Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “Your real problem is that you are a member of the human race” — Ven Jampa Gendun quotes this darkly comic line early in this nearly two-hour session to ground what becomes a careful introduction to karma. After a guided rejoicing meditation and a discussion of Buddha nature and rebirth, the talk’s main work is unpacking karma as the mental factor of intention rather than outward action. Gendun distinguishes ordinary cause-and-effect from karmic causation (which requires an agent with intention), explains two varieties — the motivating intention and the intention accompanying an action — and uses seed and radio metaphors to show how karmic latencies condition the mental continuum across lifetimes. A Q&A closes on the four factors that constitute a complete karmic action.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 3PA 2007 03 05.mp3
UUID: 91421cac-cb8c-459f-95de-a0a45e9504f2
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2007-03-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 116.8 minutes
Words: ~11,500
Okay. Everybody comfortable. So we begin by adjusting motivation. We’re gonna talk about we’re gonna begin our discussion of karma tonight. And as we’re going to learn, karma is intention.
The the our motivation, the why behind what it is that we do. And according to the quality of the the karma, that is say the intention, we will experience a corresponding result in terms of our experience. We all want to be happy. We don’t want to suffer. Therefore, our motivation has to be positive for whatever it is that we do if we want to actually experience that kind of result.
The more positive, the more expansive, the more profound our motivation, the why behind, and the purpose for what it is that we do. The more positive, the more expansive, the more profound the quality of the result that we will experience as a result of that cause and that karma. And this is one of the cool things about Buddhism. It’s in our control. We don’t have to please god.
You know? We don’t have to depend upon controlling the world, which we can’t, nor is it random. That we can begin to exercise, we can begin to intervene in the quality of our life by the quality of what we do. We are what we do, and we can do what we will. If you have the will to do it, you can do it.
You have a choice. It’s open to you. We have that freedom. You know, we’ve been talking about this precious human life that we all have, everybody in this room has, whether you’re aware of it or not, whether you’ve investigated it or not. We all have these ten freedoms and the eight richnesses and ten freedoms.
That is to say we have the we have freedom. But freedom is not a given. It’s not an absolute. If you don’t make use of it, it’s not not as if you you had it at all. You know, for to to freedom is expressed in terms of the awareness of options.
There are our alternatives, and we know about those alternatives. And moreover, our ability to choose those alternatives. If we aren’t aware of alternatives, we don’t have any freedom. But even if we were to be aware of alternatives, other possibilities, if we don’t have the ability to choose those options, we aren’t free. So here, we’re trying to become aware of.
We’re studying other possible approaches to our life, other avenues that we can begin to walk down. There are options open to us. We we develop the that knowledge that we we take that information, and we look at it, and investigate it, and begin to see for ourselves. And there are alternative approaches to the way that we can live our life. Equally important is begin to feel, not just intellectually, but feel I had the ability to make those choices.
And then we’re free. Then we have to actually do. We have to begin to exercise that freedom to make to implement that freedom. It’s like money in the bank. If you don’t make use of it, it might make you feel good.
It might it might make you feel secure, but you really haven’t used its potential to get what it is that you need, what it is that you want. So we all have this money in the bank, as it were, and we have to begin to make use of it, to start spending it in some skillful ways. I’ve heard all that you’ve had to say to me on your problems. You ask me. I’m sorry about that.
I’ve heard I’ve heard all that you’ve had to say on your problems. You asked me what to do about them. It my view that your real problem is that you are a member of the human race. Face that one first. You know, how many of us amongst ourselves, you know, have ever looked pleadingly pleadingly to the sky and cried from our hearts, Why me, God?
Why am I so happy? Why does everything always have to go right for me? I can’t go on like this any longer. I have to understand why. And none of us, none of us.
If things are going well, if we’re happy, we don’t question. It’s suffering which makes us think. Or more importantly, more exacting, it’s our awareness of suffering. You know, we all have enough suffering to go around. We have to become skillful in making use of that suffering, make it to use that our our knowledge of past suffering to our advantage and begin to question the why.
And the the moment you know, I think it was Achaan Chah, one of the great Theravadin masters, the Thai masters of the twentieth century, said the the moment our our minds become happy, they become superficial. You know, maybe it’s a truism to say that all great art, great music, literature, poetry, and so forth has come out of intense suffering or at least an awareness of the profundity of suffering that permeates all of our lives. So, you know, this was this is not this is nothing new. It’s a matter matter of acknowledging it and beginning to investigate it. You know, this is the very first truth that the Buddha told, the very first truth that the Buddha taught, the noble truth of suffering.
He he didn’t teach it because he was pessimistic or cynical about life. He just saw it as our actual lived experience, and he questioned, you know, is this, you know, is life a bitch and then you die? Is this all there is, or is there a way out of situation? So he began he investigated his own mind and began to because he was motivated by the problem of suffering. Importantly, not only his own suffering, but the suffering of humanity, all sentient life.
It he he didn’t want love to continue. He didn’t want it to simply to take it as a given, as a, you know, a kind of a put up job that we’re just going to have to make the best of. And he had questioned that. He began to recognize that there are sources to our problems, some origins to our suffering. And we saw those in terms of karma and afflictive emotions.
The basis of karma, karma is afflictive emotions. The basis of afflictive emotions the root of afflictive emotions is ignorance. Ignorance with respect to the nature of reality. So I said, you know, can I remove these problems from the mind, these afflictive emotions from my mind? Can they are they inherent in the nature of mind, in the very fabric of the mind?
If they are, then though I know the the origins of suffering, the source of suffering, there’s nothing that can be done about it. And they began to question, can the mind be rid of the afflictions, the origins of suffering? And he saw that sometimes, for example, we’re angry. Sometimes we’re not. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed that.
Some sometimes we’re jealous. Sometimes we’re not. Sometimes we have we’re puffed up with pride. Sometimes we’re not. You know, if anger, for example, were in the actual nature of the mind itself, it would always be there.
It would that it’s that’s the nature of mind. So he began to see that the afflictions are what are called adventitious to the mind. That is to say, they’re not in the fabric of the mind themselves. They are accidental or incidental to the mind. There is a countervailing class of positive emotions.
