Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 43-minute commentary on verse 10 of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches that the person harming you is not actually the source of your suffering — your own past harmful actions are. He explains how self-grasping leads to self-centeredness, which generates afflictions like anger and attachment; these push us to harm others; and that harm cycles back as suffering. The core practice is stark: when harmed, recognize it as your karma ripening, genuinely thank the person for helping you purify deep negativities, and respond with compassion instead of anger. The mental result, he stresses, is peace within pain. Includes Q&A on anger, karma purification types, and Chenrezig practice for developing compassion.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-11-10 – Side 2 – Wheel of Sharp Weapons – KR.MP3
UUID: aec561e7-9b5d-4fd7-bd1c-f28c0852f4a4
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1992-11-10
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,099
In the practice of karma as actions and results, all results regardless of their quality, arise in dependence upon a cause. In terms of the inner process of the mind, the cause is here termed karma or action. In purely external context of this process of cause and effect, we simply say that the result relies upon the cause. But when we look at it in terms of the internal process of our own experience, it is still true that the result arises in dependence upon the cause. But here the cause is more especially karma or action.
Any type of any type of physical sickness is a result, and therefore it arises from a cause. And we have to ask, well, what is the cause of my illness? And for those who have not trained in the Dharma, who have not practiced the Dharma, they usually identify the causes of their illnesses as you know some type of form body, substances coming into the body, some types of maybe I ate some bad food, but also we could be even the harm that comes to us by being beaten by others. Any type of harm that comes to our body is identified in terms of something outside of our self. But for those who have trained in the Dharma, they do not merely see these external factors as the cause of their suffering.
In fact, these types of causes that we’ve just listed are in fact cooperative conditions to bring about these distresses of the body. They’re not the main cause. For example, if someone were to beat us, harm that we experience, the physical harm that we experience, the main cause of it would be our having harmed them in the past. This would be the main cause. But the condition, the cooperative condition to complete that result, it’s necessary that there’d be both a main cause and a cooperative condition, the main cause was that harming that person in the past.
The main cause was our own actions in the past. The various foreign substances being beaten by others, the bad food are all really cooperative conditions. And we’re looking at verse 10 where it says, When our bodies are aching and wracked with great torment of dreadful diseases we cannot endure, this is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. Till now we have injured the bodies of others. Hereafter, let’s take on what sickness is theirs.
Whatever whatsoever pain that we may experience, whatever physical suffering that we may undergo, It has as its origin our self grasping and in dependence upon self grasping we develop self centeredness. Out of our self centeredness we generate various afflictive emotions, hatred, attachment, etc. And out of these afflictive emotions we go on to harm others. That is to say we create various types of negative karma. And these actions, self grasping and self centeredness are like sharp weapons.
And having harmed others, then just like these sharp weapons which we have directed toward others come back to us, they circle back upon us, like this is the term, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, comes full circle and brings ourselves harm. And whatever physical sufferings we may experience, it all has arisen in dependence upon our various afflictive emotions creating negative actions by the harming of others. And so it’s quite appropriate now that we should be undergoing this present suffering. Is simply the suffering that we have created for others returning to ourselves. And so we should voluntarily take upon that suffering.
We should quite willingly, because of its appropriateness, take on that result which is our due. In fact, we should voluntarily seek to take on sufferings of others. So we should reflect in this way whenever we experience any types of harm. That in fact this harm is the result of the harming of others returning back upon ourselves. Whatever suffering that we may experience, it is in fact not being brought to us by the other, but in fact the source of that harm is our own self centeredness out of which we create the various afflictive emotions, generate a variety of afflictive emotions.
And under the power of those afflictive emotions we’ve harmed others. And so having harmed others, it is quite appropriate. Having harmed others, it is simply the harm coming back to ourselves. It’s not this person’s fault. It is my own self centeredness within my own mind which is bringing me this harm.
And therefore they are not to blame. And in this way we can not get angry at this person, we can develop a sense of tolerance and even compassion for them. In proceeding in this way, though we may experience physical suffering, we will not experience the associated mental suffering. In the terms of mind training, there is no suffering which we experience, is not a result of our own past karma that we’ve created, our own past actions. And understanding that it is not this individual who is in fact harming us, but it is our own self centeredness which is our real enemy.
And this is the enemy which we should try to subdue, that we should meditate applying various antidotes to overcome. Upon receiving harm, we should think that this is the result of my own actions that I created in the past out of my own self centeredness, and it’s not your fault that you have actually harmed me. In fact, you are actually helping me. You know, I’m really sorry that you know that you have developed the afflictive emotions and anger. And even more, know, harming me in this way, by acting as a cooperative condition and allowing me to experience this suffering, then I’m purifying various negativities that were within me, these various obstacles and hindrances.
