Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40.5-minute session, Ven Sanghy Khandro teaches the Wheel of Sharp Weapons by starting with a common dilemma: finding yourself unable to please anyone, incompatible with everyone around you. Rather than interpreting this as random misfortune, she reframes it as direct karmic consequence—the result of not caring about how your actions affect others. She then walks through the thought-training practice of transforming mistreatment into spiritual growth, citing Saint Francis as an example, and teaches the taking-and-giving meditation for consciously accepting others’ suffering to relieve them. She explains the mechanics of karma—how certain imprints ripen to produce rebirth—and addresses the challenge of breaking ingrained habits. For practitioners with some Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 The wheel of sharp weapons.mp3
UUID: 4b28f8ba-7dc3-4141-83df-a40c7983cdad
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons 42 – 154 (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Date: 1999 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 40.5 minutes
Words: ~3,756
It might be that we find that we’re in a situation where we find that we really just can’t please anybody. It can be like this sometimes we just seem to be in really the wrong situation with the wrong people in the wrong environment and sometimes when you find yourself in this sort of situation it seems like for a period of time anyway that you might not be able to make a change that you’re going to have to stay with that and have to put up with this sort of situation. Sometimes it really seems that it’s not anything we’re doing but it’s just that we’re totally incompatible with the people or the environment we’re with and there’s no way that we can please anybody. So if we feel like this, if we feel that we’re in this sort of situation then we don’t have to feel that we’re somehow victims of society or fate or God or which is what we tend to think under ordinary circumstances. We can’t say that we’re doing anything wrong ourselves particularly if we analyze the situation and feel that it’s not what we’re doing ourselves that’s a problem but just the fact of this incompatibility or the fact that we don’t seem to be able to please then we could get quite depressed about this and feel somehow victimized but instead we see that it’s our own previous actions of not having cared about the feelings of others and not having thought about how our own actions would affect other beings and so we do the kinds of actions that they find upsetting and disturbing that causes unhappiness to them and as a result of this we’re getting this kind of karmic result ourselves.
Does anybody have anything to say about that? Alright. About about where the people are. That’s right. Yes.
Sometimes I want to see you getting angry too. Yes. Yes. So it was like a guilt thing he wanted to do in a way to punish him. Yes.
That that that that that’s something. Yeah. You can understand that too. Yes. Yes.
You can feel that way sometimes yourself when, you know, you feel you’ve really done something wrong. You really want somebody to go crook at you because you feel that you that you’ve asked for it. So yes. It is. You can think that you’ve it’s it’s ignorance, actually.
I mean, if you yeah. If if you’re just sort of indifferent to the whole situation, then as you say, it’s just not caring, then that that’s actually ignorance. Not not equanimity. Equanimity. So this idea of having concern for others, for the effects of our actions on others is the the basis of all Buddhist morality and the the observance of karma is based on on understanding understanding this point.
So basically what we have to do, what distinguishes non virtuous actions from virtuous actions is that non virtuous actions are those which harm others and virtuous actions are those which are helpful. So we have to observe karma particularly by avoiding harmful actions towards others and we’re given the explanation of the ten non virtuous actions of body, speech and mind as a guide to helping us to understand which actions are harmful to others, to understand which actions generally affect others in the most harmful way so as to have guidelines of what to avoid. So in addition to this we have to develop consciousness of our behavior so that we can try to avoid all kinds of harmful and offensive behavior. So this is the basic practice of morality and the observance of karma and instead of being made unhappy when we experience the results of our bad karma then we can use it in practice of thought training. Geshe Chekawa says that if we practice thought training well then it doesn’t matter how much we are criticized or insulted and abused then in our minds we can be living in the pure land even though physically we might be living among people who are doing these kinds of things to us.
