← Steve Carlier

Understanding Karma - Working with Cause and Effect to Change Your Life and Your World (3 February 2012)

Steve Carlier · 3 February 2012 · 2 h 2 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 21:42

    That's a Tibetan word, English word. Well, I know that my teacher would usually say, Le means Lekha, so it means work. It means kind of like action, doing something. Generally speaking, that's sort of like the connotation of karma, action.

  • 22:43

    So none of that, that whole thing can't make sense, except in the wider context of cause and effect. Look at the world, if you look around, you discover that when things happen, you might not know why they happened, but there is some reason. And not some reason in the sense like, you know, what's the reason why we're here, it's to learn. It's more like reason in the sense of the causes that led up to it, the series of events.

  • 1:00:07

    Is it fair to say that any physical happiness that you have is just not true happiness? That happiness only occurs in your perception and your conscience. Each individual's happiness is different. So is karma more affected in the sense of your perception, of your consciousness, your mind? I mean,

  • 1:18:05

    To use the standard terms, it's definite. What that means is... Anyway, so what we might call good karma, so constructive, wholesome karma, wholesome actions only lead to happiness. Happiness only comes from those actions and that's all that they lead to. They never lead to, they never act as the, they never result in suffering.

  • 1:48:54

    All in the form of human beings like ourselves. And on the crown of the head of each of one of us is Buddha Shakyamuni. Not made of flesh and blood, otherwise you might get a crick in your neck. Made of light.

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0:53 Venerable Chiki, Carol. I welcome you tonight to hear our very special guest, Steve Carlier, whom I've heard before and he's in my ears fantastic, Report an error

1:17 so I hope you can too. Originally from England? How many years now? About six or seven years. And he's a resident teacher at Land of Medicine Buddha, one of our sister centers in Santa Cruz. And you're welcome to visit there. And you're still teaching there, yes? Yeah. And you've been a monk for a long time. Yeah. That many years, okay? Report an error

1:52 I hope you enjoy it, and I think there'll be a question-answer period at some point. I expect so, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Report an error

2:13 It's a bit difficult to live up to something like that. It would be better to say, I've heard him before and he's total rubbish. Then you know you've got some chance of, oh, it wasn't as bad as all that. Report an error

2:30 Equally awful. Report an error

· · ·

3:51 Well said. Report an error

4:06 So first thing we'll do is spend a few minutes just trying to settle ourselves, settle our minds. So try to sit with your back straight. Report an error

4:22 Whatever kind of meditation posture you're comfortable with or that you've learned, try to adopt that posture and Report an error

4:32 then just focus the attention on the breath, Report an error

4:41 just following the breath as one breathes normally through the nose, just focusing one's attention on that and nothing else. When your mind wanders, then just notice that and bring the mind back again. We'll Report an error

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9:49 have some time for discussion as we're going along and also for... We'll have some short meditations as well. Can everybody hear? Report an error

10:05 Yeah, that's usually a bit of a stupid question, isn't it? Because, of course, if you can't hear, then you don't hear the question, do you? Report an error

10:23 Okay, so before, Report an error

10:28 yeah, Report an error

10:32 is that a bit like that? Okay. I was following the Richard Gere tradition. Report an error

10:44 He was attending this transmission of a text in bodhicitta and he got up and... He did this, he had it. So I thought that must be the best way. Report an error

11:10 But if you were to meet him, he wouldn't know who I am. It doesn't really make much difference. Anyway, so that's why I put it there anyway. So now that's better, is it? You can hear that better. Okay, good. So I want to make a few sort of background comments before going into the topic for this weekend of karma. Report an error

11:35 Right, karma. Not karma and something, right? Karma. Understanding karma. Oh, that's an interesting idea. Try to understand karma. Not just talk about it. Try to understand it. Report an error

11:51 Well, obviously the Buddha, these are teachings, these are ideas that come from the teaching of the Buddha who came into the world some 2,500 or so years ago. Report an error

12:08 And, hmm. Well, he taught a lot during his 45 years. After enlightenment, he died at the age of 80. So from the age of 35 to 80, he was teaching 45 years. And during that time, as I say, he taught a lot. And there are probably different ways of sort of summarizing the way that the Buddha taught. Report an error

12:44 To look at it in terms of what they call the three turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. So very soon after achieving enlightenment, the Buddha gave his first kind of open teaching to a group of his old disciples and that teaching was on the Four Noble Truths, which everybody has probably, well most people here would have heard of, the truth of suffering, the truth of the... Report an error

13:14 source of suffering. The truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering. So that's called the first turning of the wheel, the first turning of the wheel of the Four Noble Truths. And then the second, the middle turning of the wheel is, well, you know, if we've heard about the heart suit, for example, or the other perfection of wisdom. Report an error

13:45 discourses or the Prajnaparamita sutras. So these are the middle turning of the wheel. Teachings in which the Buddha takes the theme of the truth of cessation and goes into that in more depth. Yes, goes more deeply into that, takes it to a more profound level. Report an error

14:08 And then with the last turning of the wheel. Report an error

14:18 Various things going on in this last turning, but maybe one of the most important things is that the Buddha during that turning of the wheel of Dharma or in other words during that sort of cycle of teachings the Buddha went more into the nature of the mind that achieves the truth of cessation or realises the truth of cessation. Report an error

14:44 So anyway... That's one way of looking at things, sort of like historically there was that sort of gradual progress or unraveling of the Buddha's ideas. Report an error

15:00 Besides that, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama often mentions, we can sort of summarize the Buddhist thought and kind of like attitudes in terms of two things. Report an error

15:20 As far as the... Buddhist or the Buddha's kind of view on the nature of reality, the nature of the world that we live in, that can be summarized as the sort of outlook of dependent origination or dependent arising. So this idea is that dependent arising means everything which exists. Report an error

15:58 Depends upon other things, like in the case of cause and effect, where you get flowers growing not just out of nothing, but from seeds, from bulbs and so on. And like that with other things in the external world and like with our own body. People say we are what we eat, so the food that we've been eating. Report an error

16:27 Over the years and the things that we've been drinking over the years has results in the body that we have at the moment. Of course, it's not just the food that we eat. There's the original, almost like the seed from which this body grew, was the fertilized egg of our parents. So that's sort of like the seed of a plant that gradually, when combined with other factors, gradually grows into this thing that we have at the moment. Report an error

16:59 For better or worse. So dependent arising. And yes, everything is dependent. There's nothing which is independent. Report an error

17:14 And then in terms of what you might say, the one ideal that somehow summarizes the Buddhist way of relating to others, that's in terms of, that's sort of like... You could sort of sum up with the idea of non-violence, compassion, caring for others. At least trying not to harm others. That would be the core ideal of one's life as a Buddhist practitioner and, if possible, trying to help. Report an error

