ACI 5

Now bring to mind that being who for you is a manifestation of ultimate love, ultimate compassion, ultimate wisdom. See them here with you just by way of your thinking of them. They are gazing at you with their unconditional love for you. Smiling at you with their holy, great compassion.

Their wisdom radiating from them. That beautiful golden glow encompassing you in its light.

Then we hear them say,

Bring to mind someone you know who's hurting in some way.

Feel how much you would like to be able to help them recognize how the worldly ways we try

fall short. How wonderful it will be when we can also help them in some deep and ultimate way,

a way through which they will go on to stop their distress forever.

We are learning that that is possible, and so I invite you to grow that wish into a longing and thinking what you know of karma and emptiness.

Grow that longing into an intention.

Then turn your mind back to that precious holy being.

We know that they know what we need to know, what we need to learn yet, what we need to do yet to become one who can help this other in this deep and ultimate way.

And so we ask them, please, please teach us that.

They're so happy that we've asked. Of course they agree.

Our gratitude arises.

We want to offer them something exquisite and so we think of that world they are teaching us how to create. We imagine we can hold it in our hands and we offer it to them following it with our promise to practice what they teach us using our refuge prayer.

Here is the great earth filled with fragrant incense and covered with a blanket of flowers.

The great mountain, four lands wearing the jewel of the sun and the moon.

In my mind, I make them the paradise of a Buddha and offer it all to you.

By this deed may every living being experience the pure world.

Idam guru ratnamandalakam niryatayami.

I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest community.

By the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest

may we reach Buddhahood for the sake of every living being.

I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the highest community.

By the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest,

may we reach Buddhahood for the sake of every living being.

I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the highest community.

Through the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest

may all beings reach their total awakening for the benefit of every single other.

Introduction to ACI course 5

(7:52) There are a few here and some that I thought would be here that aren't here who will be hearing the recording. For those new to me, in order for you to get the most out of your time with these classes, I need you to complete the course in a certain way.

What I ask is that

you listen to the lesson, whether it's live or the recording, doesn't matter.
You then read the readings, read the student notes, then go through your homework, open book. What we mean by open book: use all your notes, everything you need to fill out the homework.
Then look at the answer key and compare your homework answers to the answer key. They don't have to be word for word except when it asks for a definition. When it asks for a definition, write down exactly what you hear me give you.
When you are marking your own paper from the answer key, if you need to adjust your answer somewhat, take off one or two points. That's all. If you leave a whole question blank, take off five points. Otherwise, be nice to yourself, give yourself high scores, it's fine.
Then, review the answer key, review the student notes, review your student notes, then put it all away and take your quiz from your own mind.
Then get out the answer key. Mark your quiz from the answer key.
You end up going over the material like multiple times. That's the idea.

Please do all of that before your next class.

If you have to miss a class, get that recording, get on it right away.

When you miss a class, you're welcome to come back, but when we do, we're not all on the same page. Try to take personal responsibility to help the whole group uplift by being up to date with the next class that's coming.

I want you to have completion karma being made from these classes.

It doesn't matter so much now, and it doesn't matter so much that you have this ACI certificate, except for the seeds that you're planting in your mind to achieve that goal of becoming the one who can help that other in that deep and ultimate way.

It seems like, What's the connection?

But it's a very carefully designed connection by the lineage that we're studying.

So have fun doing it please, but please do it. Make it a priority.

(11:50) Be sure when you're submitting your papers, you have at least one meditation date and time for each assignment. You're welcome to put more but at least one. And best not to wait until the end and do them all in one day. Do them as you go along.

They don't have to be formal “Om, Ah, Hung” meditations. Just sit down and think about it and that qualifies as the meditation assignment.

I ask that you show me your homeworks and quizzes. If you do them on paper, just hold 'em up to the camera when we get to class. If you do them online, you can email them to me. I don't care. Just send me what you have.

I won't go through them line by line, but I will look to see that they were done and every now and then I stop and go, okay, I'll read somebody's papers.

Again, I'm going for the completion for all of us.

This particular group time slot, Thursdays and Sunday evenings, we've been working together for a while now. We started with the Source of All My Good practice module, which was that module where we get an overview of where the ACI coursework will take us.

Then that overview showed us very grossly the steps that we need to undergo in order to transform our perception of ourselves from suffering human being to fully awakened being, a being who's made of love, compassion, wisdom.

Just that practice module is not enough, of course. So we started ACI course 1, which was the Three Principal Paths.

Who can tell me what those three principal paths are?

The path to the bathroom, the path to the kitchen and the path to the garage, right?

Going once, going twice. I have a finger. Nattie. What are those three?

(Natalia) Renunciation, Bodhichitta and the wish for enlightenment. No?

(Lama Sarahni) Perfect. Yes.

Renunciation: There is something wrong with this picture. Everything goes wrong even when things are going right, I'm still unhappy. What's up with that? There's just something wrong. At the beginning renunciation and then it goes very much deeper and more subtle.

Bodhichitta: We know the definition, Lord Maitreya’s short definition of Bodhichitta, don't we? Luisa knows it.

(Luisa) The wish for enlightenment for the sake of every living being.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. So now if that's the part of the three principle path, that tells us right there that this Lam Rim, this course of study is a course of study that is inspired to aspire to becoming a fully enlightened being ourselves. Not all Buddhists have that aspiration.

So, studying the Three Principle Paths automatically says that what we are studying is the Mahayana level of Buddhism versus what's called the Hinayana that I'll get back to.

Then the third principle, principle realization we need to reach, is correct view. The correct view of the no self nature nature of me and other. What that means is different according to the capacity of the one who's hearing those words. And that evolves into what's called the four schools of Buddhism, of which there are really four and a half, and then actually five and a half, and then actually six. (...)

Okay, wait, my computer interrupted my flow of thought. Where was I?

How many schools?

(18:10) The different schools, thank you.

So of the different schools, there are levels of practitioners whose aspiration is to reach their own freedom. And there are practitioners whose aspiration is for others, all others, to reach their freedom and the only way that can happen is if I reach mine. Long story.

So renunciation, Bodhichitta, correct worldview.

Then we moved to course 2, which was Buddhist refuge.

In Buddhist refuge we learned how it is that the Three Principle Paths can actually help us make this transformation. We learned what refuge really means.

