because when you have a rice seedling it's not something that just appears out of nowhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:19 Highlight the passage at 2:19

2:54 causes and conditions so likewise birth in cyclic existence Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:07 there are these 12, you could say 12 steps, 12 links. Tendil yin lakshuni, tendil. I don't know if you knew word. Report an error in the passage at 3:07 Highlight the passage at 3:07

3:19 link I suppose the tender anyway so it's it's sort of more literally 10 12 branches of arising Report an error in the passage at 3:19 Highlight the passage at 3:19

3:34 the of Life, if you're not so familiar. I don't know if you've seen the of the Wheel of Life, you know, that wheel with the different sections in it, in the fangs of this monster. Report an error in the passage at 3:34 Highlight the passage at 3:34

3:49 monster being of symbolic of death, so in itself symbolises the fact that through our lives we're in the... the jaws of this monster which and these jaws could snap just like this the jaws of a monster can snap shut at any So the 12 links, well the first one is ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 3:49 Highlight the passage at 3:49

4:28 Maybe I'll just go through the list first. The first one is called ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 4:28 Highlight the passage at 4:28

4:35 Karma or karmic formations, formations anyway, is more straightforward to refer to as simply as karma. The second one is karma. The third one is consciousness. The fourth one is name and form. Then the fifth one is the six sources, the six ayatana. Then the sixth one is contact. The seventh one is feeling. Then... Report an error in the passage at 4:35 Highlight the passage at 4:35

5:08 The eighth is craving, ninth is grasping, tenth is existence, sometimes called becoming, and then the tenth is birth, no, the eleventh is birth, and then the twelfth is aging and death, which are put together because one can die without going through what we normally sort of conventionally... Considered to be the process of getting old. So Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

5:52 those are the 12. Now, so ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 5:52 Highlight the passage at 5:52

6:00 Ignorance comes from the... Well, the Tibetan term is marigpa. So it's like the opposite of rigpa, which is the wisdom. And actually, I was looking at the Gishizopa's commentary and somehow in there they've... Report an error in the passage at 6:00 Highlight the passage at 6:00

6:22 They point out that the word ignorance also is like, well, they mention a sort of Latin word, but I think there's also a Greek word, gnosis, which you sometimes see used in certain Buddhist teachings, Buddhist texts, gnosis, so ignosis, the opposite of gnosis, the opposite of knowledge, avidya, the opposite of vidya, which also means knowledge. Report an error in the passage at 6:22 Highlight the passage at 6:22

6:48 So, ignorance... knowledge. Report an error in the passage at 6:48 Highlight the passage at 6:48

6:54 Is the first, and that's quite significant because the fact that it's considered first means it's like the root of all of the other ones. It's as if, since it's the first out of the twelve, if you want to stop all of the other ones, then the way to do so is to stop the first one. So now, okay, so ignorance, I mean in our normal use of the word ignorance, not Report an error in the passage at 6:54 Highlight the passage at 6:54

7:29 knowing ignorance. Sometimes in England, I don't know about over here, but sometimes we use the word ignorant. We refer to somebody as ignorant who's a bit of a kind of a lout, which is maybe not very American either. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

7:47 Like, what would you call that, a lout? Oh, you know the word. Kind of. Not quite a thug. Report an error in the passage at 7:47 Highlight the passage at 7:47

8:01 Huh? Yeah, you could say a fool. that's a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 8:01 Highlight the passage at 8:01

8:04 You say, oh, so-and-so is really ignorant. Huh? Huh? Vagabond. Oh, yeah, maybe. But anyway, it's somebody who's really kind of like, really kind of bad-mannered and, yeah. Oaf, maybe an oaf will do, yeah. Not quite as good as a lout. Louts usually go down the bar and get drunk. Bad-mannered and thoughtless kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 8:04 Highlight the passage at 8:04

8:35 Anyway, whatever. The thing is that there's a passage from the Abhidhamma Kosha, Vasubandhus Abhidhamma Kosha, which concerns the nature of ignorance. And it says ignorance is like a lie or enmity or unfriendliness. So a lie isn't just... Report an error in the passage at 8:35 Highlight the passage at 8:35

9:08 We wouldn't call just absolutely anything which isn't the truth a lie, would we? A lie is something which is the opposite of the truth. They are complete polar opposites, aren't they? So it's not just something which is not the truth, which is a lie. And likewise, you wouldn't call somebody, you wouldn't use the word, let's say enemy, you wouldn't use the word to... Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:32 enemy just to anything or anyone which isn't your friend. Enemy is somebody who's the opposite of a friend. just like that with ignorance, ignorance is, you don't, Like for example, is wisdom, Report an error in the passage at 9:32 Highlight the passage at 9:32

9:56 opposite is anything which isn't Gnosis, anything which isn't Vidya or Rigpa, anything which isn't knowledge. Like, for example... I mean to take a silly example maybe like this table isn't wisdom, but that doesn't mean to say that it's ignorance, does it? And even if we think of something like anger, anger is not wisdom, but just because it's not wisdom doesn't make it ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:27 Ignorance is something which is the complete opposite of wisdom. And particularly, not just, because there are all sorts of types of wisdom and levels of wisdom. So the wisdom we're talking about here, when we say that ignorance is the opposite of wisdom, is basically the wisdom that understands the true nature of reality. Report an error in the passage at 10:27 Highlight the passage at 10:27

10:51 That kind of wisdom. So ignorance is the opposite of that. You comfortable? So Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:07 it's the opposite. Report an error in the passage at 11:07 Highlight the passage at 11:07

11:13 They use the term Gelda Mithunjok. So ignorance is like something which is literally something which is disharmonious or let's say we could say incompatible with wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:36 Ignorance is incompatible with wisdom, but not just incompatible, but really like... The complete opposite, completely contradictory, so contradictory opposite. What it means is, what it comes down to is this. The person that we were talking about last week, you know, when you think I this and I that. Report an error in the passage at 11:36 Highlight the passage at 11:36

11:55 So ignorance looks at that I and thinks is sort of self-existent. Wisdom looks at the same person and thinks empty of self-existence or not self-existent. So they are completely the opposite, aren't they? They're not just different from each other, they're the complete opposite of each other. And this is actually quite important because when we refer to wisdom as being the remedy or the antidote to ignorance, you often hear the Geshe Zen Lama saying what you need to remove ignorance is a... Report an error in the passage at 11:55 Highlight the passage at 11:55

12:43 is a remedy, antidote, which is complete opposite to it, like grasps the same object in the complete opposite way from ignorance, otherwise it's kind of irrelevant. Report an error in the passage at 12:43 Highlight the passage at 12:43

13:04 Meditating on love and compassion, if you think in terms of the path to enlightenment. Then, of course, they're indispensable. You can't achieve enlightenment without love and compassion. Without love and compassion you don't have bodhicitta. Without bodhicitta you can't even really get started. Report an error in the passage at 13:04 Highlight the passage at 13:04

13:26 You all know about that. So despite the fact that love is very important and compassion is very important, they don't have the power to eliminate this ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 13:26 Highlight the passage at 13:26

13:50 Because it's a bit like this, I think. If you've got some doubts about, let's say you've got, I don't know, somebody who's, maybe you've got an accountant, right? Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:07 Maybe you have an accountant, maybe this accountant is swindling you, so maybe you have some kind of doubts about whether this accountant is swindling you or not. It's not going to, it's not going to, just knowing that this person is kind to cats, which might be true, but just knowing that isn't going to help you to get a clear idea of whether they're swindling you or not, right? Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:45 You know, swindling means like cheating out of money and you need to, so you need to know whether they are cheating you out of money or not. That's what you need to know. Or like, you know, suppose you've got a child you think is, you know, son or daughter you think is taking drugs, then it's no use just hearing that the kid next door isn't taking drugs or is taking drugs. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:11 It's kind of irrelevant. You need to know it has to be complete, it has to be to do with that person, that object, same object, it has to be the same object and it has to be the same kind of, you know, it has to be to do with that. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

