Dependent Origination

Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 115-minute teaching, His Holiness the Dalai Lama introduces the 12 limbs of dependent origination as a core Buddhist doctrine, framing the two-day session as a retreat-like practicum on recognizing saṃsāra and its causes. He begins by anchoring the study in direct experience—inviting practitioners to identify ignorance and self-grasping in their own mind streams—before methodically listing and explaining the 12 limbs: ignorance, compositional factors, consciousness, name and form, the six sources, contact, sensation, craving, appropriation, existence, birth, and aging and death. He clarifies that the 12 limbs summarize the first two Noble Truths, emphasizes the critical role of beginningless ignorance as the root of cyclic existence, and illustrates how afflictions drive karmic action through vivid examples of anger and virtue. The teaching is pitched at serious practitioners seeking to understand how saṃsāra operates in their own continuum and the mechanics of karma’s accumulation across lives, using plain language and encouraging reliance on personal experience over textbook definitions.

File metadata (for organising)

File: 12 Limbs D1AM.mp3

UUID: 1e27c291-6df0-4488-8bf0-cfc91a2c7063

Teacher: HH Dalai Lama

Collection: Dependent Origination

Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide

Words: ~5,472

So this topic, which is being presented today, the 12 limbs of dependent origination is a topic from teachings in Buddhist philosophy at the monasteries among others. Khensur Rinpoche presented it. It is an extremely important topic, and Geshe la is delighted to present it again. He will also cover today the topic of the three causes. So these teachings last for only two days, today and tomorrow.

And we have really marvelous conditions for teaching such as this in a country such as Australia, which experiences great peace and happiness compared with the rest of the world. Therefore, we should put effort at this. And during the next two days, try to modify our physical and verbal behavior so that it is appropriate behavior. Then, frankly, in a nutshell, that is what the 12 limbs are all about. And we should therefore view these two days as something that came to a retreat within the limitations of this setting.

Then Geshe la says, we have an extraordinary translator. It is not possible to get a better one than this. And while he is still here, we should use the opportunity to attend these teachings. So for us to engage in long retreats is difficult, but two days is something which is possible. And therefore, during these two days, we should subdue our physical and verbal behavior as much as possible.

And as the son of the conquerors, Thogme Zangpo said in his 37 practices of the Bodhisattvas relinquishing abodes and relatives subdue the mind. And this is quite appropriate to explain the meaning of a retreat or tsam, literally means boundary in Tibetan, because during a retreat, we withdraw the mind inwards from exterior objects and relatives, which are the main source of our mental agitation. This verse of Thogme Zangpo’s 37 practices, 37 practices of Bodhisattva is a fundamental verse, and it is no coincidence that His Holiness of Dharmasala over and again has sought has taught these 37 practices of a Bodhisattva in conjunction with Kamalaśīla’s Bhāvanākrama, the middle stages of meditation. And the first verse of, Thogme Zangpo’s 37, practices of the Bodhisattva, relinquishing abode and relatives, subdue the mind is followed by a verse which encapsulates its meaning to the dwindling of the objects of appearance, virtuous activity is increased. Now this is precisely the result of a retreat by withdrawing the mind inwards.

Eventually, the mind’s engagement in virtue can increase. And as a result, we will experience happiness in our dreams as well, and we will experience virtuous dreams. Now what we therefore must do in keeping with Thogme Zangpo’s verse is to increase or enhance virtuous activities, and this is what leads to peace and happiness. Now we want peace and happiness for ourselves as well as peace and happiness for the world. But peace and happiness does not arise through the control of exterior objects.

It occurs through subduing the mind. And this is followed later on by this verse, with a pure mind, find definite certainty regarding phenomena. So with a pure mind refers to a mind which is imbued by virtuous conduct, as was explained previously. And the definite certainty regarding phenomena refers to finding the mode of abiding of phenomena. This is the type of study which Geshele would like us to in to encourage us to engage in.