Then ACI course 3 was the course called applied meditation, which was like everything we need to know about meditation, except really quite how to do it. So we did that little extra stuff after applied meditation to help us get a little better handle on what it is we have to do.

It took me a long time to really figure out if what I was doing in meditation was really meditation or not. But we've got the basics in applied meditation.

Then came course 4, called the Proof of Future Lives.

It was logic and the logic behind those five qualities of a Buddha trying to show us how it is that a Buddha is a being of valid perception. I mean even now it's confusing, but the end result of that course was supposed to be that you learned the logic that can be used to show ourselves the eternal nature of our own consciousness. Did that come across in course 4?

Yeah. It's kind of interesting.

The ramifications of the eternal nature of your consciousness, it's the ultimate ramification of that is those five qualities. Becoming a being of valid perception.

Course 5 is karma. How karma works.

It is like the necessary next step.

If my consciousness is eternal, and ultimately I'm going to become this being with those five qualities, how the heck does that happen?

How the heck does it happen, right? We make the projections for it.

How do we make projections? Does anyone have a pen? I do. Oh, that's how we make projections.

So we want to know everything we can about karma.

Does anybody need a pen? I do.

That's karma—in all its beautiful workings. From the karma to see someone in need to the karma for having what they need, to the karma being willing to give it up, to the seeing oneself actually do it, to the completion of doing it, and the ‚Yay I did it‘ completion part.

All these different ways, subtle things involved in what we mean by karma.

Course 5 is all about karma.

When we understand that every instant of every circumstance we are experiencing is the result, karmic result of karmic seeds that we planted by way of what we saw ourselves or were aware of ourselves thinking, saying, doing to another, then we see that oh my gosh, my own future is at the mercy of my current behavior.

So we want to know what behaviors should I avoid and what behaviors should I do.

We learned somewhere along the way that those three levels of reality, obvious reality, subtle reality, no not reality, perceptions obvious, subtle and deeply hidden. Oh it is reality. Excuse me, deeply hidden reality.

I'm always surprised to hear that deeply hidden reality is not emptiness.

Deeply hidden reality is those direct subtle workings of karma.

Until we can access deeply hidden reality, we really can't know what behavior will bring, what result. We can learn the principles, and the guidelines, and the ideas well enough that we can make a good educated guess.

Then we can also decide that we can decide whether or not these teachings are authentic enough, or valid enough for us to declare ourselves to follow the behavior guidelines they give with enough determination to actually take vows to do so. We'll see why vow taking is such a big component of this tradition for lay people as well as ordained when we understand this interrelationship between emptiness and karma by the end of this course.

(26:38) I intend to start every class reading to you The Source of All My Good Prayer.

I would like you to just listen to it.

If you've studied it before, you can think of what you know you've learned.

If you've not studied it before, just let it wash into you.

I want us to go into this karma course with this big picture awareness more present.

I'm actually ready to start class 1 now with The Source of All My Good.

All of that before was background information.

So, sit back and listen.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Vocabulary ACI 5 class 1

(32:52) I have a screen share.

Gelukpa

Abhidharma Chu Ngunpa

Vaibashika

Abhidharma Kosha Chu Ngunpa Dzu

Master Vasubandhu Loppon Yiknyen 350AD

Master Asanga

Nirvana

Vaibashika

Sautrantika

Chittamatra/Yogacharya

Madyamika

(Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelukpa)

Hinayana

Mahayana

Tarlam Selje

Gyalwa Gendun Drup 1391-1475

sherab jedrang

juja

gupa

nyi gyu

drelwa

When we're doing vocabulary for these classes, you are not responsible for any of it unless you want to be. But we use both, the Sanskrit and the Tibetan to plant seeds in our minds to help those two languages stay alive in our world.

Most importantly is the Tibetan written, actually the classical written, the formal written language of Tibet is what the text were translated into and people are not being taught to read or write that anymore.

So we're at a big risk for having this whole volume of Buddhist literature that nobody can do anything but look at, and bless themselves by putting it on your head, but you don't know what's in it. Which is why Geshe Michael is so driven to teach translators from students who have studied carefully, so that not only can they read the text, but they can understand it. So they can at least put it into English, actually we have some Chinese translators as well.

I'm going to do my part by just showing you that whatever you call this, the pinon version of the Sanskrit and the Tibetan, because I'm incapable of doing the other squiggly languages. So here we go.

Just for those who maybe are new, we are studying in the Gelukpa Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist tradition. So Gelukpa, I'll come back to this in a little bit. I just want you to see the word so that when I say it, it'll mean something maybe.

Alright, we're studying how karma works, and the place, the literature that gives a really in depth and accurate explanation of karma and how it works is the literature that makes up what's called the Abhidharma School.

Abhidharma School has a second name: Vaibashika.

Vaibashika means the detailists, because they're so detailed, because they choose a particular text that's very detailed.

Abhidharma, I'll get to the meaning in a minute.

Abhidharma is what is being studied in detail, and so they become known as the Vaibashika. In Tibetan, the word Abhidharma is CHU NGUNPA, so please hear yourself say CHU NGUNPA just for the seeds.

The Abhidharma study and practice was one of the earliest levels of Buddhist practice that evolved after Lord Buddha left our planet.

We might think, well, if it was like the first one, shouldn't it be the first thing that studied? In the monastic tradition, the boys start their monastic training at seven years old, typically. They learn logic. They learn to read and write and other things, but they learn logic. They learn actually some Middle Way very early on.

It's not until their 15th year, meaning not that they're 15 years old. No, I have that wrong, not until their 15th year, which means they're almost 20 or more before they actually get these teachings on Abhidharma and the Abhidharmakosha the fine details of karma. It's curious.

Background on Abhidharma School and the Adhidharmakosha

(38:40) The study of Abhidharma comes to us from a particular root text. Root text means it's the main text and any other Abhidharma texts are commentaries on that one.

This root text is called the Abhidharmakosha. So same word but with Kosha at the end. In Tibetan it is CHU NGUNPA DZU.

This is a text, Abhidharma up here it's a subject matter.

Abhidharmakosha is the text that we're going to be studying about this subject matter. It was written by Master Vasubandhu. The Tibetans call him Loppon Yiknyen.

He's an Indian master, not Tibetan.

He came and went long before Buddhism went into Tibet. 350 AD is Master Vasubandhu‘s timeframe. We don't know exactly.

We know him, I think, as Master Asanga’s half brother.