15:25 How do you put this anyway? It has to be related to what you have some kind of suspicion about. So it's like that with the ignorance. Those other factors, they might be helpful because you need so many different practices all combined together which help you to eventually uproot ignorance and achieve liberation, enlightenment and so on. Report an error in the passage at 15:25 Highlight the passage at 15:25

15:55 Nevertheless, what really solves the problem of ignorance is wisdom and the wisdom, specifically that means the wisdom which is involved with the same thing but sees the reality of the thing instead of some kind of false idea of the thing. In other words, which grasps or apprehends, sort of engages in the same object but in a completely different way. Report an error in the passage at 15:55 Highlight the passage at 15:55

16:25 What you need to overcome the thought that things are self-existent is the understanding that they're not self-existent. It's as simple as that really. So then, that's the nature of ignorance, it's the complete opposite of the wisdom realizing selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

16:46 And then, maybe that might do for the moment. So Report an error in the passage at 16:46 Highlight the passage at 16:46

17:04 then, if you can wait a moment. Thanks. So that's the ignorance. Then due to ignorance, the second link occurs, karma. But there's other things that go on in between. So, for example, in the case of negative karma, like killing, so usually if you've heard the teachings about karma, then you know that one might kill out of attachment, out of ignorance or out of hatred. Report an error in the passage at 17:04 Highlight the passage at 17:04

17:47 Those with killing, it's pretty clear, isn't it? Like attachment, you know, you kill a creature out of attachment to its flesh. You might kill somebody out of anger. I mean, that's happening all the time, isn't it? And then killing out of ignorance because you think that it's just it's OK to do. You think it's OK to do. Report an error in the passage at 17:47 Highlight the passage at 17:47

18:07 You think it doesn't matter. So you kill. Report an error in the passage at 18:07 Highlight the passage at 18:07

18:19 So in the case of. Report an error in the passage at 18:19 Highlight the passage at 18:19

18:26 So the way it works then with the ignorance, then somehow the mental afflictions of attachment, anger or ignorance, and then due to that, the karma. So due to ignorance about oneself, which we call sometimes true grasping of the person or self-grasping of the person, in other words, with a sense of oneself being self-existent based upon that, Sort of attitude about oneself or perception of oneself, the attachment arises towards things that you think are going to satisfy that self. Report an error in the passage at 18:26 Highlight the passage at 18:26

19:10 It seems to work something like that. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:15 So, I mean, you can kind of see that, can't you? Like when you get angry or whether you have some strong sense of attachment, there's always this strong feeling of an I who's at the sort of center of all that, isn't there? Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:30 I want this, I don't like this, that kind of thing. So when we say that due to ignorance we create karma, it seems to more or less mean that, that you have this sense of I, this kind of very concretely or solidly existing I, which Report an error in the passage at 19:30 Highlight the passage at 19:30

19:53 wants to have this experience, such and such a pleasurable experience. And then, in order to get that, not really understanding that by stealing, for example, you're actually creating the cause for so much suffering in the future, thinking that that's the way to get what you want, so you steal. So then that means that you've got the second link, karma. Report an error in the passage at 19:53 Highlight the passage at 19:53

20:31 And then, so ignorance, karma, then... Once the action is finished, then, I mean, we know from that discussion we had of karma last week, the effects of karma are never lost. So what that means is, to be more specific, what that means is that... of, to be more specific. Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

21:04 Once the action, the karma has been collected, the karma has been done or created, in other words, once the action has been done, in this case, like stealing or killing, then an imprint is left on your consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:21 We say imprint, you could say like a seed or a potential, that's what he's talking about. There's the potential to experience the result of that action. So in the case of a destructive action, so there's this kind of potential to experience. suffering in the future if it had been a positive action then you you're left with the imprint or the potential to experience happiness So the consciousness which first receives that imprint or the consciousness where that imprint is first left or deposited is the third link, third link consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 21:21 Highlight the passage at 21:21

22:07 Actually with consciousness you can talk in terms of the causal consciousness and the resultant consciousness. The causal consciousness is just as I described it, the consciousness that first receives that imprint, that potential. And then the resultant consciousness is when you're first born in one of the... Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:32 the various realms of psychic existence as a result of that action, the first moment of the consciousness of that life is the resultant consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

22:52 the first tree then, ignorance. So out of ignorance we create karma and then the imprint of that karma is left on consciousness. Then, okay, so... Report an error in the passage at 22:52 Highlight the passage at 22:52

23:14 In order to explain the next link, the name and form, I think it's important to say a bit more about the second link karma. Because basically not every karma is included in the second link. This second link karma refers to those actions which are powerful enough to make us... So some kind of neutral action, for example, wouldn't be strong enough to make you take birth in any of the six realms. Report an error in the passage at 23:14 Highlight the passage at 23:14

23:54 So it needs to be a karma which is strong enough to cause you to take birth. So for that reason, when talking about karma in the context of the twelve links, if you're talking about karma in general, you might hear an explanation of positive karma, negative karma and neutral karma. But not when you're talking about the 12 links. There's no talk of neutral karma because neutral karma can't act as one of the 12 links because it doesn't have that kind of power. Report an error in the passage at 23:54 Highlight the passage at 23:54

24:24 So we usually talk about meritorious karma, literally. Three kinds of karma. There's one way of talking about it where it says there's two and then the second one there's two types. But anyway, the easiest way to think of it is that there are these three types. Report an error in the passage at 24:24 Highlight the passage at 24:24

24:46 Meritorious karma, non-meritorious karma and immovable karma or unmovable, myowa, myowa, so yeah, kind of unfluctuating they say sometimes, unfluctuating karma, karma Report an error in the passage at 24:46 Highlight the passage at 24:46

25:10 which doesn't fluctuate, karma which doesn't move. Anyway, there's a reason why it's called that. I'm not sure I can explain it clearly, but anyway, so meritorious karma, Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:23 would be any kind of action that can cause you to take birth as a human being or as a god or demigod. Report an error in the passage at 25:23 Highlight the passage at 25:23

25:39 it demeritorious karma or unmeritorious karma? Sounds a bit awkward, doesn't So that's any kind of destructive action, non-virtuous action, which can cause you to be born in any of the three unfortunate... fortunate of existence, like as a hell being, a praetor, as an animal. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:05 Now, when you talk about the third type I mentioned, the unfluctuating or unmoving, unchanging karma, this is the karma which creates the potential for you to be... Born in either the form realm or formless realm. So we talk about, just like sometimes we talk about the six realms, right? I mean most of you have heard that, six realms. So sometimes we talk about the three realms. So we've got the desire realm, form and formless realm. Report an error in the passage at 26:05 Highlight the passage at 26:05

26:50 Out of the six realms, the first three, the lower realms, they're all sort of part of the desire realm. then the... Human beings are also included in the desire realm. And then when you get to the demigods, also they're included in the desire realm. With the gods, some of them are in the desire realm, so we hear about the desire realm gods, but there are also form and formless realm gods. Report an error in the passage at 26:50 Highlight the passage at 26:50

27:16 So the gods can be any of those three. Why this kind of world that we're living in at the moment is called desire realm is because... Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:33 For the most part, anybody that's born in this, like as a human being for example, it's like your whole life revolves around the experience of the five sense objects, visual form, sounds, smells, tastes and tangibles. I mean, you can say, well, you know, somebody who's meditating. meditating, have so much interest in that kind of thing. But generally speaking, I mean, there might be some people who have kind of their kind of obsession with that kind of, withdrawn from any kind of Okay, so then... Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

28:14 that's a fact, isn't it? That's how our world works. That's what people are looking for. That's what people want. That's what wars are fought over, if you think about it, experience of those kinds of pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

28:37 I mean, you all know about developing concentration and calm abiding, right? Or what's another word for it? Calm abiding, there's another word. Report an error in the passage at 28:37 Highlight the passage at 28:37