Since it is once we have relinquished abode and relatives and therefore have subdued our mind that in turn objects of appearance decrease, and it is the objects of appearance and all of the activities such as playing, watching television, engaging in social life, which harm our mind. So these have to be reduced. And this is why Thogme Zangpo concludes that stanza with the verse. Hence, dwelling in solitude as a hermit is the practice of the scions of the conquerors. Then during these two thought days of retreat, Geshe-la would suggest that you say to your relatives, to your parents, to your wife, to your husband, I’m sorry.

I apologize. I’m busy. And then if you don’t say that, they will get upset. Of course. And this is therefore why it is said that one should rely on solitude.

Now relying on solitude refers specifically to engaging in retreats, which we all would like to do. This topic is the topic we would meditate on in a retreat, the 12 limbs of dependent arising. And the 12 limbs of dependent arising are none else than the Lam Rim. Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim Chenmo is so famous and rightly so. But the 12 limbs actually, when they are summarized in brief, are none other than the two first truths, the noble truth of suffering and of the origin of suffering.

And this is nothing else but the path shared as a being of the middling scope in the And one of the of actually meditated on the totality of the relying on the 12 limbs of dependent origination. And this is the meaning of the first verse, three principles of the path, the meaning of the essence of all of the teachings of the scions of the conquerors. This first verse refers to definite emergence, and the ground of definite emergence is the four noble truths. In other words, the 12 limbs of dependent origination, both in their forwards and in their reverse reverse sequence. Now you have heard and received many teachings, and hopefully, you will be able to expand on this.

Do you understand?

It is not easy for yourselves, and one must therefore engage at all level in extensive hearing. In other words, in extensive study. It is said that third ground bodhisattvas are insatiable in their pursuit of study and hearing, then all the more so for ourselves. So as Tsongkhapa says in his first verse of the three principles of the path, the meaning of the essence of all of the teachings of the the scions of the conquerors refers to definite emergence. Its foundation is definite emergence, and the root of definite emergence is the four noble truths, which, as Geshe-la explained, ushers the topic of the 12 limbs of dependent origination in the forwards and the reverse sequence, which is none other than the path shared with the being of the middling scope.

Now you might wonder how precisely does this link with the path shared with the being of the small scope. The foundation of the path shared with the being of the small scope, apart from its specific topics of meditation, is a belief, a conviction in the existence of previous and future lives. A belief and a conviction in the existence of one’s own previous and future lives. Now this is something which for yourselves is difficult to generate. It is not part of the culture.

Then, for ourselves, Geshe la says, it is not difficult having been raised in a Buddhist society. There is a natural conviction in the existence of past and future lives. It is through generating such a conviction based on reasoning that one’s own practice becomes extremely firm. So, therefore, this belief in the existence of previous and future lives, of one’s own previous and future lives is a foundation of the path shared with the being of the great scope. Now what are the being of the small scope?

Excuse me. Now what precisely is the relation between the topic of the 12 limbs and the path shared with the being of the great scope? Once one understands that the sufferings of one’s own cyclic existence are shared by all other sentient beings, then this leads into the path shared with the being of the great scope. So as you know, after our teacher Buddha Śākyamūni manifested full enlightenment, he did not teach. And after a while, he only accepted to teach the five first disciples.

Now these five first disciples were probably his friends, beings he had practiced with. And the first topic he taught them was the four noble truths. So this is how one should proceed as far as Dharma is concerned. Now regarding the topic of the 12 limbs, which as Geshe explained, what it is summarized is the Four Noble Truths. This topic ushers the issue of consciousness.

But the consciousness which is being referred to here is not our coarse consciousness. It is not our core consciousness which improves or degenerates. It is not our coarse consciousness or for that matter, the sensory consciousnesses which give rise to it, which are being covered here. What transmigrates from life to life is subtle consciousness. To explain the topic of the subtle mind relying on Buddhist scriptures would be difficult for all of us.

