← Steve Carlier

Understanding Karma - Working with Cause and Effect to Change Your Life and Your World (4 February 2012, afternoon)

Steve Carlier · 4 February 2012 · 2 h 7 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 3:35

    So anyway, one is in terms of the nature of the action. What that means is that, I think I might have actually already mentioned it. The way that they're listed, the first seven you're getting, you start off with the worst one working down to the lightest one.

  • 5:28

    That factor, the action itself, you know, being heavier or lighter. Then another factor is to do with the mind and particularly the mental affliction. The stronger the anger, when something is done with very strong anger, then it's a heavier calm. When it's done with a much, just like, I don't know, like a brief moment of... Irritation, maybe then it's going to be lighter from that point of view.

  • 6:13

    And then for the preparation, because we talk in terms of those four components. There's the basis, the attitude, the action or preparation and completion. So of those four, the third one, if you think of killing or... Any of them, somehow it's easier to imagine with the killing. You know, you can kill in a very drawn out way that's aimed at producing the most suffering or it can be done much more humanely, as we usually say.

  • 8:13

    Then the last couple might not be so obvious. One is that when you're doing something that you're sort of like always doing, then it becomes heavier. Not the cumulative effect of all of those actions. It could be, I don't know, something that we do all the time is like senseless talk, isn't it? So the senseless talk in itself, not that heavy.

  • 9:59

    It's not done with reluctance. It's a habit. You're doing it all the time. So that seems to add some kind of component. It seems to make it stronger, doesn't it, because you're doing it habitually and easily, therefore. And then lastly, the action becomes, the karma becomes stronger, more powerful when it's done without the... You know, purification practice.

0:00 Yeah, just plain, plain. Report an error

· · ·

2:45 So there are certain factors that make a difference in terms of, difference in how, you know, what in the case of the unskillful actions, how heavy they might be or how light they might be. Report an error

3:08 And I think we'll, if we think about it, I think we'll see that this sort of like... There's something corresponding to that that also affects the skillful actions in terms of how strong they might be and how they might be a little bit more feeble kind of thing. Report an error

3:35 So anyway, one is in terms of the nature of the action. What that means is that, I think I might have actually already mentioned it. Report an error

3:51 The way that they're listed, the first seven you're getting, you start off with the worst one working down to the lightest one. And then for some reason with the last three it's the other way around you. The covetousness is less heavy than the ill will and then that's less heavy than the wrong view. And with the wrong view, why? I think because of it being so pervasive. You can have... Report an error

4:20 The wrong view that might lead you to hit somebody, say something unpleasant to somebody, the wrong view seems to be more pervasive. I don't know if that makes sense. Report an error

4:37 One thing is, you see, I think one way we can get an idea of just why it might be considered like the worst of those three, you see, if you, no matter how, no matter what you might have done, If you believe that there is a way to purify, then you might, you know, you'll do something, you can do something. Report an error

5:06 If you think that the whole thing is rubbish, cause and effect, karma and so on, then whatever you've done, you're not going to do anything to purify it or to avoid it in the future. So it kind of like removes the possibility of, you know, the slightest remorse and so on. So it's probably because of that. Report an error

5:25 So anyway, there's the That factor, the action itself, you know, being heavier or lighter. Then another factor is to do with the mind and particularly the mental affliction. The stronger the anger, when something is done with very strong anger, then it's a heavier calm. When it's done with a much, just like, I don't know, like a brief moment of... Report an error

6:02 Irritation, maybe then it's going to be lighter from that point of view. Report an error

6:13 And then for the preparation, because we talk in terms of those four components. There's the basis, the attitude, the action or preparation and completion. So of those four, the third one, if you think of killing or... Any of them, somehow it's easier to imagine with the killing. You know, you can kill in a very drawn out way that's aimed at producing the most suffering or it can be done much more humanely, as we usually say. Report an error

6:52 So there's that. That also, you know, plays a role. And then we talk in terms of the field, I think they say. No, not field. Maybe field. And actually, no, I think they don't use that word there. But anyway, what it's talking about is the unskillful actions done in relation to, for example, one's parents are much stronger than those done in relationship to other people, other ordinary people. Report an error

7:35 And then there are the, you know... There are certain holy beings whose lives are completely dedicated to benefiting others, for example. So unskillful actions aimed at them would be heavier. Why? Because somehow when a person is dedicated to the world or benefiting all living beings, it's almost like you harm them, you harm everybody. Report an error

8:10 then... Report an error

8:13 Then the last couple might not be so obvious. One is that when you're doing something that you're sort of like always doing, then it becomes heavier. Not the cumulative effect of all of those actions. It could be, I don't know, something that we do all the time is like senseless talk, isn't it? So the senseless talk in itself, not that heavy. Report an error

8:44 And you can see how the cumulative effect of spending your whole life talking nonsense, that would become quite powerful. But it's not talking about that. What this is saying is if I'm in the habit of a census talk, killing, stealing, then a given instance of the census talk, killing or stealing, for example, know, if I'm in the... Report an error

9:15 Would be heavier because of the fact that I'm always doing it. Just talking about that. Report an error

9:30 Anyway, I never saw a clear explanation of why that is so. It could be, Report an error

9:43 you know, I guess it's partly like you've built up a habit, so it becomes very easy for you to do. It's sort of like something happens very fluently, very easily. Report an error

9:56 And somehow there's something about that kind of... It's not done with reluctance. It's a habit. You're doing it all the time. So that seems to add some kind of component. It seems to make it stronger, doesn't it, because you're doing it habitually and easily, therefore. Report an error

10:18 And then lastly, the action becomes, the karma becomes stronger, more powerful when it's done without the... You know, purification practice. Report an error

10:40 I mean, you'd think that because usually the purification practice comes afterwards, of course you're not going to do, the action itself isn't going to get done with purification. The purification is coming afterwards, but it's true that the sort of the potential of that action, the siege, you know, that action has a chance to remain and to become stronger when you don't follow it up with the purification. Report an error

11:05 Not only that, but if you're If your mind is quick enough, maybe the wholesome habit is quick enough for you to be able to start purifying very quickly, maybe within minutes even, which can happen, then it sort of undermines the completion. When we talk about the completion has to be there. Report an error

11:41 You know, for the completion of the unskillful action to be at its fullest, there needs to be a feeling of sort of like accomplishment, satisfaction of having done it. Report an error

11:58 So when that's not there, even though everything else might be there, it's certainly not going to be as strong. So doing the action without the antidote makes it heavier. When there's some kind of component of the antidote, then it becomes lighter. Report an error

12:21 Okay, so any questions about that? Yeah? Report an error

12:31 When you were talking about the habitual actions, I thought about how it's important for us to be mindful. I don't know, do we get those teachings in Tibetan Buddhism or did I get them from some other Buddhism? But it seems like mindfulness being in the moment, I'm sorry. No, we don't practice mindfulness in Tibetan Buddhism. It seems like we don't talk about it as much, I think, as I've gotten from maybe other teachings. Report an error

13:02 Maybe you didn't, it depends who you listen to. Yeah, well, that's not my point. Yeah, I'm sure it wasn't. But being more mindful, being more... In the moment, maybe is why it's important to be. Report an error

13:21 Yeah, actually, you know, it's true when you talk about being habitual, there can be, when something is habitual, there's a possibility that you're doing without thinking. But having a habit of doing something doesn't imply being mindless about it. It just means that it comes naturally to you. Like for some people, helping others can be something that's habitual, but not necessarily something that you're not aware of doing. Report an error

14:01 You know well what you're doing, but it comes easy to you. Why? Because you've got the habit. It's sort of like a well-worn track that your mind has made. It's one that's easy to go down. Report an error

14:16 And that would be a good thing, wouldn't it? And the same can work with the unskillful actions. And I don't see that... That's not intrinsically linked with being mindful or not being mindful, I think. That's the thing, anyway. It's true that if you... Because, you know, I think it's a little bit of a... Some people have this idea, I think it's a little bit of a mistake to think that... Report an error