28:48 Huh? Shi ne, yeah? Shi ne, shamatha, calm abiding. What's another term that people might be more familiar with? Calm abiding. Anyway, why is it called calm abiding? Usually they say because the... Actually, it's shi ne, so the shi is... To do with being peaceful or pacified, so it means like those mental factors which prevent the mind from being able to concentrate have been pacified. Report an error in the passage at 28:48 Highlight the passage at 28:48

29:20 And then the need to remain, so therefore that means the mind is able to remain on the object as long as one wants to, whatever object it might be, within those obstacles having been pacified or sort of, you know, at least temporarily removed. Report an error in the passage at 29:20 Highlight the passage at 29:20

29:39 So, and then Report an error in the passage at 29:39 Highlight the passage at 29:39

29:48 there is insight, right? Now, I know that, you know, you have people who talk about practicing insight, you know, vipassanā, that's the Sanskrit word, right? Vipassanā, insight, hlaktong. But anyway, in this tradition, when they talk about hlaktong or vipassanā or insight, Report an error in the passage at 29:48 Highlight the passage at 29:48

30:13 What it means is that having achieved this calm abiding, which is no easy thing to do, right? It's something very difficult to do. So having achieved that, so with calm abiding, it's according to the explanations you, what do they say? How do Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:42 they usually say that about the appliance? So, pliancy, the bliss of physical and mental pliancy, isn't it? So when you get this bliss of physical and mental pliancy, I mean, it's just kind of repeating some words I've heard, I mean, you know. Report an error in the passage at 30:42 Highlight the passage at 30:42

31:01 Rumor has it, yeah, exactly. Anyway, that's how they usually say, you know, that's the term they use. When you get this bliss of physical and mental pliancy, Report an error in the passage at 31:01 Highlight the passage at 31:01

31:16 The bliss of mental and physical pliancy. Xinjiang, yeah, the bliss of mental and physical pliancy, then got the calm abiding the kshamata. When within that you're able to analyze and then as a result of analyzing, also get a bliss of mental and physical pliancy that comes through the analysis, then you've got what they call this vipassanā or or the... Report an error in the passage at 31:16 Highlight the passage at 31:16

31:48 the calm abiding. And in this tradition... Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama When the person wants to achieve the form and formless concentrations and Report an error in the passage at 31:48 Highlight the passage at 31:48

32:22 be born in the form and formless realms, then the kind of vipassanā, or we could say the kind of analysis that they engage in, is one which involves seeing in the beginning, because you can't just go from where we are now, which is the desire, straight to the... Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:47 through it step by step. So, first of all, you would be thinking of all of the drawbacks of the desire realm and all of the qualities of the level of concentration which is the first dhyāna or the first of the form realm concentrations. Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

33:14 Through that, you would gradually abandon particularly the attachment, but in fact in general all of the mental afflictions of the desire realm. So there's kind of some sense in that. If it's possible to have an experience which is far superior in terms of peace and in terms of bliss, bliss and and so on to anything that we experience in this world as kind of like on this Report an error in the passage at 33:14 Highlight the passage at 33:14

33:56 that that kind of uh that kind of thing is possible you can see how the more you think about that and the more you think about the the drawbacks of this realm the more you're going to kind of like lose interest anything in this world right because you've got something better So it's from that point of view that you're said to abandon the Report an error in the passage at 33:56 Highlight the passage at 33:56

34:18 afflictions of the desire. It's a bit like, you know... Report an error in the passage at 34:18 Highlight the passage at 34:18

34:36 I guess, for example, you could have spent your whole life in England just eating English food. So then... You know, so then that's all you know about, right? So that's all you know about and so you're kind of like happy enough with that. Then you come to, I'm not going to say come to the US because then you're going to get carried away, right? Report an error in the passage at 34:36 Highlight the passage at 34:36

35:03 Maybe you go over to France, okay? So you go over to France and you start eating real French cuisine. So then, you know, this is possible and you also know about the... So, you know, whereas before you didn't know anything else and that was just it. I mean, maybe you were or maybe you weren't satisfied with it, but anyway, that was it. Now, you know, once you see the difference, why would you bother about that awful English cuisine, right? Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:33 Why would you bother, you know? Can you see, like, you might have fought and stolen and killed to get that food before, but now... Because you can see that there's this over here which is possible that you could be having like every day. Why would you, you know, you're not going to kill anybody for British fish and chips anymore, you know. Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:56 You see what I mean? So I think it must be a bit like that. Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:03 You know, up until now, you know, the desire and that's all we know, right? That's quite interesting, isn't it? That's all we know and we get involved in it and we fight over it and we argue about it and all that. If you discover there's something better, then you can imagine, why bother? It doesn't matter. Why get upset about it? Report an error in the passage at 36:03 Highlight the passage at 36:03

36:26 Why worry about it? Why be afraid about it? That kind of thing. You can imagine, can't you? Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

36:33 Anyway, this process of thinking more and more in various ways about the qualities of the next level up. In this case, the first concentration, first dhyāna, as they sometimes call it, and the drawbacks of the desire realm, the afflictions of the desire realm in your mind just get weaker and weaker, and then at a certain point they're said to be completely abandoned. Report an error in the passage at 36:33 Highlight the passage at 36:33

37:10 So that process is something which you're doing with the so-called... Report an error in the passage at 37:10 Highlight the passage at 37:10

37:18 Tibetan, what do they say? Anyway, sometimes we call them like access meditations or ramp meditations. Just like a ramp, it takes you up onto the main road, onto the main highway, okay? So these are concentrations that take you up to the actual first concentration, the actual first concentration. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:39 So there is, actually, yeah, they call them yichidruk. I think there might be another word. Yichidruk is six attentions, actually. No, is that right? What is that something else? There are six of them anyway. There are these six concentrations which sort of, for the most part, represent more and more mastery over the mental afflictions of the desire realm in this case, because we're talking about going from desire realm to the first concentration. Report an error in the passage at 37:39 Highlight the passage at 37:39

38:07 So... I don't know what that is anyway. That's what they call it. Isn't it? I can't remember. Anyway, I feel I'm pretty comfortable with the term like access concentrations or the ramp concentrations. So anyway, they're sort of preparatory concentrations that you go through. And then for somebody who's really ambitious, then once you've got that level of concentration, then you start thinking about the drawbacks of that one and the incredible qualities of the next one up. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:48 And there are again six access concentrations that lead you up to the second concentration and so on until you get to the, you have four of those concentrations and those are form realm concentrations. Why they're called form realm concentrations is because you still have a physical form and you still have physical objects that you interact with but your main, you know, you're nourished. Report an error in the passage at 38:48 Highlight the passage at 38:48

39:18 mainly by the concentration itself and so apparently they don't actually have a sense of smell or taste because they don't eat, I suppose. Apparently, that's why. Report an error in the passage at 39:18 Highlight the passage at 39:18

39:38 Yeah, but anyway, they have other things to make up for it, right? They have other things to make up for it. And then you get that fourth concentration and then you have the four formless concentrations. Report an error in the passage at 39:38 Highlight the passage at 39:38

39:57 So when I say that they don't have a form, what I mean is that the person who's doing this meditation, actually, you know, so you can be a desire-almed being, but you're going through these meditations, and actually you could even get to the highest level of concentration, which is possible in cycle existence, which is the concentration of the peak of cycle existence, or peak of existence is referred to. Report an error in the passage at 39:57 Highlight the passage at 39:57

40:27 the peak of saṃsāra so all the time you're you're still a desire around being why because you've got you've been born in a desire and you haven't died yet you've still got this Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama The level of concentration you've reached in this life, so if you've reached the eighth one, the concentration of the peak of psychic existence, then you could be born next life in that realm. Report an error in the passage at 40:27 Highlight the passage at 40:27

41:15 Then you would be a formless realm being. You wouldn't be a desire realm being anymore. So when I say they don't have form, I mean if you're actually born there, the person who's meditating still has a physical form and still can smell and taste and so on. But when they're born in that realm, as a result of their concentration, then they wouldn't have smell or taste, but they still have a physical form. And then when you're born in the formless realm, you don't have a physical body at all. Report an error in the passage at 41:15 Highlight the passage at 41:15