It is better to explain it through our own experience, specifically the experience of sleep. As we know, to fall asleep, not only sensory consciousnesses, but also the conceptual consciousnesses they induce must all cease. That alone allows us to fall asleep. Then once asleep, subtle minds such as a dream state manifest. In the dream state, there are both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

Do you understand? So you can see that the dream state arises when our course, coarse sensory and conceptual consciousnesses have ceased. Therefore, there definitely do exist subtle consciousnesses like the dream state. In as much as all of us are either beings seeking for higher rebirth or beings seeking for liberation, then during the next two days, Geshe la will endeavor to explain this topic of the 12 limbs, and the foundation is to explain clearly what is cyclic existence and what is nirvana. So what is cyclic existence?

When cyclic existence is expanded or developed, it is none other than the two first truths, the noble truth of suffering and the noble truth of the origin of suffering. The noble truth of the origin of suffering. The second truth is the cause of the first truth, the noble truth of suffering. So what is cyclic existence? cyclic existence exists within our own continuum.

It is our five contaminated aggregates. These five aggregates, in other words. And specifically, it is afflictions exemplified by anger within our continuum. Once we have identified the defects or the thoughts of these afflictions, then the question arises, can they be abandoned or not? So saṃsāra exists, therefore, within our mind stream.

You can also call it the five contaminated aggregates. It is not something out there which is unrelated to us. Then, Geshe-la would like to ask you, what do you identify as saṃsāra? What is saṃsāra? Is it your hand, your body?

No. No hand. No body. So which one? Can play.

Please click. Cook. Cook. Cook. It’s the afflictions in my mind that keep throwing me from one life to another.

So we first have to understand what cyclic existence is to understand its defects. And then if we say cyclic existence is the body, then it’s very strange to abandon the body. I think maybe it’s the the our very existence of what what we’re living, in life and death, Just everything. Yes. Yes.

Very similar to Chris. It’s the afflictions in my mind stream which cause creates the karma which impels from life to life. Okay. And when I misperceive phenomena and then say I suffer. So, yes, the afflictions is perhaps the easiest way to present a cyclic existence.

And specifically, within the afflictions, those exemplified by anger, then when anger arises within our mind stream, we experience suffering. It would be marvelous, wouldn’t it, if that anger could be abandoned? And since anger arises from causes and conditions, then we seek for the means to abandon it. Aggregates, of course, aren’t the

Then as a result, whether we are thirsty, we are hungry, whatever we experience is difficult. This is simply because we have obtained coarse aggregates in dependence on the afflictions. If the afflictions were to be severed, we would probably not obtain such coarse aggregates and then could hope to get stable happiness. As says, if we do not wish to counter it, how can we be liberated from it? And as Tsongkhapa says in his Song of Realization, without striving at understanding the faults of the truth of suffering, how can one hope to gain liberation?

So it’s a little bit as if we feel feel very heavy inside and feel basically ill and try to understand what is wrong with us. Then we go to see a skilled doctor, and he says, well, your problem is this one and that one, and it can be treated by this medicine or that medicine. As Ārya Maitreya says, the mode of abiding is what is to be known. The mode of abiding is what is to be abandoned. And therefore, when we wish to generate a mind seeking for liberation from the afflictions, it is through relying on the teachings of the Buddha, which says, this is how you will be healed. That is how you will be healed, from liberation that we proceed, and this is encapsulated in the Lamrim. As Śāntideva says in his Bodhicaryāvatāra, when ill, we delight in following the instructions of the doctor. When beset by the afflictions, we should delight in following the teachings of the Buddha. That is So this tradition of illustrating the afflictions by diseases is a very powerful one. Just as, for instance, a doctor, when he has to treat a patient, will immediately, in the short term, give an injection, And in the longer term, we’ll administer medicine to be absorbed regularly.

Likewise, initially, to counter the afflictions, we must rely on ethics, a pure ethics. And then longer term, we must meditate on emptiness. And therefore, we must examine the afflictions and examine the source of the afflictions. And when we investigate the source of the afflictions, what we find is self grasping or self-cherishing. At our level, it is difficult to make a difference between self grasping and self-cherishing.