14:49 Being mindful means simply being aware of what you're doing. We need to keep in mind that to be mindful, you know, in Tibetan the word for mindfulness is no different from the word memory. They use it for remembering. So remembering, you're remembering the, it's almost like the ideals, your ideals, if that's the right word. Report an error

15:15 I mean, you know, like you've decided you don't want to harm anybody. You just don't want to do that to people. And so being mindful of that, remembering that. Report an error

15:30 I guess, yeah, that might be a way of putting it. Report an error

15:37 Yeah, so, yeah, that's interesting. Report an error

15:43 So you see, when you've got the habit of, anyway, you've got this unskillful habit, or the habit of doing something that's unskillful, and you've... If you recognize that it's unskillful and you've made up your mind you want to do something about it, then the mindfulness would mean remembering that so that as the day unfolds you're keeping on track, you're keeping to your plan. Report an error

16:19 It's a fact also if you were practicing mindfulness in the sense of simply being aware, it would help that, wouldn't it? But that's not all that mindfulness means. Report an error

16:39 Yes? The third point that you mentioned, my notes are not good and I didn't understand it. You said something about the nature of the action. That would have been the... No, that was the first one. The way they're listed. And then the stronger the mental affliction, the worse. Okay. And then there was the third one. The way that you do it. Report an error

17:06 Oh, oh, oh. Would you say? The preparation or the action. You know, when you look at those four components of karma, the third one is sometimes called like, I think actually in one of the translations I've seen, it's like the preliminary practice. Report an error

17:21 It's the preparation. It's what, it's because you're, in the case of killing, you know, what your intention is for the person to die. So everything that you do to make that happen is the preparation. It's like the preparation for the meal where the meal on the table and actually eating it is your goal. So everything else is the preparation that's leading up to that. Report an error

17:46 So likewise, you want this person to die, you want to possess this object. Everything you do to make that happen is the preparation. So in that sense, it's the preparation. And sometimes they simply call it the action, the action that you do to make it happen. Report an error

18:06 For the complete karmic path, Is that just a degree of heaviness or if you have all of those is there a more substantial result? Like does it create the cause for a whole lifetime as opposed to not having all of that? Okay, that's an interesting question. It seems from my understanding that as long as you've got those four points complete, the basis or the object, the mind, the action, the completion. Report an error

18:42 As long as you've got all four of those, then it's a complete karmic path. And so by creating that karma, by doing that action, by creating that karma, you have created the type of karma which is usually called throwing karma. What that means is the kind of karma which has the power to cause you to go on to a particular kind of birth. Report an error

19:15 Being heavy in terms of any of these six, it seems like it would still have that kind of power. These would give it a stronger power. Report an error

19:29 Is that okay? Yes, thank you. Back there. Report an error

19:37 I seem to, obviously it's my interpretation, I'm only hearing about bad karma. That's all we've talked about so far, mainly. Okay, so my question is... When good karma happens, does it work in the same way that the bad karma happens? Yes, yes. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk about these points here is because although in the text it seems like they come up as a supplement to the understanding of the unskillful karmas, it looks as if... Report an error

20:18 If there's something similar we can understand for the skillful actions, like, for example, perhaps saving the life of another being might be more powerful than generosity, giving things, which would be the opposite of stealing, so that kind of thing. And then I was also thinking, although generally speaking, as I say, these things are usually explained in the context of the unskillful actions for some reason. Report an error

20:54 When I was looking at this one, the preparation, the way in which the action is done. I was thinking about how at Chester Zuburamji's house in Aptos, when they do on a regular basis the... you know the Report an error

21:16 Saving animals. So mostly, I mean, I guess, I don't know, maybe it's just for practical reasons. Mostly they'll do something like buy the worms from places like Outdoor World. So these are worms that would otherwise end up on a hook, right? So it's a genuine case of saving a creature's life. So they don't just go and buy... Report an error

21:44 Those creatures and then set them free, which would be kind of the minimum of saving the life of a creature that's condemned to die. Report an error

22:01 There's a couple of things actually quite interesting. One thing is that I think right since the beginning what they've done is they've... also Report an error

22:10 Anyway, never mind what they've been doing since the beginning. Last Tuesday when I went, I saw what they were doing and they would take the worms, they put them on the stupa, in front of the stupa and then they take them around the stupa reciting mantras. So it's like not just saving the life, but saving the life in a very, very nice way. And not only that, but actually I think... Report an error

22:39 Until fairly recently, they must have been in the habit of simply releasing the worms into the garden. And then they discovered that when the rain came, then the road gets covered with worms. And of course, that brings all sorts of problems, particularly for the worms who risk getting run over. So now they try to put them somewhere safer. Report an error

23:07 know it's It's similar, isn't it? Similar kind of idea. Report an error

23:15 And, yeah, like with, you know, giving, you know, there's kind of like the way that you see, well, we might have done it ourselves, you know, like somebody, particularly if you're out in India, you see a beggar by the side of the road and you just like toss a coin at them. Well, that's one way of giving. Report an error

23:42 Another way would be to actually hand it to them, respectfully, actually. That kind of thing. Report an error

23:54 Anyway, we can all work out for ourselves. There are different ways. There are more skillful ways of giving, less skillful ways of giving in terms of the way you treat the person and so on. So I thought that there would be some kind of connection. And yet, you can see it's more... And it's sort of like, you know, the... Report an error

24:14 To do with the unskillful actions, because like, for example, like done without the antidote. Well, maybe actually the corresponding, how that would, sort of like the counterpart of that in the skillful actions might be, you know, doing the action with strong dedication. The stronger the dedication, the stronger the action kind of thing, the more power it has to bring a strong result. Report an error

24:45 That's just by the way. So if there's one more question maybe about that, we can look at that, otherwise we can carry on. Report an error

24:57 Okay. Report an error

25:01 So then, yes, just like we have the ten unskillful karmic parts, you've also got the ten skillful karmic parts, which are the opposite of these ten, and really it's quite interesting how it's... Report an error

25:23 formulated. It's a question of know it's like the same object person's life another person you know and all the possessions of others other beings and so on it's sort of like you Report an error

25:41 In the case of the skillful karmic path of not killing, so where in the case of the... The unskillful kind of path of killing, you know, you've got this other sentient being and then there's the intention to kill and so on. Here it's quite simple in a way. You know, we're talking about another sentient being and you see the drawbacks of killing and it's like the mental act. Report an error

26:14 So these are all really mental acts. Even though we still talk about body, speech and mind, really it's all kind of like... Something that's going on with the mind, the mental act of deciding not to kill and then just like before with the three unskillful actions where it's all sort of like a question of the decision to take and to harm and so on becoming stronger. Report an error

26:40 Here, when decision has become just like a... I don't know, like fleeting but really strong decision so that you're just definitely not going to take the life of this sentient being. Then you've got the completion and then you've got the full karmic path, not killing. Report an error

27:12 So it sort of implies that you're working with the impulse to kill because you see simply not killing... It doesn't mean you're creating the skillful action of not killing, like when you're asleep. Maybe you'd like to kill but you can't. Somebody's stopping you. That doesn't mean to say that you're doing something good. So it's like somehow bringing up the opponent to the impulse. Report an error

27:56 Counteracting the impulse to kill, counteracting the impulse to steal, to commit adultery and so on. Report an error

28:08 So in other ways that's quite simple, isn't it? Still, I can't Report an error

28:20 remember if I've actually seen it, but I've certainly heard. It's almost like if you leave it like that, it almost seems like... You kind of... You've got... Report an error