41:47 Pretty weird, isn't it? Anyway, so, you know, let me think. I think it's His Holiness' book on the Four Noble Truths, where there's probably not more than a page devoted to... A discussion of the three realms, and it's quite interesting. I can't remember for the moment how he put it, but he puts it in such a way that you really feel, oh yeah, you can see how it's just a question of how the mind works, how your own mind works, when it works in a certain way, sort of like desire on mind, when it works in a certain other kind of way. Report an error in the passage at 41:47 Highlight the passage at 41:47

42:31 Because you can't... You can imagine, you know, being able to sort of lose interest in, I mean, even from our teachings on renunciation, you can see how you could lose interest in the pleasures of, the physical pleasures, right? Report an error in the passage at 42:31 Highlight the passage at 42:31

42:47 So now think about it. If you lost, you know, this obsession with the physical pleasures, sense pleasures, would, you know, would your mind suddenly become non-existent? Report an error in the passage at 42:47 Highlight the passage at 42:47

43:03 It wouldn't, would it? I mean, you know, this is things to wonder about. What would happen? What is there? What else is there? See, that's the problem, isn't it? You can't quite believe there's anything else. But the thing is, anyway, so just imagine, you can imagine not having any kind of interest in just ordinary pleasures, but your mind would still be there, wouldn't it? Report an error in the passage at 43:03 Highlight the passage at 43:03

43:29 So there is a possibility of some kind of existence where you don't have the... that of obsession with the desire object. Report an error in the passage at 43:29 Highlight the passage at 43:29

43:45 as far as this meritorious karma, demeritorious karma and unshakable karma or unfluctuating karma is concerned. When we talk about karma, the second of the twelve links, it's more precisely referred to as throwing karma, penjegile. Throwing karma. Why exactly is it called throwing karma? Because it sort of propels or throws you into a new life. Report an error in the passage at 43:45 Highlight the passage at 43:45

44:21 I mean, you know, there's some kind of image there, isn't there? Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:26 Anyway, besides that, when we talk about throwing karma, we're talking about having created, you know, when you create throwing karma, when you're killed or stolen or whatever, or done something nice or whatever it might be, you know. Report an error in the passage at 44:26 Highlight the passage at 44:26

44:41 it's called When we refer to it as throwing karma, the main point is that you've done something which creates the potential for you to experience such and such a birth in psychic existence. There's the potential, but there's no guarantee that it's going to happen. You've got that potential, but you're not just about to be born there. Report an error in the passage at 44:41 Highlight the passage at 44:41

45:05 So even because of the actions we've done in this life, and never mind about the... Previous lives we've got millions and billions and trillions probably, bazillions, bazillions, bazillions, gazillions of these imprints. So all of those imprints means that we've got all these potentials to be born in so many different ways. And, well, anyway, there are some other things that cause and conditions that... Report an error in the passage at 45:05 Highlight the passage at 45:05

45:45 make it so that you're just about to be born there, you know, actually make you take birth. I don't know, let me see what would be a... Oh, it would be like this. If you have a seed of a plant, okay, then you have a potential, don't you, for a plant to grow. But in order for that plant, that seed to actually grow into a plant, you need some other conditions which, to use the language of the Twelve Links, we could refer to as actualizing conditions, which would be... Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

46:12 Warmth, moisture, nutrition in the soil and so on. So the seed gives you the potential for the plant to grow. Then those other things make that potential into something which actually happens. So that's why here in some translations they use the word actualizing causes. And that's something we come up with later on. So that's about just a couple more minutes. Report an error in the passage at 46:12 Highlight the passage at 46:12

46:41 I want to say this about the karma. With the unmoving karma or unfluctuating karma, which is the karma for you to be born in the formal formless realm, there you're talking about any one of those access meditations. The access meditations are what create the... The karma to be born in one of those realms. Report an error in the passage at 46:41 Highlight the passage at 46:41

47:22 The actual concentration, if you don't have the actual concentration, you can't take, like for example, if you don't have the, if you haven't actually achieved the first level of concentration, right? If you haven't gone through that process of the six access meditations and reached the final, you know, the first concentration as a result of that, you wouldn't be able to be born in the first. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:46 of the four form realms, right? it's the meditation with which you create the karma be born in the first the actual concentration. Report an error in the passage at 47:46 Highlight the passage at 47:46

48:03 So let's say, you know, I don't know, around the age of 50, 60, you get this level of concentration, right? Just so that we can all have some hope. Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:16 So you go through, it just takes you about a year maybe to go through these six access meditations that lead to you having the first concentration, right? Report an error in the passage at 48:16 Highlight the passage at 48:16

48:33 So it's when you're meditating on the access concentrations that you're creating the karma to be born in the first realm, the first form realm. Report an error in the passage at 48:33 Highlight the passage at 48:33

48:46 The way one of my teachers explained to me is, remember we have this idea that with the throwing karma it's something which has to be quite strong. Neutral karma isn't throwing karma. It can't be throwing karma. It can't cause you to take birth in one of the six realms. It's not strong enough. You need something stronger. So when you're killing and stealing and lying and so on, or doing something positive with a strong motivation, then it's quite a powerful thing. Report an error in the passage at 48:46 Highlight the passage at 48:46

49:17 That power is what makes you to take birth in one of the six realms. So when you're trying to achieve the first concentration by meditating on those six access meditations, you're putting in a lot of effort. It takes a lot of exertion. You're working very hard to get that concentration. So there, that action has got the power to create the potential for you to be born in the... Report an error in the passage at 49:17 Highlight the passage at 49:17

50:02 amazing experience but it doesn't have the power to create calm the karma to be born in the first concentration Report an error in the passage at 50:02 Highlight the passage at 50:02

50:15 So I think we're going over a little bit, but if we have like five, ten minutes, questions, ten minutes maximum, and then we have a short break. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:30 Yeah? Oh yeah, this is our Gigu, the Gigu disciplinarian. Report an error in the passage at 50:30 Highlight the passage at 50:30

50:46 Gigu, Gigu is in the monastery, the disciplinarian, the one that goes around beating. What was the text that you were just referring to? She is. That's what I'm saying. Report an error in the passage at 50:46 Highlight the passage at 50:46

50:56 The text that describes these form and formless... Oh, there are a few, actually. There's one nice explanation of the Twelve Links that's in this book. I was just looking at it this afternoon. I think it's called The Meaning of Life, His Holiness, with Geoffrey Hopkins translating, based on a teaching that was given in England. Report an error in the passage at 50:56 Highlight the passage at 50:56

51:23 There's also a wonderful explanation in the Lamrim Chemmo, And of course, that means in volume two of Gishi Zopa's commentary. Although it says on the front cover, it's about karma, it's also got a lot of other things, including the 12 links. Report an error in the passage at 51:23 Highlight the passage at 51:23

51:45 And Gishi Tachin's book, I think it's called The Wheel of Life. I really like that one. I really like that, yeah. That's very nice. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

52:08 I have a couple of questions. Start with ignorance. So the ignorance is... Basically, not just solely not knowing, but it is being born with the idea that things are permanent, that things are immovable, that they are independent. They are inherent existence, yeah. Yeah, so that would be one way of defining ignorance. Yeah, let's see. Roughly, yeah, ignorance is... Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:43 The belief in things being, whether it's oneself or other people or whatever, being inherently existent. But it's not just not knowing. Right, right. It's not just not knowing, it's grasping in the opposite way from the reality. And then the wisdom in itself will be the opposite of that, which is knowing the reality. Report an error in the passage at 52:43 Highlight the passage at 52:43

53:07 The actual nature of reality. That's how it is. The other one that I, I don't know, maybe Maybe other people have questions? If you don't mind? Yeah, there's a couple over here. Report an error in the passage at 53:07 Highlight the passage at 53:07

53:31 I think you have to hold it up a bit. My question is something to do with equanimity. Is it switched off or something? I don't know. Equanimity. To do with how you were explaining. so you have some Some better knowledge than the last knowledge that you had kind of doesn't have enough grasping for you, so you move on. Report an error in the passage at 53:31 Highlight the passage at 53:31