18:05 Of course, this is not uniquely Buddhist, but anyway, actually, if you go into it In any kind of depth, then you discover that, of course, there are particular, there are kind of things which maybe distinguish the Buddhist idea of nonviolence and compassion and so on, that are a little bit different from other religious or philosophical systems. Report an error

18:31 So anyway, dependence, sort of philosophical view or worldview of dependence, dependent origination. And the way of relating to the world in terms of non-violence. Report an error

18:51 And these two in turn are actually interrelated because when you start to analyze your world in terms of dependence, the way that one thing depends upon another, of course you begin to think how oneself, how we depend upon. Report an error

19:18 Everything that is good in our lives is there, it happens through depending upon others. Our well-being, our peace of mind and so on depends upon others in various ways. So that being the case, why would you want to harm others? Report an error

19:45 In actual fact, you find that if you... Because, of course, people don't want enemies. If you've got enemies, then that means that you can't be at ease. There's always this kind of worry, isn't there? You're always worried. So you can't be at ease. You want peace of mind, but you don't have that peace of mind. Report an error

20:10 So when you harm others, you create enemies. And not only that, but... Report an error

20:18 um... It's not just that we don't want enemies, we like to be surrounded by friends. Everybody likes to be surrounded by friends, people who are going to help you when you're in need. We like that, don't we? That's what we want. And so, you know, when you help others, then there's a sort of dependent nature of things. Report an error

20:40 It's such that there's a tendency that people also want to help you. So even without being particularly altruistic, if you just want your own personal happiness, And you don't, you know, you want things to go well in your life, then because of the interdependence of oneself and others, you'd be better off not harming others and you'd be better off helping others. Report an error

21:15 And that's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Pretty straightforward idea anyway. Report an error

21:26 So I think this, you know, if we're going to start thinking about karma. So karma, anyway, karma is like, it's a Sanskrit word, right? Interdependency, lay. Report an error

21:42 That's a Tibetan word, English word. Well, I know that my teacher would usually say, Le means Lekha, so it means work. It means kind of like action, doing something. Generally speaking, that's sort of like the connotation of karma, action. So it's what you do. Karma is what you do. Report an error

22:16 So really, I think that... You see, because the basic idea with karma is you're going to, whatever you do, you're going to have to experience the results of. Generally speaking, that's a sort of general principle. Report an error

22:32 What you're experiencing now is the result of what you've done in the past. What you're doing now creates your future, so it's all to do with karma. Report an error

22:43 So none of that, that whole thing can't make sense, except in the wider context of cause and effect. Report an error

22:56 Look at the world, if you look around, you discover that when things happen, you might not know why they happened, but there is some reason. And not some reason in the sense like, you know, what's the reason why we're here, it's to learn. It's more like reason in the sense of the causes that led up to it, the series of events. Report an error

23:27 Ideas and experiences that led to us being here right at this moment, for example, just to take one example. So the reason in that sense, things don't just happen in a vacuum, they happen because of a reason or because of a cause. Report an error

23:45 Results happen because of causes, prior causes, or effects happen because of being preceded by various causes. Report an error

24:04 So things don't happen just by themselves, you know, like automatically or in a vacuum. There are always causes. If you look closely enough, you'll always find that there are causes. There's something, this happened because of this and this and this reason. And you won't find just one cause, you'll find many. Report an error

24:24 And it's like if you were to, I was thinking about this recently actually, because my mother was telling me, I can't remember why, but anyway she mentioned The river, the name of a river, now I can't even remember the river, the river something or other anyway in England. So this was the river by which my dad proposed to her. Report an error

24:53 So you see, I was thinking about this, so he proposed to her, so they got married and then they had us and then that's my life, you know. Report an error

25:05 Because my dad proposed to my mum by that river, you know. You have to sit here listening to me at the moment. So that's my dad's fault. My mum and dad's fault, okay. And then of course, you know, you see you've got some pictures at home. Report an error

25:26 My dad, I wish you could say, ugly looking lot. A couple of, probably some of the earlier photos of, I think my, probably my great-great-grandfather and my great-great-grandmother. My great-great-grandmother's mother and father on my mum's side, basically. Anyway, so, yeah, my dad always said, ugly-looking love. Report an error

25:54 Anyway, so, like, I look at those people, I look at those photos, I look at those people, and you don't really feel so much connection with them. But actually, you know, it's the same thing. You know, he proposed to her, presumably, and usually that's, especially in the old days, that's how it happened, wasn't it? The man proposed to the woman. Report an error

26:15 So because he proposed to her, so then they got married, and then they had children, and then they had children, and then that led to my mum, and then my dad, if that hadn't happened, my dad couldn't have proposed to her, she wouldn't have been there. So anyway, why am I saying this? It's the whole, this whole kind of like evolution, because of course it's not just them, there's a whole bunch of other people going back to somebody in the stone age. Report an error

26:42 You know, they might not have, I don't know if they proposed to each other in those days. According to the cartoons, they used to just go along and sort of take a club and, I mean, I don't know, sort of drag her along by the hair kind of thing. Report an error

27:00 That's what you see in the cartoons. Yeah, so I was talking about how, you know, when you start going into it, you don't just find one cause, but many. So like in the case of one's own life and this body and so on. You know, it just goes back, I mean, you know, where does it stop? I mean, you might say it stops with the first human being back in Africa, but of course it's going to go back before that because of course that first, you know, what they call the, what do they call that? Report an error

27:35 Mitochondrial Eve or something like that. Anyway, like the mother from which we all come. The great, great, great, great, great, great, however many times back, grandmother from which we all come. And of course, you know, Somehow there had to be, you know, she had a mother, whether that mother was going to be considered a human being or not, but anyway, she had to have a mother and that one had a mother. Report an error

27:58 And then, you know, it goes back to the, apparently, you know, evolution, it goes back to, you know, the single cell organisms and this and that and then, you know, anyway, it goes back just, well, of course, you know, if you think about it, there's no beginning really, is there? Report an error

28:17 I think it's sort of, I know, I suppose we have this idea that things began with the Big Bang and then there's this clever idea that time didn't even exist before that, but anyway, according to Buddhism, if the Buddhist ideas of cosmology and Western ideas of cosmology fit, then, you know, like... Before that there was empty space and before that there was another universe and before that that previous universe started with another big bang and it's something that just keeps happening again and again and again so from that point of view there's no beginning and in any case if you think about it to say that to say that you know for all of these billions of years everything has been happening according to cause and effect and then to say that but at the beginning just at that moment there was no cause it's kind of doesn't really make sense but then I'm not a physicist. Report an error

29:10 I'm sure physicists would have a good answer to that. But anyway, it doesn't make sense to me. So cause and effect, cause and effect. In fact, you know, if you think about this, you know, okay, so we can see how there's this kind of like constant like evolution. You can go back and back and back and you can always say, you know, before this, there was this and then before that there was also, there also had to be causes and those causes had to have causes and so on. Report an error