It is a fact that anger and love cannot exist simultaneously in the same mind at the same time. The greater the the the class of positive emotions, the lesser the class of negative emotions, whether specifically or just in general. So he he began to see that by promoting, by cultivating, by working with these these positive emotions, we can begin to reduce the afflictions in our mind until we actually reach an absolute point whereby we can, through the cultivation of the root antidote to our root problem of ignorance, remove ignorance from the mind completely. He saw that by developing the wisdom which understands reality, we can actually remove ignorance from the mind completely. You know, this was a this is a, you know, amazing discovery if you think about it.
I mean, the situation is workable, really. It’s not a theory. It’s not an abstraction. It’s it is there’s a practical means by which we can bring happiness to our mind. And it’s not quantum.
It’s not an it’s not an either or. It’s a matter of a gradual evolution of cultivation within our mind. The the the more positive qualities that we develop, the more love and compassion and all the various positive emotional qualities, you know, skillful qualities of the mind we develop, the less negative qualities are able will be present in our mind, and therefore, the less suffering we will experience. So, you know, we can gradually come to this state. It’s not an either or situation.
We’re either liberated from saṃsāra or not. So, you know, we can begin to cheer up our life. It can go run that much smoother. It’s just it becomes the flow a little more easier. You know?
We can be happy and be in this world. The way that we can cultivate this, these these these positive states of mind and thereby bring about a cessation to these negative states and thereby cessation to the origins of suffering, thereby cessation to suffering itself is by cultivating a path. And that’s what we’re working with, with these Three Principal Aspects of the path. But, you know, we’re we’re trying to become happy, healthy, loving, sane human beings, and we call that a Buddha. That’s our model.
That’s our paradigm. Paradigm. You know, we have something we can work for toward. One of the problems with contemporary psychology, it has no model of sanity. It is path it is pathologically orientated.
They only work with disease. What’s wrong with people? Here, we’re more concerned with what what is right about us and how we can cultivate that and become more right. How we can become more healthy. We have a we have a goal to work toward.
And we can keep orientating our minds toward that, toward what we call a Buddha. I don’t know a Buddha. I know that sometimes feel a kindness. Sometimes I feel understanding. I have some maybe I comprehend a few comprehend a few facts here and there once in a while.
Not very often, but once in a while. Sometimes I feel strong. You know? A little bit. Maybe not not for long, maybe.
And We all have some wisdom no matter how faint and obscure that wisdom might be. It’s there. We all have some love and compassion, however limited, however exclusive that love and compassion might be. We all have some personal power, however weak and unrefined that that inner strength, that power might be. And moreover, we all have some skill and means, you know, some some however unspontaneous, however misdirected at times our our skill might be applied.
And moreover, we all have experiences of some kind of fearlessness, you know, however fleeting, however easily intimidated our fearlessness might be. We all have the seeds of a Buddha They’re within our minds now. It’s simply a matter of cultivating those qualities. As those become stronger, more pronounced, arise more eat readily, more frequently with greater strength, they’re the opposite class will, of itself, weaken. We don’t have to even consider it.
They will diminish, and, finally, they will be gone without it or even knowing it. We will achieve a higher order of being. Whatever we want to call that higher order of being, we can become that. That option is open to us. It’s up to us.
It’s our responsibility. It’s not a matter of whether we can. It’s a matter of when. And that and that wind is each of our own responsibilities. No one else can do it for us.
So in this process, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, which we try to actualize by means of the Dharma. You know, teachings, but more than not, you know, the the meditation techniques, the trainings, but but more than not the the truth of things, the way things are in their actual nature. The truth which will make us free ultimately. But importantly, important, which is of great relevance to ourselves, to where we’re at here at in Adelaide, here at Buddha House, here this evening. We rely upon the Sangha, you know, our fellow practitioners, those who assist us in this process, mutual supports.
And the world is like our hospital, and we are all nurses. And and this is the place we heal together. And we try to raise the love of our motivation, you know, the why behind and the purpose for this intention creating this kind of karma such that what we’re doing is for an ever widening new circle of others. Ultimately, what we’re doing is for the sake of all living beings. We can try that.
We can try. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
I go for refuge in time awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other the causes of happiness. May sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others.
Reverently, I pray straight with my prophecy speech in mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, those actually arranged and imagined. I disclose all my negative actions accumulated during beginningless time and rejoice in all the virtues of superior and ordinary beings. Please remain to the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of Dharma from migrating beings. I dedicate all virtue, my own and others, to the great awakening.
Okay. So we’re going to meditate. So if you like to take a comfortable, firm posture. Market here. I was talking about we were learning to meditate.
We’re talking about we have Buddhism offers a supermarket full of meditations, you know, depending upon your particular place at at that particular time, what your need is, what you’re working with, you can take that off the shelf and make use of it to help yourself, to nourish yourself. So I thought this is a meditation that we’ve done before. It’s a meditation on appreciation, or it’s simply what we call rejoicing. You know, I’ve talked about the fact that in in in a very real way, lives are like a story. We we tell ourselves a story about who we are and our place in this world, what we can expect out of life.
You know, there’s we tell ourselves our own autobiography, as it were. And quite often, our the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves is is filled with a sense of poverty. We quite often overlook or we dismiss the richness of ourselves, the richness of our life, you know, who and what we are and what we do. And out of this arises jealousy for those who have appeared to be doing better than we are, have more than we are, are more than we So they they you know, when we talk about our richness, we’re not talking about the fact that you have a million dollars or not or or that that you found a cure for cancer. You know?
We have to begin to appreciate even the seemingly little insignificant things about ourselves and value those and and and become aware and remind ourselves of all those. You don’t have to be perfect to be okay. So and this is simply a way of feeling okay about ourselves or perhaps even better than okay, feeling good about ourselves and the things that we do and reminding ourselves. So we we reflect on who it is that we are and what we’ve done, their significance, significance, and we value them. We pre we learn to appreciate ourselves, to feel pleased about ourselves, to feel good about ourselves.