54:02 Let's go to the example of the French food and English food. So when you've tasted French food, why would you go back to English food, right? But when that happens... You've got something against English food? I'm allowed to say that, you're not allowed to say that, right? I'm just joking. You could say Indian food and French food. So when you go to Indian food, you don't have the taste for French food. When that happens in the mind, in my mind, sometimes you look down upon the last thing. Report an error in the passage at 54:02 Highlight the passage at 54:02

54:37 So as if you've got a better thing, so you know there's no equanimity left, there's no equality left and therefore you lose balance. Well, here that's anyway just not the main point. The fact is that if there are these nine possibilities, sort of like desire, realm, mind, first form, realm, mind, second form, realm, mind and so on. Report an error in the passage at 54:37 Highlight the passage at 54:37

54:59 The fact is, just like with the analogy, whether you look down on the English food or whatever, anyway, you've got your French food, you've got something better. So like that with this, you know. It's not so much to do with looking down on, but anyway, whether you look down on it or whether you don't look down on it, the point is that you've achieved something better. Report an error in the passage at 54:59 Highlight the passage at 54:59

55:24 That's the main point. I think anyway. Yeah, but in my mind, when I say I come to class, I hear the teacher say something which is better than what I thought in the past. Then I take that and there's a sense of... I don't know, false pride or something like, you know, tangible. Yeah. You know, and then you meet another person and it speaks your old thought and you feel as I have a question about how the jhānas relate to... Report an error in the passage at 55:24 Highlight the passage at 55:24

55:52 exactly. Yeah, okay, so that's one of the pitfalls you have to avoid. Report an error in the passage at 55:52 Highlight the passage at 55:52

56:15 The path to liberation. Because in the Theravadan tradition, it seems like it's emphasized to really kind of go through the four form and the four formless realm jhānas. And we just don't really have that in our tradition. It's sort of you get to the first form realm absorption and use that level of concentration to meditate on emptiness or the access concentration. Report an error in the passage at 56:15 Highlight the passage at 56:15

56:37 And I've even heard that if you're practicing tantra, you're not supposed to go past the first form. So I'm kind of wondering what the difference is, what the purpose of going through all of those is. Because we also kind of hear it creates the cause for a formless realm rebirth if you just get absorbed in one of those concentrations. So what's the difference between... Report an error in the passage at 56:37 Highlight the passage at 56:37

57:06 Maybe in the Theravāda that they see that as part of the path and the way we do it in the Tibetan tradition. I don't really know, but although on the one hand, according to the explanations I've seen and heard, I couldn't tell you the text which is cited, but it's not just some kind of Tibetan idea, that's for sure. Where I saw it was in the... Report an error in the passage at 57:06 Highlight the passage at 57:06

57:36 In Chuggy Gyaltsen's explanation of Madhyamika, the essential points of the Madhyamika, and he quotes Indian sources, which, it's Report an error in the passage at 57:36 Highlight the passage at 57:36

57:53 almost coming back to me, but anyway, where the Buddha is praised for having revealed a method where just having one of the access, just having the access, concentration of the first realm one is able to completely eliminate all of the mental afflictions completely eliminate them so that's one side on the other side there are I don't really have any understanding of this, but I have heard that at certain stages during the path of the Bodhisattva, It's a certain... Report an error in the passage at 57:53 Highlight the passage at 57:53

58:39 It's very important for them to gain some kind of dexterity, some kind of ability with all of these concentrations. And they really developed this incredible agility of the mind in being able to move in and out of these concentrations very, very quickly. Report an error in the passage at 58:39 Highlight the passage at 58:39

59:00 Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember. It comes up. It comes up. I can't remember, actually it might not come up in that text, it might come up in his text on the form and formless absorptions. But that is, you know, there are those both sides, both of those sides. The fact that in order to eliminate ignorance, and in other words in order to achieve liberation, just liberation, like completely eliminate the afflictions, you do only need, you don't even need to have the first concentration, just the access. Report an error in the passage at 59:00 Highlight the passage at 59:00

59:38 Meditation to the first concentration, that's enough. But still, meditating on all of these absorptions seems to play some very important role in the bodhisattvas, especially for the Arya bodhisattvas, kind of like switching between focusing their mind one-pointedly, non-conceptually in emptiness and then switching to one of the... Report an error in the passage at 59:38 Highlight the passage at 59:38

1:00:06 absorptions or formless absorption all kind of like and very very quickly extremely quickly Report an error in the passage at 1:00:06 Highlight the passage at 1:00:06

1:00:15 I'm not I'm not sure I even heard of why that is If you Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15 Highlight the passage at 1:00:15

1:00:26 think about it, you'd think really that for, I mean, okay, if you sort of just I heard it. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:26 Highlight the passage at 1:00:26

1:00:41 Take a common sense approach. What we're really trying to do is practice bodhicitta and emptiness. Now what really distracts one from meditating is just this kind of obsession with pleasure and comfort. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:41 Highlight the passage at 1:00:41

1:01:08 You'd think that just being able to develop a level of concentration where let's say you're deriving enough satisfaction from your meditation so that you're not interested in those things would be enough. I mean from that point of view I can't really see why you would want to gain all of those other concentrations from that point of view. But there may be some other, there's something we're missing here. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08 Highlight the passage at 1:01:08

1:01:35 I think we'll stop there. What did we have last week? Maybe five, ten minutes? We have ten minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:01:51 I don't know if they were told. Last week they were expecting us. Yeah? Okay. Yeah, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:51 Highlight the passage at 1:01:51

1:02:03 In the cafe. They're expecting you to go in and... Yes, they're expecting you to go in and buy some coffee, a latte, you know, chai or... Yeah. I think we'll stop there. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:02:15 No, actually this is okay. I won't mind it being heated up. Yeah, thanks. Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:02:15 Highlight the passage at 1:02:15

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:02:55 then ignorance, the first link, due to which we create karma, which is the second link, which leaves the potential to be born in one of the six realms on the consciousness, which is the third link. Then, so those are called the three throwing causes, three throwing causes, which are the ones that create the potential for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:55 Highlight the passage at 1:02:55

1:03:51 of Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51

1:03:58 what they call that? compositional factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:58 Highlight the passage at 1:03:58

1:04:19 means, but samskaras, yes, samskaras. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:19 Highlight the passage at 1:04:19

1:04:27 With that second link of karma, it's the same word, samskara, duje anyway, duje, duje ki pungpo, the aggregative compositional factors. So this should be the, the second link should be something like compositional factors, but we never call it compositional factors. Thank you. We call it karma or karmic formations. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:27 Highlight the passage at 1:04:27

1:04:52 Don't know why it's called karmic formations. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:52 Highlight the passage at 1:04:52

1:04:58 Then the fifth aggregate, consciousness. So the first one, when we say name and form, form refers to the first aggregate. The remaining four are called name, and this is because of the fact that for the most part when we use the word person or self or I being, it's referring to those aggregates. Is that right? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:58 Highlight the passage at 1:04:58

1:05:32 The reason that the last four aggregates, feeling, discernment, compositional factors and consciousness are called name is because they are the main, when we use the word person, the name person mainly refers to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:32 Highlight the passage at 1:05:32

1:05:52 Now, you kind of think, you know, like when you sort of talk, when you say, I don't know, Obama. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:52 Highlight the passage at 1:05:52

1:06:06 Obama, I mean, you sort of have this image of the sort of visual image comes up in front of you, doesn't it? So you kind of think, you know, when you say Obama, it's referring to that. It seems a little bit perverse maybe in a way to say that it refers to these other four aspects, the sort of mental aspects or the consciousness aspects of the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06:06

1:06:33 But, well, if you consider that... There are these six realms or three realms, one of which is formless, where you don't have a physical body, but there's still a person. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:33 Highlight the passage at 1:06:33

