Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Margaret McAndrew teaches three verses from The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, exploring how karma manifests in present-day suffering. In this 42-minute teaching, she examines how mental anguish, hunger and material hardship, and lack of freedom each result from specific past actions: disturbing others’ minds, stealing or hoarding, and dominating others. For each consequence, she describes the karmic cause, the resolve to avoid it in future, and the tonglen practice of taking on others’ suffering while extending them happiness. She grounds the teaching in contemporary life—job insecurity, the ethics of generosity, modern servitude—rather than historical examples. Pitched at practitioners already studying the graduated path of Buddhist training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 SW 1999 02 25.mp3
UUID: 1b72256c-cadf-46bd-a7ff-5610957fdf31
Teacher: Ven Margaret McAndrew
Collection: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons (Ven Margaret McAndrew)
Date: 1999-02-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.1 minutes
Words: ~4,279
So anyway, with this thought of avoiding the cause of The karmic cause of mental anguish, then we have to resolve that we won’t commit these kinds of actions anymore, that we won’t do the kinds of actions which we can avoid causing mental anguish to others. And particularly intentionally upsetting others, you know? If somebody is upset by what we do, but we would not want it to be that way, then that’s different. Sometimes people are just going to be upset because they want us to do something and with our own good judgment we decide not to do that. That’s different.
We’re not doing it deliberately to upset the other person, we’re not doing it out of carelessness towards their mental state, but when we do wrong things, particularly when we do negative actions that cause problems to others, then we’re creating this kind of karma and we resolve not to do these sort of actions again and Then we resolve, then we also add to that the thought that when we do experience these kinds of problems we we think of all the others who are suffering in this way and this enhances our feelings of compassion and love for others. It enhances our understanding of others. We realize that we’re not the only one suffering. We don’t become self centered about it, but in a way it helps us to feel an understanding of how others are also suffering. It gives us more understanding of others mental states as well and so in this way it can be very very helpful to us to experience these sufferings sometimes because then it gives us insight into others, increases our compassion and then we do this practice of taking on the mental suffering of others, and we can give out our happiness to others.
So that’s stanza eleven. And then stanza twelve, how about you, Jim? Okay, so when I read this I thought that probably in our society most of us might not have had to experience too much of this kind of karma. In fact perhaps most of us have a problem with the opposite. But when we do perhaps experience this kind of karma from time to time, we can remember the karmic cause and practice this way.
And even if we don’t actually experience these kinds of suffering very much, we often have an opportunity to think about these karmic results when we see television, when we see the news or when we see the current affairs programmes on television or read current affairs papers and magazines. We have a lot of opportunity to understand these kinds of sufferings through seeing these kinds of programs and realizing how many people in the world are suffering this way. Also animals! And to think to have some sort of imaginative idea of the terrible suffering that’s been experienced by so many beings. And this can give us an idea of not wanting to receive these kind of effects ourselves in the future.
And so we again resolve not to engage in these sorts of actions. Also of course, although we’re not experiencing these effects, now that’s not to say that we don’t already have these karmic seeds on our mindstream from past lives, or even from this life. And so we have to try to avoid these actions, these non virtuous actions such as stealing, robbing, cheating, taking by force, for instance in situations where you have an opportunity of abusing your power, miserliness, stinginess, when we engage in these sorts of activities, then we’re really creating these causes to experience hunger or material hardship in the future. So, if we want to have an opportunity to experience these things and at the same time purify these karmic seeds that we’re sure to have, then come and do the Nyungne at Wesak which will be in the present newsletter but the one after that I think it’s in June this year I suppose so, I’m not really sure. We haven’t really laid out plans for that yet I think it’d be easier to have it here but maybe not.
But anyway, yes, I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for When you do this practice, you really feel hunger and thirst, and you really go through it. But maybe because of Sunday being the day for other activities at Buddha House, we might have to find another location. Anyway, this is a practice which is specifically designed to enable us to work off these karmic seeds and at the same time doing very powerful purification and to develop our positive attitudes of compassion and love and kindness towards others. So, So what do you think? Yeah, well certainly it depends on the mental attitude, yes.
But also of course here I think we can this is one situation where we can probably have an opportunity to measure our mental attitude by our material doings. In other words, know, you can’t fool yourself that you have a generous mind when you’re not giving anything. Also, of course, we can’t be stupid and give away all our needs, what we need for ourselves to have our reasonable needs taken care of. Yes. Think Mother Teresa had a good thing to say about this.
She said something like Don’t just give out of your abundance, but give until it hurts! So if it’s not hurting, then you’re probably not giving it up! Yes. Yes. That’s silly.