29:41 Well, again, as I say, if this idea of the Big Bang fits in with the Buddhist idea, and particularly if you look at the Kala Chakra system, then they talk about space particles. So before the Big Bang, there was space particles and there was that kind of equilibrium. And then, as is always the case, in the physical world, things don't always remain. Report an error

30:07 In kind of like this equilibrium, something's going to change. So what's changed was that then that sort of space potential gave way to a more physical potential and gradually things develop from there. Report an error

30:31 Yes, so nothing happening without a cause, that's one aspect of dependent arising. When we look at cause and effect, effects don't happen without a cause. And then... The cause also, you know, it's not like everything is the cause of everything else. Things, you know, there are sort of cause and effect need to match. Report an error

30:56 And to take a simple example, you know, like when you plant a certain kind of seed, it's going to produce a certain kind of plant. It's not like, I mean, of course, if you didn't know what they were the seeds for, then you might plant them and say, well, let's just see what happens. But if it's poppy seeds, then you're going to get poppies growing. You're not going to get an apple tree growing from it. So it's not just any cause is going to lead to any result. Report an error

31:27 There's a particular sort of match between cause and effect. So a cause is something that has a particular potential to produce a particular kind of result. So there's that kind of match in that sense. Report an error

31:49 Again, to look at your own physical body, you know, the way it is at the moment. Of course, it's got very much to do with what we've been doing during these last few years since we were born and the kind of food we ate and so on and so on and so on. But there are many things about this physical body. You know, it's sort of like makeup as it is at the moment that, you know, a result specifically of that particular combination of sperm and egg, aren't they, you know? Report an error

32:20 The color of your skin, your bone features and things like that, so much is to do with just that specific sperm and egg. So that sperm and egg, that fertilized egg, had a particular potential to produce a particular kind of result, didn't it? Report an error

32:49 So let's spend a few minutes thinking about that, reflecting on that, reflecting, in other words, asking ourselves the question, is that right? that everything... Everything is dependent. Everything happens as a result of something, some kind of cause, and that cause needs to have some kind of particular relationship with that result. Report an error

33:16 It has to have a particular potential, particular ability to produce a particular result. So Report an error

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37:30 any questions so far? Yes? Report an error

37:47 Yellow. Okay. If there's beginningless causes, does that mean there's also endless results? I would think so, yes. Yes, yes, yes, definitely. Report an error

38:01 Is that good or bad? Interesting. Scary. I Report an error

38:12 find it quite scary. Report an error

38:16 Actually, some people find it quite strange, but I sometimes find the idea of enlightenment a bit kind of spooky. You're going to have to be enlightened forever. Report an error

38:28 I mean, anyway, of course, it's ridiculous because things are going to go on whether you become enlightened or not. So it's probably better to spend forever enlightened than forever unenlightened. Report an error

38:40 Anyway, anybody else? Report an error

38:44 So one thing is, you know, so we've got this idea that everything, sort of what you might say the external world, internal world, our own body and our own minds and so on. Because of course not just with physical things, also with the mind. The mind also, you know, like what's going on in our mind now doesn't just happen by itself. Report an error

39:09 It's sort of like you can trace back our... Attitudes and thoughts and understanding in the same way as you can with physical things. And so we have the idea that there's no beginning to the mind, just like there's no beginning to physical things. So of course, as you were pointing out, the fact that with every result there's a cause which goes back without any kind of beginning and also goes... Report an error

39:45 So, Report an error

40:02 I Report an error

40:21 mean... like that also with the mind, the same principle applies, so with the mind can always go, things back further and further and further. Report an error

40:22 In some ways that's quite a strong statement. From another point of view it seems quite natural because otherwise to say that things happen for no cause at all, that things can just happen out of nothing, that doesn't seem to be the way things work actually, does it? Report an error

40:44 So just like we can't really see that happening in the physical world, why would it be any different in the world of the mind? Why would it be any different? Report an error

40:55 So just suppose we can come to that conclusion in our own minds that that's sort of like the way the world works, cause and effect, cause and effect. Report an error

41:10 So does that then automatically lead to the conclusion that whatever happens to me has to be the result of something that I've done? Report an error

41:26 Does it naturally, does it automatically? automatically that. Report an error

41:50 It would simply mean that the causes would be other than causes that you created would have no effect and that's obviously not the case. I'm sorry, I didn't get that. If it were true that you were responsible for all things that affected you then that would not Report an error

42:19 Can you give an example of what you mean? Can Report an error

42:37 we leave you to think about that? Report an error

42:43 you said that you were responsible for all the things that happened to you, you could equally say that all other things are responsible for what happened. Report an error

42:55 happens well, right? how could you be responsible for every action that had to come into being to create more conditions? Report an error

43:11 So I think that you're saying that there is just too many things happening that happen to us during one lifetime for us to be able to say that we're responsible for all of that. Report an error

43:30 So you're saying there's not the time? Report an error

43:35 There isn't time to be able to create all of the causes for all those things to happen to you during all those lifetimes? Anyway, so let's maybe get to think of something maybe a bit more... Report an error

43:54 I don't want to say more concrete, but anyway, just something else, something related. If you think of, so if you think of your own, let's say, I mean, of course, you know, during one lifetime we have some happy times, we have some unhappy times. So if you just, if you think about a happy time, maybe you've had during the day or during the week or anyway, during your lifetime, would you say that, would you think Report an error

44:28 It's quite natural to say that I must have created the cause for that to happen to me. There would have been, of course, many other factors involved, just like when you're trying to grow flowers, you don't just need the seed or the bulb, you also need other things. Of course, there are many other things that you need, so just like that, for example, for any one of us to experience... Report an error

44:56 A happy life, it starts off with the, on a physical level, you might say it starts off with the fertilized egg and from the calm point of view, it starts off with creating the karma in some previous life for this life to happen. So generally speaking, and for that to happen, there are many other things that also need to come into play. So to experience this life. Report an error

45:25 One of the conditions was my parents getting together and then their parents getting together and so on and so on and all sorts of other things. If I were to talk about specifically today, the way I'm experiencing the world today, Report an error

45:41 if I think of the pleasant experiences I have during the day, happy experiences I have during the day, does it make sense to say that I must, like the seed, I was the one that created the seed for that, even if there are many other kind of cooperative conditions, just like the moisture and the warmth and so on that you need for growing a seed into a flower, there are many cooperative conditions that might have been necessary for me to experience this pleasant feeling or happy mind or whatever, but it was mainly me that created. Report an error

46:23 The cause for this in the sense that it was me that planted the seed for that to happen, as opposed to it happening just by itself, as opposed to it happening because of what somebody else did. Report an error

46:42 Like in the case of, if you take the idea of people who accept that everything is a creation of God, so my happiness would be a result of God's wish. So here now we're saying instead of that, when you're experiencing happiness, when things are going well, that's mainly a result of something you did in the past. Report an error