1:06:48 There's still very much a person. If you have a corpse, there's a body there, but you wouldn't say it's a person. So in some ways, maybe the main thing is the mind or those mental aspects. Anyway, they say that, that's what they say, it's mainly those four aggregates that are referred to by the name person, that's why they're called name. Okay, so as soon as, so you have this fertilized egg, in the case of being born as a human being, you've got the fertilized egg, which is like microscopic in the beginning, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:48 Highlight the passage at 1:06:48

1:07:26 Completely microscopic, isn't it? So the consciousness enters into there, connects with that, you know, enters into that. At that point you're considered to have been born and you have all five aggregates at that point. That fertilized egg is your body and also because your consciousness has entered in there, that means all of the other four aggregates are there. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:26 Highlight the passage at 1:07:26

1:07:55 So you've got all the five aggregates. So name and form is... It starts at the first moment of that life as a human being. And something similar will apply to any other kind of birth in psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:55 Highlight the passage at 1:07:55

1:08:21 Then, now, even though you've got a physical body there, you don't have the possibility of vision and hearing and so on, do you? Not straight away. So those senses gradually develop. They took about five stages of development. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:21 Highlight the passage at 1:08:21

1:08:49 First it's almost like just a liquid, I guess. It's difficult to imagine, isn't it? But it's kind of like, if anything, it's like a liquid. Then gradually there's some kind of, not exactly a skin, but what would you call it? of the Report an error in the passage at 1:08:49 Highlight the passage at 1:08:49

1:09:05 Some kind of skin, like the skin that forms on tea or something. Something that's containing it anyway, just slightly solidified. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:05 Highlight the passage at 1:09:05

1:09:15 And then gradually there are these bumps that start poking out. If you look at these books, it's like these bumps developing. And then gradually there are all the limbs and the child is perfectly... formed. So anyway, the Kichitruk Kichitruk is the six ayatanas or the six sources. What that means is when that sort of embryo has developed to the point where you have all six consciousnesses and all six objects, six consciousnesses because of course there are the five sense consciousnesses, eye, ear, nose, tongue. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:15 Highlight the passage at 1:09:15

1:10:05 I, ear, nose, tongue, body, consciousness, awareness kind of thing, and the mental consciousness. Because all of that is present. When all of those are present, that's when you're said to have the fifth link, which is the six sources, six ayatana, the six sources, when all of the sense organs are now functioning. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:05 Highlight the passage at 1:10:05

1:10:33 Although you're still inside the womb. So you can't really see much, I guess. Actually, do babies open their eyes? Why wouldn't they? Do they? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

1:10:46 Is that something that we know? I guess if you could open them, you wouldn't... I wouldn't be surprised if they do, actually. Yeah, which is sort of like... Are they sealed closed, puppy's eyes? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:46 Highlight the passage at 1:10:46

1:11:09 I know they don't open it, but it's not because they just don't want to look, is it? They actually can't, can they? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:09 Highlight the passage at 1:11:09

1:11:20 Okay, so anyway, once you have all of those, once you have all six senses possible, at least in terms of having all of the six faculties, then you've got that fifth link of the six sources. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:20 Highlight the passage at 1:11:20

1:11:41 Then through that, when there is the meeting between the faculty or the sense organ particularly, it should be consciousness, object and the organ. So like your eye organ, when there is some kind of contact between a visual object and your visual organ, your eye. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:41 Highlight the passage at 1:11:41

1:12:39 That should be December, shouldn't it? What's the word that they use? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:39 Highlight the passage at 1:12:39

1:12:45 in some sense it discerns the object as either... A beautiful one or an ugly one or a neutral one, you know. And then as a result of that, if it's a beautiful one, you experience it as pleasant. If it's an ugly one, you experience it as unpleasant. And if it's neutral, then you have a neutral feeling, sort of a feeling which is not really pleasant or unpleasant. So there, that feeling, whether it's the feeling of pleasure, pain or an indifferent feeling, that's the... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:45 Highlight the passage at 1:12:45

1:13:21 The sixth, right? No, seventh. Seventh link. The feeling. Having said that, I wonder, neutral feeling, whether a neutral feeling, when we're talking about the twelve links, whether there would be such a thing as a neutral feeling. I'm not sure about that, no. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:21 Highlight the passage at 1:13:21

1:13:44 Okay, so there's those, we've just talked about four more links, then there's the name and form, which is your five aggregates. You have that from the very moment you're born. Then... Of course, if it's four in this realm, then you just have four. But anyway, generally speaking, somehow when this was first taught by the Buddha, then it was a human audience. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:44 Highlight the passage at 1:13:44

1:14:07 So it was sort of explained in terms of birth as a human being. You just have to be able to adapt it for other kinds of birth. So five aggregates, name for me is the five aggregates. Then gradually as the senses become fully operational, then you've got the fifth link. Which is the six sources. Then when there's the contact between the object, the consciousness and the respective faculty, you've got contact. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:07 Highlight the passage at 1:14:07

1:14:38 And that one discriminates or like sort of makes it kind of a distinction between pleasant, ugly, beautiful or ugly and neutral. And then feeling experiences them respectively as either pleasant, unpleasant or sort of... So those are the four thrown results, the results which are thrown by those first three, which are three throwing causes. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:38 Highlight the passage at 1:14:38

1:15:09 And actually, this is where it gets quite interesting in a way, particularly when you consider that the main point of meditating on the Twelve Links is to get a very strong sort of feeling. of disillusionment or disenchantment. and in fact a sense of yeah and it's a sense of how awful psychic existence is saṃsāra cycle existence is the is when you're a so like the rest of your life you know you're experiencing various kinds of feeling pleasant feelings unpleasant feelings neutral feelings and then you know with the the towards feelings of Pleasant feelings, we have attachment, and unpleasant feelings, we feel a sense of aversion, and then depending upon that, feelings of anger and hatred towards somebody who's, for example, who's causing you to experience suffering, at least you perceive it that way, or somebody who's obstructing you from getting what you want. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:09 Highlight the passage at 1:15:09

1:16:25 And then within all that, then you engage in the, you know, you create more karma. They say actually each day we create thousands of new karmas. I mean, maybe, you know, if I look back on a day, I can think like one, two, three, you know, like, but they say thousands, you know. It just, it probably depends upon how precisely you look at how your day has gone. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:25 Highlight the passage at 1:16:25

1:16:58 I mean, maybe we can create a new karma every second. Not because, you know, every second you sit down and think, I'm going to do this and then you create karma. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. No, you don't need to do that. I'm not sure you need to do that. If you had to sit down and really think about what you're doing in order to create karma, you know, for each moment, then, you know, you wouldn't be able to do so many in a day, would you, perhaps? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:58 Highlight the passage at 1:16:58

1:17:29 So I don't know, I'm not exactly quite sure how that works. It might be that, you know, if you, you know, if you think in terms of positive karma, maybe you sit down and have a really pure, strong, positive and wholesome motivation and you might, in the space of 15 minutes, maybe you might make, you know, mentally you might make Billions of offerings, you know, and maybe in that way you create billions of karmas. It's possible, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:29 Highlight the passage at 1:17:29

1:18:07 I mean, like they say, you know, when you do one prostration in front of the Buddha and so on, then you create the potential, at least, to be born as a will-turning king as many times as there are atoms under your body, right, going from where your body is right down to the... the golden base. Anyway, I mean, you know, to... Actually, what would that mean? Down to the center of the Earth, let's say. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:07 Highlight the passage at 1:18:07

1:18:41 Yeah, the turtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:41 Highlight the passage at 1:18:41

1:18:45 turtle? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:45 Highlight the passage at 1:18:45

1:18:55 What? right. This is really esoteric probably, I've got no idea. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:55 Highlight the passage at 1:18:55

1:19:06 So, you know, like that takes you how long? That takes you a few seconds. So in that, you know, you've created the karma. But is that one karma? One karma to be born a billion times or have you created a billion karmas? I don't know anyway. So anyway, so it is very clear that, you know, if we think that what's happened is that due to the throwing causes, Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche You can cope with the idea that you can create a hundred different karmas in a day. Well, that mounts up, doesn't it? And if it's negative karma, you know, like a hundred years spent creating a hundred karmas every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:06 Highlight the passage at 1:19:06

