Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen unpacks the second link of dependent arising—compositional karma—using the Wheel of Life drawing of a potter making pots. Just as one potter creates many different types of pots, the mind’s karma-generating impulse produces vastly different results. He traces how karma operates: how mental activity becomes intention, then physical or verbal action; the distinction between delusions (covetousness, ill-will, wrong view) and actual karma (their physical and verbal manifestations); and the two fundamental ignorances underlying all action—misunderstanding the karmic law and misunderstanding ultimate reality. Demanding but foundational teaching for practitioners studying the twelve links.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 WoL.mp3
UUID: 7b0ada2a-16ca-4fef-a159-fb95befb7206
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Wheel of Life (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~1,960
This precious human birth is a new topic. So that of the form of the god’s realm — that of the god’s body — for example, it has a perfect cause to achieve the body of a god, and because it has a perfect cause, it has, let us say, the best form or best body. So though it is regarded the best body, it doesn’t bring the benefits that we can gain through this precious human body. So it is said that of all sentient beings, the human body is regarded the supreme one — the supreme body. So the reason why it is regarded the supreme body among all sentient beings is because on the basis of this precious human body, we are able to achieve all happiness — all temporal happiness as well as the ultimate happiness such as the highest states of humans and gods. So not only that, even the state of hearers and Pratyekabuddha — that too is possible on the basis of this body, this precious human body. And if one wishes the fully enlightened state — that which is the full enlightened state — that also is possible on the basis of this precious human body.
So this precious human body, as it is explained, is very, very rare. And once one has this body, it has great benefits. So one should never waste this body and always work for the achievement of temporal and ultimate happiness. So to achieve this ultimate happiness, one should do — or how one should proceed is — to do pure Dharma practice. And the pure Dharma practice is very much dependent on our motivation. And with a pure good motivation, living with the practice of karma — the law of cause and effect — that is one way of, I would say, seeking the ultimate happiness.
So to do the practice of karma — the law of cause and effect — one person needs to understand what karma is. And one first has to know what karma is. And as the full understanding of karma is said to be possible only by the enlightened beings such as the Buddha. But for us, just having a gross understanding of karma — that is what we need here. So it is important to have a gross understanding of the karmic explanation — the karmic understanding — which for one’s own sake is very important.
And also for the sake of others — in order to lead others on the path — for that reason also, the understanding of karma is very important. So because of this reason, one should follow the teachings on karma that are explained in the teachings and study or learn. So as it is very important to have the understanding of karma, it is also very important to have a good motivation. That is, with the bodhicitta motivation, we should listen to this teaching.
For this teaching, in order to lead others on the path, setting up this type of motivation — for this type of motivation, do a short meditation here. So tonight, Michel will be explaining the second of the twelve links of dependent arising — that is the connecting karma, or compositional karma. That in the Wheel of Life — the drawing that symbolizes the second limb — is a potter making a pot. So that symbolizes the second limb, which is the connecting karma.
So the drawing shows that one potter can make many different kinds of pots — such as good, bad, and different kinds. So similarly, the second limb — the connecting karma — can give rise to its result, many different types of results — of big, small, and so on, many different types of result. It can produce different types of result. So the characteristic or the nature of the second limb — which is the connecting karma — is known as what is caused by a specific ignorance — that of the ignorance of the twelve links of dependent arising. And it is a mental factor which has the nature of projecting the result — the upcoming result — which has to be projected. It is a mental factor — again, just to go back — that has the nature of projecting the upcoming result, whatever it produces.
So this connecting karma has three types: that of the meritorious one, meritorious karma; the non-meritorious one; and that of the immovable. So this connecting karma is among the five aggregates — it is the compositional factor. So it is said that the connecting karma is the compositional factor, the fourth one, because this connecting karma is a mental factor — it is not the main mind. It is not the consciousness.
So these three types of karma — the virtuous and non-virtuous — both of them: this karma can again be a mentally-formed karma, or a karma of intention — intended karma and mentally-formed karma. It is included within these two. So the mental activity, which is the activity of the mind — the karma that is performed by the mind — and then the intended karma, which is the karma formed by the mental and the verbal and the physical — those karmas are known as the intended karma. And both of these — the verbal and physical — are caused by the mental karma.