There’s some kind of encouragement that we that inspiration for ourselves in that. You know, I like I like that about myself. You know? Or I I really I think what I did yesterday was really a good thing to do. I’m I’m pleased with you, Jampa.
I’m I’m really happy that you’re but also with regard to others. Yeah? Rejoicing is the way that we can overcome. It’s an antidote to jealousy. We’re rich enough that we can allow people to be happy and do well in their lives.
You know, there’s not a scarcity of resources. Everybody can be a Buddha at one time. And that’s a that’s a that’s a real inspiration. It’s not like there’s a everybody in the world can have a car. That’s not possible.
But everybody can be a Buddha. That’s possible. So we can work with that area of our thinking and that where you have rejoicing in what others do, what they have, the fact that something good has happened to them. We feel good about ourselves, and we feel an abundance of richness enough in ourselves that we are willing to acknowledge the the richness of others. Richness of others.
So that’s what we’re going to meditate on. Okay? So so take a comfortable firm posture and begin to a meditation on on the breath. Begin with relaxing the body, starting at the crown of your head, the scalp, the forehead, forehead, feeling the wrinkles in your brow beginning to smooth out. The pressure in and around your eyes beginning to diminish.
The muscles of your face relaxing, softening. Your jaw is relaxed. And the muscles at the back of the neck, perhaps turn your head to each side gently, just loosening, stretching. Relaxing the muscles of the throat. The upper back and shoulders, rotating your shoulders a few times, letting them drop comfortably to the side.
Feeling the burden that we carry throughout the day on our shoulders moving down through your body onto the ground. Relaxing your hands, allow them to go soft. Your lower arms. Your upper arms. Just as it is.
Your heart, lungs, Releasing the tensions that we hold in our stomach muscles. Allow your belly to go soft. Relaxing throughout the abdominal cavity, all the various organs. Holding your trunk erect, relax your lower back muscles. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area.
Your buttocks, Upper legs, thighs. Lower legs. Your feet are soft. Bring your awareness to your body in general. And notice any tightnesses, any tensions within your body.
And focus on those areas and consciously relax, soften, feeling the tightness loosen, the tension diminish, your body becoming comfortable, at ease, a sense of physical well-being pervading your body. It’s a nice place to be in your body. And then bring your mind to the breath, just easy, gentle, in and out flow the natural breath. If it’s helpful, use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Now we’re going to meditate on appreciating ourselves, rejoicing in what it is that we do, what it is that we have.
And we’re going to do this by setting various time periods. So the first period of time is recalling something that you did or that you have some quality that you possessed more than one month ago. So recall an incident that happened one more than one one month ago or yourself, something about yourself that you possessed or that you felt more than one month ago, and simply try to value its significance. Be pleased for yourself. Be pleased with yourself.
Rejoice in yourself and what you did and what you have. Feel good about yourself. I’m going to do the same thing, but we’re going to shorten the time period more than one week ago, but less than one month ago. More than one week ago, but less than one month ago. Something that you did or that you felt that you had.
Don’t dismiss it even if it’s small. Value it. Don’t overlook it. Again, we’ll do the same. But now the time period has changed.
So before before today, up to one week ago. Even if it’s something small, be pleased with yourself. Congratulate yourself. And then finally, with regard to our self, something that you did today. No matter how insignificant you may feel to be, don’t judge.
Just be pleased with yourself. Value it. Now we’re going to do the same with regard to others, beginning with a current friend. Think of someone that you like. And what have they done recently that you’re pleased that you’re pleased with that you that made them happy?
Something about them. Be pleased for them. Congratulate them. Rejoice in what they did, what they have. I wanna do the same thing with a stranger.
You know, maybe you heard of someone on the television or that you know of somebody that that won a prize, that did something great, congratulate them. Be pleased for them. Rejoice in what happened for them. And then lastly, think of someone who you perhaps are jealous of or anyways, someone who you have some problems with. Think about something about them, some quality, something that they have, something that they did, which is a good thing, a wonderful thing.
Be happy for them. Be glad for them that this happened, that they have this. Set aside your own material and be happy for them. And then bring your mind back to the breath. Get in touch with your body, the feelings, sensations within the body.
And then slowly, in an easy gentle relaxed manner, become aware of your Okay. We’ve been looking at the verse. The force fourth verse. And we looked at freedoms and riches are hard to find, and life does not last long. You know, we begin by trying to appreciate our potential and that we have the chance to actualize that potential to realize all that we can be.
And the fact that but moreover, that we have the chance that this opportunity is not going to last forever. If we understand that, then we’re going to begin to change the priorities of our life. You know, our our potential we talked about was the fact that I think it’s difficult. It’s easy to talk about. It’s not even diff it’s not even easy to talk about, but it’s even more difficult to feel is that we’re all Buddhas to be.
It’s hard to to counteract this sense of impoverishment, self this sense of insufficiency, this story story of ordinariness that we keep telling ourselves about ourselves. But anyway, that’s just our story. It’s not related to reality. It’s not, in fact, the way things are. We all possess Buddha nature.
So, you know, Buddha nature refers to the mind’s essential, beginningless nature of wakefulness and its natural purity, in the wakefulness aspect of the mind. This is what is traditionally termed evolving Buddha nature or sometimes called developmental Buddha nature. It fundamentally that we are intelligent, caring, fundamentally that we are intelligent, caring, decent people. But that we are this essential quality about ourselves is overwhelmed or overshadowed by these dysfunctional patterns of mind and the afflictions of our mind, attachment, hatred, miserliness, by jealousy. They’re said to be around eighty four thousand combinations.
And and that and that it is these prevent the manifestation of our innate nature. So the mind, by its very nature, is awake. It’s awake. There is an urge to toward wholeness, toward integration, toward mental health. So in this, there is an urge toward complete awakening, but it’s weak.
It’s easily obscured. This is the aspect of ourselves, our innate sanity, our basic goodness about ourselves, is what needs to be developed, what needs to be cultivated. That’s why it’s termed evolving Buddha nature or developmental Buddha nature. There is another aspect to our Buddha nature That is our natural purity of our mind. And this is termed naturally abiding Buddha nature.