Yes. Yes. But they might spoil it off by being annoyed. That’s a really important point and we all have something to give and what we have to give might be more valuable to the person than money. But still here we’re talking about material things and the material giving specifically in this verse, particularly focusing on material things which result in poverty and hardship and hunger and so on if we don’t give them.
Particularly, I think if we see an opportunity and don’t to relieve somebody’s hunger directly, particularly if we actually encounter this person, encounter somebody who’s hungry or see a very direct opportunity to help and we don’t do it, then we’re being perhaps smartly, or we can check up anyway whether we are, it gives us the opportunity. And I think often we get the impulse ourselves, like for instance, sometimes we see an appeal on television and we have a really strong impulse, oh that’s something I should give too. And it might be something overseas, it might be something in our own neighbourhood, but we sort of get a feeling, oh yes, that’s something that I could care about and then that gives, I think that’s something that’s prompting us. We’ll sort of have a feeling, an intuitive feeling of how much we can give. And I saw a videotape by Leon Plyfield once, which seemed quite good.
Do any of you know of him? He was more active in Queensland, but he had an organisation I forget the name of it now. But he said that often that we tend to bargain with ourselves, you know? And we tend to, first of all, think Oh yes, I’ll give them fifty dollars and then you start bargaining and saying No, maybe twenty dollars would be enough and that kind of thing. This is where we can look at it.
So maybe our original impulse was a bit too generous, but we can sort of see where this niggardliness is coming in when we see how we bargain with ourselves. And he was kind of making the point in a new age way that what you give out is coming back to you. So from the dharma point of view, sometimes it does work in that way, sometimes you have to wait. But in any case you are going to get it back eventually and multiply it. So I think really it works even in this lifetime if you really have the right motivation and if you’re kind of open hearted about it.
Yes. Yes! Yes! That’s right, yes, exactly, yes! So we look at it that way, you can also look at the fact that we’re not hungry this now, so we must have done the right thing, but we want to keep on doing it.
Yes. Yes. So you’ve really, yes. Yes. That’s right, yes.
Yes, so you’ve really experienced it, so for you it’s really strong. Yes. Yes, so for a lot of us we don’t really know what it’s like to be hungry. Thanks. I know that’s really helpful.
So that’s the stanza. So And also of course we can experience these conditions of hunger and thirst in our next life, not only as human beings, but as animals or as pretas. So we can really rejoice that we have the opportunity now to do these practices and to avoid that kind of result. And then, stanza thirteen. So, who’s going to read stanza thirteen?
You look as if you’re keen to do it. Mark, you got a I haven’t got a paper. Right. Yes. You must know Alright.
So I don’t know whether this one rings a note with anybody, does it? So here again, in this particular society perhaps we don’t have to experience the worst of this kind of experience because we don’t have slavery or serfdom or extreme social divisions in this society. And this is a result of our good karma too. But we might have to do with a sort of you could say a modified form of this karmic result in the sense that a lot of people might have to drudge away at work that they don’t like, or they might have to work for people who are very hard to work for, who look down on them and who don’t appreciate their work and so on. And these kinds of hardships are a result of having been Having taken advantage of people in other lifetimes and having done these kinds of activities.
So, having regarded people of lower status of ourselves or people who are economically reliant on us, in the sense of employers whatever as being simply there for our own purposes, just using them as drudges, just using them as work units and not regarding them as human beings with their own rights and their own needs and so on, disregarding this human element. We all have to I think we’ve all, probably most of us, unless we’ve been very very fortunate in this life, have had experience of being treated in this way and we know that it’s not very nice and it feels demeaning and particularly if you don’t have thought training to stand by you then you can end up getting very angry and perhaps feeling a bit revolutionary and so on. Yes? It must be particularly in the present where our job availability is very limited When I was young and going to work, could always get another job if you didn’t like the job you were in, but I think nowadays this kind of karma is coming in very strongly, that nowadays there are a lot of people who feel they have no choice where they work, if they find a job they have to take it, if they don’t like it they have to hack it and that’s that.
And it’s really a lot of mental suffering for a lot of people and I think it’s a very sad thing about our present social situation. People do feel this way. Sometimes they don’t even have a very great choice about the kind of job they have to take. People just have to take whatever they can get. And it might be something that they really don’t want to do and that they really feel very dreary about doing.