Now it is this self grasping, this ignorance which grasps at a self, which is referred to as the beginningless ignorance, which is the first limb of the 12 limbs. So beginning this ignorance, in other words, ignorance which grasps at the self or the ignorance which grasps at an I is the first of the limbs within the 12 limbs, this innate ignorance. And this ignorance must be understood. Now, Geshe-la, I would like to encourage you to memorize the 12 limbs in sequence. It is insufficient just to be able to read them from your notebooks.

Do I understand? Yes. You please list the 12 limbs? So you inverted craving and appropriations. So just ask me to give you the 12 limbs in English.

We have we have ignorance. It’s it’s plain weird. Guess it’s gonna recite it in English. I’ll recite it in Tibet. Ignorance, compositional factors.

Number three, consciousness. Number four, name and form. Number five, the six sources. Number six, contact. Number seven, sensation.

Number eight, craving. Number nine, appropriation. Number 10, existence. Number 11, birth. And number 12, aging and death.

So this is the exact list. So please make sure you write this down in your notebooks. And Mark What? Joseph. Sorry.

Geshe-la, can you hear you? You give the list. Thank you. And, Natalie? Oh, whatever.

You’re in the yeah. Please. Okay. Okay. That don’t worry.

Don’t worry. Oh, okay. That’s okay. Sorry? So there’s no such thing as becoming in the 12 limbs.

I don’t know how they translated it. You have It was translated as a telling karma into future rebirth. That’s a distance. So there’s no such thing as becoming in the 12 limbs. Sorry.

It’s a bad translation. It’s a tenth limb of existence or the eleventh limb of birth. Yes. It was in the. There’s no provision.

So it’s really important to have memorized the 12 limbs so that you don’t have to rely on a text to remember them. And then the most important of the 12 limbs are the six limbs, the three limbs of impelling and the three limbs of completing or accomplishing. So, Geshe-la would like me to repeat the 12 limbs again for you and you take note. The first limb is ignorance. The second limb is compositional factors.

The third limb is consciousness. The fourth limb is name and form. The fifth limb is the six sources. The sixth limb is contact. The seventh limb is sensation, not feeling, as Natalie said.

That creates misunderstanding. It’s a sensation. The eighth limb is craving. The ninth limb is appropriation, Len pa in Tibetan. Mhmm.

The tenth limb is existence, Sipa in Tibetan. The eleventh limb is birth, and the twelfth limb is aging and death. Alright. Okay. So it is really helpful if you can memorize this, retain this within your minds.

And if we memorize, we can remember for a few minutes. Right? So at the monasteries, traditionally, one memorizes during the first hour or two in the morning when the mind is particularly clear. Then once one has done that, at that time, one remembers what we memorized, then come the evening, it is all gone. So one goes over the whole thing again.

And eventually, through the force of repetition, repetition is a very powerful factor in mental training, It becomes stable. So Geshe la himself, to take an example, memorized and he is still able to recite it. So the same thing that she was asking me if we memorize in the West when we study. I said in the old days, yes, now and not less. But, basically, when you memorize things in the morning, even though by the evening, you will have forget forgotten them and you might wonder whether they dwelt at all in your mind, nonetheless, when you go over them again the next morning, they become very stable.

So the first limb of the 12 limbs is ignorance included within the 12 limbs, which is known as the beginningless ignorance, then this exists within our mind stream. You can identify it as this sense of I I, which arises spontaneously in the mind. So this beginningless ignorance is a consciousness. As such, we really can’t say that it has no beginning because it has a source. Then we must examine what its source is, how it arises.

So have you examined when precisely in this life and from where this spontaneous ignorance which thinks I I has arisen? So in this life, when does this ignorance which thinks I I appear for the first time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The first moments of I believe it’s the moment of birth. It comes from the the life before. Think even even in the womb, the fetus will will react to the mother drinking hot liquid or to, you know, the experience of the mother, the the fetus will move away. So there’s a sense of a sense of I. Speaking of the course, it is grasping at itself.