28:33 These ten would be always sort of like somehow expressed in some kind of negative turn, you know, like not doing something. And yet there also seems to be the opposite. So, you know, like I was saying, saving the lives of others, saving the lives of sentient beings whose lives are at risk. And not just at risk, actually. They're sort of definitely going to be killed and you're saving them. Like saving insects that are floating in a puddle and so on, you know. Report an error

29:04 That kind of thing. Taking the insect and putting it to the side of the road so that it doesn't get stepped on. That kind of thing. That's also, you know, I don't know if you'd say it's included in the skillful action of not killing or it's like not so much not killing as much as it is like the opposite of killing, saving the life. Report an error

29:29 So, you know, not stealing the wholesome or skillful action of not... Stealing, where you're contracting the impulse to steal, that's one thing. Then giving to others who are in need. Report an error

29:47 Each of them seems to come in pairs, doesn't it? Report an error

29:59 So that's quite straightforward, isn't it? Report an error

30:04 Any questions about that? Report an error

30:11 In Report an error

30:18 the moment, like when you're saving that insect or whatever, it's so hard to know how to dedicate correctly. Report an error

30:29 You want the insect to live. Well, you can dedicate it any way you like. Bodhicitta prayer, or maybe a prayer for all beings to be happy, a prayer for all beings to be free of suffering. Could you say that, like, oh, spider, could you be happy? Yes, you can do that, and you can also do it in a much more extensive way. Report an error

30:59 You can have what seems like a little, When it's done with a powerful dedication, extensive dedication, it becomes a big thing. It doesn't have to be just a specific thing for that spider. It can be for that spider and all spiders and not just spiders but all insects and not just all insects but all animals and all sentient beings like that. Why not? There's no limit. Report an error

31:31 Yeah, Report an error

31:34 well, I mean, that's, I guess, why... Report an error

31:40 Gurus often encourage us to reflect on these things last thing during the day and make the dedication then. Of course, the quicker you do it, the better it is because otherwise there's a risk of getting angry and blowing it all. So anyway, it's not like dedicating means that you can go ahead and get angry as much as you like because it's okay, it doesn't matter, it's all dedicated. Report an error

32:07 So, you know, Working with anger and attachment is something we need to do all the time anyway, isn't it? Otherwise we need to ask ourselves, never mind about I could get angry at any moment, I could die at any moment, so do I want to die like this? That's always very helpful. Report an error

32:27 So let's stop for a few minutes to reflect on this. Report an error

32:54 Ideally what's very useful is to reflect on what we've just been talking about. Report an error

33:03 Try to see how you can use what you've just been learning about. And if you found something useful, then try to make a determination, not to forget that and try to integrate it into one's life. Report an error

33:23 So what's the lesson? What's the lesson I can take from this that I can use? Report an error

· · ·

37:31 So whether we're talking about the skillful actions or unskillful actions, in either case, in terms of the results, Report an error

37:43 Particularly in the case where we've got the full karmic path because of having the basis, the action Report an error

37:58 and the complete. Report an error

38:03 Depending on how you look at it, there are three results or four results. There's three results in the sense there's what they call the ripening result. I might as well just go ahead and use the terms you normally come across. There are... Report an error

38:18 ripening results are the result of full Full maturation. Then the result is similar to the cause. And then there's the environmental result, which I mentioned already before. In English we usually call it the environmental result because it seems to be a result which comes in the environment that you find yourself in. It's not necessarily the environmental result in the sense of something you're born into and you're... Report an error

38:52 You're sort of like stuck with for the whole of your life, although that can also, that's also one possibility. It can be, you know, just like where you find yourself periodically, you find yourself in an unclean place or in a very beautiful place. That's the result, the environmental result that you're experiencing at that moment. Report an error

39:16 And then with the results similar to the cause, so why we sometimes talk about four results is because this has got... Two sort of aspects to it. Results similar to the cause, whereas an experience similar to the cause, kind of like, you know, be done by as you did, as you find in the water babies, be done by as you did, being killed, you know, as a result of killing. Report an error

39:45 It's pretty straightforward, isn't it? That's maybe the most intuitive of all of these ones, the ones that you could, you know, you'd expect. Then the action symbol of the cause in the sense of being somehow drawn towards doing that kind of action again in the future. What they usually say is you have first of all your ripening result. That's to do with the life that that karma has propelled you towards and it could be the very next life after you did that action. Report an error

40:17 It could be many lives in the future. anyway, sometime or other. Then, Even after you've finished with that life and you're born as a human being, for example, because when we talk about the rising result in the case of the unskillful actions, you know, it's not limited to birth as a human being. Report an error

40:39 I mean, you know, we can see all the kinds of sentient beings, all different types of sentient beings in our lives, insects which are included in the animal realm for this. In this scheme of things, birds and lizards and all sorts of things. These are all sorts of possibilities. So those will be like the ripening result. And then even after that, if you're born as a human being again, then that's when you experience the other results, the results similar to the cause and the environmental result. Report an error

41:21 the... That's usually how it's explained. That's a good way of understanding it. And so even when born as a human being, having that kind of experience of a short life because of being killed, I don't know if it would have to be being killed. Report an error

41:47 Usually they say, you know, short life anyway. So just like you call somebody else. To have a shortened life, not to live out their full lifespan, also you don't get the chance to live out your full lifespan. And then being drawn towards, like attracted to killing, even though you've been born as a human being, again, being attracted to killing and stealing. Report an error

42:10 And likewise with the skillful actions, being drawn towards saving the lives of others, being somehow not wanting to take the lives of others. Drawn towards others, acts of generosity and so on. Report an error

42:33 Okay. And just like with the environmental result of the unskillful actions, finding yourself in a very harsh environment or in a place where, you know, this is for sure I mentioned last night, didn't I? You know, a place where you just can't grow things or they don't grow on time. Or they kind of look like they've grown properly, then when you go to eat them it just tastes bad, it's already rotted inside and so on. All sorts of things like that. Report an error

43:07 Business failing and so on. There's also the opposite to that. Everything, you know, find yourself in a very beautiful environment where everything seems to work, everything seems to grow. Report an error

43:27 On the one hand being born somewhere where maybe a particular location or a country where... The medicine just doesn't work. Or being born in a place where the medicine is very effective, you know, so these two possibilities. Report an error

43:49 And you can see this is very practical, actually, in terms of understanding our lives. And in fact, if you, you know, the more you read about karma in the graduated path teachings, there's always the section on karma. Report an error

44:16 And the more you read about that, the clearer things become to you, the more certainty you gain about how karma works. And particularly I think one text which is very useful, very nice, is called The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. It's a mind training text. And many, many, many of the verses... Report an error

44:41 Express actually teachings from the sutras and explain that when such and such a thing, a difficulty, it deals particularly with the difficulties of life. Report an error

44:53 When such and such, you find yourself experiencing such and such difficulty, then understanding in terms of the cause, you know, this is the kind of thing that I did in past lives that's causing me to experience this. It's not because... It's not somebody else's fault. It's not the government's fault. It's not my neighbor's fault. Report an error

45:21 It's not the immigrant's fault. It's, you know, I created the cause for this. I created the cause for this. Maybe not this life, some past life. And so then, you know, the sort of the refrain that comes up in so many of these verses is like a decision about. What to do in the future to avoid that kind of situation. So henceforth I shall do this, henceforth I shall do that. Very, very nice, very nice text. Report an error

45:54 The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. So yeah, this is kind of, you know, when we talk about mind training, transforming problems into the path, you know, the understanding of karma is really the key to that. It's very, very useful, very, very useful. Report an error

46:17 So here, you know, it's like, you know, you find yourself in a, I mean, people don't usually, don't so much question why me, you know, when you find yourself in a nice situation. It's when you find yourself in a really difficult situation, you know, like noise and dirt and pollution and so on. Why me? So, you know, so, you know, you have... Report an error