Remember the story. There's this good nun in India. It's hard to be a nun in India and she's a good nun. She has this clairvoyant vision that if she had two children, two boys, one by a king and one by a Brahman, those two boys would grow up to be very wise and skillful Buddhist practitioners and teachers.

So, at great risk to herself, she gave up her robes. She managed to have a son by a Brahman and a son by a king. And these two boys, she taught them and of course they excelled and they were really smart. Finally she sends them off for formal training and they have their realizations and they write commentary. Their books make up a big portion of the monastic training textbooks that are still used today in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that are now in India. Some are still in the Tibet region, but our Gelukpas are in India.

So Master Vasubandhu was not Abhidharma level student or practitioner, but he wrote this book Abhidharmakosha, or really compiled it in order to serve the population of Buddhists at the time, at his time, who were Abhidharmists to help them understand their own school better.

He also wrote later texts that were Mahayana texts more closely related to his own practice in which he refutes much of the Abhidharma. Not refute as in it's wrong, but refute as in it's insufficient for bringing us all the way along the path.

Class structure on the ACI 5 course

The Abhidharmakosha text, I'll tell you what all the chapters are in it, but we're only studying one of its chapters. We're studying chapter 4, the chapter on karma.

What this course will cover is, tonight's class we will go through what Abhidharma actually means.
Second class, we study the basic kinds of karma.
Third class we look into what constitutes good and bad karma, meaning we go into ethics.
Class four, we talk about karmic results. Class four might actually take us up four and a half to cover our karmic results well enough. And if I need to take some extra time, we'll figure out how to do it.
Class five is a deeper discussion on how karma is carried in our minds. But this is not from the Abhidharmakosha book, nor from the level, the School of Abhidharma. It will come to us from a Mind Only school text written by Je Tsongkapa. Not meaning Jet Tsongkapa was a Mind Only School person. But his text describing Mind Only School is a really strong one for helping us understand how karma is carried in our minds.
In class six, we will look into the interrelationship between karma and emptiness, which is critical to understand.
Then class seven is the subject matter called a karmic path of action. That has evolved into the four steps that I think we've all at least heard of. If not, learn to work with.
Class eight is about what's called our root of virtue and how it's possible to destroy our root of virtue and how dangerous that is. We study it so that we know what to do to avoid it.
Class nine is about the five immediate misdeeds and schisms in the community.
Class 10 is tricks for how to make karma in a more powerful way.
Class 11, as you know, is our review class where you will teach me what you learned in the other classes.

The Meaning of Abhidharma

(46:28) Let's go back here to Abhidharma, what the Sanskrit word Abhidharma means, CHU NGUNPA, and what Abhidharmakosha, CHU NGUNPA DZU means.

Abhi portion corresponds to the NGUN in Tibetan

It means approaching, like coming up to.

There's a temple down the street and you're walking towards it. You are approaching the temple, is what Abhi means, coming up to. But it has a connotation that the temple is uphill. You really are not just approaching it, but you're coming up like something higher, and so you're coming up to it.

Then dharma, we hear the word dharma all the time. In Tibetan it‘s CHU.

We think of the word ‚dharma‘ as meaning the Buddha dharma, the teachings of the Buddha. But the word dharma comes from the root DHR, which I'm just parroting what Geshe Michael teaches me. I don't know roots of sanskrit from the alphabet.

But DHR means to hold. So the word ‚dharma‘ actually literally means that which holds. What it means is that ‚that which holds an identity‘.

Technically the word dharma means an existing thing. Any existing thing is a dharma.

The pen is a dharma, the wall is a dharma. Your interest or boredom in this class is a dharma. Any existing thing in any moment is a dharma.

So if we're talking Abhidharma, it's like approaching this highest existing thing.

Abhidharma means we're approaching this highest existing thing.

What would you guess that would be? Keeping in mind that we are talking about the very, very early Buddhists in India, right after Lord Buddha‘s time.

Anybody care to guess?

(Luisa) Nirvana. No?

(Lama Sarahni) Nirvana. Exactly, exactly. Early Buddhists, and meaning not necessarily in the timeframe, but when we first meet a spiritual path, our renunciation usually has to do with, My life is all messed up. I want to stop my messed up life. Thank you very much.

Then later we go, Oh, everybody else is just as messed up. Look, maybe I can help them too.

But our first impulse really is from our own misery. And don't feel bad. If we don't have that, we won't want to get out. We won't want to change. So it's good to have that level of selfishness that says, I got to stop this broken system just for me.

But very quickly, those who have the seeds to recognize, Just me? No, everybody. I don't want this to happen to anybody. I want everybody to get free. We shift from what's called the Hinayana level vehicular capacity to the Mahayana.

I thought I wrote Hinayana down. No I didn't. Where should I put it in?

Do I need to put it in? You guys know Hinayana, right?

Yana means vehicular capacity. How much can you carry?

A Volkswagen van can carry a certain amount.

A train car can carry a whole lot more.

Hinayana means a lesser vehicular capacity, a smaller vehicular capacity.

Mahayana means great vehicular capacity.

When our aspiration is nirvana, that's a great aspiration. In the Buddhist overview, it's called the smaller capacity. I mean, may we all reach the goal of smaller capacity, may we even believe we can do it. It's not to be disrespected. It simply means Me, my nirvana.

Then when it turns to train car size capacity, that's when you shift your focus of an aspiration to becoming that being made of love, compassion, wisdom—a bigger capacity. And that capacity is the capacity to carry all existing beings to their freedom.

If they want Nirvana, that's what you bring them to.

If they want Buddhahood, that's what you bring them to. Big capacity.

Abhidharma is a study from the perspective of wanting to reach Nirvana.

Yet, within the text about this, the chapter on karma is as good as it gets in terms of what we need to know to reach either Nirvana or Buddhahood. Which is why we're studying it.

Abhidharma, it means up to the highest existing thing, meaning up to Nirvana.

But, what would we need to know? What would we need to do to get there?

We need to have a clear intellectual understanding and then a direct experience of the no self nature nature of oneself.

Technically that will grow into the no self nature nature of all existing things also. Abhidharma school level, they call this selflessness. They call it the realization of the no self.

When we hear the word in English, no self, my mind still goes, what? No, me? Because of the word. But it doesn't mean no self at all, silly Sarahni. Obviously it means something not there that I think is there.

For my own mind that's why I use the cumbersome phrase to reach the no self nature nature of me.