It is that we that these various and this is what we talked about when adjusting our motivation. The fact that these dysfunctional patterns in our minds, these patterns of ways of thinking, they’re not working in our own self best interests. They’re not in the fabric of the mind itself. They’re not in the nature of mind. That that the mind that there is an unconditioned dimension of our being, which, you know, is like at the at the at the depth of the ocean, which which the waves can never disturb, which in the waves can never touch, as it were.
That that we are naturally whole. There’s an aspect to our being which is naturally whole, complete, and pure. That lies within us a primordial, uncreated perfection. Nothing more needs to be added. Nothing more needs to be done to it.
So this aspect of our Buddha nature needs to be discovered. That there’s this there there naturally abides within us, uncreated, unconditioned perfection of being. That’s our potential. We have the chance, the opportunity to realize that that potential. We have a precious human life, which we, the the whole, take very much for granted, don’t we?
And taking it for granted, we let it we value it. We let it pass by, slip through our fingers without having made use of it. Like, this this human life that we have is a is a window of opportunity for ourselves. We can with We can explore all kinds of other alternatives. That is so we can begin to exercise our innate freedom, this potential that we have to become aware of and actually begin to choose alternative pathways in our life, how we want to be in this world.
You know, we can we can we can we can learn. We can practice. We can we can we can transform our minds. We can actualize our potential. This this is the circumstance that we have now and how rare this opportunity is, in fact, amongst all the many various varieties of beings in this universe.
We are how fortunate, in fact, we are. So, you know, okay. How can another way we say this is we have a chance to live our lives in terms of the qualities of wisdom and love and compassion power and find ways of benefiting others in our lives. This this option is open to ourselves. Simply, we have everything that we need right now.
Everybody in this room has all the necessary freedoms and richnesses, all the necessary circumstances right now to solve their basic problems, that we don’t have to continue living the way that the kind of life that we’ve been we have become habituated to. And that there there there are solutions. You know, we have to appreciate that there are these solutions that exist for us, that there are alternatives, and begin to choose them and to do something about it, determined to make use of our life so we don’t waste it because his life isn’t going to last forever. I’m sorry, but we’re all going to die. It’s not a very nice thing, actually.
Maybe. You know, we don’t know when. The time of our death is uncertain. It’s unpredictable. You know, if we if if we take the theory, you know, we last week we talked about some of the reasoning behind establishing the existence of past and future lives.
We talked about some of the proof of rebirth. And if we take the notion of rebirth seriously, it holds the implication that death is simply not the end, is not the the release of our suffering as we had always hoped it would be, or we’ve always thought it would be. As we imagine it, it is. You know? When you die, the mind just ceases.
It fades away like a rainbow, and we vanish. And that’s the end of it all. Then now if the rebirth is take if the notion of rebirth is taken seriously, then death is simply not the end. It’s a prelude to another life and to another life after that endlessly. So in in a way, this this kind of insight might be a lifesaver in more ways than one because it it it might, in fact, help us to lead an altogether better life in this life, knowing that this that death is not the end of life altogether, that something is going to continue on.
And it’s going to help us to change our priorities, what it is that we pay attention to, what it is that we value, what is it we give the most time, energy, the resources of our life, is going to change the way that we lead our life. So, you know, this this this understanding is not only the thing that’s going to help us at the time of our death. It is a, you know, what is it that’s going to help us at that time? You know, we’ve talked about the fact that it’s the positive imprints that we’ve implanted, that we’ve deposited in the consciousness over the course of our lives, in our own mental development, whatever we’ve done in terms of the path in the course of this life. It’s going to not only that, but even in the course of this life, it’s going to you know, understanding that this is not all that there is, that there’s going to that there’s something more is going to help us to find some kind of perspective to put this life in its its its proper place, to give us some kind of cosmic vision, that this is only a small part of a greater whole.
Then we if we can do that, then we won’t get lost in the trees. We’ll begin to see the forest. We won’t become totally preoccupied, taken up by our habitual compulsion toward pleasure, our aversion toward pain, our our pursuit of gain, our avoidance of loss, our pursuit of fame, our avoidance of being badly thought of, of notoriety. You know, it’s going to help us to assure that we don’t run after, you know, that our life isn’t controlled by praise, longing for praise, wanting praise, you know, and and avoiding ridicule at all costs. You know, the the the this prison that we’ve built up, that we live in, these eight worldly ways of life.
You know, it it’s going to ensure that our our our unfounded hopes and our irrational fears no longer determine the course of our life, that we’re willing to take a chance, we’re willing to take a risk, willing we’re willing to voluntarily take on the difficult because we see it’s going to be worthwhile. It’s going to be a long range benefit. You know, that some of our time, some of our energy, some of our resources are going to be directed toward creating the causes that will ensure that our well-being in the future and moreover, that we’re going to be able to carry on our practice in the future. You know, thinking in terms we have to try. It’s you know, I think, if we’re honest, it’s difficult to change the mind.
It happens, but perhaps it’s a slower process than most of us would hope it is or imagine it to be. So we have to but for an intelligent person, there’s really no choice than to give this process the priority in our life. But in order to do that, we have to see that it we have to see this life in a kind of perspective, in a context of life after life after life. That eventually, if we keep heading in that right direction, we will reach our goal. But it’s going to take time.
But no matter how much time it takes, it’s worthwhile. The goal is worth the effort. You know, it’s not you know, as I’ve tried to emphasize, it’s not a matter of, you know, giving up your significant relationships, you know, the the the goodies of life, the things that make you happy and so forth. I think we can we can have all of these if we keep them in some kind of proper perspective. As long as we keep our priorities straight, as long as we lead a balanced life, we can have a good life.
And in addition, we can assure that we can carry on from life after life after life, from realization to higher realization to higher realization to greater love to more and greater love, to more and greater love until we reach the goal, the endpoint. You know? That’s that becomes a style of way of being. It’s not some egotistically driven ambition. Ambition.
We can begin to, in a way, kind of relax around it and just carry on our practice. It’s workable, you know, in a long range vision. Sometimes when you see a candle burning at both end, it’s really a fantastic sight, but it doesn’t last long. We have to peace ourselves in a way that works for ourselves, that we can keep it up consistently over time, over lifetime to lifetime. Okay.
Thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects and the sufferings of cyclic existence will alter the priorities given to future lives. Okay, we’re actually going to move on. I imagine some of you were dying to get past death. We’ve tried to alter the priorities in terms of this life, and now we’re going to actually begin to alter our priorities in terms of still further future lives, you know, broadening our perspective even further. It is the means we’re taking the matter of human liberation more seriously.
You know, I don’t know how seriously we take it. The finding it it means that that really it becomes an imperative to find the solution to the human condition, what it means to be an ordinary being. You know, just like we said at the very beginning in terms of our motivation. You know? Your problem is facing the fact that you’re an ordinary human being.
What does that mean? I’m beginning to fathom that in terms of the nature of what it means to be caught up in ignorant driven existence, what we call cyclic existence or these perpetual cycles of dissatisfaction. Thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects, this involves reflecting upon karma. That’s what we’re going to begin with tonight. Actions as causes and the experiential effects of those causes.
And then the verse says, and the sufferings of cyclic existence, you know, involves reflecting upon these cycles of dissatisfaction. We’ll alter the priority you give to this to future lives. So, you know, it it will help us to overcome our addiction to cyclic existence. You know, this the nostalgia that we feel, you know, be it ever so miserable, so barren, and so full of pain, still it’s home. There’s no place like home.
You know? So we’re gonna look at we’re gonna begin with looking at thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects. karma, actions as causes and their effects. So, you know, we’ve we’ve discussed in the last couple of weeks, we were going into the nature of rebirth, how the birth is the constituted of the continuum of the subtle most energy, the wind energy, in combination with the subtlest mind entering into a fertilized ovum, and that constitutes rebirth. Now this this unit of subtle most energy in combination with subtlest mind is is comparable to be like a radio being turned on.
Just the the mere fact of a radio being on, whether that radio eventually plays, you know, classical music or rock and roll or or broadcasts the news, that that is a characteristics of the pattern of coarser minds. So the subtlest mind is simply the fact that there is a radio on. The subtle most energy is like the electric current. Whether whether, you know, the the the radio is a little transistor radio with earphones on it or whether it’s a, you know, a huge console, you know, transatlantic stereo quad speakers, whatever. And that is characteristic of coarser levels of elements and and the evolutes which evolve out of those elements.
So these there this pattern of mind, subtlest mind wind, subtle most energy wind in combination with mind are not just a matter of random chance. You know, the type of, you know, type of broadcast that takes place, the program that’s actually played out. You know, this this subtlemost energy, subtlemost of subtle most energy well, I should wish you guys think about abbreviation for this. It takes a lot to say it all the time. This combination of subtle most wind energy in combination with the subtlest mind is simply the mind is simply this potential.
The radio is on. There’s electricity. Now it’s going to evolve. It’s entering into this this. So, you know, it’s going to evolve into an embodiment, the elements, the gross elements, and the the evolutes, the embodiment, this coarse embodiment, which evolves from these elements.
This evolution is not random chance. It’s it’s it’s the logical outcome of discernible variables, specific causes. That is karma. Our karma creates, like, the format, the style determines the content of what is going to be aired as a program, our life. Our life is like this program, which is finally going to be broadcast.
So what is karma? And we’re we’re gonna karma is extremely complex subject, and it’s the Buddha said, if you think about karma too much, you go crazy. But, anyway, we’re gonna think about it in certain certain ways from various points. It’s it’s enumerated from many, many points of view from different angles. There are different sort of opinion on karma.
There is the the opinion the that the the some of the the doctrines as set forth by what is called the lower abhidharma or manifest wisdom set forth by, for example, the Vaibhāṣika, the great exposition school. And there’s the the Abhidharma, which, you know, details the doctrine of karma as set out in the Mahāyāna Abhidharma, which was composed by Asaṇga. So there’s it’s extremely complex in this, but we’re we’re going to approach it from many points of view. But let’s begin by just trying to figure out what is karma. I mean, it’s a it’s a west it’s almost become a westernized term.
And but people have some fantastic notions about what karma is. The term karma is a Sanskrit term. It simply means action, work. Okay? That’s what the term means.
It is mental action, mental work. So karma karma is situated in the in the broader Buddhist understanding of the natural law of cause and effect. This is central to Buddhism. The notion of the law of cause and effect. This law of cause and effect operates throughout nature, throughout the world, throughout the universe, you know, where things and events are, are, and even our own experiences are the results of particular causes.
They are not they they don’t occur by chance, nor do they occur by the force of divine intervention, some great some deity up in the sky. All that we come to know, this world about us, in all its varieties, in all our various experiences, are the result of discernible causes bringing about specific results. So what makes karma special amongst the general law of cause and effect is that it involves intentional action. So because there is intentional action, there is an agent. There is somebody who’s intending the action to be done.
So the natural causal process which is going on about us, which is operating the world, you know, like like a flower growing from a seed or a fire coming from wood or a mountain being worn down by the rain. These these all occur without an agent. They are simply the natural process of cause and effect operating in the natural world. In order for a causal process to be a call a karmic process, it must involve an individual and their intention. Okay.
An individual’s intention leads them to a particular action. Our actions act as causes, which initiate a series of reactions. The final result of which is that we ourselves, as the agent of the initial action, we experience a specific result. So our actions act as causes. We, as the agent in action, will eventually experience the result of that action.
And moreover, the nature of that result will correspond to the nature of the causal action. And so this, you know, we’re going to to go into all of these details. So, you know, like, like, so I’m trying to differentiate between the law of cause and effect in general, which governs the natural all over the world, as opposed to the law of cause and effect in terms of karma. If, if, if a limb falls down from a tree, that is simply an operation of the law of cause and effect in the natural world. It is not a karmic process.
If there is a person standing beneath that limb when it falls, and it falls on their head, that is an occurrence of the karmic that is brought about by a karmic process. So, so karma involves those experiences and those results which are internal to the being. So, the the the the specific type of causal mechanism in which an individual’s intention, and this is going to be important word, intention where an individual’s intention leads to a particular bodily or verbal action, along with the seeds or the latencies of that action, are what we call karma. The specific type of causal mechanism. So there’s a causal mechanism that we’re trying to understand, begin to appreciate, and how it’s operating, and how we can make and take advantage of it.
