Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche traces karma back to three fundamental afflictive emotions—attachment, hatred, and ignorance—and shows how these drive all action through three doors: body, speech, and mind. Starting with concrete daily examples—how we wake and generate plans both constructive and destructive—he explains why the mind is the primary source of karma. Those mental intentions then express through speech and physical action, creating karmic seeds that ripen as rebirth. He identifies the three healthy mental states opposing the afflictions, then introduces the three antidotes forming Buddhist practice’s foundation: renunciation, the awakening heart, and wisdom realizing emptiness. Student questions follow on karma’s strength and timing of results.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1993-08-20 – 12B – KR.mp3
UUID: 2b2c477a-eaa1-47ec-9750-b480df3295d2
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Compendium of Valid Cognition
Date: 1993-08-20
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,330
So we are continually creating or accumulating karma each day. For example, we wake up in the morning and we generate attachment. We have accumulated karma through that. We generate anger. If we say a harsh word, we lie or we kill.
We commit some kind of sexual impropriety. We use divisive speech or lying. We have covetousness, harmful intention. All of these actions are in karma. We are accumulating karma through each of these actions.
We’re creating many karmas, accumulating many karmas over the course of even a single day. We can understand that quite readily, such as through the development of attachment, etc. And these karmas created implanted upon the consciousness, and these types of karmas can bring about rebirth once they are combined with the condition of craving. Through these two, the karma and craving, when these two come together, then the result will definitely arise. There is a verse where it says once the causes and condition are complete that nothing can reverse the process, that this is in the nature of things.
There are these consciousness uncontrollably will take rebirth in correspondence with the skillful or unskillful actions which have been accumulated. We are creating various karmas through the afflictive emotions. Some of these karmas are skillful, positive, and by means of which we will take, when activated, they will take a positive rebirth. Some of these karmas are unskillful, are negative to which when activated we will take a negative rebirth. It’s just like karmas are the seeds and when they are watered by the force of craving, then the sprout of a particular type of rebirth shoots forth.
So what are the implications of what has been just mentioned? In terms of the negative karma that we have already accumulated, we should seek to eliminate it and seek to not accumulate negative karma in the future. In terms of positive karma that we have already accumulated, we should seek to not allow it to deteriorate and to newly accumulate positive karma. So this is the actual way in which we proceed in our practice. Whether practicing or not is determined through this mode of practice.
That is to say, in terms of what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. Beginning to declare our previously negative accumulated karmas and seek to avoid creating such negative karmas again, such types of negative actions again on the one hand. And not allowing the positive karma that we have already accumulated to degenerate, and additionally to adopt methods whereby to accumulate new karma as much as possible in the future. The doorway into practice is this observance of karma as causes and results. If we aren’t observing karma as causes and the results then there is no practice.
Through our practice of karma as causes and the results, the law of cause and effect, if we’re practicing this well, we will will be practicing ethics. And dependence upon ethics, we can then go on to develop meditative concentrations, meditative stabilizations, and dependence upon that, we can develop the wisdom realizing emptiness. Having generated that, we can eliminate craving. Accumulating positive karmas, eliminating negative karmas, we can go on to generate ultimately the wisdom realizing emptiness, whereby to eliminate craving, and thereby one no longer takes rebirth within cyclic existence. One’s suffering is completely destroyed, and one achieves liberation.
Without eliminating craving, we cannot achieve liberation. It is the thought of all the great masters in thinking that through the abandonment of attachment, one no longer takes rebirth within cyclic existence. The cause for taking of rebirth within cyclic existence is craving. If there is no craving, that is to say, there is no taking of rebirth. If there’s no cause, there’s no resolve.
We take rebirth due to the power of karma and afflictive emotions. So it is imperative that we are able to recognize what is meant by karma, what is meant by afflictive emotions, and make effort in the methods whereby to eliminate these. In general there are three types of karma. There are positive, negative, and neutral. But neutral karma has insignificant potency and therefore it does not contribute to the overall quality of our experience in terms of happiness and suffering.
But it is the positive and negative karmas which are responsible for rebirth and the happiness or suffering within those rebirths. The fundamental karmas are of two types. That is the karmas which bring about qualities of happiness and sufferings. These are intentional actions and actions of intention. Intentional actions and actions of intention.
In explaining intentional actions, there are three three doors through which action is manifested or expressed, whether it be positive or negative. These three doors are the doors of the body, the doors of speech, and the door of the mind. So the quality just as in the case of if we’re going to come in or out, we have to go come in or out the door. Likewise, quality of the whatever the quality of the karma, it is it finds expression through one of these three doors. So of the three doors, the main door or primary door is the door of the mind.
The door of speech and body are secondary doors. So the actions of the mind are mental karma. Mental karma is intentional actions or mental actions are in are intentional actions. So we accumulate mental karma. And would we go about this by way of example.
In the morning when we’re finished sleeping, we awake and then we lay there thinking about what we’re going to do over the course of the day. We think, well I have to do this and I need to do this and I have to tell this person this. And we think about all the good things and the bad things we’re going to have to talk about over the course of the day. We we make many plans. So some of these plans are constructive, some are destructive and some are neutral.
So the constructive mental plan that we make are positive intentional actions, skillful actions, good actions. On the other hand, might make destructive plans. You know, we think we’re going to trick somebody or we’re going to steal something, we’re going to lie or have some sexual impropriety. These would be destructive actions. I So when we say intentional actions, we mean the thinking process of the mind.