No self existent me. But even when we say it that way, what they mean by no self existent me in Abhidharma is different than what we've been so highly trained to impose onto what we mean by not self existent.

The whole training through ACI is learning these nuances of what's meant by the word ‚not self existent‘. Because without understanding the lesser understandings, we can't really understand the highest understanding. And even if we do intellectually understand the highest understanding, our behavior in our world is from the lesser understanding if even that. In order to grow to the highest understanding, we need to be able to catch ourselves in behaviors being chosen from the lower understanding. Follow?

So learn the lower understandings so that you can catch yourself doing them.

That's what will lead us to be able to reaching the higher understandings, that we‘ll reach those explanations, that ACI will get a glimpse in ACI 6, which is coming next and in greater depth than ACI 12.

Abhidharma means approaching the highest thing, which means bringing us up to Nirvana, which means gaining the wisdom that we need to be able to reach Nirvana.

Then the text that teaches us about all of that is called Abhidharmakosha.

Kosha means treasury or treasure house, more than a bank. But like the king had his particular room where all the jewels and all the treasures and all the money and everything was kept. That's the treasury, the treasure house. Fort Knox in the United States, supposedly all the gold is there.

The Abhidharmakosha

Why does Master Vasubadhu call his Abhidharma text the treasure house of higher wisdom? Is it higher wisdom or higher knowledge?

Treasure house of higher knowledge, Geshe Michael calls it.

When Master Vasubandhu composed this text, what he did was he compiled the seven texts that were the first to be written down by Lord Buddha‘s close students after Lord Buddha passed.

Buddha taught for I don't know how long, 50 years, 53 years. He never wrote down his teaching notes. They didn't have a way to record him. He didn't write books and his students thought he'd be around forever, of course.

Then he manifests leaving and they go, Oh my gosh, what are we going to do now? Somewhere along the line, I don't know the story exactly, they get together and they say, Well, I remember this teaching that he gave in Deer Park. I'll bet I can write it down and everybody can check it to make sure.

Then somebody says, well, I remember the one at Vultures Peak and I remember the one.

Apparently there were seven of these great students that wrote down everything that they remembered, and Master Vasubandhu managed to get ahold of copies of those. I don't know how many of them could there have been. He didn't photocopy them and put 'em into his book, but he took all that information and he compiled it like an encyclopedia. So that all that knowledge, wisdom that were in those seven books ends up in this treasury of higher knowledge.

So the treasury, it's the treasure house of these seven books.

And then guess what? Those seven books go on to be completely lost. They don't exist anymore. As we know, much of the Sanskrit literature from Lord Buddha‘s time, like others got written down over the ages, most of the Sanskrit is also gone.

But before it got destroyed, the Buddhism was moving into Tibet and the Tibetans had the wisdom to write it into their own language, which they made in order to do so, made a written language to be able to do so. They managed to translate all the Sanskrit that they could get their hands on before the Sanskrit was destroyed when the Mongols invaded India shortly thereafter.

The Tibetan collection of Buddhist literature is one of the most complete because of the strength of the translators and the support by the powers that be, they got it done. Which is again why it's important for us to keep that language alive enough until all that stuff gets translated.

If you go to mixed nuts translators, you can see how it isn't ever going to all get translated, but the most important stuff can.

Why is it called Kosha, DZU?

Because it's the treasury of these seven primary texts of Buddha’s teaching.

All right, let's take a break.

(Break)

(64:10) Nirvana is what the wisdom that will take us to.

Nirvana is what Abhidharma is actually talking about. We're calling it higher Knowledge, the Treasure House of Higher Knowledge written by Master Vasubandhu 350 AD in India. So we don't get confused, and thank you some Tibetan guys.

The Abhidharma School is also called Vaibashika School, the detailists.

Just for context, there came to be four main schools of thought in the evolution of Buddhism.

Vaibashika was the first. Sautantrika is the second. It means the Sutrists, because these folks said, I'm just going to study the sutras directly.

Then evolution occurs and grows into what's called the Chittamatra or Yogacharya School, known in English as Mind Only. Mind Only School does not believe everything is in your mind. We'll learn what it means.

Then from there, Middle Way, Madyamika evolves.

The evolution happens because from each of these schools, there were practitioners who came to see that there were limitations in the school. They were studying, and then they went back to scripture, went to teachers to understand it better and deeper, and it evolved.

Don't confuse the four Buddhist schools with the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism has the Nyingma, the Sakya (…), Kagyu and Gelukpa. The Gelukpa is the newest.

Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelukpa, different Tibetan groups.

These are all Mahayana. All of Tibetan Buddhism aspires to reaching total Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.

In the Indian evolution of the schools, the first two are designed to help the practitioner reach Nirvana as the highest thing they can reach.

Chittamatra and the two Madyamika‘s say, no, no, I can become Buddha. So they're called Mahayana.

Hinayana, Mahayana.

The Abhidharmakosha is a difficult text to read. Even if you can read Tibetan. The English translations that are available, if you're in the right frame of mind, you can sit down with it and read it, and it's like, oh wow, wow, wow. Like information so clear.

Then you pick it up the next day and it's like, I can't, is this even English?

We need commentaries. We, in our degenerate age, we need somebody to write a commentary that when we read it, we can catch on.

Typically in the tradition, you would learn, like you wouldn't necessarily know how to read, you the student. You go to the teacher and they teach you the text, they teach you, they help you memorize it, they teach you about it, and then you meditate with it and you work with it. Maybe you learn to read it. But it wasn't like you could go and buy a copy and have your own copy. One copy was available for the whole monastery.

So it was an oral tradition passed down, teacher to student. Student becomes the teacher, passes it along and the teacher explains the code.

But somewhere along the line, somebody goes, I got to just write this down because there are people who need it, and I won't be here. I can‘t only do one-on-one. Let's write it down.

The Commentary on the Abhidharmakosha and the Wisdoms that take us to Nirvana

Finally, someone named Gyalwa Gendun Drup, 1391 to 1474, he writes a commentary on the Abhidharmakosha explaining the code, explaining what it means, so that those of us in the future would have a book that we could rely upon as an explanation as we tried to study the Abhidharmakosha itself.

(71:15) Gyalwa Gendun Drup, Gyelwa became his title.