Mhmm. First moment of mind. Sorry? The first moment of mind from the being into the next life, this life. So in Buddhist texts, it is said to be the time of birth.

And if one wishes to analyze what is occurring, then what transmigrates is a subtle mind, which is identified in Cittamātra as the ālaya vijnana or the mind basis of all. And as the subtle mind becomes coarser and coarser, this ignorance grasping at itself, which is known in Cittamātra as the the afflicted mind, appears. That’s it. So this is the explanation given in Cittamātra that the mind basis of all is what transmigrates. And out of the mind basis of all appears the afflicted mind, which is none other than the ignorance, the innate ignorance grasping at a self, and this gives rise to desire and anger eventually.

Now this can be correlated with the growth of a child initially. Probably a child experiences little desire and anger. And as the infant grows, then these increase. That they are all okay. Okay.

So it is, therefore, this sense of lordship over one’s aggregates, which is the I. But to give a better example than that, let us take the case of once purchasing a brand new car in Australia. Then once one has purchased a brand new car, one has this very powerful sense. Certainly in Australia and probably in this world, there is no car finer than this one. Now that obviously is false.

There are many, many cars which are much nicer, but that arises out of this deep sense of an I. So whether it is one’s parents, one’s husband, one’s wife, one’s children, one’s house, one’s car, all of us have this innate sense, none is better, more beautiful, finer than mine. Then this is this innate sense of an I, and this enables us to gain a sense of the object of refutation, which is difficult for us to understand. So this consciousness grasping at an I is a consciousness. Therefore, it exists.

But the object it is grasping at is at odds or discordant with reality. Its object does not exist, therefore. Therefore, this consciousness is a wrong view. And as a result, everything which arises from it is wrong as well. So therefore, beginning with ignorance, in other words, the first limb of the 12 limbs, that innate sense of an I exists within our mind stream.

And if we were to counter it with repeated experiences or reflections on emptiness, then it would become rarer. So what example can you give of ignorance, which is the first of the 12 limbs or beginningless ignorance? The view of the transitory aggregates. I’d like Geshe, I would like you to give an example from your experience in your own continuum. So based on your own experience, what is the beginningless ignorance in your mind stream?

So we should talk based on experience. And if you’ve got no experience, you can go quoting books. Then you’re mine. English Oh, learner reads. I translate.

So if you’ve got experiences which are concordant with a great text, then that is what comes first. And if you don’t have any, then you open the book and you receive give examples of beginningless ignorance based on your experience. This total belief in my own self that I completely exist in a very provable, tangible way. As much as you can based on your experience. Okay.

The other night, I was at a I was at a conference in Melbourne, and there was a big party going on. And I went to bed early so I could get up and meditate in the morning early. And the party was very loud, and I was trying to sleep. And I woke up from the noise, and then I sort of went, oh, how did they do that? You know?

I need to sleep. And immediately, was like, oh, that’s the odd that needs to be refuted. Wonderful. So it was really good. I had a little experience of thinking about emptiness and then patience with my fellow colleagues who were having a lovely time partying because I went out and had a peek and looked at what they were doing.

And then I went back to bed and thought, oh, can’t do something more. That’s my experience just recently. So please go and play drums outside Natalie’s house at night. Yeah. Yeah.

And mother? When I was young, I lived on a farm in New Zealand, and I had a horse. And sometimes my brother and sister wanted to ride my horse, and I’d get very angry because this was my horse. And there was a strong I that owned that horse. It’s very, very good way of thinking.

That is how one identifies the object of refutation even though there are numerous explanations by numerous teachers on this topic. Yes? Most powerful moment of eye for me was having a baby. I had a baby, and it was my baby. That’s precisely it.

It is at those moments either of great happiness or of great suffering, great hardship that it is very easy to identify the object of refutation, the I. Okay. That’s the way it is. Self grasping exists in our mind. It’s not difficult.