47:14 So this is kind of like my question in a way. Report an error

47:20 What would be wrong with anyone? Maybe that's just too theoretical. When we're talking about karma, we're talking about coming to the conclusion that... What happens to me is in my hands. It's a question of what I do now. What's going to happen to me in the future is a question of what I do now. What's happening to me now is a result of what I've done in the past and not what somebody else did. Report an error

47:50 That's the main point. Not what somebody else did. Yeah? Report an error

48:01 You need that mic. Report an error

48:07 The mic's not working? All right. So I'll try to repeat. Your question for the recording. Report an error

48:25 responsible for everything that's well, that's pretty powerful if one is responsible for everything that's happening. You know, let's say we're, luckily we're not, but if we were in a war-torn country, you know, bombs are going off, and you're saying, well, I didn't create this war, you know, I'm not part of the politics, I didn't want these people to be killed. Report an error

48:51 In a way, you'd have to think about it as, well, I must be pretty powerful that I could, you know, somehow have all these things happening affecting my life and maybe even affecting others. So there seems to be a little bit of a contradiction with, you know, I'm either a victim of my karma or I have a cause to all of this to happen. Report an error

49:17 Yes, yes, yes, yes. I think I see what you mean. I think, you know, from the point of view of the sort of the karma take on this would be you created the cause to be born in a war situation kind of thing. Even if you don't spend your whole life in it. As we see when we look at the various results that follow from various actions according to the Buddha's own teachings. Report an error

49:51 You know, like the situation you, actually they talk about, so it's like, usually we call it the environmental result. So there's various results that follow from a particular karma. One of them is the environmental result. So finding yourself in a very beautiful place, that's the environmental result. Report an error

50:13 That's something, some kind of like wholesome or constructive karma in the past. Finding yourself in a dirty place. In a violent place, in a place where no matter how hard you work, the crops don't grow, there's never any success. It's the result of one's negative karma. So in terms of the kind of environment, it's not so much you created that environment, it's more like you created the cause to be born in such an environment, to be in such an environment. Report an error

50:50 Yeah? Report an error

51:03 My husband died recently. I went to see Geshe-la afterward. And I asked him about being the cause of my husband's death. And he said, well, the causes and conditions were right for your husband to die. But also you have collective karma. So I'm here today to know about this collective karma, this possible cause. Report an error

51:30 Specifically in that case, I suppose it's like... When he talks about collective karma, somehow some kind of karma that the two of you both have in common, to have a partner that you're separated from, for one reason or another. Report an error

51:53 I mean, specifically, what was that kind of... In fact, you know, you get, you know, I mean, of course, to be able to say specifically, you know, it's like you need to be an enlightened being to be able to say, yeah, this is what you did in this lifetime kind of thing, you know, but we do get, you know, you do get kind of like tips on the kind of thing it might have been, you know. Report an error

52:16 Yeah. Yeah. We do come across that, you know. Report an error

52:24 Yeah. Okay. Yes. Report an error

52:33 Earlier, you were talking about how your grandparents, and your great-grandparents got together and you wouldn't be here otherwise. Report an error

52:41 do you reconcile that I caused my great-grandparents to get together? All right. I don't know if it works in reverse like that. It's not like I made them get together because otherwise I couldn't have come about and I had to come about. I had to be here so they had to get together. I don't know. Report an error

53:03 I don't so. I No, not really, I don't think it works like that. Cause and effect, not so much the effect controlling the cause, but the cause controlling the effect. Report an error

53:19 So there it's a bit like I created the cause to be in this particular, to inhabit this particular body kind of thing. you know, so they, they did the thing is, you know, the, uh, According to the Buddhist account, you've got the person dies and then their mind is in the intermediate state and then they enter into the, in the case of being born as a human, they enter into the fertilized egg. Report an error

53:51 So it's your karma that somehow dictates or controls which parents you're going to be born to. Which parents you're going to be the child of. So that's what mainly, as I said, dictates which fertilized egg each of us entered. But then there's another, what I was talking about there was like the evolution of the whole cause and the various cause and effects. Report an error

54:31 When you want to think about, when you want to see what was it that was responsible for that body. Well, we can see that, you know, my parents getting together on that day, the proposal taking place and so on, you can see there's sort of like, there's a trail there from there to my birth. It's going to be the same for all of us, probably. I mean, you know, with various possible differences, obviously. Report an error

55:00 So I was really trying to point out that It's not like it started there. They also were a product of their parents getting together. And those were a product of their parents. And so just this whole principle of things just stretching back endlessly into the past. Report an error

55:27 Okay, then you. Well, I think it's interesting because it's not just about us being born of these parents. It's the parents' karma. To have us come into their lives. So cause and effect kind of becomes slightly morphous. Report an error

55:52 I don't know about morphous but it's complex. It's complex. There's their karma, there's my karma, there's the karma of the people around me and so on. Right. And even say for you to have become a Buddhist monk. And maybe even reciting prayers and doing practices that would benefit those who have already been long deceased in your family line. Report an error

56:21 And that somehow improving their karma wherever they are. So in a sense, in relation to his question, there is a connection even for the karma of those deceased for some time. Report an error

56:41 I missed that. Is that too much of a stretch? Yeah, you're right. I can pay attention for about one minute at a time. Oh, sorry. Well, probably we're all like that, so I'll stop here. Thanks. Anyway, so yeah, it is quite complex. Report an error

57:09 Yeah, so in other words, when we're talking about karma and how I'm the cause, you know, it's mainly me that's responsible. I'm responsible for what happens to be in the future, which is another way of saying I'm the cause of my future and I'm the result of what I've done in the past, that kind of thing. Report an error

57:32 It's not so much that I'm responsible for everything that's going on in the world that has an effect on me. Somehow I must have been the cause of all the wars that are going on. Report an error

57:52 A part of my world and I'm the cause of all of the economical difficulties in the world and in the states at the moment since that's part of my world. It's more like I created the cause to be in this kind of world. More like that. It doesn't mean that we don't have any kind of responsibility. We can see where we have some kind of responsibility, can't we? I mean, something that socially aware people are kind of like asking about all the time and inquiring into all the time. Report an error

58:30 Maybe it is our fault. Everything's our fault. No, I don't think so. Anyway, so the thing is, you know, when the, in the various lamrim or graduated path teachings which talk about the, Karma in those texts and one of the much quoted verses is from Nagarjuna where he says that virtue is the cause of all happiness and all sort of like, I don't know, like favorable lives or good lives and non-virtue is the cause of all. Report an error

59:17 Suffering and unpleasant or unfavorable kinds of life, wretched kind of lives. Virtue being pretty well synonymous with our wholesome, constructive actions, non-virtue, really referring to our destructive actions. So this seems to be what karma is all about, really. Report an error

59:52 Yes, anyway, so you had something you wanted to ask. Would you say that karma has equally to do with your perception, your mental state and your physical state? Is it fair to say that any physical happiness that you have is just not true happiness? That happiness only occurs in your perception and your conscience. Report an error