So it’s hard to imagine really but if we find it hard to imagine that it’s just because we haven’t really trained ourselves thoroughly in the practice and if we do continue to do this kind of practice and become skillful at it then eventually then it will be like that for us. Actually there’s a story of Saint Francis that I came across once. I can’t remember the exact details of it but Saint Francis apparently wasn’t very good looking and he he had a very good looking one of his other monks, one of the other friars was very very good looking and handsome so they they went begging one day and they separated and went around the town and Francis didn’t get anything. But the ladies all liked the looks of the other guy so he got a fair amount so when they met up together again, they sort of had to share the food between them. And as they were going along, Francis just sort of started thinking how fortunate he was to be receiving all these insults and put downs and being turned away and so on.
He started sort of rejoicing out loud and saying, you know, the the most wonderful thing that can happen to you is if you’re insulted and put down and if people turn you away from their doors and all this kind of thing. And the while he was sort of rhapsodizing like this, his his other disciple didn’t understand it at all and he he said, you know, brother Francis, how could it be like this? So then brother Francis had to explain to him about how it was so, you know, such a wonderful practice. So he didn’t actually have the Wheel of Sharp Weapons thought training practice but he had the same understanding.
So we could do a little bit of meditation on that one, on being blamed and criticized. So oh, maybe somebody wants to tell us about their experiences of being criticized. Yes. Yes. I mean, you know, it really is something that we find most unpleasant.
So we we can meditate meditate on how we really dislike this experience ourselves and so think of others who have to experience this kind of result also and think that as we often have to experience this kind of karmic result, we have to experience this kind of treatment by other people then we can think that we take it on and relieve other beings who have to experience this kind of suffering from this suffering by enduring it ourselves. First of all before thinking that we think that we’re not going to create the cause for this kind of action in the future so we’re going to consider how our actions of body, speech and mind affect others and avoid actions that other people find unpleasant and painful and in this way we’ll avoid creating the kind of karmic cause that would cause us to have to experience these results in the future. So we make a firm determination that in future we’ll watch our behavior towards others and behave pleasantly, make an attempt to behave pleasantly and considerately towards others. And then we think of taking on this suffering from others and sending out our happiness and our understanding and merit towards these others.
So we should think too of course when we’re meditating this way that the people who have been treating us in this way are going to have to experience the sort of karmic result that we’ve been talking about in the future. We should particularly think about taking this karmic result from them when we do these kinds of practice. Particularly think of the ones we’ve been getting the hard time from. So when the next stanza, I think it’s stanza twenty four, is it? Yes.
Stanza twenty four. Right. Like to read this one? So have any of us had all our servants walk out on us lately? I thought it was the wives who said that told their mother-in-law that they taught their sons bad habits.
Anyway, yes, we’re always trying to blame somebody. So if it’s the ex anyway, if we have this kind of experience of it doesn’t have to be servants, our friends, maybe people we share with or whatever. So if it’s our experience anyway that people are annoyed by our habits and can’t stay with us then this is the result of our lack of consideration for others and if we can’t see any obvious cause in this lifetime then it goes back to our past karma. I think of course if these kinds of situations are happening with us then it’s probably a very good idea to see if we’ve got annoying habits in this life that are driving people away from this. It’s certainly worthwhile.
Yes. karma. Does somebody else want to have a stab at that? Mostly, it’s from previous lives because it generally takes that long for the karma to ripen. If we create a lot of very strong karma in this lifetime, whether it’s good or bad, we can sometimes begin to experience the effects in this lifetime.
I’m not totally sure about this point but I rather get the impression that if you’re going to experience karma in this lifetime you’re only going to experience karma but it’ll have to be the sort of karma in which you’re going to have to experience a lot more in future lives of the same karma. I doubt if you can create a karma and use it up completely in this lifetime although I’m not totally sure that point but it seems like it’s really strong powerful and probably repetitive karmas that we start to experience in this lifetime. So extremely complex. Yes. Oh, does anybody want to explain throwing karma?
That’s fairly straightforward. Yes. Oh, dear. Yes. There’s more than three sorts, actually.