So this is therefore how one should think about the ignorance grasping at itself, beginningless ignorance. This beginningless ignorance, Cittamātra understands as the afflicted

Mind arises out of a much more subtle mind, which is known as the ālaya vijnana by Cittamātra, the mind basis of all. And it becomes coarser and coarser over time, eventually giving rise to the afflictions. We are at present unable to use this mind. But as is said in the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras, the nature of the mind is clear light. And as Dharmakīrti says in Pramānavārttika, the afflictions are adventitious.

The nature of the mind is clear light. This is a subtle topic. Some of you may understand it. It is important to be studied. Do you understand?

Little bit. Little bit. Little bit. So let us now meditate during a couple of minutes. First, on the faults of the afflictions and then on the source of the afflictions, which is beginningless ignorance.

And then later on, Geshe-la will explain how these afflictions generate action, in other words, karma. Mhmm. Yep. We’ll do the recitations starting on page one. One b, two, three, and four.

So for those of you who attended the Tuesday class on Cittamātra, the Chitamatras who assert eight collections of consciousness consider that the first of the 12 limbs beginning with ignorance is none other than the afflicted mind. This is a very profound point. Mhmm. And we can see in daily life that there are differences in intensity of egoism or self-cherishing. We say of one person, he’s very egotistical and self centered.

Or of another person, we say, he’s not a very egotistical or self centered person. Then whether there are differences in intensity of self grasping, that has to be examined. Then people who have little egoism, a little self-cherishing typically tend to be physically sound and mentally happy in whatever they do. Then with people who have a lot of egoism or self centeredness, it’s exactly the opposite. Then all of you have received numerous times teachings on the seven-point mind training, and you know how self-cherishing must be countered over and again.

And the practice of giving and taking is precisely designed to target and reduce self-cherishing by giving one’s happiness to others and taking their suffering upon oneself. The goal is to reduce one’s egoism. So this is for the first limb, the limb of beginningless ignorance, ignorance within the 12 limbs or maybe if you wish self-cherishing. It’s difficult to distinguish at our level. Then the second limb is compositional factors.

Compositional factors refers both to virtuous and non virtuous impelling karma. This is not minor karma. This is powerful karma. So here, impelling, within the term impelling karma, means to impel or to propel cyclic existence. And we accumulate karmas of different intensities, both virtuous and non virtuous.

Karma here refers mainly to physical and verbal deeds. So the second limb of the 12 limbs of dependent arising is the limb of compositional factors, which is motivated by the first limb. In other words, motivated motivated by the ignorance grasping at a self. It is motivated by this ignorance that we accumulate both virtuous and nonvirtuous karmic imprints which impel the wheel of cyclic existence. So how precisely beginningless ignorance motivates the accumulation of the composition of factors is to be explained.

This beginningless ignorance grasps at an I or a self. Grasping at it, it cherishes it. This cherishing gives rise to a wish to be happy and a wish not to be unhappy. in dependence on this, the afflictions arise.

Then in dependence on this wish to be happy, this wish not to be happy. We feel desire for members of our family, our parents, and so forth. And in turn, we feel anger, hatred for those who are on the other side. In other words, desire arises first and hatred arises after. This is the way of the world.

Do understand? Easy, isn’t Now once hatred has arisen within our mind, it gives rise to anger. And if we take the example of anger motivated by anger, we resolve to assassinate, to kill one of our enemies. Then we make plans to kill this person. Think carefully about it.

And when we engage in the deed to kill that person, and as a result of that deed, that person’s life force ceases, in other words, that person dies, at that point, a powerful impelling karma has been accumulated. So once we have a plan, the murder of this person motivated by the wish to kill him, and here we must distinguish between causal and resulting motivations, then we engage in the deed of murder. And when the person dies, as a result, one has accumulated the powerful impelling karma of murder. So here, once one has taken the decision to assassinate or to murder another person and has murdered them, In so doing, one has resolved to destroy completely their happiness. That suffering, which one induces for another in another person, is a suffering which we ourselves will experience in a future life.