1:20:18 So, you know, while you're experiencing the result of one karma, you're experiencing like a gazillion. Other kamas. And then, of course, it's going to proliferate, isn't it? Same thing, isn't it? While you're experiencing the results of each of those, you're going to create a billion others. So it just gets more and more. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:18 Highlight the passage at 1:20:18

1:20:49 And they say that the whole... We're encouraged to feel kind of like weighed down by it. Almost like, you know... How could I ever possibly get out of this when you think there's just billions, I mean this is just one life also, don't forget. So how long is it going to take you to use up all of the karmas you've created in this life? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:49 Highlight the passage at 1:20:49

1:21:15 And then just think that you've had countless lives before, do you think you've used them up already? Come on, you know. So there's going to be billions and billions and billions from past lives and they're all there. You start to feel kind of heavy, don't you? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:15 Highlight the passage at 1:21:15

1:21:36 Yeah, so it's quite powerful really. And then, okay, so maybe I don't need to spend so much time on the rest of them. Getting heavy. Yeah, yeah, right, right, right. No, no, no, we're going to stay down here. We're going to stay sort of like somewhere down on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:36 Highlight the passage at 1:21:36

1:22:10 So those are the first seven, if anybody's counting. Then you have what are called the actualizing. The three which are actualizing causes and then two which are actualized results. So the actualizing causes are craving, grasping and existence. So basically if you've created the karma to be born as a human being sometime in this life and as a result of that you're going to be born in your very next life. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:10 Highlight the passage at 1:22:10

1:22:47 As a human being, as a result of that karma, that particular karma, then just before you die, before the mind has become subtle, while there are still these gross minds, conceptual minds and the sense consciousness is still operating, then that's when that potential that you created with that karma becomes strong enough so that it's actually going to... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:47 Highlight the passage at 1:22:47

1:23:16 bring about the In terms of the analogy of the seed, these are three causes that nourish that seed so that it's just about to produce the plant. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:16 Highlight the passage at 1:23:16

1:23:32 So the craving is a kind of attachment and then grasping is an even stronger kind of attachment. So the craving that occurs just before death, just before you die. This eighth link, that starts nourishing the karma. In other words, that seed is becoming stronger, right? That potential is becoming stronger. And then the ninth link, the grasping, is also attachment, but it's a stronger form of attachment and it nourishes it in an even more powerful way, so it becomes even more powerful. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:32 Highlight the passage at 1:23:32

1:24:14 So then the tenth link, which is called existence, is not talking about a kind of attachment, it's referred to as karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:14 Highlight the passage at 1:24:14

1:24:29 It's also said to be karma, like the third link is karma, also the tenth link is karma. Which is funny because we usually tend to think that karma means doing something, and yet here what's happened is that you've... karma cool is Report an error in the passage at 1:24:29 Highlight the passage at 1:24:29

1:24:43 created the karma, you know, by doing the action of killing, stealing or something good, you know, and then there's the potential. Now, when that potential has become so strong that it's just about to bring its result, it's just about to cause you to be born again as a human being. So that potential at that point where it's just, you know, at the very end of this life, where it's just about to make you be born as a human being again, that's called karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:43 Highlight the passage at 1:24:43

1:25:13 And yet you're not doing anything. Of course there are things going on, but it doesn't seem as if you're doing anything at that point, does it? But if you think that karma is also considered to be a mental factor, a mental factor of intention, which is what makes your mind move towards this and that object. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:13 Highlight the passage at 1:25:13

1:25:42 And so actually the mental factor and intention is there all the time because our mind is always moving from one object to another. So it's what's making the mind move towards this and that object. So in other words, although we're in the habit of thinking that when you kill, the action of killing is karma, actually the... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:42 Highlight the passage at 1:25:42

1:26:10 The karma of killing is more precisely the mental factor of intention that's present when you're doing the physical action of killing. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:10 Highlight the passage at 1:26:10

1:26:23 So now, when you're getting towards the end of this life and that potential that was left on the consciousness through that original action, the second link, when that potential is built up to become so strong that you're just about to take birth as a result of it, You can see that there's something pushing your mind in a particular direction, can't you? I think it's maybe from that point of view that it's described as karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:23 Highlight the passage at 1:26:23

1:26:56 That potential has become so strong, it's sort of been so strongly nourished by craving and grasping, the potential has become so strong that it's just about to take you into that birth. And of course, you know, that's propelling your mind into that birth, isn't it? So, you know, it's a movement of the mind, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:56 Highlight the passage at 1:26:56

1:27:17 That craving and grasping has sort of brought about a movement of the mind towards this human life, this future human life. So you can see some sense in calling that potential karma, when you think of karma as being intention, the mental factor for intention, which makes your mind move towards this and that object. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:17 Highlight the passage at 1:27:17

1:27:40 In this case, it's moving you towards that future life. I think it works like that, that's how I make sense of it anyway. Right, so that's the craving, grasping and existence. Why it's called existence, existence is short for psychic existence. So it's a case of using the name of the result to refer to the cause. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:40 Highlight the passage at 1:27:40

1:28:07 Because that karma, that tenth link, which is a type of karma, is going to make you take birth in psychic existence again, because it's... Because it's the cause for you to experience that result of birth in psychic existence, it also is called psychic existence. And that does happen sometimes, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:07 Highlight the passage at 1:28:07

1:28:29 I mean, I can't think for the moment, but anyway, I think there are common examples of referring to a cause by the name of the effect that it has. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:29 Highlight the passage at 1:28:29

1:28:45 So, those three. Then the actualized results are the 11th and 12th. Link, which are birth, which we could maybe more precisely refer to as conception, because we usually think birth is like, you know, when you, you know, the day that you come from your mother's womb is when you're born, right? But anyway, this is gyawa, and it means, literally is birth, but it's really referring to conception. And from the second, from the, from the second moment onwards, you're beginning, you're heading. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:45 Highlight the passage at 1:28:45

1:29:23 You could say, I suppose, from the very first moment that you're born, you're heading towards the end of your life. You're gradually moving towards the end of your life. But anyway, so you've got the first moment where there's just this embryo. The second moment, some change has taken place, hasn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:23 Highlight the passage at 1:29:23

1:29:46 It doesn't remain static, unchanging, right? Some change has taken place. There's a similarity. But there's some changes taking place and the next moment there's going to be more change and it changes and changes and changes and in a sense, okay, I think if we say aging and death, I don't think it would be very, it would be true to say that that embryo is aging, you know, like aging, getting old. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:46 Highlight the passage at 1:29:46

1:30:12 But it is getting older, isn't it? From the first moment onwards you're getting older and older and older. it's only really You only really think about a person getting, I don't know, older, he's getting older, growing up, getting older. Old age, for sure, we only think, I don't know, depends on who's talking, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:12 Highlight the passage at 1:30:12

1:30:35 Some people think 20 onwards. Then when you get to 50, you start saying 60, oh, that's young. I used to think, you know, there is some truth here. I mean, if you make it to, I mean, actually, if you make it to 30, you're lucky. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? So also, of course, to make it to 40, to 50, to 60, but I can remember saying to some friends of mine that my dad had just reached his 60th birthday, also this friend of his had reached 60, and I was saying, you know, after 60 everything is a bonus, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:35 Highlight the passage at 1:30:35

1:31:10 And he's like, what? I think I was probably in my 20s at the time or something. But, you know, anyway, when you get to 50, then you have to remember that 60 is young, 70 is young, you know. Anyway, okay, so from the second moment onwards, there is change taking place. You're heading towards, you know, your own demise. And anyway, okay, so aging is taking place. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:10 Highlight the passage at 1:31:10

1:31:41 I mean, there is aging taking place. Anyway, you're getting older and older. So anyway, aging and death are the 12th link. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:41 Highlight the passage at 1:31:41