I forget exactly how it goes. It’s actually I came across this in a book by Joseph Goldstein who was very good at explaining these things from the Theravadin viewpoint. I forget the name of the book, but it’s quite a well known one, The Experience of Insight. That’s it. So I don’t know if it’s still in print, if you can come across a copy of that it’s a very good book and the I’ll get onto the cows in a minute but but basically a karma, a throwing karma, usually they use the word projecting karma nowadays.
It’s a it’s a karmic imprint which can actually produce a rebirth or which does produce a rebirth. Yes. It’s capable of producing a rebirth. The cows refer to the different factors that make a particular karma the one that brings about a rebirth. There are different factors such as the heaviness of the karma such as it’s being repeated again and again and I forget the other factors but it’s something like the a mutual karma.
So for instance if you’ve got a whole lot of cows in a barn or cattle you know then if one cow is the the door has been shut and then the farmer opens the door then one cow has to go out first and if the herd of cows has a habitual leader then it will be the habitual leader that goes out first and that’s the factor of habituation or repetition and failing that if there isn’t a particular karma of that type ready to ripen and bring a rebirth then the next likely factor would be heaviness so this is a very very strong heavy karma whether it’s good or bad. If it’s a very very powerful one for instance in terms of bad karma a very heavy one would be taking human life. Then it’s like compared to a very strong bull which would just shove its way through all the other cows and rush out first. Failing that then I think it would be the cow near the door which would have to do with nearness, I think they call it close karma. So then if the one that just happens by chance to be nearest to the door would go out first and if none of the cows happen to be near the door then if there’s a sort of a random process that just any of the cows could be the one that goes out first and in case if you haven’t got any other karmas that fit the other categories ready to ripen then it will be a sort of a random process it could be anything any sort of karma because we have an incredible collection of karmas.
During the course of our lives we create a lot of karmas every day during the course of our lives we’re going to create quite a lot of karmas that are capable of bringing about a rebirth that would be throwing or projecting karmas. So we’ve got plenty of karmas to choose from. Now we’re talking about the imprint. We do the karma means action. We do an action which is volitional so if an action is going to create a karmic imprint it generally has to be a volitional action and depends on what the motivation is that has a strong influence on the karma but these actions create imprints on the consciousness which is formless but which is associated with our body in this lifetime and then towards the very end of our life when the dying process is starting to get underway, the karma of this life finishes and a mechanism starts to take place in our consciousness which starts to produce a ripening effect which is going to produce the next rebirth and as we die this process continues and when the consciousness leaves the body of this life then it will go on to another life under the force of that next karma, of that projecting karma.
Yes. That’s right. So it’s all explained in that diagram. We’ll have to go through that again. Maybe I’ll sort of take a break in these actually, this is what Khedrup Rinpoche said anyway.
He said I should talk about karma from the Abhidharma text and Jangchup Lamrim has some text which he says would be a suitable one for me to use. So I’ll have to have a look at that. And so what Khedrup suggested sometimes instead of talking on this text, we should talk on the Abhidharma topic of karma. So I’ll do that. But yes, basically, the the explanation that I’ve been sort of giving tonight just now can be found in some of the graduated path texts that give more detailed explanations of karma and this basically comes from the Abhidharma.
So think we’ve just got time to do one more stanza because this is a short one. We’re up to twenty five. Did we finish this one? I don’t think we finished this one. Okay.
Yes, that’s right. So we’re still on stanza twenty four. Anyway if we check up and do find that the reason why we’re annoying people is because we’ve got these annoying habits and we should try to put these annoying habits right but of course this is also related to karma because even if we can see that the way people are behaving towards us is because of our annoying habits, if they leaving us because of our annoying habits. The reason we’ve got these annoying habits that are hard to break and that upset others is as a result of our past karma and having engaged in these kinds of habits, done these kinds of things in past lives so that we have this karmic patterning or this imprint of this pattern of behavior on our consciousness. So we need to work patiently and not just give up easily.
If we find that it’s difficult to change our ways, say for example if we’re bad tempered, if we try to change that it can be difficult to change and we have to keep on working at it patiently and not give up easily. Yes. Well, depends if you keep on doing them to deliberately provoke the other person. No. These aren’t bad habits in themselves, but being inflexible about them is a bad habit.