So generally speaking, karma is known as a mental factor. So the mental activity is that of virtuous and non-virtuous mental activities. So the first — the mental activity — can be virtue or non-virtue, which is the activity performed by the mind — the karma performed by the mind. Next, caused by that, caused by the mind, one engages in or has the intended karma, which is known as that of the physical and the verbal one. And that is like — as an example — as in killing, actually engaging karma physically or verbally.
So as an example of the mental activity or mental karma: take the example of negative actions — at the very beginning, you have in your mind that “I will steal this” or whatever negative action you want to perform. You had first that in your mind. So the first point starts with thinking that “I will do this and that.” This arises in our mind.
So during the time when you actually engage in that act — whether verbally or physically — whatever action you are performing, you have the mental activity still there. And that mental activity — or mental karma — is the mental factor functioning at that point. So before we do any actions — negative or positive — we have that intention that “I will do this or that.” That is the mental activity. And relying on or depending on that mental activity, one engages in that act, whether physically or verbally. And at that point, while one is engaging in the act — whether physically or verbally — there is still the mental factor functioning there, which is known as the physical or the verbal activity — the karma.
So of the physical activity — the physical karma — there are six physical types of karmas. So the six physical activities are: the three non-virtuous acts that we perform through the body, and plus the opposite three — the three virtuous actions that we perform through the body — total six. And similarly, with the verbal activities or karmas, there are eight. So it is said that the three negative actions performed physically and the four negative actions — the four non-virtuous actions — performed verbally: these seven are known as karmas, but not delusions.
So the four verbal negative actions — the four non-virtuous verbal karmas — they are karmas, but not delusions. So then the three non-virtuous actions that we perform through our mind — covetousness, ill will, and wrong view — these are said to be: they are not karma, but they are delusions. So the point here is to show that karma and delusions are contradictions. The contradiction between karma and delusions.
So these ten non-virtuous acts, or the ten virtuous acts, which in teachings or in other texts use this term saying “the ten karmic paths” — the ten karmic paths. So it has this addition of “karmic path.” The reason it is said “karmic path” — using this term — is because the three physical and the four verbal negative actions are both karma and path. So then the three actions of the mind — these are all mental activities — they are known as the karmic path, but not karma. So of the seven — three of the physical and four of the verbal — they are said to be both karma and path, because it works vice versa: that act can cause one to form karma, or that act can lead one on the path.
So then the three of the mind — what is it — in one way, the force of these three can cause one to form more negative karmas. But other than that, nothing can cause them to create other karmas. So karma and delusions are contradictions to each other, and the reason is that delusions are known as mistaken mind. And out of that, you perform karma. But karma — performed out of that mistaken mind — is not a mistaken mind. So because of that, it shows that karma and delusions contradict each other.
So the next: how these karmas are performed, or how we accumulate these different karmas. With the example, say, if we are doing a meditation — so we accumulate a negative action during meditation — how this happens is that out of ignorance — the ignorance known as not knowing the karmic law — out of that ignorance, we have this thought arise in our mind: “I want to go somewhere” or “I want to do something.” So this desire to go — this wish to go — is known as attachment. And similarly, the wish to say something is also attachment. So this attachment — wishing to go or to do something — causes one to act, and one then gets up and walks away, and then completes that act or that karma.
So when completing that action or karma, at the very beginning, it is caused by the ignorance known as not knowing karmic law. That is what causes it at the very first moment. Caused by that, and then at the very moment before one gets up and walks away, again the second type of ignorance arises — that is the ignorance of not knowing the ultimate nature. That ignorance arises.
So before you go or perform the act of going, there is a purpose — a reason — for going or performing that act. And that reason might be for fame or for reputation, or whatever purpose it might be, you perform the act of going. And at that point, whatever the reason — whether reputation or fame or pain — you conceive that as being inherently existent. So that is the conceiving of the inherent existence of pain or reputation — whatever the reason — and that is known as the ignorance known as not knowing the ultimate nature of it.
So then before we go — that which is caused by that attachment, wanting to go or wanting to do — that attachment is a delusion. That attachment is a delusion, but not karma. So in short, whatever karma one forms — whether virtuous or non-virtuous karma — it has to be motivated by two: it has to be motivated by two —