Now they’re being purified. And this is a great this is really a great benefit to me. But not only that, I I I’ve had a chance to cultivate tolerance and I’ve had a chance to cultivate compassion and you’ve been a tremendous benefit to me and I thank you for doing that. So it’s because of you that I’ve been able to unload this heavy burden of negativity that I’ve been carrying around with me, that you’ve helped me to purify all these various negativities which could have eventually brought about my rebirth in hell or or as an animal. And now having experienced this slight suffering, now there’s no need to take rebirth in such states, and that you’ve been a really tremendous benefit to myself, and I rejoice in having this experience of harm, this experience of suffering.
And when one reflects in this way, then the mind remains unperturbed, the mind actually remains happy. Whatever harm we experience, we we experience no mental suffering. Yeah. I think that’s really. So we’re going to stop there, but if you have some questions.
Someone harms us. Yes. Okay. And we get angry? So we get angry.
Yes. And you’re made aware that you’re angry. Yes. Okay. Let’s go on from there.
So so there’s a difference between negative karma and anger. The two Anger. So they’re not equal. They’re not the same thing. So this kind of someone gives me a good opportunity to be in touch with this anger.
So is that enough? And understanding that the cause of this harm by others is in fact one’s own fault of having created harm in the past, then one does not become angry. So one doesn’t generate anger and thinking in this way. So merely thinking that this is negative is not sufficient. So with respect to negative actions, there are two types.
There is the negative action which is which which will bring about a definite result, and there’s negative actions which are indefinite as to the result. With respect to the first of these two negative actions which bring about a definite result, merely thinking that a negative action is a negative action will not purify the action. In order to purify the action, it’s necessary that either one experience the suffering result or that one declare the that that negative action, that is to acknowledge or confess the negative action. And as far as the second type, negative action which is indefinite, it’s not certain that it would be experienced or not. Chenrezig is the deity of great compassion.
It is the great compassion appearing as a deity. The nature of Chenrezig is great compassion. And it is necessary to develop great compassion in order to develop the awakening heart. If we don’t have great compassion, there’s no way that we can develop the awakening heart. So through the practice of Chenrezig, such as by means of recitation of the Chenrezig mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, we can quickly develop this great compassion.
And this is the main benefit to be derived from the practice. Now as to whether you should attend or not, it’s something that you have to look to see as to whether you want to practice this Chenrezig, you know whether it’s important to you. To the degree that you have to look to see whether it’s beneficial to yourself or not, and to that degree that you desire to be benefited by this practice, then that will determine whether you feel that you should attend. So it’s according to one’s own wishes and seeing the benefit to oneself whether it’s going to be a benefit to oneself. If it’s going to be a benefit to oneself, then it would be good to attend.
If you don’t see a benefit to yourself, then not attend. Okay. There was a question in the back. So if one rejoices in being harmed by others because it’s benefiting oneself by purifying one’s negativity, then this is only benefit for yourself. It cannot benefit the other.
The other has created a negative action and they must for themselves experience the result. It’s only in terms of benefiting oneself, the sense of rejoicing. It only accrues benefit to oneself and not to the other. If somebody takes some property of yours and you develop a sort of wish that they actually have it, then So if someone were to steal an article of yours, and before the thought was generated in their mind, Ah, now I’ve got it, now it’s mine. If you were to say, Oh, I’m going to give it to you.
Before they generate that thought, then they would not have committed a theft. But once they have generated the thought in their mind, now I’ve got it, it’s mine. Even if you were to say, I’m going to give that to you, it would only be an act of generosity on your part, it would be an act of theft on their part. So in order for the result to be definite, it must be both the accumulation of the action and the commission of the action. If one of those is missing, then it’s not definite as to the result.
And by way of example, when thinking, Oh, I’m going to steal that person’s thing, just thinking it but one doesn’t do it, then one has accumulated karma, action, but has not committed the action, so it’s indefinite as to the result. On the other hand, when one is walking around, one steps on many insects and killing them, this is the commission of an action, but it’s not the accumulation of the action. If if if there is a combination of these two as complete, then it’s definite as the result. Simple. Simple.
I think some people are tired. Okay. So that’s a good answer. Abandoning self centeredness, we are abandoning the self, the cherishing of the truly existent self, the cherishing of the inherently existent self. It’s necessary that we protect ourselves that we bring ourselves we should cherish ourselves.
That is to say, we should cherish the conventionally existent self, the nominally existent self. And the way we can best do that is by caring for others, by loving others, by being other centered. We can best care for our conventionally existent self. So this is the way that we can protect ourselves. We are trying to abandon the self centeredness, that is to say the cherishing of the truly existent self, the inherently existent self, not the conventionally existent self.
So it’s necessary that we protect the conventionally existent self, but not the truly existent self.