Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40-minute talk, Khensur Rinpoche centres his account of karma on motivation: because only conscious beings have intention, karma is a specific subset of cause and effect. Beneficial intentions produce positive karma and happiness; harmful intentions produce negative karma and suffering — without exception, just as a hot-variety seed never yields sweet fruit. He then addresses habituation, explaining why afflictive emotions like desire and anger arise effortlessly while love, compassion, and meditative clarity require sustained effort. A butter-lamp burning steady in a windless room illustrates the stable, clear mind that meditation can develop. The session closes with a short Q&A — notably, whether positive and negative motivations can coexist simultaneously (they cannot: like two people on one seat, only one can occupy the mind at a time).
File metadata (for organising)
File: 24 3PA 1993 08 31.mp3
UUID: 88d8f1b7-4446-4fd4-abfb-c3a8d6e3b878
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-08-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 39.9 minutes
Words: ~1,976
So as an area within the general law of cause and effect, there is the theory of karma as actions and their results. And this specifically pertains to living beings. And this it is in terms of the motivation the intention behind our various activities. If our motivation is a healthy motivation then the various activities the acts, the works evolve out of this motivation will be healthier. And that is to say, if our intention is beneficial, then the activity will be beneficial and this is the creative this beneficial activity is positive karma.
On the other hand, if motivation is unhealthy, it is a harmful intention, then the activities which evolve out of that will be unhealthy, will be harmful, and this constitutes negative karma. So it can be seen that the karma as actions and results pertains pertains to living beings. It isn’t because it is only living beings who have motivation. In order that there be motivation there must be a consciousness or a mind and this only living beings possess. Such things as earth or water simply do not have motivations.
The growing of rice or barley, when there is this planting of a seed, and the seed has no particular motivation. There is simply the evolution through a natural process of cause bringing about an effect. So this describes the general law of cause and effect. But in terms of karma, we’re talking about a specific case of the general law of cause and effect because it’s specific in that it necessitates that it be involved living beings because it involves motivation. If the motivation is beneficial intention, then this will bring about the beneficial action, which is a positive karma, which will bring about a positive type of result, a happiness.
On the other hand, if the motivation is negative or unhealthy, there is a harmful intention. This will evolve negative activities, the harming of others. This is the creating of negative karma, which will bring about a negative result of suffering. So karma as action and the result is a specific case of the more general law of cause and effect. So out of a healthy motivation, a positive motivation will evolve positive activities.
That is a positive karmas, healthy karmas, which will bring about a positive result, healthy result. That is to say happiness. Such types of activities can never bring suffering. Because the cause is positive, it’s definite that the result will be positive. On the other hand, if we have a harmful intention, an unhealthy motivation, out of this we evolve negative activities that is, the activities which bring harm to others.
And this constitutes negative karma. That is, a destructive karma. And the result of such negative karma, destructive karma, can only be negative. That is to say, suffering. There is no way that happiness can arise from such type of karma and therefore we can make the general rule that from negative karma arises negative types of results.
We don’t want to experience resultant suffering. Therefore, we have to cease creating those negative activities which bring about such a undesired result. Because negative activities depend for their development upon our motivation, we have to begin to cease negative motivations that is to say harmful intentions within our own mind. We have to bring to an end the root of our suffering, which is in terms of our motivation or intention within our own mind. If we don’t do this, then there’s no way that we can avoid the experience of resultant suffering.
If there is the cause, then a result will arise. So in order to cease experiencing the result, we must cease creating the cause. What we want is resultant happiness. And resultant happiness arises in dependence upon beneficial activities in terms of others. These beneficial activities evolve out of beneficial attitudes or intentions toward others.
So if we want to experience resultant happiness, we must begin to practice those ways of thinking, those attitudes which are beneficial, which bring about beneficial activities. So this is the infallible relationship between causes and effects. For example, if we plant a seed which is of a hot variety of a plant, it will bring about a fruit of a hot variety. On the other hand, if the variety of seed that we plant is that of a sweet plant, it will bring about a result of fruit which will be sweet. It will never bring about a fruit which is hot.
This abides in the very nature the type of cause. So this infallibility of karma is extremely important to consider again and again. If we want to be happy, then it’s necessary that we benefit others. In order to involve ourselves in these activities, we have to develop healthy attitudes of mind, that is a beneficial intentions within our own mind, having beneficial motivation. So we should again and again cultivate such beneficial intentions, and motivations within our own mind.
