Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute talk, Lama Lhundup expounds the law of karma and the ten non-virtuous and virtuous actions as part of the graduated path commentary. He begins with the four fundamental principles of karma—actions are infallible, highly augmentative, uncreated results are not experienced, and actions are never dissipated—establishing the rationale for ethical conduct. He then systematically presents the ten non-virtuous actions: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct of the body; lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle chatter of speech; and covetousness, harmful intention, and wrong view of mind. For each, he explains the four components of an action and illustrates how intention determines moral weight, including the example of an officer ordering soldiers to kill. He discusses the possibility of taking lay precepts for limited periods, such as twenty-four-hour vows. The teaching moves into the distinction between a being of small capacity motivated solely by rebirth in fortunate realms and a special being of small capacity whose practices are preliminary to cultivating bodhicitta—the resolve to attain Buddhahood for all sentient beings. He concludes with an introduction to emptiness, cautioning against misunderstanding it as either self-negation or blank meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 LR.mp3
UUID: 422ab837-b623-4ed7-8d55-7b5b9d7be205
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Lam Rim (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 50.4 minutes
Words: ~2,848
Offer flower to the Buddha, and if this virtue that we created, this root of virtue was not destroyed by anger, then it too would steadily increase as time went by. So actions are greatly expanding. So with respect to the third, that is, results of uncreated actions are not experienced. Whatever we experience, whatever result we experience, there definitely had to be a preceding cause for that to arise. If we have never created the cause, we will never experience the result.
So we should We have to think, no matter If we experience a suffering in our mind, then we can be sure that we can think, Ah, I must have created I definitely created some negative action in the past, and this is a result of that. So because we do not want to suffer, then this will lead us to abandon negative actions. And likewise, whenever we experience some happiness, we can think, I must have created the cause of virtue in the past to be experiencing this happiness now. So if we want to have if we always want to be happy, then we have to create the causes for happiness. So the fourth, that is, actions are not dissipated or wasted.
Having committed an action and having accumulated a karma, no matter how much time, whether it’s thousands of years elapse, the effect will definitely be experienced. It will not rot. It will not be wasted. So from the point of view of the first of these first two, that is, actions are infallible and they are highly augmentative. If we were to condense what our practice should be at the present time, then we should in seeing these two qualities of karma, that no matter the slightest negativity, since we don’t want to suffer, even the slightest negativity, we should abandon.
And since we want happiness, we should, whenever possible, try to create virtue. So there are many different presentations on the mode of accumulating karma. But if we were to state the presentation of non virtue very briefly, we would look we would present it in the form of the ten non virtuous actions. And with respect to virtue, we would present the opposite of the ten non virtuous actions, the ten virtuous actions. So what are the ten non virtuous actions?
From the point of view of the body, they are the non virtuous actions of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. From the point of view of speech, there is lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle chatter. And from the point of view of mind, is covetousness, there is harmful intention, and wrong view. So those are all negative actions. So the first, that is killing, you know, this is simply killing any type of being, insects, fish, any sentient being.
If we were to expand the parts of the action with respect to killing, there is the basis, the intention, conduct, and the completion. So these four parts of an action apply to each of these ten non virtuous actions. So if we apply these four parts of an action to an insect, example, an insect that has just bitten you, basis of killing would be the insect itself. So the intention or the motivation for this would be any of the three poisons, either of the three poisons. Any of the three poisons, for example, sometimes we kill out of anger, sometimes we kill out of desire, and we can kill out of being motivated by delusion.
So the conduct, it would be the actual action of killing through either the body or it’s So this would be the action of the body. And once we acknowledge the fact that we have killed it, then the action is complete. So it’s just the, when the animal, in this case the insect has actually died, then the action is complete. So in killing, we don’t have to actually kill it ourselves. We can also collect the negative action of killing by ordering someone else to kill.
You know, we could be sitting at our home and sitting, Order some fish. Or we could be with someone. And we would also, in the same way, it would be as if we collected the actual karma of killing ourselves. An official or someone in the army Yeah, who orders his men to kill.
He collects all the negative karma of all the people that are being killed. But all the various soldiers, they would collect the negative action of killing for just as many people as they kill themselves. But the officer who ordered the killing, he would collect all the negative actions of all the people who were killed. So even though we have no intention, if we were to cut wood or move rocks and kill insects, we still collect the negative action of killing. If we, without thinking, there insects here or not?