We can make use of it, that knowledge, that understanding. This mechanism in which a person’s intention motivates a motivates a particular physical or verbal action, that sequence of cause and effect, along with a seed which is implanted in the consciousness of the agent of that action, a latency, is what is known as karma. So when a seed when that seed which has been implanted by that action meets with the appropriate activating condition, there will be a result will arise, and that result will correspond to the nature of that cause. karma is intention. And there’s some we don’t have to get overly complicated.
There’s debate around this. According to the the higher schools of Buddhism, karma is the mental factor of intention. There are five what we call omnipresent, ongoing factors of the mind. That is the there are five factors, functions of mind, which are present in every moment of conscious experience. There is, for example, feeling.
There’s always a feeling. Pleasurable feeling, neutral feeling, unpleasurable feeling. There’s always discrimination. The type of mental pattern which discriminates thinking this is this, this is this, this is this is a boy, and this is a girl, this is good, this is a bad, the type of discriminating quality of the mind. There’s always a factor of contact.
Contact is these are things that we can that you can that are studied in awareness and knowledge when you study the the fifty one secondary mental factors of mind, in case you’re interested. It’s a good it’s a worthwhile aggregate of the previous moment of consciousness and the sense power and the object, a sensation arises, contact arises, like, you know, some kind of sensation arises, smooth. These sensations are either agreeable or attractive or neutral or disagreeable or unattractive. Then there’s the factor of attention, the the factor of mind which holds our mind to an object, focuses, stabilizes the mind on an object. The fifth of these mental factors is called intention.
Intention is a mental factor which is present in every conscious moment of experience. The function of intention is that it moves the mind toward an object. It motivates activities of the body and speech. For example, and we’ll take some you know, we’ll go through this slowly and work with some examples. We’ll take the example of the intention of killing.
Yeah. The example the karma of killing. The karma of killing. What is the karma of killing? It is the intention to take a person’s life.
When we talk about killing, what we’re actually talking about is the intention to take in the case of killing a person, okay, is the intention to take a person’s life. Okay? If the intention to kill is not present, you will not create the actual karma of killing. I mean, there is this has to be qualified slightly, and we’ll qualify it later later. But in general, killing is the intention to take life.
If there is no intention to take life, then you do not create the actual karma of killing. Why? Because there is no intention to take life. So this karma so in karma is this intention. So karma is mainly internal.
It’s not it’s not what is going on outside in the world, even in terms of our body. It is it is mental act, you know, wanting or intending to kill. You know, in in in it’s always a there’s always the mental factor of intention. So karma so we can become a little more specific. Okay?
karma, this intending or this intentionality of the mind, is divided into two types. There is and and and, you know, when we say these words the first time, they might sound complicated. And I know my explanation is rather confusing, but I’ll try to clean up my mess as I go along. Yeah. But it’s it’s it’s not rocket science.
Maybe maybe it is, actually. I should say that. There is the karma of intention, the karma of intention, and intended karma. Sound like a trick, yes. I’m trying to trick you.
I’m playing you on these words. There is karma of intention, and I’m gonna explain these, and then it’ll simplify it. You’ll It’ll become obvious what it means. The karma of intention and intended karma. So the the karma of intention, okay, Or is the mental urge toward or tendency to focus upon a certain object or an impulse to think in a certain way.
Okay? So the karma of intention, it moves the mind to which it’s associated. So, you know, this as I said, there are these mental factors which are always present in every conscious experience. The factor of intention intention is a particular factor of the mind. It’s a particular function of the mind.
It draw its function is to move the entire mind toward a particular object, urge it to think in a particular way. It’s like like a magnet, like draws iron filings. The iron filings powerlessly are drawn by the magnet. Okay? The drawn by the magnet.
Okay? The the factor of intention powerlessly draws the remainder of the mind into some kind of directionality, some kind of orientation that it gives the mind. So it it it causes us to it motivates us. It is it is sometimes we can talk about it as if intention is the motivation. We talk about adjusting your motivation.
We’re adjusting our intention, the direct the directionality of our mind, what it is that we’re what it is that we’re focusing on. So it it motivates us to speak and to act in particular fashions. Okay? So karma of intention is a fact is that quality of mind which causes acts as a motivating force for us to speak and bodily act out in various ways. So, you know, we’re motivated.
So during the course of actually acting out and actually speaking or actually doing something, whatever it might be, there is a secondary intention, which is called intended karma. So this is what actually directs the body in the course of the action. It’s what moves the body while the act is being acted out. You have an intention to kill. So you have a karma of intention thinking to kill.
It provokes or motivates us to actually get up off our seat and pick up a knife, maybe. Those intentions, which are, which are causing the bringing about the bodily movements are intended karma. So there’s always this factor of intention, both in simply in the motivation, thinking about doing something, and in the course of actually doing the action, whether it’s a verbal physical action. There is also a factor of intention, which is directing the bodily movements, or in the case of speech, is directing the voice in some way. So there is always a type of intention present at all times.
So, okay, let’s take an example. The example of of killing. So, you know, we might the killing is one of three poisons. There’s anger, attachment, and ignorance. We can kill out of and either either of those three.
You might kill out of anger, hatred. You might kill out of attachment. In the you want to rob somebody, you’re attached to their money. In the process, you kill them. You might kill out of ignorance.
In Nepal, every year, they kill thousands and thousands of goats to propitiate a particular deity. That killing is out of ignorance as far as Buddhism is concerned. Yeah. So here, we’re talking about killing out of hatred or anger. So anger is is another mental factor.
It it perceives an its object as being unattractive, to say the least, as this being disagreeable disagreeable. Disagreeable and moreover exaggerates the unattractiveness, the disagreeable quality of its object. And it beca it it to the extent where it becomes antagonistic and wishes to do harm. So you first, you have this what’s called a distant motivating force of anger. It’s it’s it’s viewing the object.