On the other hand, we don’t want to experience suffering. And therefore, we have to abandon those types of activities which bring about this negative consequence, those negative types of activities or unhealthy ways of acting. In order to do that, we have to abandon negative intentions within our own mind, unhealthy ways of motivations. So and again and again reflecting in this way such that we begin to gradually decrease the preponderance of negative attitudes within our mind, act as intentions within our own mind, bring about negative, which evolve into negative activities, which bring about suffering. If on the other hand, if we try to cultivate skillful ways of thought, kind hearted attitudes, healthy intentions, then we will involve ourselves in activities which flow out of these attitudes.
Involving ourselves in such types of attitudes, we will experience the resultant happiness. On the other hand, if we begin to decrease the negative attitudes, intentions that we possess, we will involve ourselves in less and less negative activities. We will experience less and less, their resultant suffering. This is in the nature of reality. This is a scientific way of thinking.
We are constituted of the two components of body and mind. And previously, our minds have, to a large extent, been habituated to negative attitudes. You know, we can say afflictive emotions such types of emotions as desire and anger, hatred, ignorance that we are extremely habituated, acquainted with these states. And that they are having been so much habituated to them in the past. They are just ready to to to generate in our mind, to arise within our mind due to previous habituation.
It doesn’t take much for it for us to develop these particular ways of thinking, these attitudes. On the other hand, we are not very accustomed to positive states of mind, kind hearted states of mind, love, compassion, faith, the awakening heart, emptiness. These things arise with great difficulty. When we think about them, we go to sleep. So we don’t have a great deal of familiarization with them.
So it’s difficult for us for them to arise, to be clear. When we try to think about them, our minds automatically want to think about something else. So this is simply the reason for this present situation simply that we are not through lack of accustoming or lack of habituation under the influence of not having accustomed our mind to such positive states that we have to expend a great deal of difficulty for them to arise within our minds. But on the other hand, we of these only for we’re thinking of younger. On the other hand, there’s other non spiritual states of mind.
We are continually thinking about them. Except for perhaps one minute a day, we’re continually thinking about them. The only reason for this disproportionate amount of time in which our minds are involved in these two different states is simply a matter of habituation. Our preponderance of our habituation is in terms of negative states. But if we again and again engage ourselves in meditation habituating and accustoming the mind to the process of meditation, then we can develop within our meditation to the point where wherever we place our mind, our mind will remain upon that object.
That we develop a flexibility in mind that we can choose whatever object that we wish to place it upon and our mind will stay upon that object without moving to any other object. Through the development of a stability of mind, can develop a real clarity with respect to our object, and our mind can become extremely profound. Without this stability, our mind will continually be unclear and will not be able to reach a profound state. So an analogy would be that in terms of developing in our meditation, if we were to have a if we were looking at a picture on the wall with a butter lamp and it’s inside within a room. And in the room, there’s no wind.
So the flame is very still and steady. And because the flame is still and steady, we’re able to see clearly the picture. On the other hand, if we were outside and there was a wind blowing and the flame was fluttering back and forth, then the picture would not appear clearly to us. So when the wind is blowing and the flame is fluttering the picture does not appear clear. So in terms of this analogy, mind is very much like that butter lamp.
And the wind are the various negative factors within the mind, the afflictive emotions to which we have been habituated. And they do not allow our mind to abide steadily for even a second. And therefore, in the course of our meditation, nothing appears clear to us. So in the course of our meditation our mind becomes involved in all various types of Because our minds are habituated to these negative factors, the afflictive emotions, and when we meditate things, the objects of our meditation do not appear clearly to ourselves. Our minds are highly unstable.
But through cultivation of our meditation, we can develop a very powerful mind in which these other disturbing factors do not influence our mind. And in such a state, then the object the mind is extremely stable, and the object will appear very clearly to one. Yeah. So we’re gonna stop there, but if you have some questions. Yes.
Could it be mixed? Could it be mixed? Simple sample, not a simple number. So the negative and positive intentions are incompatible with one another. And within the mind, only one can reside at any one time.
If there is a positive intention residing in the mind, then a negative intention cannot occur. It’s just like if on a seat, only one person can sit on a seat at a time. Two people can’t sit on the same seat simultaneously. I don’t know if that’s So these motivations are serial and not simultaneous. So there are two types of motivations.
There’s the causal motivation, which initiates the activity. And then there’s the motivation at the time of the activity, the temporal motivation. They’re not simultaneous, they’re serial. They’re one subsequent. Subsequent to the causal motivation, the temporal motivation arises.
Between happiness and resultant happiness? Would that be a good question? So the main drivers and the main drivers. So happiness is that which happiness is the result of skillful action. Resultant happiness is results arising from happiness.
They were like K-one. So in general, we can say they’re the same. It’s only when you get down to technicalities that that you can so happiness and and resultant happiness, we can roughly are the same. Only in technicalities when we differentiate the two. Only if you’re Yeah.
Yeah. Take care.