And as a result, this deed of murder when it led leads to the death of an of a person is called the impelling karma of murder. This is called the accumulation of karma. Accumulation here refers to the creation of a potency which would mature. It’s a cause at present in a future life. So most of us probably think, oh, well, I don’t have any heavy impelling karma which is caused would have caused me to be reborn in a lower realm in the next life.

But every one of us in this room knows what uncontrolled anger is. And if you let uncontrolled anger to dominate you, you may very well kill someone. Then even if such criminal deeds are not engaged in in this life, We have lived beginning lives in the past, and we have countless imprints from deeds of this nature within our mind stream. Then it doesn’t take a lot for one of these imprints to mature. And when they do, then what will we do?

So once this karma, which is a consciousness, leads to the appearance of an imprint, which is known as in a potency deposited within consciousness, we have reached the third limb of the 12 limbs. And this consciousness, according to Cittamātra, is the mind basis of all or the ālaya vijnana. So at present, Geshe la says we should focus on the virtuous side of the 12 limbs, and he would like to quote He would like to quote a passage of Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra in which Candrakīrti says, no armor is superior to that of patience, then this is quite profound. Then within our minds, the ethics of abandonment of the 10 non-virtues is present, probably, isn’t it? So once this ethics, which is an abandonment of the 10 non virtues is present within our mind stream, we can attain a higher rebirth.

But for this, we need a mind of restraint. in dependence on this mind of restraint, we counter or we block the wish, for instance, to kill another person. And having countered this wish that other person can remain alive in happiness. This fact that the other person can remain alive in happiness in turn is what gives rise to an impelling karma, which is a virtuous impelling karma within our mind stream, which will lead to happiness for us in the future. This is the explanation of the mode of accumulation of karma for a higher rebirth.

So for this, one needs, however, a good motivation. In other words, a motivation focused on future lives and beyond, and in dependence on this good motivation and the accumulation of virtuous karma, then a virtuous karmic imprint will be deposited within our mind stream. So this afternoon, during the question and answer session, ask your questions on these three impelling causes, the first three limbs of the 12 limbs. So these three causes exist within our mind stream. Nothing needs to be said about the ignorance grasping at itself, the innate ignorance.

Then probably, karmic imprints, impelling karmic imprints exist within our mind stream, and then consciousness obviously does exist. So we shall stop here for lunch. Yeah. Are you tired? A little bit.

Really? Oh.

Key terms in this teaching

Cittamatra sem tsam pa (Tib)

The Mind Only school, one of the two Mahayana (Great Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Mind Only school does not accept external objects but does assert truly established self-knowers. LYWA

clear light ö sel (Tib)

The extremely subtle mind which is directly recognized as the culmination of successful tantric practice, and is also accessible or recognizable to ordinary beings at the time of death. LYWA

contaminated aggregates zagchä kyi phung po (Tib)

The aggregates of an ordinary being that are contaminated by the seeds of delusion and therefore pervaded by suffering because they are controlled by delusion and karma. LYWA

dependent origination pratityasamutpada (Skt); ten drel (Tib)

Also called dependent arising. The way that the self and phenomena exist conventionally as relative and interdependent. LYWA

four noble truths denpa zhi (Tib)

The subject of the Buddha's first turning of the wheel of Dharma. The truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path to the cessation of suffering as seen by an arya. LYWA

mind basis of all alayavijana (Skt); kun zhi nam shä (Tib)

A main consciousness posited by the Cittamatra school, the consciousness they say is needed to carry karmic imprints. LYWA

self-cherishing dag che par dzin pa (Tib)

The self-centered attitude of considering one’s own happiness to be more important than that of others. LYWA

self-grasping dag dzin (Tib)

The mind that apprehends the self as inherently existent. This refers to both the self of persons and the self of phenomena. LYWA

Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.