It’s it’s only it it focuses upon the disagreeable, the unattractive qualities of its object. It exaggerates that that disagreeable unattractive quality. It becomes antagonistic toward it. And finally, it wants to harm. That’s the distant motivation.
Then anger induces an intention. This is the near motivation. This intention say, I’m I want to kill that person. Due to anger, there arises the intention to kill, to take that person’s life. Yeah?
So the mind is directed toward that person, taking action. It out of out of that motive for motivating force of intention, we actually do something. We actually maybe pick up a knife or we pick up a gun. And that intention which is taking place at the time of the actual course of the action is intended karma, you know, which is directing the the bodily movements to actually intending to pick up the gun, intending to shoot the gun, so forth. So this is although there is actually a bodily killing, and the body is actually killing this person, that is not the karma.
The physical shooting, physical stabbing is not the karma. According to the highest school of Buddhism, karma is always the mental action of intention, the intention which is associated either the precipitating motive motivation or the motivation at which is bringing about at the time of the action itself. Either the initial intention which motivates the bodily action or the verbal action or the secondary motivation or the secondary intention which accompanies the action itself. So karma is composed of the intention that sets into motion the body or the or the speech, which is karma of intention, and the intention which accompanies the actual physical act or verbal act karma. In both cases, they are the mental factor of intention.
So it is this factor. You know, we talk about you know, we have to we, you know, we talk about what is mechanism? You know, we talk about creating good karma and experiencing some kind of happiness. How do you go from there to there? You know?
There has to be some kind of mechanism, some some plausible explanation to fill that gap, the causal linkage between an an act and a result, the experience. It is this intention which is either motivating or accompanying the actual action itself, which is conditioning the mind. It’s it’s it’s it’s leaving some kind of residue on the mind. You know, this intention to take somebody’s life has has left it there’s some kind of remnant staying left on the consciousness of this of this past intention, that past that you know? And that is karma, isn’t it?
So one way of saying this is we say it leaves a seed, a scar on the consciousness, a karmic seed or a karmic latency or a predisposition. Yeah? But it’s simply the the the the the the remnants of this particular intention. Some trace of this is left on the mental continuum of the mind. So the the the continuum of the mind carries that trace.
You know, the mind is being conditioned. It’s not this happens all the time. Our mind is continually being conditioned. You know? Our mind is not a blank slate.
You know? It has it is all of these condition our mind is being conditioned. The mind that is to say, it’s being altered by you know, our previous thinking alters our present thinking. Our present thinking will alter our future thinking. And I’m using roughly thinking, thinking, the way our mind is operating.
It’s not as if it it’s being it’s being effective by what we did in the past. It’s it’s it is now being our future mind is being affected by what we’re thinking now, what our intentions that we’re presently making use of. It’s altering the structure of the mind, the nature of the mind’s conditioning that mind. So the mind will carry that condition factor, the seed or this predisposition, to the time when there’s some kind of objective condition will activate that seed, and you’ll and a particular experience will arise in the agent of that action. So so there’s there’s a latency which is infused in the consciousness, which provides for the connection between the the the the past performed action and the future experience result.
Thank you. Just a few more points. I read a paragraph by the Dalai Lama. He’s talking about trying to appreciate that this what karma is and how it’s how it’s being carried forward. karma as cause.
How it’s being what how it’s being linked to a future experience. With regard to the meaning with regard to the means of connecting a karma with its effect, consider this. In our conventional vocabulary, we say, at an earlier time, I did such and such. And it is a fact that the agent of that action is oneself. Okay.
So, you know, I walked into this room. I came to Buddha House. I’m the agent of a particular action. I picked up the glass of water and so forth. And it is the fact that the agent of the action is oneself from the point of view that oneself is the continuum of the mere I that perform the action.
And then we talked about that there is this continuum of this subtle most wind energy and subtlest mind. And on the basis of that continuum, we’re labeling continually I, I, I, I, I. And that one is in one you know, there are various instances within that continuum, but there is still, nonetheless, this beginless, endless continuum upon which we continually label I. And that this this this continuum is associating with various embodiments over time. But we say that but if we look at the matter closer, the action is ceased.
The I of the present moment is is not the I of the previous moment. Okay? I the I that’s sitting here on the chair, on the on the seat, is not the I that walked in the door. Those are two different eyes. However, still, innately, we have the thought and indeed say, I did that.
I I came in I Buddha House at five thirty today. And that accords with the fact. One is therefore the owner of that action. In this way, there is a connection between the action and oneself. And this is what connects forward to the future effect of the action, no matter how much time passes, since the continuum of the mere I or the person who performed the action and thereby accumulated the karma keeps going, one is still the eye who accumulated the karma.
There’s this continuum of eye over time. There is the one the the I was the this I in the past accumulated this karma. One is still in the continuity of that same I even in the future. And since that action was done earlier has to fructify, there is no one else for whom it let us say it has to ripen, it has to bring bring some kind of result. There is no one for whom it can fructify except oneself because it is in the same continuum.
So, you know, I’m in the same continuum with the person who walked in that door. I walked in. I walked in the door, and I’m sitting here now. Those two eyes are different, but I can conventionally say that I walked in the door since they’re it is within the same continuum of this of the same being. Anything that that action of walking in the door, if that brings a result, I I since I’m I’m in the same in the continuum of that I, the person who that who committed that action, it is the I of the present within that continuum who’s going to experience the result.
You understand that? You’re doing better than I am. Because there is residue of the action is implanted in the continuum of the agent. When I do something, that intention leaves some kind of trace, some kind of residue of the mind. I’m the agent of the action.
You know? I picked up the glass. Okay? That that that due to that karma, having created that karma, I accumulate karma. What it means to accumulate karma is that there is the intention leaves some trace of that action.
That is a trace of itself. Since karma is intention is the action, is the karma. That means to accumulate karma. That means there’s some kind of seed or some kind of disposition which is being placed upon the mind, and the mind is infused, altered in some fashion due to that intention. And the continuum of that mind continues down to the present.