1:00:18 Each individual's happiness is different. So is karma more affected in the sense of your perception, of your consciousness, your mind? I mean, Report an error

1:00:32 is someone being born in a war type situation might not think that it's a complete disaster, I'm in a terrible situation, but they might. So others might. So does karma more have to do with your consciousness, your perception, your mind? More than it has to do with your physical state or your physical born state. Well, you Report an error

1:01:08 know, it seems like when we talk about, you know, good karma or constructive karma being the cause of everything good and then the destructive karma being the cause of everything bad or unpleasant, it's sort of... Good and bad or pleasant and unpleasant, sort of from a conventional point of view. So that, you know, I mean, even within Buddhism, we have these teachings, the mind training teachings, really amazing, you know, like advice on how to transform difficulties. Report an error

1:01:45 Okay. So, I mean, you can tell from the expression, you know. Because we talk about transforming difficulties, that there are the difficulties that need to be transformed. So we're talking about something like illness, for example. Okay, so when you have the mind training practices, then when illness occurs, you have a way of learning from it and improving from it. Report an error

1:02:15 Whereas if you don't have that mind training in some form, in other words, some way of... Dealing with it, you know, some kind of like attitude, some kind of like, I don't know, technique that you have to call upon to be able to deal with that situation. Then you have your illness and on top of the illness there's the anguish and the misery that is created in the mind when you ask yourself, why did this have to happen to me and so on, you know. Report an error

1:02:53 That kind of thing. So, yeah, in that case, the illness would be the misfortune. Even though you've learned from it, that doesn't mean to say that it must have been the result of good karma. It's because, you know, on a level that the world would agree, illness is something unfortunate. And something which generally speaking, if we don't have any kind of technique, we experience it as misery. So that's the unhappiness kind of thing. Report an error

1:03:35 And the cause of that would be the negative calm or bad calm, like some kind of destructive action, like killing and stealing and so on like that. And whereas turning it into something good would be... A result of having trained your mind or learned in some way. Yeah? Report an error

1:04:07 I'm just curious. You know, there are people who believe that when we came to be born, we already planned out our lives. So basically, whatever actions, whatever we do, basically planned out things that happened to us. So how do you apply fit karma into that belief? Let's say... Report an error

1:04:32 Having gone through something very difficult and looking back and I would say, oh, it was a good thing that happened. And I believe that it might have been planned out that I have to go through that situation in order to grow, to have the eyes opened up. How do you fit karma into that kind of belief? Report an error

1:04:55 I don't know how well that fits. I mean, it's certainly not... How would you... I don't know. I think you'll find that it's not really... A Buddhist idea for sure. I mean, you know, within Buddhism we have this idea that there are certain people who are really very evolved, their minds have reached a very high level so that they can choose where they're going to go next, you know, after this life, what they're going to do next, where they're going to be born, who's going to be their parents. Report an error

1:05:30 They can make that kind of decision. For the rest of us, it's all down to karma. You don't really have a choice in the sense of, you know, you don't get that. There isn't that point where you can, you know, after the previous life is finished, where you sort of think to yourself maybe in discussion with some other kind of, I don't know, whatever. Report an error

1:06:01 Some kind of being who's going to help you to decide what you need to work on and where you need to go next and that kind of thing. We don't have that kind of idea. That's a fact. We don't have that kind of idea. Report an error

1:06:22 I mean, I guess it could help a person to lead their lives in a way that, like the mind training really. so Report an error

1:06:37 Because, you know, if you do believe that you're here because you decided to be here because somehow you and maybe your guru, whatever they call these beings that you might discuss these things with, that this is what you needed to do. You were going to have the problems, you were going to learn from the problems, you were going to grow and so on. And that would probably help you to deal better with life's problems, wouldn't it? Report an error

1:07:08 But as for how it fits with karma, yeah, I mean, it could fit with karma, couldn't it? Because if you were to remember that it's not just that you're here to learn, but you're also here to burn up karma. Report an error

1:07:30 And in fact, this is very much part of the Buddhist teaching, that when things go wrong, if you know how to deal with it, like you know Report an error

1:07:40 It actually, you know, illness and whatever gives you the possibility of using up negative karma, which means that you're not going to have to experience it again. Whereas if you deal with it with frustration and, you know, like anger and so on, then you're just, you're using up the old karma and you're creating new karma and that's really not helping you at all. Report an error

1:08:07 So it could fit very well with the teaching on karma. My 18-year-old son, when he was 18 years old, he told me he has to go through the hardship. He just said that. I was like, okay. Right. Right, right, right. He's 26 now. Right, right, right. And it worked for him? You know, he's very strong. It doesn't bother him. Okay. Okay, thanks. Report an error

1:08:36 Oh, yeah. Okay. Hmm. Report an error

1:08:45 I mean, back at Land of Medicine Buddha, after about an hour we have a short break. Do you do that here? Ten minutes? Report an error

1:08:55 Yeah. Should we have a short break? Ten minute break. Thanks. Report an error

1:09:18 I wouldn't mind if you could just... Report an error

1:09:44 I Report an error

1:09:51 don't know. Report an error

1:09:58 I mean, you know, like with a gong. People talk about ringing a gong. Do you ring a gong? Do you play it? Do you beat it? Bang, you strike the gong. So, like if you had a gong for lunch, would you say to a person, can you go and strike the gong? You'd say that, would you? Report an error

1:10:22 Bang a gong. Oh, yeah. Bang it, you bang it, do you? Bang a gong. Okay. You bang a gong. Report an error

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1:11:19 What did you say? Usually go on for about three hours? Finish at ten. Report an error

1:11:28 I could maybe go on until ten, just to see what happens. See the looks on your faces? Just for the fun of it. Report an error

1:11:42 If you get to the end of the evening and you think, well, we must have created the calm for that somehow, then it would have been worth it. Report an error

1:11:57 It seems like the main point is coming to this conclusion, what I want is happiness, and there's absolutely no way I'm going to get that happiness unless I create the cause for it. No way. It's just not going to happen. And I don't want suffering, so then what? Report an error

1:12:23 So I better not create the cause for suffering. If I create the cause for suffering, I'm definitely going to experience suffering that I don't like. So I've just got to make sure that I don't create the causes. Of course, it's a little bit more complicated than that because we have this whole idea that it's not just now and what we do from now on in terms of our actions. Report an error

1:12:48 We've also got to look back and think about all of the things that we've done in the past. have, you know, like... The karma we've created in the past, because once you've created karma, then eventually, in the case of the destructive karma, you definitely have to experience the result eventually, unless you purify it. Report an error

1:13:12 So there are ways of purifying negative karma. So we need to purify those destructive actions of killing and harming others in various ways we've done in the past. Report an error