1:31:50 And, I mean, that's it really. I mean, they do talk about, okay, why is it that we have, we sort of put these 12 into two groups, one which is called like the throwing links and one which is called the actualizing links. When you consider that in terms of the results, the actualized results, which is birth and then aging and death, and then the thrown results. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:32:21 Concentrate please. Don't concentrate on that cat. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:21 Highlight the passage at 1:32:21

1:32:31 You know the name and form, six sources, contact and feeling. They happen at the same time, don't they? So it's very difficult to see why the birth and then aging and death are called actualized results. Why not call them thrown results? And likewise with the other four, why they're called thrown results, why not call them actualized results? But you can see that there's a very clear distinction between the throwing causes and the actualizing causes. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:31 Highlight the passage at 1:32:31

1:33:09 The throwing causes are the ones which make the possibility, create the potential for you to be born again. The actualizing causes are the ones that bring that potential, potential make that potential so strong that it's just Just about to yield its result. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

1:33:28 I think anyway, talking about that much, but I think that's... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:28 Highlight the passage at 1:33:28

1:33:40 at the Twelve Links definitely gives you many insights into the way that karma works and the importance of understanding karma. So, yes, well, anyway... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:40 Highlight the passage at 1:33:40

1:33:50 the 12 links is quite interesting you've got them you can look at the 12 links in terms of what they call the afflicted and Report an error in the passage at 1:33:50 Highlight the passage at 1:33:50

1:34:00 looking at them in terms of the afflicted side, it's explaining how they work such a way that, sort of how they conspire to make you take birth. Because of ignorance, karma. Because of karma, consciousness. Because of consciousness, name and form and so on. So it explains how you take birth in psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:00 Highlight the passage at 1:34:00

1:34:22 Also, you can look at them from the... the from the back to front or from top to bottom Why is it that we have the suffering of aging death? Because we're born. Why are we born? Because of the existence. Why the existence? Because of craving. Why craving? And so on like that. In either case, that's the afflictive side. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:22 Highlight the passage at 1:34:22

1:34:51 The pure side is like how you get out of it. So again, you can look at it from... from 1 to 12 or 12 to 1. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Even if you did have craving and grasping, there would be no seed to nourish anyway. So anyway, when you don't have the consciousness, then you don't have that seed being nourished, so you take birth, so you wouldn't get the name and form. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:51 Highlight the passage at 1:34:51

1:35:48 You wouldn't be born, so you wouldn't get name and form. Then because of that, you don't get the six sources and so on, so all of them would be unraveled. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:48 Highlight the passage at 1:35:48

1:36:00 And the way that you go from 12 down to 1 is, you know, how do you stop the aging and death? By stopping birth. How do you stop the birth? By stopping the existence. How do you stop the existence? By stopping the craving. How do you stop the craving? Stop the grasping and so on. In actual fact, I mean, what it means, you know, how to stop that is by stopping the ignorance. It's just sort of like looking at it from a different point of view. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:00 Highlight the passage at 1:36:00

1:36:30 Okay, so we have a little bit of time for questions. You look like you've got something. Maybe a very silly question. I don't know. Probably an even sillier answer. If a person cultivates vidya or intelligence or wisdom, Report an error in the passage at 1:36:30 Highlight the passage at 1:36:30

1:37:05 That person does not create any karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:05 Highlight the passage at 1:37:05

1:37:18 That's the general idea, yes. That is the general idea. It hurts my ear actually. I only noticed this time. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:18 Highlight the passage at 1:37:18

1:37:31 No, it's okay. It's just a few minutes. That's the general idea, yeah. If you have the wisdom, then you don't create karma. But what about your actions? You don't have any actions. No, but you still have actions, but just not actions which are going to make you take birth again in... saṃsāra. kind of acts do they be? Oh like drinking tea, walking around, with people. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:31 Highlight the passage at 1:37:31

1:37:58 You could say that it's still karma, but it's not the karma that we normally think of as karma, what makes you experience suffering, which makes you take birth in psychic existence. So it is karma, but should propel you out of cyclical existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:58 Highlight the passage at 1:37:58

1:38:20 You can say it's karma just because it's the action, but it doesn't make you take birth, it doesn't make you experience suffering. It's like Buddha's karma. Yeah, right, uncontaminated, uncontaminated karma. Thank you. Is Report an error in the passage at 1:38:20 Highlight the passage at 1:38:20

1:38:37 that it? That's it for me. Yeah? You can't talk without this? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:37 Highlight the passage at 1:38:37

1:38:55 when achieves a certain level where they're not actually returning to just an uncontrolled rebirth, but they do decide to be reborn. It probably depends upon the level of attainment of the person, but when you talk about somebody who's... Like a bodhisattva, when they talk about them taking birth, not because of karma and the mental afflictions, but because of compassion and their prayers. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:55 Highlight the passage at 1:38:55

1:39:40 There's something about that. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:40 Highlight the passage at 1:39:40

1:39:46 Okay, so there are different... I seem to have heard different ideas about that, because I'm sure I've heard in the teachings that say that... A Bodhisattva, an Arya Bodhisattva who's got the direct realization of emptiness, for sure they don't take birth due to karma and mental afflictions, so it's going to be out of the altruistic wish to benefit others. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:46 Highlight the passage at 1:39:46

1:40:15 Okay, but then before that, now recently I seem to have heard several times, maybe from Khenpo Rinpoche, I'm not sure, that all Bodhisattvas, it's the same, that they take birth only out of compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:15 Highlight the passage at 1:40:15

1:40:32 The prayers. And yet I thought that I heard that that wasn't the case for the ordinary bodhisattvas that don't have the direct realization of emptiness. So in any case, when they talk about emanations and that, it seems that when a bodhisattva emanates, it's like there doesn't need to be the process of being in the mother's womb and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:32 Highlight the passage at 1:40:32

1:41:02 I think there's some kind of explanation that even though there's no... In the case of a bodhisattva who still has the karmic seeds but still isn't going to be born because of karma and mental afflictions, there's some kind of nourishing that goes on of one of the seeds of their previous karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:02 Highlight the passage at 1:41:02

1:41:27 It's not craving and grasping, but... Maybe that aspiration to be born in such and such a place in order to benefit others, that that can nourish it. But I'm not very clear on that. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:27 Highlight the passage at 1:41:27

1:41:40 I'm not very clear on that. Because, I mean, like the Dalai Lama or Lama Zopa, different beings like that, you know, all appear to have, you know, came from a mother's womb and went through that type of... One thing that's very different is that even suppose that what they did was to enter into that first fertilized egg and take up residence in that body and gradually go through all that, there wouldn't be any suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:40 Highlight the passage at 1:41:40

1:42:15 Now as for whether there would be awareness and total recollection of what had gone on before and everything they'd learned and done before, I think that depends upon the level of the person. I think there are some... Where they would retain that recollection and awareness and some that wouldn't. But still, the force of their prayer and compassion would be enough to make sure that even though in a sense they're losing consciousness for a while, where they're going to end up is a place where it's all going to work out kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:15 Highlight the passage at 1:42:15

1:42:53 It's interesting. Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:53 Highlight the passage at 1:42:53

1:43:01 so we'll stop there then. Just Report an error in the passage at 1:43:01 Highlight the passage at 1:43:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:44:17 think as a result of all of this positive... karma, karma that we've created this evening and on the previous evening also put that together with all of one's Report an error in the passage at 1:44:17 Highlight the passage at 1:44:17

1:44:33 karma or virtue that of all others from the past, lives, life and all future lives. to this, may all beings find and peace of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:33 Highlight the passage at 1:44:33

1:44:57 may they always have all the conditions they need internally. Shantideva says, Meeting with the really qualified, pure teachings and teachers, practice Report an error in the passage at 1:44:57 Highlight the passage at 1:44:57

1:45:17 in the way that will lead to that kind of peace of mind and happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:17 Highlight the passage at 1:45:17

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:46:27 she's been coming to my room yeah I think that might be the other one thanks everybody it's been nice and good fun Report an error in the passage at 1:46:27 Highlight the passage at 1:46:27

1:46:51 road. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:51 Highlight the passage at 1:46:51