46:46 For me, you know, actually, you know, when you look in these teachings, it explains the different environmental result that goes with each of the ten, you know, skillful actions and unskillful actions. And I kind of a bit lazy and also just didn't have the patience to learn each one of them. Because anyway, it's always seemed to me, well, you know, the basic message is when you find yourself in a nice situation. Report an error

47:14 That's because you did some kind of skillful action. So you need to do more of that. And when I find myself in an unpleasant situation, then it's like, oh, I must have done something bad, wrong, unskillful in a past life. So nobody else to blame but myself. And it's not just a question like I blame myself for making myself feel bad and beating myself up and so on, but I need to purify and I need to make sure that, especially I need to make sure that I avoid this kind of, any kind of unskillful action in the future. Report an error

48:01 So it's very practical actually. And even with the tendencies to do this and that, particularly the tendency to... Towards the destructive actions. It's also kind of like all tied up with karma. So it's not like, you know, why? You don't need to think why. Well, it's just that's how karma works. Report an error

48:51 And like we were saying yesterday, although the aim of this isn't to sort of like point the finger and accuse other people of doing this and that, but it can help us to understand why the world is as it is and without being judgmental and criticizing, but somehow, you know, It's not just me, I need to also get the wisdom and the power to be able to help others to do the same thing. Report an error

49:26 So that's it really for the skillful or the light karmic paths and the unskillful or the dark karmic paths. Report an error

49:47 So maybe this is a good place to have a ten minute break and then... We'll come back to some other topics related to this. Report an error

50:02 Okay. Report an error

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51:16 won't answer. Yeah, okay. We'll go straight on that. Only a few minutes. No, I'll be a few minutes. Just for the water, guys. Thank you. I can't see you. Unless you want some. Hi, sis, girl! Report an error

51:43 Thank you. like 25. Report an error

52:02 stop. Do you want me? Oh, you're open. Yeah, you're open. Report an error

52:11 Thank you. Report an error

52:29 Yes, exactly. Report an error

52:48 know what I mean? It's instead of sexual, it's kind of sexual. Yeah. We're not sure. I think probably a little more show for Thank you. Report an error

53:19 on. Report an error

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54:50 I'm I'm lost. I'm lost. Report an error

54:56 Thank Report an error

55:21 you. Report an error

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56:07 first, it's the recording, oh it's here. cutting back on. What is the cause to have a karma with mental illness, such as anxiety or depression? Report an error

56:29 Specifically, I don't know. You get some idea, as I mentioned, from this Wheel of Sharp Weapons. I remember particularly it talks about, I guess you could call it paranoia. Being a result of having caused others to be afraid in their past lives. So otherwise, it could be there are different things that might lead to that kind of unhappiness. Report an error

57:02 It could be simply causing others to be unhappy. I would recommend that you have a look at that and you might find the answer in that text. Report an error

57:13 It's quite interesting, that text, actually. Quite often you find... On different occasions you get the answer to different difficulties you might be facing. Report an error

57:37 Okay, so now in the case of the skillful actions, then there are several, Report an error

57:53 not just the skillful actions, these are four factors that are applicable to... The skillful and unskillful actions. In the other case, you had those six factors that seem more to do with the unskillful actions. These are ones which can, you know, are relevant to both the skillful and unskillful actions. So one thing to think about is that the object or the focus of the action, the recipient, like, for example, amongst ordinary beings, Report an error

58:32 The action is a skillful one or an unskillful one. It becomes much more powerful when it's your parents. You might find it interesting to hear the ascending list in terms of which beings, which people are the most powerful objects, so most ordinary people, parents, and then they talk about the geizhong, so practitioners, really strong practitioners of the path. Report an error

59:02 And being more heavy, you know, objects or stronger objects of one's actions. Then particularly the bodhisattvas, within those you have the lay bodhisattvas, ordained bodhisattvas, so the ordained bodhisattvas being even more powerful. Then the buddhas are even more powerful than that, and then one's guru is even more powerful than that. Report an error

59:26 And that would probably be particularly, I mean guru in one way, guru means your teacher, but it doesn't just mean any teacher, it's particularly somebody you have the connection with and you've entered into this very powerful relationship with where you're relating to them as an enlightened being and so on. Report an error

59:48 So then it's like that person becomes like all the enlightened beings for you in your life. Report an error

59:58 They become a very, very strong object of karma, whether it's the skillful or unskillful. Then this is also very useful. Report an error

1:00:10 Another factor is in terms of the person who's doing the action. So if you've taken precepts, vows, there are the lifetime vows that lay people take. There's a lifetime sort of like monastic ordination when you become a monk or nun. And there are also the eight precepts. So when you have those precepts, when you've taken that kind of vow, then everything that you do becomes much more powerful. Report an error

1:00:43 Everything you do becomes much more powerful. So that's one of the very good things about taking vows and especially, you know, taking the... Since it's quite simple really, taking the eight Mahāyāna precepts is a very, very powerful thing. And then in terms of, well, Report an error

1:01:06 like for example, we talk about giving, giving, what they usually say, giving Dharma, so like giving people some kind of instruction or ideas about how to follow the spiritual path. Would be a form of generosity much more powerful than simply giving them, you know, some kind of material giving, giving things. Report an error

1:01:41 And then in terms of the attitude, like for example, even an action, a very, very small action, like just giving one mouthful of food to an animal, a cup of tea to a friend, but done with bodhicitta. With compassion and so on, it becomes huge. In fact, I can't remember everything that Rinpoche usually says, but Lama Tsongkhapa Rinpoche has the ability to go into great detail about just why that is. Report an error

1:02:23 Anything that's done with bodhicitta, even if it's something very simple, such as just giving one... A person a cup of tea or a smile, done out of bodhicitta, becomes like the basis, the source of everything that you achieve from then on was on the path. And in a sense, it contributes towards the happiness of all beings. It's being done with bodhicitta. It's all to do with the motivation you see. Report an error

1:02:54 When we talk about doing something out of bodhicitta, we're talking about doing something for the happiness of all beings. And so an action done with that kind of motivation doesn't get played out, it doesn't get used up, it doesn't get finished with until that goal of the happiness of all sentient beings is completed. Report an error

1:03:18 So it just goes on forever. And in fact, as Lama Tsongkhapa explains it, of course, if it doesn't get used up until then, why would it get used up afterwards? So it's like it never gets used up. Very, very powerful to do things out of bodhicitta, even though you're not a bodhisattva, but to try to make that the motivation for everything, the motivation to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Report an error

1:03:44 Sincere wish to achieve full awakening for the sake of all sentient beings. Report an error

1:03:52 So then, are there any questions about that? Yes? Report an error

1:04:11 I've taken bodhisattva vows as a layperson and I have been less than compliant, to put it mildly. Report an error

1:04:21 It creates a lot of stress and feeling of guilt from that. Part of me feels, well, I need to make amends, but I don't know how to make amends. What is your suggestion? Well, there's nothing that can't be purified. There's nothing that can't be purified. That's one thing. And then the other thing is no matter what you might have done in the past, you can... Report an error

1:04:53 In English, we talk about turning over a new leaf, don't we? Whatever mistake you might have made in the past, that doesn't prevent you from making the decision to do things right in the future. In the case of the bodhicitta vows, that means finding out more, really thinking about it and really just trying harder. Report an error

1:05:14 In actual fact, you're not really alone. I mean, all of us maybe wouldn't have announced it like that. We've taken these vows and we get quite slack about it. But feeling guilty doesn't help, does it? What really helps is recognizing a mistake as a mistake and then trying to improve. And there are specific practices that are recommended, particularly for the bodhisattva vows, like doing the... Report an error

1:05:51 reciting the names of the 35 Buddhas, but it can be anything. Meditating on bodhicitta is a very powerful way of purifying. Meditating on bodhicitta is a very powerful way of purifying. It's like His Holiness often says in praise of bodhicitta that what we need to do is to purify. And what we need to do is to, as we usually say, create this or build up this kind of positive force of power, merit. Report an error