1:13:25 Come to that conclusion. Because I don't want suffering. We don't like suffering. Nobody wants suffering, do they? So because I don't want to suffer, I need to purify the negative karma that I've already created in the past. I need to make sure that I don't create anymore. And of course, you know, we're not perfect, so we make mistakes. So in case we do sometimes, you know, harm others in various ways, then we need to make sure that, you know, as quickly as possible, we purify. Report an error

1:13:57 And then with the constructive, sort of wholesome actions come, then coming to the conclusion that, you know, yeah, I need to do that as much as possible. Report an error

1:14:15 And because of the fact that, I don't know if it's very obvious, but anyway, certainly according to many of the Buddhist teachings, anger is something that can destroy, you know, the... The potential for happiness that we might have been working at creating for a long, long time. So to make sure to... Report an error

1:14:38 So it's not just a simple question, you know, do this, don't do that. There's also a question, we really, you know, eventually we have to do something about controlling our own minds. Report an error

1:14:49 It's not just, you know, I don't want suffering so I'm not going to do this. I want to be happy therefore I'm going to do that. You have to work with your own mind. You've got to do something about your own mind. Report an error

1:15:07 Maybe some people don't like being told, you've got to do this, you have to do this. But anyway, it's simple. If you want to be happy, then it doesn't happen just by itself. Report an error

1:15:18 It only happens when you create the causes. That's the point. Report an error

1:15:27 Okay, so anyway, to go through some more points, which are in some ways quite general. Anyway, this Friday evening, everybody's been working hard at work all day, probably most of you anyway. Report an error

1:15:45 Some people like myself, you know, got all day, just like everyday kind of holiday. What to do, you know. Report an error

1:15:59 I'm exaggerating a little bit. So, yeah. Anyway, you know, we've spent over an hour talking about this sort of like general idea of cause and effect and so on. And the thing is, I think it's really very important. In some ways it's simple, but anyway, it's very important, you know. Report an error

1:16:22 Coming to the conclusion that nothing, you know, it's totally cause and effect. You know, the whole external world, internal world, it's all cause and effect. And then within that, there's the cause and effect in terms of one's own experience of happiness and unhappiness and so on. Causes for that. So we want happiness. All of us want happiness. If we want happiness, then the only way that that's going to happen is by creating a cause. Report an error

1:16:52 We don't want suffering. So the only way to avoid suffering is by avoiding the cause. That's it in a nutshell really. So coming to that very clear conclusion is totally down to me. It's totally down to me. Report an error

1:17:18 There's no way that just wanting happiness, wanting peace, wanting liberation and enlightenment alone is going to get what you want. Report an error

1:17:31 There's no way that just... Not wanting pain and anguish and so forth. Just by not wanting it is not going to happen. Report an error

1:17:49 So then specifically with karma, or to be a little bit more specific, we talk about these four general features of karma. Report an error

1:18:05 To use the standard terms, it's definite. What that means is... Report an error

1:18:16 Anyway, so what we might call good karma, so constructive, wholesome karma, wholesome actions only lead to happiness. Happiness only comes from those actions and that's all that they lead to. They never lead to, they never act as the, they never result in suffering. Report an error

1:18:42 You might actually think of some exceptions to that, what seems like an exception to it anyway, generally speaking with karma. Report an error

1:18:52 It's fixed anyway in that way. The wholesome actions lead to happiness. The unwholesome actions lead to pain and suffering and they don't get kind of like mixed up. Report an error

1:19:08 Then karma increases which means like from a small seed a huge tree can grow, a huge plant can grow. Also in the case of karma. You might create just what looks like a very small, it might be a very small, wholesome action or a very small, unwholesome kind of destructive action, but it can lead to huge results. Report an error

1:19:39 Okay, and then you never experience the result of something you never created the cause for. If you didn't create the cause for suffering, if you didn't create the destructive causes which leads to suffering, then you're not going to experience suffering. No way, it can't happen. And likewise, Report an error

1:19:57 If you haven't created the causes for good things to happen, if you haven't created the constructive causes for happiness, no way you can experience happiness. Report an error

1:20:10 And then, fourthly, the results of karma, once it's been done, it never gets lost. And this is quite a powerful one. Never, ever. Never, ever. So in the case of... The destructive actions, what we might call bad karma or negative karma, as people often do. Report an error

1:20:40 If you purify it, that's one thing. Or if you experience the result, if you've already experienced the result, that's one thing. If you haven't experienced the result and you haven't purified it, then that, to use an image, that seed, the seed of that action. That kind of potential will remain until you experience the result, even if millions of lifetimes, even if it takes millions of lifetimes. Report an error

1:21:13 It can even be billions. The passage of time is totally irrelevant. Unless it's been purified or unless you've experienced the result, that potential to experience that result will remain until the time is... No, I'm not going to say until the time is right. Report an error

1:21:34 Various conditions come together. It's like, you know, we can hardly imagine maybe a seed, an actual, you know, seed of a plant lasting forever. But really it's the same thing, you know. Unless that seed grows into a plant or unless it rots or burns, which would be like purifying, you know, an analogy for purifying. Report an error

1:22:02 It'll just stay there forever, won't it, with the potential to grow into that seed, into that plant, sorry. So it's just like that, you know. It doesn't matter how much time has passed, it will. Because you see, somehow psychologically we think, you know, well, that happened a long time ago, it can't matter, you know. Report an error

1:22:22 But no, it's not like that. It's really like, you know, just like in this life, you know, sometimes your past can catch up with you. Report an error

1:22:31 And we read about that in there. Newspapers, don't we? Somebody who might have done something wrong many, many years ago. It could be decades ago. And, you know, they thought they got away with it. But then somebody finds out and then they have to pay. Report an error

1:22:52 And, of course, it's the same with the more sort of like wholesome or constructive deeds, skillful actions. They also create their potential. Unless they get destroyed by anger or unless you've already experienced the result, then that potential to experience happiness will never disappear. Report an error

1:23:20 Then once the conditions are there, then you see the plant, which is the happiness, following from that seed. So those four things, that karma is fixed, it increases, you never get the result that you haven't created the cause for, and the result is never lost. Report an error

1:23:44 Sort of simple kind of like names for those four. Report an error

1:23:55 So now think about it. Some of you might have heard this teaching and I've heard the teaching before and I'm not sure I quite remember. But anyway, let's see if we can think. If karma is fixed in the way that I described, then how's that going to help you? How are you going to use that knowledge? How's that going to affect your life and the way you lead your life? Report an error

1:24:27 Let's spend a few minutes thinking about that. Report an error

1:24:32 What kind of conclusion can you draw? Report an error

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1:26:19 Okay, then the second one, how karma increases. So that just like, even though the seed might be very small, the plant that grows from it can be huge. Report an error

1:26:36 Or even, in fact, if you think about it, you know, like with certain plants, you might sow one seed and then that grows into a plant and then the seeds from that... Report an error