Gyalwa Gendun Drup is known to be the first Dalai Lama of Tibet. He was one of the students of Je Tsongkapa. Very skilled, highly trained, and went on to then be recognized in a reincarnation as the emanation of Chenrezig, which is what his holiness represents.

He wrote this commentary on Abhidharmakosha called TARLAM SELJE.

TARLAM SELJE is Tibetan.

TARLAM = path to freedom.

TAR = freedom, as in Tara—Lady of liberation.

LAM = the path

Not just meaning how you get there, but the realization that takes you there.

SELJE = illumination

TARLAM SELJE = illumination of the path to freedom — is the commentary on Abhidharmakosha, written by the first Dalai Lama Gyalwa Gendun Drup.

Gyalwa = victorious one

In TARLAM SELJE, he explains that Abhidharmakosha is talking about two kinds of Abhidharma.

Abhidharma means that which takes us to the highest thing, the knowledge that takes us to Nirvana. He says, look, there's two kinds.

There is SHERAB and JEDRANG.

SHERAB, if you recognize that word, Tibetan word for wisdom, it's what they mean by higher knowledge.

Then the JEDRANG. It's actually when Geshehla says that, it sounds like it's JEDANG, like the R isn't there, but it's this R that's really silent that I can't do.

It means accessories, things that follow along behind.

So Geshela‘s example was, some people used to tie cans to the bumper of their car. Somebody's getting married and you tie all these cans to the bumper of their car, and when they drive away, it makes all kinds of noise.

That's what JEDRANG means, things that follow along behind.

But what's weird is that in this case, what's meant by JEDRANG, the accessories to wisdom are things that actually come first before you reach the SHERAB.

So why they're called cans tied to your bumper, I don't know.

SHERAB is the main Abhidharma, the main highest knowledge that we are aspiring to. It is the knowledge that we have and that we continue to accumulate upon what's called the unstained paths.

In the five paths to your Buddhahood, two of those paths are stained and three of them are unstained.

The five paths you recall.

The path of accumulation: accumulating enough disgust with this life to want to do something different.
The path of preparation: study, study, study, meditate, meditate, meditate, serve, serve, serve. Preparing to experience ultimate reality for the first time. Path of preparation.

Those two are called the stained paths, because we are still steeped in our stained mind of a belief in a Me and mind, a self existent me in a self existent world that I'm trying to stop, but I can't see it accurately yet. So even my very best behavior is still going to bring me pleasure that wears out. Stained.

The three unstained paths are:

The path of seeing: that timeframe from seeing, experiencing directly your seed opening, dependent origination, to experiencing directly the ultimate reality, emptiness, to coming out and experiencing directly the 16 aspects of the four Arya truths. All of TOMLA , probably 24 hours. Then after that
path of habituation: learning to choose your behavior based on what you now know is true. That takes lifetimes to work off all the old past selfishness, and reach that place where there are no more mental afflictions, or seeds for more that can ripen reaching Nirvana. But for a Mahayanist, that's just a side effect of your path of preparation. You're continuing to do what you need to do until your perception of yourself is Buddha. Clearing out even the obstacles to omniscience.
Path of seeing, path of habitation, reaching path of no more learning, which is called a path, but it's the goal. It's the realization of becoming that four bodies of your Buddha you.

Those three paths—seeing, habitation, no more learning—they're called unstained, because although you're still in a stained world, still in Samsara, your mind no longer believes in the self existent nature of things. So even as you're in a stained world, the seeds that you're planting are no longer stained.

SHERAB is the wisdom of the path of seeing and the wisdom that's being gained by the path of habituation all the way up to the wisdom gained that makes us fully enlightened being. All of that is included in SHERAB.

JEDRANG, the knowledge that we're gaining through our path of accumulation and our path of preparation. They're not really called wisdoms, but they're accessories to wisdom because without them, we're not going to reach wisdom. So they actually come first.

You've got the cans tied to your bumper before you even have a bumper to tie them to. You're building your JEDRANG, and then once you have SHERAB, that's when your JEDRANGs are following along behind.

It means you don't give them up. They're still a part of you, but they're, I don't know, I guess stuff you teach about. SHERAB and JEDRANG.

That's your question four.

(80:38) In Abhidharma level, when they speak of what you see directly at your path of seeing, they use the word selflessness, the direct perception of selflessness. Whereas in Middle Way we say direct perception of emptiness.

They're talking about the same thing, the absence of self existence.

But what they actually mean by that, like the capacity of the mind doesn't quite get it right at the level of calling it selflessness as compared to the capacity of the mind that we're talking about when we call it the direct perception of emptiness.

The experience is the same, but the interpretation of it coming out of the experience is based on the you going into it, what you knew going into it.

We'll learn selflessness versus emptiness in greater detail when we get to the six flavors of emptiness and some other places in ACI.

This JEDRANG, the accessories to knowledge, also has two divisions.

It has the nominal accessories to knowledge, and it has the real accessories to knowledge.

Nominal accessories to knowledge means the books, the teachings, things that we use to learn about stuff. They're called nominal because, I mean nominal means they exist in name only. But here it means if you hold a book of dharma teachings and you're reading it, isn't the book wisdom?

No. It's words on a page. The wisdom has to be here (pointing at her head).

It's not in the book. We study the book to gain the wisdom.

They call the accessories to higher knowledge nominally, is the words on the page or the words that you hear, or the recording.

The real accessories to knowledge is the state of mind that results from when we learn something new, analyze it, cook it, get some kind of, Oh, I understand about it. That's the real accessories to knowledge. It's something inside you.

Whether you say your mind is here, your mind is there, or some combination. The real accessories to knowledge are inside your mind, not in the books.

It seems different, doesn't it? It seems backwards. It's like, No, the real is in the book and this stuff in my mind is all made up, and it's like, nope, other way around.

In particular, related to the Abhidharmakosha study of Abhidharma is the state of mind that intellectually understands selflessness. Leads us to the experience in which the state of mind that directly experiences selflessness. The state of mind that intellectually understands selflessness, what will come along with it is that the state of mind that creates negative karma and the state of mind that understands selflessness are contradictory. They can't be held in your mind at the same time.

So, the better intellectual understanding of selflessness that we have, the less able we are to choose a behavior that will come back to hurt us once we understand the connection.

Geshela‘s example was, if you know that putting your hand in the fire will burn you, and you don't want to be burnt, then you cannot put your hand in the fire.

It's not that you just won't, it's that you couldn't make yourself do it if you try.