1:06:32 And so by meditating on bodhicitta, we accomplish both of those. By meditating on bodhicitta, you purify. By meditating on bodhicitta, you build up that kind of merit. And it itself is just such an unbelievable attitude. Just unbelievable. Report an error

1:06:51 Inconceivable really. It can never do any harm, it can only make things better. So meditating on that, nothing better than that. And also working on the wisdom side on one level, like I said, finding out more, learning, learning the advantages of keeping the precepts purely, being more aware of the drawbacks of not keeping them. Report an error

1:07:21 Purely and especially the wisdom, gradually trying to get in touch with the wisdom, understanding the ultimate reality. There's definite hope for all of us. If there's no hope for you, then there's no hope for any of us. I promise. Report an error

1:07:48 Okay, so let's have a few minutes reflecting on that then, please. Report an error

1:07:58 So, well, we've been talking about a lot of things, haven't we? Let's think about that last point and think about how it affects us and how we can use it. So the karma becomes more powerful depending upon who it's created in relation to, Report an error

1:08:22 depending upon ourselves having, for example, precepts or not, vows or not. In terms of generosity, for example, what you're giving. Report an error

1:08:35 And then in terms of the attitude, like the bodhicitta attitude and so on. Report an error

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1:13:34 Anybody get a question coming out of their meditation? Report an error

1:13:40 I was thinking, this comes up quite often, where it mentions the field, Report an error

1:13:52 the person to whom the action is directed. It mentions bodhisattvas. So of course here we need to remind ourselves that... Very difficult to tell who is a bodhisattva and who isn't. Report an error

1:14:16 The lesson there is you need to be careful with everybody, just in case. Report an error

1:14:39 You've probably heard in the tantric teachings they talk about practicing pure appearance, or whatever that means. Report an error

1:14:51 It's not just in the tantric teachings actually, in the general Mahāyāna teachings there is the idea, the instruction. in the Report an error

1:15:03 The advice to train in pure appearance. And this seems to mean, you know, like, well, like regarding everybody. It could, let's say, I mean, just out of interest to see what's useful. How about seeing everybody as Buddhas? Report an error

1:15:29 Huh? Why not? Okay, so we've got one why not. Report an error

1:15:38 Everybody has Buddha nature, but not everybody is Buddha, are they? Report an error

1:15:45 We don't know, do we? Report an error

1:15:52 What is? What we see. I'm not talking about what you see or not, I'm saying how things are. Well, so maybe we are all Buddhas, but if we don't see that, then... I don't need to say maybe I'm a Buddha, though. I mean, maybe you're all Buddhas, but I know whether I am or I'm not. Right. So I can understand... Report an error

1:16:20 Where you're coming from if you say maybe everybody else is a Buddha but maybe we're all Buddhas because I know whether I am or I'm not. Report an error

1:16:30 Anyway, so the point is, is it useful? Is it doable? Is it useful? Report an error

1:16:42 It's not true, is it, that everybody is. I know that because I know I'm not. I don't know if you are or you're not, but I know I'm not. But it could be that everybody else is. Even though you might be sitting there thinking, well, he's wrong there. Because I'm not. Well, I don't know that, do I? I mean, you know, if you were Buddha, you wouldn't necessarily say you are Buddha. Report an error

1:17:05 And just because you say you're not Buddha doesn't mean to say that you're not. There could be reasons why you're saying it. Report an error

1:17:18 Yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of this thing I saw on the, I guess it was YouTube, Bob Thurman, talking about how... He was saying, for all I know, you're all Buddhas and you're somehow, there's something happening again. Ah, you know, what did he say? You know, you're all here, like I'm the only one, maybe I'm the last one. And you're all Buddhas and you're all here kind of, well we've got a girl on to Zhe Chen Ling again to help this, the last sentient being. Report an error

1:18:06 Poor thing thinks she's coming along to teach us. Report an error

1:18:18 So anyway, one Report an error

1:18:27 thing that comes up is, it's not so much a question, is everybody enlightened or not? The question I'm asking is, is it useful? And one thing that comes up in my mind is, well, if I'm going to practice that kind of pure view, seeing everybody's enlightenment, then how do I get the compassion? Report an error

1:18:57 Yeah? Report an error

1:19:08 When you say that, you're assuming that compassion only comes when something is wrong. Compassion is for suffering. Only for suffering? Well, I tell you what, you know, it could be that different people define it in different ways. According to the Buddhist teachings, compassion is the mind that wants others to be free of suffering. Report an error

1:19:33 It sees suffering and wants to end that suffering. Okay, if I follow the logic of this. When everybody is enlightened, then we don't have compassion anymore? Interesting question. Doesn't make sense. I mean, I don't mind if we deal with that when we get there. Report an error

1:19:54 I Report an error

1:20:02 would tend to think that the compassion is something that you wouldn't leave behind when everybody is enlightened and there's no more suffering. It's kind of difficult to imagine what that would be like anyway, isn't it? The point is, if I do think everybody is enlightened, how can I generate the quality of compassion? Report an error

1:20:38 Because usually in the Buddhist teachings we talk about cultivating compassion. In part by reflecting on the suffering of others. And if I think that you're enlightened, then how do I generate compassion for you? Report an error

1:20:59 Isn't compassion a state of our own mind? Not because something out there is happening? Both. It's because there are other sentient beings that are suffering that I need to put an end to that suffering. If there were no suffering, it's just like in the case of somebody who's not aware. aware others are suffering doesn't feel the compassion for them we talk about the kind of superficial that comes when you haven't really understood the depths of the suffering that people can experience the kind of attitude we have towards people who are and healthy and affluent It's like you don't feel the compassion for them until you recognize... Report an error

1:21:48 That this also is, you know, it's ephemeral. It's going to come to end eventually. Or when you realize, yes, they have that health at the moment, but they're not always going to have it. And then how are they going to deal with that? So the compassion that recognizes that things can change. Otherwise, you know, generally speaking, we tend to feel compassion for the person who is poor and homeless, and we don't feel compassion. Report an error

1:22:20 Generally speaking, you know, for the person who has a nice home and a good job and maybe not even a job, just personally wealthy and so on. You know what I mean? So generally speaking, you know, the compassion becomes stronger the more aware you are of the suffering. So I'm just saying, you know. On the other hand, you know, I mean, one way of looking at it, you know, to approach it slightly differently is, you know, if you remember... Report an error

1:22:52 But all of the Buddha's teachings are like medicine and you need particular medicines for particular illnesses. So then the question can come up, oh, this pure appearance, training in pure appearance, seeing others as fully enlightened, what's that the medicine for? Report an error

1:23:14 So when I want to generate compassion, maybe I don't need to see others as fully enlightened. Maybe that's not the time to see them. Report an error

1:23:25 So in that case, it's a completely different question. If I need to be able to generate compassion by being aware of others' predicament, then when do I need to train in the pure appearance that sees them as enlightened, if that's what training in pure appearance means. Anyway, it's quite interesting, I think. Report an error

1:23:53 So, you know. It's a fact that we don't know who is a bodhisattva. I think, you know, I guess we can feel quite comfortable and safe in saying that probably not everybody is enlightened and probably not everybody is bodhisattvas, but there could be some people, you know, there could be some. In fact, you know, there must be some, you know. Bodhisattvas are dedicated to benefiting others and we need help, so why would they be amongst us, any of us, you know, I mean, who knows. Report an error

1:24:27 Bodhisattvas don't go, you know, it's not sort of like, you know, written on their forehead kind of thing. Probably if they had it written on their forehead, there would be a sign that they weren't. Report an error

1:24:44 Yeah, so, I mean, definitely that's very useful, isn't it? You know, I really can't tell who's a bodhisattva and who isn't, so I need to, you know, suspect everybody kind of thing. Maybe this one is a bodhisattva, maybe that one. That's definitely useful anyway, isn't it? That's very useful. Report an error