1:26:48 Growing to more plants and in that way you get this increase just from that one seed, such a huge result falling. So if karma is like that, so that even a small, in the mind a huge, a hugely destructive action or a hugely sort of constructive, skillful action, like saving the lives of millions of people in some way or whatever, that kind of thing. Report an error

1:27:16 Taking the lives of millions of people. Not just huge actions, but even small actions can lead to huge results. So what's the conclusion that we can draw in terms of how we lead our lives from that? Report an error

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1:31:14 Thirdly, that you never experience the result of an action that you never did, that you didn't do. In other words, you never experience the result of karma that you didn't create. Report an error

1:31:33 Okay, so if that's so, then how does that affect us? We Report an error

1:31:44 can draw in terms of how we're going to lead our lives. Report an error

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1:33:02 And then fourthly, that the result of any action that we do is never lost. Once Report an error

1:33:12 you've experienced the result, then of course you don't need to worry about having to experience the result of that action again. But if you haven't already experienced the result of that karma, that action, and in the case of the... Destructive karma you haven't purified it, or in the case of the skillful karma, constructive karma you haven't, it hasn't been destroyed by anger, then no matter how much time passes, that potential to experience some, respectively, happiness or unhappiness will remain there. Report an error

1:33:53 So what's the conclusion we can draw for our lives? Report an error

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1:35:13 Let's have a few minutes of discussion on that. And then we'll do a little bit more meditation to conclude the evening. Report an error

1:35:39 Somebody else has got it. Report an error

1:35:47 There's a question up here. Oh, okay. So when you say that karma is never lost, then there's teachings that say if you get really angry, you destroy all sorts of good karma. So is that sort of analogous to the opposite of purifying? Yes, exactly. With the unskillful actions, the potential to experience unhappiness as a result of that will remain unless it's been purified. Report an error

1:36:20 With the skillful actions, skillful karma, then the potential to experience happiness will remain unless it's been destroyed by anger. One more question. They say if you dedicate good actions… First, it'll protect it from being... Yes, that's what they say, yeah. How does that work? Yeah, I don't know really how that works. They say that it works, and it seems like, according to all accounts, that's what all the great bodhisattvas and so on do, and you can see how important the Lama seem to consider that, how it really works, I don't know. Report an error

1:36:57 They say, they have various analogies, but there's no... Report an error

1:37:08 There's a bank that's so safe that you could put your money in it and it would never, you know, it would be forever safe there. So using the analogy of putting your money in the bank doesn't really work, does it? Maybe it's like putting your money in the perfect bank, if there was such a thing, I don't know. Report an error

1:37:30 I don't really know how it works. I really don't know how it works. But they say that that's how it is. You know, the dedication is like the... Report an error

1:37:39 You know, it's like you create that cause, you create that karma and that's like the, I know they use the analogy of the horse or it could be like a boat, you know, so it's going somewhere but what directs it is the dedication. They say like that. But how is it, you see one thing is you see, when they say that, those Report an error

1:38:11 Those skillful karmas, the seeds of those skillful karmas are protected by dedication. We really need to ask, what does it mean to dedicate? You see, I think the kind of dedication that probably, I don't want to say most of us. do but i mean i'm sure we're all prone to sometimes where it's kind of know Report an error

1:38:42 You know, Report an error

1:38:48 I'm not sure that that really is the safest bank to put your money in. You know, if you think about, if you, you know, if you hear Kebju Zopa Rinpoche talking about how to dedicate. okay now coffee kind of thing you know Report an error

1:39:06 It's not just that you dedicate and you mean it, you also need to sort of seal the dedication with some kind of reflection on the ultimate nature of the dedication, Report an error

1:39:26 thinking about how myself, I, the one who I'm dedicating, I'm totally empty of existing in the... The way I appear, which is something which is not merely labelled, something which is independent because of actually being merely labelled and also the dedication itself, the act of dedicating appears to be something which is independent of my mind, independent of being labelled by my mind, Report an error

1:40:01 whereas in fact it's completely dependent upon my mind, so it's completely empty of existing in the way that it appears. Just like a dream, like an illusion, like an hallucination. Also when we talk about dedicating for the enlightenment of all sentient beings, the happiness of all sentient beings and so on, that those sentient beings and that enlightenment, that happiness are all totally non-existent in the way they appear. Report an error

1:40:22 So reflecting on the ultimate nature of the dedication, that's really, you know, to really dedicate includes that. then, you know, Report an error

1:40:39 How dedication protects that karma maybe comes down to the question of how meditation on emptiness, the ultimate nature of dedication, would protect it. Report an error

1:41:10 Certainly, the more you cultivate that kind of awareness, not just in relation to the meditation. To the dedication, but if you maintain that awareness throughout the day, then as long as you have that kind of awareness, then the various mental afflictions, like especially for this point, the anger, the less possible it is for it to arise. Report an error

1:41:44 Because when anger arises, there's always this I, I, this kind of like very... Vividly appearing I, which seems to be totally independent of everything else, that's what's going on when anger arises. Whereas if you remain within the awareness of that kind of ultimate nature of oneself, then as long as that awareness is there, so long the anger can't arise. Report an error

1:42:15 So it would protect it in that way, perhaps. Report an error

1:42:26 Right, yes, there was one question here and then that would be the... Actually, did you have a question before? You did, and also you did, but I think your hand went up first. First? Yeah. Can you make it short? And then we can have yours as well. And then that would be it. Well, what you were saying right now, it seems to me that it's consciousness about ignorance, right, that we're just kind of hitting it. Report an error

1:42:51 Okay. So it's kind of a skillful means to dedicate, because we're also not supposed to, but we also should dedicate things that we find beautiful and that we enjoy, so as not to, I guess, kind of grasp at them, crave at them. What do you mean dedicate things like that? Well, when we see something beautiful, we say, oh, I dedicate the beauty of this. Report an error

1:43:11 Landscape to the three gems, right? It's kind of a different sense of the word dedicate. Dedication, yeah. But in a way, I think it's kind of... But it's a similar thing, giving it away. Yeah, giving it away, not grasping, not holding on and, as I said, kind of hitting the ignorance aspect of our minds. Report an error

1:43:30 So that's like... That's not a question. No, it's okay. I'll pass it on, but I had a quick question. Just because I work here and I hear it often, there's more, I think of us as little baby Buddhists, more like embryonic state, and I often hear the more superficial use of the word karma, where people say, well, if Obama doesn't vote for that, it's really bad karma for him. Report an error

1:44:04 If he doesn't save so-and-so, it's bad karma. This sort of, this judging that we get into. I didn't hear that so much in Asia, but in the West I hear it a lot, where we... We judge other people and act like we know what their karma is or what their actions mean or what the results of their actions will be. Report an error

1:44:24 Suddenly we become omniscient and some things are obvious. We know if kids are into drugs it's only going to get worse. But some things I don't think we know so well and yet if I see Joe the monk getting angry it's like I can't judge that. I don't know that that's necessarily really bad karma if I don't know what's going on. So I don't know if you want to talk about that at all. Report an error