And it must just seem sometimes when you’re stuck in a job like this that you’re just looking forward to a long dreary life of doing things you don’t like, and if you’re still young, then that in particular, even if you’re older, can seem really dreary to be stuck in that job for a year or two. And if you’re very young and you can’t see what’s going to happen to you in the future, you don’t know, things might get better but you can’t see, you think maybe my whole life is going to be like this, it must just seem really dreadful. Yes, yes. Yes, I feel sorry for some of these kids now who are at school and they really have to stay at school or college or whatever until they’re in their twenties nowadays because there’s no jobs for them before that and a lot of these kids really aren’t educationally minded. They’d be probably better off working and maybe doing part time study or something to enhance their education, but they have to stay stuck in full time study just because really there’s not much else for them to do and everybody’s kind of pushing them into it.
That’s really dreary and it’s dreary for the teachers too. Sorry. When I was young, university ones were privileged and you thought they having a good time and getting involved in all sorts of political activities and so on and It’s not like that anymore. So anyway, at least we don’t have these extreme divisions, and at least we have this opportunity of most of us probably will get jobs eventually, even if it’s not the job we want, and we’ll be able to sort of have a bit of money to spend in our leisure time. So we’re pretty fortunate actually in this country, and things are a lot worse in some countries like India and so on.
And if you talk about being stuck in a starving family, well I think it’s much more so over there. On the other hand, perhaps they don’t think about it so much because they take it for granted. I mean, you know, because there are no choices. Sometimes when you can see possibilities but can’t actually achieve them yourself, it makes it that much worse. So, anyway Yes.
I was going to tell the story of I knew quite a few years ago about a chap who was working in a restaurant as a cook, and his boss, his employers, the married couple who employed him, to give him a really hard time and they didn’t seem to appreciate his talents according to his story. One day he got so frustrated with the lady that he tipped a big bowl of batter over her head and then walked out the door and left that job and took another job! If he was around, if he’s still doing that sort of work nowadays, he probably just has to put up with it! Yes, I was wondering whether he could have been charged with assault and battery! Actually, wasn’t my joke, somebody else came up with that one too.
But anyway, yeah. But anyway, yes, certainly. Yeah. I don’t know what his karmic result would be either. Pretty.
But anyway, so many people nowadays, they don’t even have the choice of walking out. They just have to stay in the job and this is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. If we’re in that situation, we can think that it’s because we’ve mistreated others, we’ve made other people miserable on the job and we haven’t considered them and so on. So, anyway, in order to develop renunciation, we have to get over this idea that things can be perfect in Samsāra. So actually this is just the fault of Samsāra that we’re in these situations.
And we can use this thought not only to develop the thought that we’ve done these particular specific wrong karmas, but we can use it to develop renunciation. So those of you who have been coming along and studying the graduated path, know that renunciation is one of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. Does anybody want to tell me what the other two are? Yes, very good. Right.
So there are three very big understandings that we have to gain. And as you know, it’s not just an intellectual understanding, it’s something which we have to understand from the depths of our being in order to say that we actually have that realization. So we start off understanding it intellectually and then we have to deepen and deepen that through meditation. Renunciation, the thought which is in other words the thought of understanding very thoroughly that that there’s no happiness to be attained in Samsāra. There’s no real happiness to be attained anywhere in Samsāra.
Whether we’re in the upper realms, whether we’re in the lower realms, we’re going to be encountering continual suffering and there’ll be no real satisfaction even when we do encounter some good, pleasure, limited happiness, it’s only limited, it’s never fully satisfactory and it doesn’t last. So, when we realize this thoroughly from the depths of our being, then we’ll want to get out of Samsāra. And we can reflect on this thought. The problem is that we really, in our hearts, have this misleading idea, which is very false and misleading. Somehow if we do the right thing or if we’re lucky, then everything’s going to be wonderful in saṃsāra.
And it’s not going to be. So in actual fact, we can be a lot happier in Samsāra if we learn to get in touch with our own inner strength, with our own inner source of happiness. But this is because it’s actually leading us away from Samsāra. It’s leading us away from the cause of our suffering. But if we just think that by manipulating the external situation and by just by waiting for things to get better, then suddenly everything’s going to be wonderful.
It’s never going to be like that. Even if it does seem very wonderful for a little time, if you really analyze deeply, you’ll see that it’s not so wonderful after all. And certainly, we can guarantee on the dotted line that it’s not going to last. That just when everything seems at its best, that something’s going to come along and spoil it. Because this is the nature of Samsāra and it’s always going to be like that.