1:25:07 Maybe that's very good to be going on with. But you can try it sometimes. Try it sometimes. Report an error

1:25:20 See what happens. Maybe you spend half an hour or a day maybe training in pure appearance, seeing everybody's enlightened or maybe seeing everybody as bodhisattvas. See what it does. See what happens. Report an error

1:25:42 And you might find it useful and you might see when it's going to be useful, when you need it, when you don't need it. It could be quite interesting to see what happens, as I say, to experiment. Venerable. Over here in the back. Report an error

1:26:02 A lot of what we... Report an error

1:26:08 A lot of what we talk about in Tibetan Buddhism is an aspiration, right? We aspire to be able to have that pure view of everyone and at the same time maintain our sense of common sense which is I don't actually have that view or not yet. Sort of aim for that simultaneously in a way. Know where we're at, know where we aim to be and so I also find that we use Report an error

1:26:36 Our view selectively, depending on our ego. So it tends to serve our ego sometimes if we're not careful how we view certain situations. So I wondered if you could talk about the role of common sense and maintaining our common sense in the midst of all of this very high aspiration. Does that make sense? I'm having a hard time articulating it. Report an error

1:27:16 I'll give you an example. Somebody... She told me a story where they went to Geshe Dagba and described a situation where a man in the street wanted money or something and then she offered him money and he ended up hitting her. And she told Geshe-la that... That's probably up the back here. Yeah. I don't want to frighten you. Report an error

1:27:43 I've been there. Report an error

1:27:47 And... Geshe-la said, you know, well you should have used common sense. She was viewing him with this peer view as a bodhisattva asking her for money. And she ended getting beat up in a pretty bad way. And she was explaining to Geshe-la how this was her trying to apply this peer view and seeing the baker as a... Report an error

1:28:11 Yes, Report an error

1:28:15 we know you're there. Report an error

1:28:26 Seeing the baker as a bodhisattva. So she suffered and... Geshe-la just said to her, you know, why didn't you apply common sense? You know, when you saw him becoming violent, why didn't you just leave? Report an error

1:28:48 And she realized that as a bodhisattva in training, she doesn't always know when to apply that view and when to use her common sense and run when you're supposed to and learn to tell the difference. When to see a certain teacher, for example, also as a... As your root guru or maybe just teacher for the day? Or when to use common sense? Report an error

1:29:22 I thought that was what we were talking about actually was common sense, really. You know, like practical stuff. Even like discussing it and wondering how we could use it. So I'm not quite sure about it being sort of like something up there that we can't use. And then... Report an error

1:29:44 I mean, you know, of course, yes, it's important to know what you're capable of and to aspire to better. But I think to say that, for example, training in pure appearance, seeing everybody's bodhisattvas or this and that kind of thing is something that we're not capable of. And so it's something simply to aspire to. That seems like a bit defeatist. I mean, it's a question of like trying. Report an error

1:30:12 And then, you know, doing what you're capable of. So I'm not quite sure about that. Report an error

1:30:26 Maybe I'll think about it and see later. Report an error

1:30:34 Anyway, for sure, you know, training our minds in some kind of awareness that anybody could be a bodhisattva is not really beyond us, is it? I think just wondering, you know, this person could be. How do I know? I mean, it seems to me that's very practical because, of course, in general, you know, we tend to make, you know, one does tend to make assumptions about people based upon sort of superficial appearances and it's really quite important to question those appearances. Report an error

1:31:11 So, in a way, to us it looks like nobody's a bodhisattva. I think it looks to us like nobody's a bodhisattva. Everybody's just as mean as I am. Report an error

1:31:22 So to begin to question that is really very important, isn't it? Very practical and very... Very useful, I think. Report an error

1:31:33 Okay. Report an error

1:31:38 So there are some other things about karma that we can spend the last 15 minutes or so thinking about. Report an error

1:31:52 One thing is, Report an error

1:31:57 again, I must apologize for people who have already learned these things to have to repeat them, but anyway, I was told there are some people that haven't been so much exposed to these ideas. So we have what's called Report an error

1:32:11 Throwing karma, which I've mentioned, and completing karma. So the throwing karma refers to the karma that throws you into a particular life, sort of like propels you into a particular life. So now, for example, when we talk about becoming a human being, you can see that the throwing karma for that is going to be some kind of skillful action, skillful karma. Report an error

1:32:45 And then they talk about the completing karma. You can almost tell from the title, from the name, it's what kind of completes the experience. So in other words, you're born as a human being, but you could be poor, you could be rich, you could be, you know, all sorts of things can go wrong or well for you, and that would be due to other kamas, which aren't throwing kamas, but they're completing kamas, so like the generosity, you know, like, so usually they say actually... Report an error

1:33:19 It's quite an interesting idea that it's morality, which is the main cause for being born as a human being, for example. And then generosity is the cause of wealth. So when you combine those two, then you have the possibility of a human being that doesn't have to worry too much about wealth. wealth, you know, the, I don't know, the condition. Report an error

1:33:49 Conditions for survival, not just survival, but some degree of comfort that gives you the freedom to be able to, as we do, even though you might have to go out and work hard to earn your money and so on, but you have freedom. You have your weekends, you have your evenings for the most part. Anyway, if you didn't have the freedom, you wouldn't be here, would you? So there's some freedom. Report an error

1:34:14 Okay, so that's mainly the result of... How we know that it's not just your hard work that gives you that kind of affluence, some degree of affluence, that kind of freedom, is because, of course, there are other people who are working even harder than we are and get much less. Okay, so, you know, it's all to do with karma. So it's generosity. So then miserliness, you know. Report an error

1:34:48 Or the lack of the practice of generosity, maybe even... Well, in fact, that's all you're left with, isn't it? If you don't have the generosity, then what you have is the miserliness. Report an error

1:34:58 Or stealing from others. So that could act as the cause for poverty. And so anyway, we've looked at some of those ideas. So the throwing karma, which is the main cause of that life, and then the completing karma. Even though the... The main karma that throws that life, that creates that life, puts you into that life, is a skillful one. Report an error

1:35:28 It could be an unskillful one that's acting as the completion karma, but it could also be a skillful one. And then you have the case of animals in general. Animals have a more difficult time of things, so that's considered to be like a... and Report an error

1:35:49 A more unfortunate kind of life, so the result of unskillful karma. And then within that, you can see that there are some animals that have a better life and some that have a worse life, some that are pampered, taken care of and so on. So that would be because of the completion karma, which is something wholesome or skillful. Whereas if they are not only... Report an error

1:36:18 Born as animals, like you see the dogs on the streets in India. They have a terrible life. You very rarely see a dog older than three, four years old. It took a while for that to dawn on me when I was out in India. You see these dogs and you see them growing up and then you realize that actually none of the ones that you saw when they were... Report an error

1:36:49 Puppies last more than a few years. Very hard life. So that's like the unskillful completion karma on top of the unskillful throwing karma. Report an error

1:37:09 By the way, they also talk about how sometimes one karma can be the cause for many lives and then sometimes one karma can act as the... They cause for just one life. And then sometimes many cause, many kamas, maybe they're individually not powerful enough to create a particular life, but, you know, altogether they act as the propelling kam or the throwing kam of a particular life. Report an error

1:37:45 And then sometimes many causing many kind of things. So there are those different permutations. Yeah. Report an error

1:37:57 There's a little bit of time left. There's something I wanted to mention because I think it's quite useful for really understanding some of the... Report an error

1:38:07 Do we have to go deeper into karma? Report an error

1:38:13 Okay, I have to be careful here because it's something that's quite complicated and I don't claim to have really got it, but sort of gradually getting an idea of this. So we talk about karma whose result is definite to be... It's definitely going to be experienced and karma whose result is not definitely going to be experienced. What that means is karma which is definite as they often call it. Report an error