Well it seems to be one of these bad habits that strangely enough gets worse as you get older. This kind of bad habit strangely enough seems to get worse as you get older. They call it getting set in your ways. Yes. But yes.
When we’re talking about bad habits, it might not mean the kind of thing that we generally mean as bad habits, but the kind of thing that other people find difficult to live with. So we need to make an effort to keep on working to change our ways. If we can’t see any need to change our ways about it, I can see that when I used to really think it’s so obvious that the role should go this way and not that way. I used to think, what’s the point of making a fuss about it? Then some other of in my mind would be saying, yes, you know, but then, you know, it’s just so obvious.
It’s so stupid to do it the other way. And so that’s, you know, it’s sort of quite a battle in my mind to come to the point, what does it matter? You know, let let them put the roll the other way. It’s not worth all the fuss. Yes.
But you know, I still can’t see why they can’t see that it’s obviously not going to come unrolled as easily. Get stuck against the wall. So in the end, you know, sort of have to ask yourself which is more important, the toilet paper or your relationships. So Yes. That’s true.
I think having a good laugh, I think, really is something that that really helps. If you can laugh at yourself, you you know, you you you’ve won half the battle. So anyway the result of doing this is better relationships in future and we’ll find it easy to practice being pleasant to others and being able to get on with them and being liked by them. This is actually important for our Dharma practice. We might think this is just an ego trip but it’s important for our Dharma practice because if other people like us and find it easy to get on with us, we’ll encounter more conducive circumstances for our Dharma practice and what’s very important we’ll be able to exert a positive influence on other people.
So we want to have these kinds of things. Khensur Rinpoche was teaching recently about the karmic results of our virtuous actions and how we need to practice patience so that we can have a good looking body. He was telling us this last week, this Tuesday actually and you might think that wanting to be attractive and good looking is an ego trip but the point is that if we are passably acceptably good looking and not ugly then it does help us in our relationships with others and we can have a positive influence on them. Yes, yes. I was alarmed say this is in the graduated path teachings.
Yes. Not necessarily in this life. I mean, you know, you you can but, yes, I mean, it’s not saying that we have to be devastatingly sexy and so on, but that we have to be sort of acceptably look, you know, look look look to other people. So it’s important to be able to have these results and also then it will be something that just will make it easier for us to feel happy and relaxed with other people and to have good relationships in the future. So if we think of all these things, we think that we experience these kinds of sufferings now ourselves, we really don’t like having these things happening to us.
It makes us think of the sufferings of others. So we first of all think that we don’t want to have to experience this kind of resolve ourselves in the future so we make a firm resolve to not do these kinds of actions, to not do these things which upset other people, cause them to be irritated and upset but instead we’ll consider others, we’ll try to act considerately to have concern for their feelings, to avoid doing things that they find unpleasant and to try to make them feel happy and comfortable and in this way we are going to experience the good karmic results in future that will bring us the conditions that we like and then we do this practice of giving and taking, checking in the mind and then taking on this suffering and the cause of suffering from others and while we’re experiencing it ourselves then we’re also taking it on from other people so that they don’t have to experience it. So we think we’re relieving them of that. And then we can do the transformation, the blowing up of the self-grasping mind into the purified form after contemplating on emptiness for a moment and we give out all our goodness and happiness to others.
So we’ll do that meditation for a short time. That while we were doing that meditation, actually, remembered a a story that was told by Carl Jung, the psychologist. He had one woman come to him once and she told him this story about how she’d actually poisoned her friend so as to be able to marry her friend’s husband. And so then from from that time onwards, even though she felt that she could live with it, but everything just went wrong and everybody seemed to turn against her for no obvious reason that she could see and that first of all her husband had died and then her daughter had turned against her, all her friends had turned against her, and even her animals seemed to have turned against her. And she felt yeah.
It seemed like because she’d done that very wrong action that she was experiencing a result even in that lifetime. So I think we’ll finish at that point.