When you have those two understandings, fire will burn my hand. I don't want to be burned. But if you do put your hand in the fire anyway, then it means you either didn't really believe fire would burn you, or you really didn't not want to get burned, or you stop knowing that fire could burn you.

Those are the only three possibilities for if you get your hand burned.

It sounds absurd, but we do it all the time. Somebody's yelling at us and we yell back. That's like fire burns.

I don't want to get burnt, but I don't like that fire. I don't like what it's doing to me. You stick your hand right in it.

Only because we're misunderstanding something about the picture.

No, fire can't burn me. I don't really mind getting burned, or I forgot that fire could burn me.

It's just so crazy. But it's just as crazy to yell back at somebody who's yelling at us.

We do it all the time and we justify it. They're a jerk. They had no business, right?

There's a classical example for this that you'll see it in your reading.

They say, look, we can't realize that the scarecrow is not a man, and think it is a man at the same time. Like, yeah, duh. But, in ignorant life we're blaming a scarecrow for scratching my car door with their grocery cart. It's like, well, that's silly. It couldn't have been a scarecrow. It had to be a real guy. Well, that's silly. It couldn't have been anybody doing anything to me that my karma didn't make them do.

But without that level of understanding, we're not ever going to make that connection as a misconnection. That's what our study is about.

(Some checking in live translation)

(89:33) In this analogy of realizing the scarecrow is not a man, so you can't see a man in the scarecrow, that's explaining how the knowledge of selflessness, the SHERAB actually acts. We use it in our life as a way to help us choose our interaction with that scarecrow instead of interacting with the man we think it is.

Geshela’s jumped forward many years, it's the two husbands in the kitchen. Are you going to yell back at the husband that's not there? What good is that going to do?

But he is there and he is being nasty to me. Yeah but, which one is there?

The one you're making or the one…, right?

It's the same idea. You can't see that the person upsetting you is coming from your own seeds ripening and blame them for what they're doing at the same time.

You can toggle back and forth, of course.

But the highest wisdom is selflessness and the accessories to knowledge then are, And now what do I do? What behavior do I choose to stop perpetuating this nasty situation?

So we come to the same kind of conclusions from Abhidharma level of understanding the selflessness of me, of other. We come to the same conclusion: How I behave towards that other is going to impact what I experience in the future.

The only way to stop our negative reactions and our negative habits is to reach this true realization of the selflessness. Even just our own selflessness is enough to start the process changing.

The 8 Chapters of the Abhidharma Root Text

There are eight chapters in the Abhidharmakosha root text, and Geshehla wanted us to see all the chapters and how they flow. But we're only going to study one of them.

Those eight chapters.

Chapter one is called the Categories of Existence. It describes in detail all existing things, the five heaps, the 12 gateways, the 18 this, the 24 that. Remember in Buddha's first teachings, first turnings of the wheel. He's pointing out how all different things exist, and he goes, and you know what? They're all suffering and the causes for more. But you have to know all the things that exist in order to go and see that there's not a single one of them that can bring me the happiness I want. So it's in detail, all existing things. Do you remember that chart? All knowable things, changing things, unchanging things. It's in there. That's all Abhidharma in that. It divides all those existing things into stained things and unstained things. And of course, mostly what we experience as ignorant human beings all day and all night are stained things, because our mind is still stained. It's not the things, it's our mind. Stained things means our perception of something that triggers in us, a reaction that inspires us to think, say, or do something that when that comes back to us, it will be unpleasant. And when that unpleasant thing comes back to us, it triggers something in us that makes us think, say, or do something back to that situation that plants a seed, that when it ripens, it will come back to us as unpleasant again, and again, and again, and again. Same actually for our desires. Something good happens, we want to keep it for ourselves, and so we do, and so we use it up and we didn't share. So the next good thing that comes, it's going to wear out too, and we're making the same mistake even with the things that we're wanting to keep. So stained, stained. Suffering, ignorance perpetuating suffering.
Chapter two is about the powers. It's a description of our faculties of perception: our eyeballs, ear, nose, tongue, tactile. How those and our mental function, the interrelation of those. It also describes then, how things occur. More detail from chapter one in chapter two.
Chapter three is called the suffering world. It further describes the material from chapters one and two and how one and two become all the realms of existence, and it goes into all the different kinds of suffering of all the different kinds of beings and all the different kinds of realms. It goes into Buddhist cosmology. It explains time and measurement and location. It's almost like a physics tech at some point.
Chapter four is the chapter on karma, because it's like where do those all come from, really? Oh, karma. Behavior. It's not a obvious connection. So chapter four is all about how the suffering that comes from all of that stuff in chapters one through three, how that suffering does not have to be, and how all that suffering does not in fact come from some creator God. That it comes from one's own karma, which we learn to mean one's own behavior.
Chapter five goes into the mental afflictions, because the thing that propels us to choose a behavior is our mental affliction. We react to some situation. We have a mental affliction about a situation, and that mental affliction says, Yell to solve it, lie to solve it. Do something to protect myself to solve it. Do something unkind to protect myself to solve it. Or maybe I should better say it's okay to do something unkind to protect myself to solve it when it's like, Yeah, protect yourself, but do it in a way that's not unkind. And our ignorant mind goals, How can you do that? They're being mean. I can't be nice to somebody who's mean. They'll just be meaner. True, maybe. But not because you were nice, but because you were mean to somebody who was nice to you and you were being mean. We need to get that so deep that when we're about to be mean, we choke on it. This chapter is showing us how mental afflictions and karma are related.
Chapter six is about the person and the path, which is information about how you go about stopping those mental afflictions and how the practitioner progresses through those five paths.
Chapter seven is called the chapter on wisdom. So it's more detail on the wisdom that leads to freedom, called YESHE at that point.
Chapter eight is called balanced meditation. That's the final chapter. It's actually more about a Buddha state of mind, about a Buddha's knowledge and how that Buddha‘s state of mind is so perfectly balanced between dullness and agitation, between if things don't exist the way they do, they must not exist at all, balanced in that Middle Way always. So chapter eight implies that when we learn all previous chapters well, we can reach that state of balanced mind—in and out of meditation.

The 4 Required Attributes on a Buddhist Text

(100:43) The last question on your homework is a section that when we pick up any book somewhere, the book should indicate that it has value to us. It's called the four requirements of a Buddhist book.

Those four requirements are JUJA, GUPA, NYIGU and DRELWA.