1:38:41 Now this is a little bit confusing because we've already talked about how karma is definite. That's different. Karma is definite is to do with the fact that skillful actions only lead to happiness. Unskillful actions only lead to unhappiness. Here, karma which is definite, karma which is definite to be experienced means the kind of karma that can propel a life in psychic existence. Report an error

1:39:11 So it seems like it's very similar to throwing karma. But anyway, when we talk about karma which is definite to be experienced, we're talking about there are three types of such karma. There's karma which... Definitely brings its ripening result in this life, it can be in this life, or in the very next life or in some future life after that. Report an error

1:39:37 Like, for example, we talk about the five boundless or uninterrupted negative actions such as killing one's mother or father and so on. So those are definitely... Bring their ripings out the very next life after they've been done. So they would be that second kind of karma. Not the karma which is experienced that very same life which is sometimes called like so karma which is experienced sort of visibly in that very life. Report an error

1:40:20 But it's going to be the experience in the very next life. Not some future life but that very next life. Report an error

1:40:29 Okay, so... That's the karma which is definite to experience. Report an error

1:40:39 So in connection with this, they talk about karma which has been done and accumulated. So usually karma which is definite to be experienced, whose ripening result will definitely be experienced, is karma where it's been done and also accumulated. And just to give an idea of what we're talking about here, Report an error

1:41:12 So karma which has been accumulated. It's like, to give a rough idea, my impression has been when we talk about done, it's like where the action was done on some level, but it doesn't mean to say that you necessarily accumulated the karma, that you created the karma. So accumulated in that sense, accumulated the karma, created the karma. So it talks about ten actions which wouldn't be considered to have been accumulated. Report an error

1:41:46 Or ten sort of circumstances in which the action seems to have been done on some level but you don't actually accumulate the karma, you don't actually create the karma. So action is done in dreams, right? And then done unknowingly. Report an error

1:42:08 So you did it without knowing that you did it. And then Report an error

1:42:17 done without the intention to do it. So in that case you might know that you... Did it, but you didn't intentionally do it. Okay, so not knowing in that sense. And then an action which was not done very strongly. Report an error

1:42:41 This, you know, so this is quite interesting. So perhaps, you know, I mean, this is just an idea, and I think this is something I've heard from one of my teachers. You know, like where you see an insect has landed on your arm, without really thinking about it, you just do like that, you know. Report an error

1:43:00 So it's not like that's okay. We've talked about this before. Just because all of the components are not there doesn't mean to say that it's okay, but there's a big difference between that and sort of seeing and you see the insect there and you really make up your mind, I'm going to kill it, you know, and then you just, you know, swat it. Report an error

1:43:25 That and sort of like you feel something and you just kind of like do like that, you know. So something that's done, it's not done very strongly. And it also talks about not done with some kind of continuity. I think it's more to do with the build-up. So in other words, when you've really, when you've made up your mind, you've made up your mind you're going to do this action, and you kind of make... Report an error

1:43:56 Maintain that decision for several days. And it's not like you think, I'm going to do it, and then you think, no, maybe I better not. And then maybe later on, yeah, I'm going to do it. So it's like, that's not as strong as in the case where you've really sort of like maintained that decision, maybe over a period of, it could be over a period of hours or a period of days. Report an error

1:44:27 So an action where it's not done with that kind of fierceness and that kind of continuity of the decision. It's to do with not wavering. Report an error

1:44:49 Okay, and then actions which are kind of neutral in nature, then you don't accumulate. You don't talk about accumulating karma because we talk about accumulating karma in the sense of... Creating a karma which is strong enough to cause you to be born again within psychic existence. When the action is a neutral action, it doesn't have that kind of power. Report an error

1:45:15 So there's no karma that's accumulated. Report an error

1:45:26 Doing the action mistakenly, that it's not accumulated. Report an error

1:45:35 Doing it by forgetting. jumped, actually. Yeah, okay, so it doesn't matter. Report an error

1:45:40 I don't know what that means, like forgetting to feed the dogs or something. Could be, you know. You had no intention, nothing like that, but you just forgot. You just forgot. Or maybe you forgot that the creature was there and then you sat on it. Report an error

1:46:05 Then actions which are done without wanting to. I guess like in the case where somebody makes you, so you don't want to do it, but they've obliged you in some way. Report an error

1:46:20 And actually... You might decide for some reason that a particular creature needs to be put out of its misery. That's how you formulate it in your mind. You really don't want to kill this creature, but you just think, I have to do it. I have to do that. I mustn't let it suffer any longer. But you don't want to. You really feel sad about doing it. That would be a case where you're doing it without wanting to. Report an error

1:46:53 And then the neutral ones, then done with, sorry, Report an error

1:47:02 done, the action is done where it's been cleared up by regret. So this is something we've sort of like touched on really, it's where you, where it's, so. Here, you know, the regret is something that comes after the action. So it's not like doing it with regret. You've done it and perhaps immediately or very, very soon afterwards, you have this kind of regret. Report an error

1:47:28 And here, it's important to remember, regret means you feel, oh, that was a mistake. I shouldn't have done that. Just like in the case of somebody who's eaten some poisonous food. You know that you've eaten poisonous food. You know, it's not like you feel, you know, Report an error

1:47:51 yeah, I mean, you don't feel guilty about it. You just think, oh, that was a mistake. I really shouldn't do that. And if I can recover from this, I've got to make sure that I don't do that again, you know, that kind of thing. Anyway, so that's regret. So sort of like cleared out, cleared up by regret. And then... Report an error

1:48:09 Cleared up by the antidote. So generally speaking, when we talk about the antidote, it means like in the case of the antidote to anger is practicing patience. Here in the case of the karma, antidote would normally be Nyambutopshi, the four opponent powers which we're going to be talking about tomorrow morning. Report an error

1:48:41 morning. Report an error

1:48:47 That's interesting actually because they talk about the four opponent powers which are the antidote, amongst which is the one of the power of fully practicing the antidote. And in that case, the antidote means like something opposite or something which is particularly aimed at purifying the action. Like in the case of... So when we're purifying, usually that one is like... Well, it'll become clearer tomorrow, but it could be any kind of positive action. Report an error

1:49:27 It could be any kind of positive action, just to say. So, anyway, so specifically the regretting case of that ninth one and then the tenth, whatever kind of positive action, let's say it means that. But it would be good to find out more about these. And in fact, it would probably be very useful to read Geshe Zopa's commentary to this. He probably explains these a bit more. Report an error

1:49:55 So what I'm trying to do is just, you know, I feel that this is quite useful because sometimes the question comes up, well, you know, what about, you know, I dreamt last night that I killed so-and-so. And it's quite amazing the kind of dream you have sometimes, isn't it? Somebody was saying last night, according to the Mongolians, when you dream of killing somebody, it's good. I can't remember why it was good. No. Report an error

1:50:23 Yeah? But you've been killed. That somebody died. Then you're going to live a long life. No. They're going to live a long life. Okay, yeah, okay. Report an error

1:50:43 So that's how you get pregnant, is it? I wondered. Report an error

1:50:56 Yeah, right. Then things really get complicated. Report an error

1:51:06 Anyway, I think that this is very useful for understanding how karma works. Yeah, I like that. Okay, so maybe Report an error

1:51:22 we'll leave it at that for today. Report an error

1:51:27 I mean, I think for me, you know, always whenever I kind of think about this, talk about it or read about it, then one conclusion is always I need to read about this more. I need to think about this more. I need to learn about it more. Report an error

1:51:52 Yeah, sure, sure. Report an error

1:51:57 Can I ask what text you're reading from? That's the Great Exposition of the Studies of the Past. Okay, so you are, the Lamrim Chimna. It comes up a lot. I know you've mentioned Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which is an incredible text. Actually, I was just thinking about asking Geshe-la to teach that again. Good idea. But other than the Lamrim, are there other texts that have been translated into English that are good sources of information about karma? Report an error