And we just carelessly go about and, for example, cut down a tree, and we kill an insect, and we collect the negative action of killing. But if we are mindful and we look around to see and we think, wondering if there are any insects around, and we remove them or we look very carefully, and then we go ahead and, for example, cut down the tree. Even though there might still be insects killed, we did not collect the negative action of having killed. So with respect to killing, we have to it’s determined by our motivation. Stealing, this is taking property which is owned by another without it being given.
So the third is sexual misconduct. This is having a relationship with someone who has a guardian of some sort, who is under the control of some guardian. So the next is from the point of view of speech. The first was lying. It’s quite easy to lie even when we’re joking.
We say, I saw something which we actually didn’t see. When we talk, we should always tell exactly the truth. So in selling, it’s often they make use of line. So it’s extremely important that whenever we speak, we are honest. So divisive speech is dividing two people who have a harmonious relationship, coming between them, turning them against each other.
So the next is harsh speech, and this is speaking cutting words or harsh words in order to hurt someone. So idle chatter. This is speaking non dharmic words which have no importance. So covetousness, from the point of view of mind. This is a property or an article which is owned by another person, you see how you think it beautiful, and you wish to become its owner.
If you went into a bakery, if you went into a bakery and you saw a piece of cake, a cake, thought arose, I wish this were mine. So harmful intention is when developing the thought to hurt someone else. So then the third of mind is wrong view. This would be developing the holding to the thought that the law of cause and effect does not exist.
There are no Three Jewels. There is no past and future life. So having thought this, then this would be a wrong view. So amongst the ten non virtuous actions, the most negative is wrong view. So we should make effort to put into practice the opposite, that is the ten virtuous actions.
We try to abandon the ten non virtuous however much we can, whether it’s one week, one month, one year, ten years, we can, for example, take a vow, say, for even half a day, say, for half a day, I’m not going to commit any of the ten non virtuous actions. Sir, it’s difficult to practice perfect ethics. Can say, Well, I’m going to practice, I’m going to abandon the ten non virtuous actions until the time I die, but that would be extremely difficult. We can make some certain time. For example, when we take the twenty-four-hour Mahāyāna precepts, we say, make a definite determination in your mind that for this day, while I hold these vows for the next twenty four hours, I am definitely going to keep perfect ethics, perfect morality during this period.
So to this point, we have completed the common path of the being of small capacity. So we have covered, for example, the impermanence in-depth, the sufferings of bad migrations, the development of trust in the refuge, and the conviction in the law of cause and effect. These are included within the scope of being of small capacity. We also covered that we spoke about this human body of leisures and endowments, that it’s great meaning and it’s difficult to find. These are actually the preliminary to the meditations of the common path to the being of a small scope or smaller capacity.
If we practice the ten virtues, the ethics of the ten virtues perfectly, there’s no way that we can be reborn in a bad migration such as hell, a hungry ghost, or as an animal. Such a person always has a virtuous mind. But still, even though we aren’t going to be born in a bad migration, and maybe we’re born as a human being, still we’re going to suffer. So today we’re not going to go into detail in the common path of the being of middling and in great capacity, but just extremely briefly. So aren’t going to, at this point, we aren’t going to fall back into the bad migrations.
We’re going to take rebirth as either a human or a god. But still we have not gone beyond suffering because such states are in the nature of suffering and they themselves are not stable. So with respect to the being of small capacity, there is the mere being of small capacity and the special being of small capacity. So the being of mere small capacity, the being of, what did I say, mere being of small capacity. He only practices the perfect ethics of the ten virtues in order to attain the happiness of being born as a god or a human being.
This is all he is trying to attain. This is his goal. But within the context of the graduated path, we must practice as a preliminary in common, the common path with the being of small scope. But it’s merely a preliminary to the training of the being of great scope. So we try to, as our motivation, have the mind of enlightenment or the awakening heart, that is, we’re seeking to attain Buddhahood.
And in order to do that, we’re going to reflect upon, we’re going to meditate on the various paths which are in common with the being of small scope. So such a person who, with motivation of trying to attain Buddhahood, thinks about, for example, the refuge and the law of cause and effect. He is called a special being of small capacity. So going on from there, wherever, all the six types of migrators, none of these states of the six types of migrators pass beyond the nature of suffering. So, for example, with respect to human, they have the suffering of birth, old age and disease, etcetera.