And when it means with the proper activating conditions, the being who is in the continuum of that will experience the result. What the the it’s in the same the experience or any agent of the action are in the same continuum. You know, we we talked about the fact what we meant by seed. And we were talking about substantial cause and cooperative cause and trying to establish the idea of the difference between these two. And we talked about how a seed, you know, most is characterized by it has encoded in it some kind of genetic information.
Okay? And when that seed is planted, that is to say so seed is information. You know? A DNA molecule is information. Genetic DNA material is information.
When that information, when seed comes in contact with the particular conditions, activating conditions, soil and water and warmth and so forth, that information begins to find, begins to express itself. It begins to interact in its environment in specific manner, bringing about predictable results. You know, it draws out certain nutrients from from the earth, the ground, and certain molecules of water and begins to form form form those nutrients into a particular very specific structure, particular to itself. So we can begin to think about these conditioning factors in the mind. When they meet with a particular condition, they are like some kind of information encoded in the mind, aren’t they?
And they begin to react in a very specific manner, you know, bringing about very specific experiences in terms of experience. You know, the person who is undergoing this ripening of the karma. So a potency has the potency or seed has the idea of an organizing capacity that when activated initiates or directs the production of a specific and predictable effect. And this is what these seeds of karma are depositing on the mind. Certain you know, there’s a there’s a some kind of potency which is left on the mind, which has the ability to organize our way of thinking, our way of reacting, and thereby our experience in a very predictable and specific way.
You know, this this notion of seeds within within the mind. You know, we could even take the notion of you know, we we we talked about when we in our in our motivation. We talked about motivation. We talked about sometimes we’re angry and some times we’re not. What where where does our anger go when we’re not angry?
You know? It doesn’t become nothing. We one way of thinking about it is that it becomes a potent there is a there when anger is not manifest in the mind, there is a seed of anger in the mind. Yeah. Or there is a seed of attachment in the mind, even when attachment is not manifest.
And when that seed is activated by certain external conditions, attachment arises. You know, if you walked into someone’s house, someone’s home, and maybe they were baking let’s say they were baking bread. You You walked in, You you feeling didn’t feel any particular emotional state. And then, wow. That smells good.
Wow. And your mouth waters. You know, you start salivating. You know? And you think, wow.
So I put some put some butter and jam and cream on that. Oh, wow. Attachment rises in your mind. So that smell acted as a activating condition due to which that seed of attachment manifested as as actual attachment in your mind. Attachment rose in your mind.
So our minds have various types of seeds, seeds of consciousness, but it’s also seeds of past actions, and it’s simply a matter of being activated by specific conditions. You know, as I I tried to point out, our minds are not blank slates. It’s not, you know, which they just simply react. That that that our minds are conditioned. You know, I tried to you know, I used the notion of they carry our evolutionary history encoded in them, all their various actions, that that they’ve been conditioned very uniquely to to ourselves.
You know, my continuum is very different. Well, man, it’s different than yours. I don’t know how different. You know, all all of our our collective collections of all our mental, verbal, and bodily actions that we’ve committed over time, they’re all disposed, encoded within our minds in various ways, deposit the residues of those actions. And when they when they meet so these are all this is all of what karma is referring to.
These karmas or these karmic latencies or these karmic seeds possess the potential or the capacity that when they’re activated by the appropriate conditions, they give a directionality to the mind. You know, this is a very difficult I don’t understand this point. They give a directionality or orientation to our mental processes. They motivate us to think in various ways, to to act out and speak. The activation of the karmic seed, you know, through its coming into contact with an appropriate objective condition is what is meant by ripening of karma.
So karmic ripening predisposes us to experience and mentally and verbally and bodily react in predictable manners to to a particular objective condition. It’s like we’re programmed, and a button gets pushed, and there’s a particular experience and reaction. We have all these buttons in our mind. We’re not in control. Anyway, we’re gonna talk a lot more about karma.
There’s a lot to go into different all various types, different divisions of karma and so forth. It’s quite an interesting area. If I don’t so I’m going to sit down there, and we can discuss some of these points. Okay. So does anybody have anything you’d like to share or any ideas?
Yes. Because they didn’t go out to kill, but when the opportunity arose Yeah. They still did it. Yeah. Yeah.
So we’re gonna go into this with what’s called the the four there are four factors which make up a complete path of action of action. Mhmm. And this this is where this your your your example would be determined. So the, you know, for example, there there has to be the object. Then it has to be so the object is a sentient being.
If there isn’t a sentient being, then there’s not complete path There has to be the thought. And the thought has three parts. Mhmm. As I said, the three parts are there has to be there has to be the recognition. If you miss if if you think it’s on the tree, it turns out to be a person, and the factor recognition is missing.
So you have to act accurately recognize, not mistakenly recognize. There has to be the motivation. And in this case, usually, in the case of negative actions, it’s one of the three poisons. So if there isn’t the motivation, then it’s not a complete path of action. Anybody remember the third one?
Is that? No. It comes it comes later. What did I say? It has to be recognition, motivation, and Okay.
You said it was That That’s the first one. Yes. And then the second category is has three parts. My my was recognition, motivation — wait, I’m mistaken, Is it something to do with the moment that you’re actually doing it? This is before the execution.
This is all coming before the action. Before they actually commit the action. I’m gonna ask them. Anyway, this and then the third part is the actual execution, committing the action, and the fourth is completion where the action is actually completed. So so in your case, the the the it’s we have to question where is the is the actual motivation to kill.
Is that complete or not? What’s it? Well, is is there? It’s distorted. It’s distorted.
Yeah. And there’s so there has to be the, you know, anger or ignorance or attachment, which motivates the killing. So is there is there do you think there’d be any either of these three? Why would he kill this person? Why is he doing it?
Is he killing it for money? Or or he just saw that his mind is just shooting a gun or something, you know, randomly. Anyway in the case of something so my point is if if the if one of these one of these three is missing, it’s not a complete action. It’s called whatever it is for whatever it is. Yeah.
It could it could come in there. I don’t know. That’s just just the other thing I’m thinking on that, I’ve heard this before, and and it’s tricky. But the part the part you were saying where there’s three and you couldn’t work out what to do, it okay. You recognize it’s a human a person on a tree, and then you have one of the motivators, which is the poisons.