1:52:25 Because this one comes up a lot. Well, you know, actually in the lamrim text, I mean, all of them have got something, you know, something new, new light that they shed on karma. So, you know, the more widely you read the various authentic lamrim texts, the better, you know. Then also in some of the Lama texts themselves, they recommend reading what they call the Jataka stories. Report an error

1:53:06 In other words, if you don't know, that means the discourses of the Buddha where he explains in terms of his own past lives, because I did this, this happened, and also because of such and such a person. Right. Yeah. Report an error

1:53:23 Did this, this is what happened to them in this life and so on. And it's true, you know, reading about it, you just become more and more convinced, yes, you know, things don't just happen by themselves, there's always a cause, there's always some kind of, you know, karmic reason for things. Report an error

1:53:43 I'm not quite sure otherwise, can't think of anything else. Maybe the, mainly that I think, yeah. Actually also, the, in the Abhidharma, The Abhidharma Kosha, you know, the fourth chapter of the Abhidharma Kosha is particularly about karma. That's the one that very famously starts off by saying that all of the different worlds are the result of karma. Report an error

1:54:13 And we studied that recently with Gishi Wongdu at Land of Medicine Buddha. And that was useful, I thought. That was useful. I can see, you know, as I'm... Reading these things gives you a slightly different perspective and you can see things that you didn't see before because of that kind of background. Report an error

1:54:35 That's quite useful, I think. There's a translation of that into French. That's probably been translated into English. Probably because it's part of the master program, I expect we have translations into English that are available at the moment. Report an error

1:54:59 Yes? yeah. Report an error

1:55:02 You describe karmic seeds, and I'm embarrassed to ask that question. I feel it's like a moo question. A what question? A moo. Moo. Like a cow? Yeah, a moo cow. I've got a friend who calls those dodo questions. Oh, dodo questions, okay. Report an error

1:55:25 Because what comes to mind, and this is something I've had in my mind for a long time because I've heard this before, This seed, this karmic seed, my understanding is causes and conditions, causes it to ripen and to come up into what we experience as our life. My question has always been, until that karma ripens, where does this seed stay? Report an error

1:55:53 Yeah, well, I mean, somehow the most common sense answer I find is the mind. Ultimately, it's the mind. Because why? Because it's the mind that goes on. Your body gets left behind, so it doesn't get left on your body. It must be with your mind. It must be that it carries on with your mind. And particularly, you know, we have the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness must be the mental consciousness. Report an error

1:56:20 The sense consciousnesses are all kind of like associated with the sense faculties of this life and this body. So they don't go on. It's the mental consciousness that goes on. In actual fact, you know, when you start going into that even further, of course. According to the real ultimate view of how things work, the tantra teachings, they say that it's the clear light that goes on. Report an error

1:56:46 The only thing that really survives this life, that survives death, is the clear light mind. So it must be there. Ultimately, that's where his imprints must be. So that was going to be my follow-up question. It wouldn't be the mental consciousness because the mental consciousness dies when our body dies. I think that there are different levels of the mental consciousness, that's the thing. Report an error

1:57:17 There's a mental consciousness which really does seem very much to do with this life. You could almost say that that's really where your personality is. And the personality of this life pretty much gets left behind. Of course you can see sometimes certain tendencies, that's one thing, but personality... Report an error

1:57:37 Pretty well looks like that gets left behind. So something a little bit subtler than that. So maybe, yes, the clear light mind. Clear light mind, of course, is part of the mental consciousness. Right. It seems to me that we don't clarify or make much of a distinction between when we speak of mental consciousness and clear light mind consciousness. Report an error

1:58:00 Who doesn't make a distinction? It seems in our teachings we often say, oh, mental consciousness. In general, it's the mental consciousness that goes on. Even though it's part of our aggregates when we are born. The thing is, if you want to be more specific, then you have to say, well, you have a right to ask the question. Report an error

1:58:26 It would be reasonable to ask the question, well, you know, since there are different levels of mental consciousness, do you mean all of those levels go on? Or some of them do and some of them don't? Or what is it? For something more specific. And so I think, you know, like in the ultimate analysis, you probably end up having to say, well, actually it's the clear light mind that carries on. Report an error

1:58:48 But that's okay. It's still okay to say it's the mental consciousness. It's just more general, more vague. Yeah. And the other question that I had is... When we speak of karma or when we have teachings on karma, do we also speak about the compositional factors, the other aggregate? Well, karma is part of the fourth aggregate. The fourth aggregate, out of the five aggregates, the fourth aggregate includes all of the mental factors apart from the ones that are already sort of included in the second and third aggregates. Report an error

1:59:31 Sensations and discernment, so like 49 mental factors, that includes the mental factor intention, which includes karma. Anyway, but that's actually a little bit, that could be a little bit misleading. Now maybe I'm going to make things more complicated, I don't know. Because the thing is, karma is intention, but the imprints of karma are not intention. Report an error

1:59:59 The imprints of karma would still be included in that fourth aggregate. But they're not the mental factor intention, they're the potential for karma to ripen. Report an error

2:00:14 When she asked the question about, well, where are these seeds stored? You said, well, it's in the consciousness. And then when we take on rebirth, reincarnation, we're born with the consciousness that has carried these seeds. And they are part of our... Aggregates when we are reborn. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Report an error

2:00:53 So, Veneral, when I go to sleep at night, I'd say, may my dreams be a benefit to sentient beings. You know, this is like a vow I've taken. So, you know, I thought that was like dream yoga. So if I'm killing somebody, it seems like that would be, I don't know. Well, apparently this is a good thing, isn't it? I guess so. It kind of freed me up. Report an error

2:01:25 Dreaming of them dying. Oh, that's right, yeah. Report an error

2:01:36 This is not particularly a Buddhist teaching, it's just according to certain cultures, when you dream of somebody dying, then it means they're going to have a long life, but it doesn't mean to say that that's really what it means. Report an error

2:01:56 Oh, I'm sorry, you didn't say anything about killing, did you? I translated that. Well, it would include killing done in dreams, yes. Report an error

2:02:06 When you kill somebody in a dream, then you don't accumulate the unskillful karma of killing. Okay, so let's stop there, shall we? Report an error

2:02:20 So Report an error

2:02:28 please dedicate, as before, Report an error

2:02:33 all of the virtue and goodness of the past, present and future of oneself and others, including what we've created today, Report an error

2:02:49 dedicating it to the lasting happiness and freedom from... Suffering definitively forever of all sentient beings. Report an error

2:03:11 For them all to generate the awakening mind of bodhicitta, which is the source of all happiness. From the moment one has bodhicitta, then from that moment onwards, one is always happy. So may all beings have that awakening mind. May that awakening mind become stronger and stronger in them. In order for all this to happen, may they be inseparable in all their lives. Report an error

2:03:40 Qualified teachers, may those teachers have long lives, constantly turning the wheel of Dharma, in other words, teaching according to the needs of their students, the sentient beings, their disciples, the sentient beings. Report an error

2:04:01 And may all of their plans and their prayers, all of their projects, all of their wishes be fulfilled, Report an error

2:04:13 each and every one. Report an error

· · ·

2:04:59 So there is no real I that is dedicating. Dedication also, the action of dedication, seems so real, seems so independent of my mind and independent of anything and is therefore totally non-existent in the way that it appears. Report an error

2:05:20 And all of that virtue and goodness that we've dedicated and the goals to which we've dedicated it, that's also totally non-existent in the way that it appears. Report an error

2:05:31 In fact, it's all merely labelled by the mind. And appears to be otherwise. So therefore it doesn't exist as it appears. Just like a dream. Just like an illusion. Report an error

2:05:47 Just like an hallucination. Report an error

· · ·

2:06:52 Ten. Report an error

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Talk by Steve Carlier, recorded 4 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

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