And the gods, they have the suffering, such sufferings as being able to see their future rebirth states, and this causes them a great deal of suffering. So we have to consider, we have to cultivate the thought that no matter where I may go in cyclic existence, there’s no way that it’s it’s all in the nature of suffering. Thinking about this, we develop the thought that don’t want to take birth in cyclic existence, and we actually develop a fear of taking rebirth in cyclic existence. And we developed whatever are the great wonders and marvels of cyclic existence, they do not attract us in the least. And when we developed this thought that all the various marvels of cyclic existence have no attraction for us, this is what is called renunciation.
So when we see that nothing within cyclic existence goes beyond suffering, and we develop the thought to attain liberation from it. So the mind which is unable the thought which is unable to bear one’s own suffering within cyclic existence is renunciation. But we don’t consider freeing ourselves alone. Why? Because just as in the same way that we’re suffering, all sentient beings are suffering.
Just as we want happiness, all sentient beings want happiness. Just as we do not want suffering, all sentient beings do not want suffering. And the sentient beings have been extremely kind to us and benefited us a great deal in the past. Therefore, for me to think of liberating myself alone when all these sentient beings who have been so kind to me in the past are suffering is extremely wrong to think in this way. I have attained this body of leisures and endowments, and the greatest use I can make of it is to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
So how can I benefit sentient beings? There’s simply not enough wealth existing to share out to all sentient beings and fulfill their desires. What do they really want? They want happiness. So we should think to benefit them not with samsaric happiness, but happiness which is complete and have no faults whatsoever.
This is the type of happiness that we should give them. Such a type of happiness is only within the state of Buddhahood itself. And since the ultimate happiness lies only in Buddhahood, then In order to bring sentient beings as ultimate happiness, I definitely I must attain Buddhahood in order to do this. But now, at this time, I don’t have the ability to give sentient beings this ultimate happiness. And who has such an ability to who has the power to give sentient beings happiness?
Only a Buddha. So therefore, should think that for the benefit of all sentient beings, I must attain precious Buddhahood in order to bring them ultimate happiness. And then we have to ask, I must attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, but can I?, I must attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, but then we but can I? But yes, you can attain Buddhahood. But we have this ability, but we have, from the beginningless time up to now, because of the defilement of apprehending objects as inherently existing, we have not been able to.
This mind which grasps objects to exist inherently is mistaken. It’s wrong. Then we must recognize that this mind having we must recognize that this mind is mistaken. And then we must settle come to a settling of the meaning of that, in fact, things do not inherently exist, but they are empty of inherent existence. And we ascertain the meaning of the lack of inherent existence, and we must identify correctly the object which is to be negated with respect to the lack of inherent existence.
We must we have to identify what is the object of negation. Then we can understand when we exactly identify the object of negation, we can identify the fact that all phenomena are empty of this way of existing. For example, if someone has jaundice, whenever they look at something white, like white piece of paper or a white conch shell, and rather than seeing white, they see yellow. If we take this conch shell, when he sees this conch shell, he sees it as yellow. But as his disease improves, he will become whiter and whiter in appearance.
The yellow appearance which he first saw in no way exists. That yellow conch shell that he saw in no way exists. It only appeared to look yellow by the power of a mistaken consciousness. And likewise, ourself and others and all phenomena appear to us to exist inherently, but in fact they don’t exist that way. And when we make the firm determination that though these objects appear this way, but in fact they do not exist this way, then realize emptiness.
And then with the motivation to attain Buddhahood, we have to meditate on the fact that all phenomena lack inherent existence, and once we understand that, then we will attain Buddhahood. Lama Lhundup makes a request that having looked into detail into the paths of being of small capacity and extremely briefly into the paths of middling in greater capacity. And we should look to review these paths each day and to please try to review these each day as a daily practice, and we will gain realizations of them. We talked a little bit about emptiness. We should not think the thought, I don’t exist.
And also, in meditation where nothing whatsoever appears to you, this is not a meditation on emptiness, This is a meditation on delusion. In order to understand the nature of emptiness, we have to meditate on it.