So we have to develop this strong renunciation and that will motivate us to do the work to get out of Samsāra. And then we add to that bodhicitta, which is doing the work to attain enlightenment for the welfare of all sentient beings. And then of course, we add to that the understanding of emptiness, which is the actual thing that enables us to achieve those goals in line with that line with those powerful motivations. So, we’re going to encounter all of these. Sometimes we’ll be happier in our minds through doing our practice, but we’re still going to experience situations that will be difficult and that will just have to be endured.
But we can be happier enduring them through having this understanding, through having this thought training practice. And the more you start to the results of that, the more you start to see it working and start to realize that you are starting to feel a bit more patience, a bit more mental calm, a bit more ability to deal with situations that would have thrown you off course before, the more then you start to appreciate where your Dharma practice is taking you and the more you start to have energy, inspiration to work to carry on with it. So, the the whole lesson about this is that we don’t have to be made unhappy. If we have this Dharma practice, then we can be happy and it can be true Dharma happiness, which can start off small, it can just start off by being a little bit more peace of mind, a little bit more contentment. We won’t start off being ecstatic, you know.
We can’t expect to be always blissed out. But we can start to see the good in the situation, and we can start to feel positive and to feel To be more cheerful, know, we can start to have this sort of positive attitude. And in this particular instance, relating to this verse, when we have to suffer due to our lack of freedom, We can see that our lack of freedom, our lack of choice in this situation is due to having enslaved others or due to having put limitations on others through our own selfish purposes. And we take on their suffering, as it teaches us in all these verses. Take on their suffering.
First of all, we understand our karmic cause and determine not to do this in future. And we Not only that, but we determined to instead of that to serve others and to do good to others. And in this instance, we think of serving others. Not necessarily as menials or servants, but by dedicating our life and practice to attaining enlightenment for their benefit. And in actual fact, the bodhisattva would gladly serve others in the most menial capacity, just in order to relieve their sufferings and to bring them happiness.
So if we think this way, then we can do this work that we have to do more cheerfully, more happily, and we can see it as being something that’s really beneficial, that can help us to, in the long term, benefit others and to prepare ourselves to be able to do this. And then of course we add on the thought of taking on the suffering for others, taking on the suffering of others who are suffering this way, the Tonglen practice. So that’s stanza thirteen and I think that’s enough for this week. So, it’s five minutes past nine Do you want to Do you have any more questions? I thought I was going to get up to the following stanza, but I didn’t quite make it.
Then, will we finish up now or do you want to do a little meditation? That would be nice. Okay, so we just collect our for a moment, maybe put the attention on the breathing just to bring the mind into focus. So now, thinking of the suffering of others, thinking of the sufferings that we endure ourselves. In particular, can think of the mental anguish that we’ve experienced ourselves sometimes.
Perhaps at the moment we have worries, problems, mental sufferings. We might perhaps feel some sort of depression or anxiety. Certainly we’ve experienced these things in the past and we can remember them. This is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons returning full circle upon us from wrongs we have done. It’s the karmic result of having disturbed others minds, perhaps particularly our Guru if we’ve had Gurus in the path, our parents, our Dharma friends, or other sentient beings.
So we resolve that we won’t engage in these kinds of bad karmas in the future. We’ll accept this karmic result as using up our previous bad karmas. Not only that, we think of others who are suffering in this way and we think of taking on their suffering and giving out happiness to them. Also, if we experience hunger or thirst. This is the karmic result, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons from having taken what belonged to others, taken what they needed from them, stolen, plundered and robbed people.
So we resolve not to do these things in future. Instead, we try to help others, particularly to help them with their material needs, to save them from their hunger and thirst. And we do the practice of giving and taking, imagining that we take on their suffering of hunger and thirst, experience it ourselves for their sake and give them the cause for having good things. When we lack freedom, when we have to endure being under the control of others, in situations that we don’t like, that we find unpleasant. This is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons returning from having done these things to others, having put others in this situation, having looked upon others only as those who were there to serve our own selfish needs.
So we resolve not to do this in future. Instead, we put ourselves to the service of others, in particular by following Mahāyāna path for the welfare of others. And then we take on mentally this kind of suffering, enduring it ourselves and thinking that by doing that we’re taking it from these others, relieving them and giving them happiness. Happiness. So, we can conclude this session by thinking that we have only been practicing this in an imaginative form, but by attaining enlightenment we will be able to enable sentient beings to escape from all suffering and find perfect everlasting happiness.
And so we dedicate our merits that way. And so we go to the prayers on page five. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to that enlightened realm through these skillful actions. May the supreme jewel of bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. And then His Holiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, long life prayer.
Also, we’re praying for the long life of all holy teachers. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and good. All powerful Tenzin Gyatso. Please remain until cyclic existence is ended.