We actually are thinking and this action of thinking is intentional action. So then we get up and we go about our business and we begin to enact the various plans that we make. Maybe we speak harshly to someone or we speak kindly to someone according to our constructive and destructive plans that we previously made. These ways of speaking are the creation of karma and these are actions of intention. That is to say, we’ve acted out our intentions.
These are actions of those intentions. Or our plans may be expressed through physical means, such as stealing, killing, sexual impropriety. These would be creation of through these would be the acting out of these destructive intentions and these would be negative actions of intention. So these are two ways. By means of these two ways of expressing our actions, we are creating physical and verbal actions, and these actions were expressions of our previously generated intentions.
Therefore, they are called actions of intention. Likewise, but in the opposite direction, expressing our constructive intentions develop those constructive plans that we made. We then go on to speak kindly to others, that we speak honestly to others, we speak in a way that doesn’t hurt others, which isn’t lying. We have a motivation in our intention previously to abandon such ways of acting, such as killing or stealing, that abandon sexual improprieties. We have a positive motivation, as our intention previously, that we were going to offer prostrations we were going to make prostrations, make offerings, engage in meditation on love and emptiness, the awakening heart, and out of these various positive motivations, these positive constructive plans that we made flow forth these physical and verbal activities, and these are all positive activities.
So these are all constructive actions or activities or positive karma activities. The quality of our action meets back as its fundamental source to the quality of the mind in thinking thinking over how we’re going to act. Out of these thinking over how we’re going to act, we then engage in various expressions of this thought process which are manifested through through our body and speech. But these all come back to the mind itself. Meeting back to the mind, the root of our activities is the mind itself and depending upon the quality of the mind, whether it’s constructive or destructive.
So in tracing back our activities to the fundamental source of the mind itself, whether it’s in And the quality of this mind in terms of its whether it’s constructive or destructive. And though in speaking of these destructive or unhealthy states of mind, is though they are numberless, when we say unhealthy states of mind we are talking about the various afflictive emotions which are numberless, but we can enumerate there are three fundamental afflictive emotions or unhealthy states and these are attachment, hatred and ignorance. On the other hand, we can also enumerate three fundamental healthy states, and these are non attachment, non hatred, and non-confusion. There are 84,000 afflictive emotions, but we can condense those 84,000 down into the six root afflictions and 20 proximate root afflictions. We can condense those down further into the root of these afflictions, these three factors of attachment, hatred, and ignorance. So such afflictions as desire and craving are subsumed under the within the category of attachment.
And the opposite of attachment being an afflicted emotion, its opposite is non attachment. And then with hatred, its opposite is non hatred or a non harming mind. And when we talk about confusion or bewilderment, it is obscuring factor of the mind which prevents understanding of the situation, the actual nature of reality. And its opposite is non bewilderment or confusion. So on Tuesday evening, we are discussing the three fundamentals of the path.
These are renunciation or the determination to awaken, the awakening heart, and the wisdom realizing emptiness. And these are the antidotes for these three root afflictive emotions. The antidote for attachment is the skillful action of non attachment, which is renunciation or the determination to awaken. On the other hand, the antidote for ignorance is the wisdom realizing emptiness, which is the correct view. And the antidote for hatred is the awakening heart, or love and compassion.
So there’s still some discussion left remaining concerning karma and the afflictive emotions, but we’ll stop there for this evening. Do you have any questions? There are degrees of strength of intentional actions. Those of greatest power, the result will be expressed in this life, those of middle power in the next life, and those of minor power subsequent to that? One of the resultant qualities of karma is that the quickness of the result is proportionate to the strength of the karma created.
So I was asking Rinpoche if one made a wish that may I achieve a human life in my future rebirth, this is an intentional action. But it’s not a intentional action with the result even if it’s powerful which results could be experienced in this life since it’s concerning the future life. It doesn’t necessarily One is creating intention, a positive action, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that one’s wish is going to be granted. Remember I gave the example of Geshe Chekawa who was, he all the time, he was saying, may all the negativities of all living beings ripen upon myself. May all my skillful actions be given given over to all living beings.
And finally, may I be born reborn in hell in order to liberate all living beings. He he was always praying to go to hell for the to for all living beings. And then finally, at the the time of his death, he had a vision where he was going to be reborn and and it wasn’t in hell. He was going to be born reborn in a pure land. And his students, his disciples were around and he said, I’m not going to be reborn in hell.
Make some kind of offering cakes and and make offerings so that I’ll be sure to be reborn in hell. Rather, it went on and said that three such prayers, one is not reborn in hell, but one one achieves Buddhahood that much quicker. Familiarity of type. How similar? What what does similar mean?
How close is similar? For instance, if at the moment, I’m a human and the knower or consciousness. I don’t know quite how to translate that. Going back, I don’t know what type of intermediate being I was. But if it was similar to the human embodiment which I took in the womb, what what’s the similarity between the the the moment of consciousness which So there’s not a similarity in the type of being from past and present life, but there is a similarity in consciousness in the sense that consciousness is that which is clear and knowing.
And that which is clear and knowing produces a result which is similar in type to itself, that is, say, another consciousness which is clear and knowing. That is clear and knowing produces a similar type to itself. That which is similar, that is, it’s also clear and knowing. So mainly amongst the two types of consciousness there’s sensory consciousness and mental consciousness here mainly talking about mental consciousness. So so the other two moments of consciousness are similar, the change is brought about by karma.
Is that right? Is it brought about by karma?