If a book doesn't have these four, even if it was written by a Buddhist and it claims to be a Buddhist book, it doesn't qualify. You'll see why when I'm done.

1. Meaningful Subject Matter

JUJA means it must have subject matter.

Well, all books have subject matter, but for a Buddhist book, it needs to have a meaningful subject matter.

Abhidharma‘s meaningful subject matter is the wisdom which understands stained and unstained objects.

Your homework asks, What are the four qualities of a Buddhist book and what are they in the case of the Abhidharmakosha.

Subject, purposeful subject matter, for the Abhidharmakosha that purposeful subject matter is the wisdom which understands stained versus unstained objects. Meaning the wisdom that knows, that comes to know how we stop perpetuating our suffering.

2. Meaningful Purpose

GUPA means purpose. It means to have a meaningful purpose. In Abhidharmakosha, its meaningful purpose is the plant the seeds of that wisdom in the reader's mind.

Everything in that book is designed so that as we read it, these seeds are being planted, that when those seeds ripen, will be the ripening of this wisdom of stained and unstained things.

3. Ultimate Goal

The third factor of a Buddhist book is NYIGU. It means the ultimate goal. It needs to have a meaningful ultimate goal. In Abhidharmakosha, its ultimate goal is to bring the student to Nirvana. Not Buddhahood, but Nirvana.

Geshela says, don't waste your time on any book that won't at least bring you to Nirvana. It's like, come on, Geshela, that's impossible.

When you fast forward to your growing wisdom, it's like it's not the book, it's the state of mind I bring to reading the book. There could be wisdom in reading the Sunday comics. But when we're at the beginning stage, we want to be a little more discriminating perhaps.

Then number four, DRELWA.

4. Relationship

DRELWA means relationship. There needs to be a relationship between these three: the meaningful subject matter, the meaningful purpose and the meaningful goal.

The relationship is, if you read this book, if you study it, if you work with it, it will work. The result will be you will reach that ultimate goal that it's teaching you about. Not just by reading the book over and over again, but by learning what it's teaching us about, applying it to our life, to develop that wisdom of stained and unstained things, meaning stained and unstained behavior.

It's not the things, it's the what we do in response to the things, and the others, and the situations, and our goals. It stained and unstained perception, stained and unstained choices of behavior. So we're learning all these pieces of the puzzle. To put together this great big jigsaw puzzle that we actually haven't seen the picture of it yet. So it's really, really hard to get your pieces all lined up to get them to start in place until you understand better what the picture looks like.

But we don't have the picture, so we're putting all the pink pieces over here, and all the purple pieces over here. That's what the ACI is doing. Little by little you'll start putting together the pieces of your jigsaw puzzle. I'll tell a secret. The big picture is your Buddha You. So fun.

(107:01) That finishes your class one. You should have everything you need to do your homeworks. Luisa, you had a question earlier? Yes, ma'am.

(Luisa) You mentioned at the beginning that the Abhidharmakosha is a compilation of the seven, the teachings from the first seven students, disciples. But why there are eight chapters?

(Lama Sarahni) I don't know. Because I don't think that each chapter is one, he (didn‘t) take each text and made it a chapter. He wrote the book from those seven, but the material of all seven is in this treasury.

(Luisa) Oh, okay.

(Lama Sarahni) Not the word for word of the seven, I don't believe. I'm not absolutely sure on that. Okay. Right. Good question.

Okay, so let's do our usual closing unless there are any burning questions. No, hands up. Okay. (108:12)

Class Closing

Remember that person, we wanted to be able to help at the beginning of class.

We learned a lot, whether we think so or not, that we will use sooner or later to help that other in that deep and ultimate way, and that's an extraordinary goodness.

So please be happy with yourself and think of this goodness, like a beautiful glowing gemstone that you can hold in your hands.

Recall your own precious holy guides.

See how happy they are with you.

Feel your gratitude to them, your reliance upon them.

Ask them to please stay close, to continue to guide you and inspire you and help you.

And then offer them this gemstone of goodness.

See them accept it and bless it, and they carry it with them right back into your heart.

See them there. Feel them there.

Their love, their compassion, their wisdom inside you.

It feels so good. We want to keep it forever and so we know to share it.

By the power of the goodness that we've just done.

May all beings complete the collection of merit and wisdom

and thus gain the two ultimate bodies that merit and wisdom make.

Use those three long exhales to share this goodness with that one person from the beginning of class.

The next exhale, you share with everyone you love, and then with every existing being everywhere, see them all filled with this love, this compassion, this wisdom. They don't know where it comes from, it doesn't matter, and may it be so.

Alright. Thank you so much.

Class 2: The Nature of Karma and What it Produces; The Detailist Concept of "Non-Communicating Form"

9 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 2

For the recording, welcome back. We are ACI course 5, How Karma Works, class 2 on June 9th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

(8:15) Let's listen to The Source of All My Good, the Lam Rim, to help us stay oriented for this course on karma. If you know it, you're welcome to recite along with me. Otherwise just listen and let yourself play the movie. Think about what these different stages on our path will look like.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 1

(14:10) In that prayer, three of them, four of them are directly about karma, and then several more are about morality, which is carefully choosing what karma we make.

I could go out on a limb and say more than half of the Lam Rim needs our understanding of karma, how karma works.

Last class, we were introduced to the main text that we are studying from and the commentary that we're using so that we can understand the main text.

Thank you to those who did their homeworks and showed them to me.

Someone can tell me the name of the root text in Sanskrit, Tibetan and English.

Who wants to show off? Going once, going twice. Somebody volunteer. I'm going to use my finger, once, twice, three times. Shayla, what's the name of the textbook we're studying from?

(Sheyla) It’s the Abhidharmakosha. In Spanish (?)

(Lama Sarahni) Extra credit. In Tibetan?

(Sheyla) It's of Master Vasubandhu in the year of 350.

(Kama Sarahni) Okay, good.

(Sheyla) In Tibetan, I don't have the information in Tibetan.

(Lama Sarahni) Somebody help Shayla. What's the Tibetan?

CHU NGUNPA DZU, got it? Beautiful.

Now what about the commentary? Let Sheyla off the hook.

(Sheyla) The commentary is from the first Dalai Lama and the name is Gyalwa Gendun Drup, 1391 to 1474. He was a student of Je Tsongkapa, and the name is in Spanish (?)