1:44:56 It's wide-ranging. Yeah, well... Report an error

1:45:06 Well, I mean, anyway, what might answer what you're saying is just to, I mean, really underline the fact that in a way when we're talking about karma, it's mostly to do with, you know... Report an error

1:45:27 Me taking responsibility for my life. On the other hand, if a person is looking at what somebody else is doing and thinking of the karma that they're creating and it's coming out of compassion, then of course we can't fall back, can we? Report an error

1:45:54 Even though we don't have clairvoyance that can see... I don't know exactly what's going on in another person's mind. I mean, you know, you can kind of tell from the way a person is behaving, whether they're angry or not and so on, and whether they're grasping or not, you know. But you don't have to be judgmental about it, you know. The main point would be to, you know, the compassion. The compassion, really. Report an error

1:46:21 And if it's not coming from compassion, if it's just coming from, you know, like a sense of smugness and judging, well then, yeah, I mean, then we're really kind of... Not doing ourselves a favor, are we? So you just have to be, it's a question of being honest, really, I think. But it's a fact that learning about karma isn't meant to be a tool for criticizing everybody else. Report an error

1:46:45 I Report an error

1:46:56 had some problems with the first contemplation, and I think, I don't know if it's just a question of semantics or what, but on the first contemplation that karma is fixed, I got hooked on the word fixed because... All through this Buddhist training, I'm learning that nothing is fixed. Fixed in the sense that, for example, killing is not the cause of happiness. Report an error

1:47:28 It will never be the cause of happiness. It's going to be the cause of suffering. Stealing, cheating others, deceiving them, that's only going to be the cause of suffering. It will never be the cause of happiness. And likewise, helping people, saving lives. Report an error

1:47:45 Healing, helping people in need, whether it's because they don't know how to get from A to B or whatever it might be. That's only going to be the cause of happiness. It will never be the cause of suffering in terms of karma. Fixed in that way. Report an error

1:48:07 In other words, no matter how flexible things might be... Karma is fixed, cause and effect is fixed, dependent on rising is fixed, fixed in that sense, that everything is dependent and it's like you never get things happening in a vacuum independent of anything else, that kind of thing. Report an error

1:48:38 So we'll spend a few minutes doing some meditation so you imagine that we're surrounded by all sentient beings. Report an error

1:48:54 All in the form of human beings like ourselves. And on the crown of the head of each of one of us is Buddha Report an error

1:49:10 Shakyamuni. Report an error

1:49:13 Not made of flesh and blood, otherwise you might get a crick in your neck. Made of light. Report an error

1:49:30 But a real person, but made of light. Report an error

1:49:36 Like the perfect person, free of all limitations. so... Report an error

1:49:42 so… In one's mind who makes this request for help, Report an error

1:49:53 for help in general to become a better person, to become more effective in being of benefit to others and particularly for help in reaching the kind of certainty from reflecting on karma so that we really take responsibility totally and have that kind of clarity. Report an error

1:50:24 So having made that kind of request, then you imagine that nectar streams down from all of the body of the Shakyamuni Buddha which flows through us. Think of one's own body as also being like hollow, made of light. So this nectar, light, flowing down through our body. Purifying us of all kinds of limitations in the mind, all kinds of confusion and doubt, purifying us physically of illness, Report an error

1:51:15 any kind of physical or mental limitation and obscuration and particularly everything in our minds that blocks us from... Being able to understand the cause and effect nature of everything and how that relates to us in terms of taking responsibility so Report an error

1:51:41 that we become very clear about needing to avoid even the least unskillful action and to practice or to do even the slightest, never mind just the great skillful actions, even the slightest skillful action. Not just feeding seeds or bread to a bird or something very simple like that, smiling at people. Report an error

1:52:21 Imagine that. Light completely purifies you and you become full of all of those qualities, inner qualities and wisdom and clarity and certainty, especially about karma. Report an error

1:52:54 All the mental and physical tiredness is all washed away also. This Report an error

· · ·

1:53:48 meditation for all the sentient beings is not just... One Self that's being purified, all Sinti beings have been purified. Report an error

· · ·

1:55:00 Please dedicate thinking as a result of time Report an error

1:55:07 spent together, Report an error

1:55:11 a couple of hours thinking Report an error

1:55:19 about and talking about this topic of karma, action, our actions and our experience in the world is shaped by those actions. Report an error

1:55:41 As a result of that, there will be peace in the world, especially inner peace. action. Report an error

1:55:49 In the minds of all beings as Report an error

1:55:55 a result of all of the goodness and good things that have been done by oneself and all others in the past that's being done right now and ever will be done by oneself and others, even including all of the fully awakened beings, enlightened beings in the future. Because of all of that, may there be peace in the minds of all the beings in the world, everywhere, in the minds of all sentient beings. Report an error

1:56:27 May all beings experience real, lasting happiness and peace of mind. In Report an error

1:56:38 order for that to happen, may they always be guided by qualified teachers, Report an error

1:56:48 awakened beings who themselves have the experience and can talk from experience. So Report an error

· · ·

1:57:32 in particular, I would like to ask you to dedicate and make prayers for a couple of personal friends who I just heard have died. Well, anyway, one of them, Giji Denzin, a monk from Sarah Monastery, quite young, probably early 40s, just died in Delhi. Report an error

1:58:00 And another friend, Matilda, Matilda Kent, English woman, who I saw just recently and who had a stroke and then brain hemorrhage and then all of the brain activity ceased and then, of course, following her instructions, they're probably going to switch off the life. They will support very soon, so please pray for them and Report an error

· · ·

1:59:03 seal the dedication by reflecting on the ultimate nature of the dedication, thinking that I myself, the one who am dedicating, although it seems like there is this very independent I who is dedicating, there is no such thing. Report an error

1:59:25 I am completely dependent, merely labelled upon my body and mind aggregates. There is no such independently existing I. Report an error

1:59:39 Likewise, the action of dedicating itself is completely empty of existing in the way that it appears, just like a dream, like an illusion or like an hallucination, totally non-existent in the way that it appears. Not existent in general, but not existing at all in the way that it appears in that independent way. And likewise, the good karma and so forth. Report an error

2:00:05 We've been dedicating and the aims to which we've been dedicating are also totally non-existent in the way that they appear because of being merely labelled by the mind. Report an error

2:00:40 Tomorrow, tomorrow 10.30, Report an error

2:00:46 if you've got nothing better to do. Report an error

2:00:52 10.30 till Report an error

2:00:58 12.30, then 2.00 till 4.00. Report an error

· · ·

2:01:35 sign in if you have not signed in. Report an error

· · ·

2:02:07 are here for the whole weekend. Report an error

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Talk by Steve Carlier, recorded 3 February 2012. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/SC_UnderstandingKarma_20120203. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, and archived by the center on Internet Archive. More from Tse Chen Ling

Listen on Internet Archive · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0