(Lama Sarahni) And in Tibetan?

(Sheila) In Tibetan TARLAM SELJE.

(Lama Sarahni) Beautiful. Illumination on the path to freedom. I heard that in Spanish. Nice. Thank you my dear.

So now we also learned what the literal meaning of the title was. Claire, what was the literal meaning of Abhidharmakosha?

(Claire) Abhi means ‚up to‘ when they're approaching something on the higher level. Dharma means to hold it, from the San root DHR. So it's holding it or from Tibetan it's like ‚existing object‘, a thing which holds its own nature. It means that first of all existing objects is nirvana and the knowledge brings us and leads us to this state.

(Lama Sarahni) Perfect. Nice. And then in the title is also the term kosha, which means treasury. We learned that it's called the treasury because it's where the information from the seven original writings are locked in there, saved in there, saved in that textbook. Nice.

So the literal meaning is the knowledge that takes us up to Nirvana, treasure house of higher knowledge.

Then we also heard what does Abhidharma, the idea of Abhidharma actually refers to. And it was those two. Olga, you have that?

(Olga) Yeah, I think, I don't remember if it was to analyze the stained and unstained things in our life.

(Lama Sarahni) Okay, so the main Abhidharma is the unstained wisdom. Meaning the wisdom that we gain on our three higher paths. The path of seeing, path of habitation, path of no more learning. And that the other is the accessories to wisdom it's called, which is the knowledge that we're gaining as we go through our path of accumulation, our path of preparation. Which what we're doing on those two paths is learning, studying, contemplating, meditating.

So the accessories to knowledge actually come first. They grow our goodness to reach the actual wisdom that we then still use the accessories to knowledge. They still tag along with our wisdom as we use our wisdom to choose our behaviors more wisely, and our path of habitation to be able to burn away all our past seeds of the big mistake that led us to selfishness, that are blocking us from our Nirvana. In this school Nirvana is the goal. As Mahayanists Buddhahood is our goal. Nirvana will come along on the path.

It's not to be disrespected. We will reach Nirvana. We'll just, Great. Hi Nirvana. I've got more to do. We won't get stalled out there.

Then lastly on your quiz for last class is there are four attributes to a Buddhist book, meaning a book that will serve us to help us reach our goal. It needs to have these four attributes. And the question was what are these four and how do they apply in the Abhidharmakosha‘s example.

So for time, I'm just going to give 'em to you.

The book needs to have a meaningful subject matter. In the case of Abhidharmakosha, that meaningful subject matter is the wisdom which understands stained and unstained things.

Then the second attribute is that the book needs to have a meaningful purpose. And in Abhidharmakosha’s case, its purpose is to plant the seeds of that wisdom of stained and unstained things in the mind of the reader student of Abhidharmakosha.

Then third quality is, there needs to be an ultimate goal. Abhidharmakosha‘s ultimate goal is to get us to Nirvana. Thank you very much.

Then the fourth quality needs to be that there's a relationship between the subject matter, the purpose, and the ultimate goal, which in this case the Abhidharmakosha teaches us that in order to reach nirvana, we need the wisdom which distinguishes between what will help us and what will harm us. Not just on our spiritual path, but just playing in life. To reach this wisdom we read and study and practice according to what this book has to say.

Abhidharmakosha Chapter 4 on Karma

(24:40) Now we are ready to jump right into chapter 4 of Abhidharmakosha. That's the chapter we are focusing on for this whole course. Just chapter 4.

Chapter 4 we learned was the chapter on karma. The opening lines of chapter 4 are

LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE

It's like the one thing that I heard it twice, and it was memorized. Nothing gets memorized in this brick of membrane without dogged determination. But that I heard that, I set it back twice and all of a sudden: LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE.

I think because it's just fun to say.

So I'm going to put it up on the share screen so you can read it and I hope you get the same result I did.

Vocabulary class 2:

Le le jikten natsok kye

gyu takpa

tso wo

wangchuk

De ni sempa dang

de-je sempa

yikyi le yin-no

nampar rikje

nampar rikje mayinpa

Alright, here it is, the opening line of the Abhidharmakosha in Tibetan.

LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE

Did you hear yourself say it? Hear yourself. Say it again. See, it just rolls.

LE means karma. The first LE.

The second LE means from.

It's one of those two words that are spelled the same, and sound the same, but have completely different meanings.

What are those called in English? Homonyms? There and there. Where and where. Different words, sound the same. Not spelled the same though, but you get the idea.

So ‚karma from‘ is what this is saying. Doesn't make sense so far.

JIKTEN

JIK means fear, it means suffering.

TEN means the basis.

So this term JIKTEN is the term that Tibetans use for this suffering world. It is the word they use for earth, the planet earth. But when we say, when I hear planet earth, I have a very limited idea of what's meant by that. That blue thing that's floating around. But when we talk about JUKTEN, our world, there's much more to it than just our ocean's, mountains beings. There are parts of it that are beyond our human perception that are still part of what we call JIKTEN, the suffering world.

NATSOK means many different kinds, various, multitude of. All those different connotations of NATSOK.

JIKTEN NATSOK is saying ‚the multitude of suffering worlds‘. This term.

Literally JIK means to be destroyed. And TEN is the basis.

‚The basis to be destroyed‘ is the literal meaning of the word that the Tibetans chose for the name of our suffering world, Samsaric world, the basis to be destroyed.

But by that they're referring to our physical body, and our physical world.

Both the gross physical world, which is all the stuff that we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and the subtle physical world that we can't access through our sense powers but are still here all around us.

So JIKTEN on another level means me and outer experiences.

They're called the basis to be destroyed because number one, they will eventually be destroyed. When my karma for this life wears out, my JIKTEN disappears.

It doesn't mean yours does, but the me as a part of yours does. It disappears.

But it also means that sooner or later the basis of this suffering world will disappear. Meaning the ignorance that creates and perpetuates a suffering world is going to finally be overcome in the mind of every being who experiences a suffering world.

In which case there will be no more suffering world or worlds or beings in them, because there's no more mistaken seeds in the minds of us, any of us.

So lots and lots of meanings of JIKTEN.

NATSOK JIKTEN means the various suffering worlds: yours, mine, theirs, all of it.

KYE means ‚they come from‘.

So this whole statement is saying ‚the various worlds come from LE, come from karma‘.

Another meaning of LE is deeds. Another meaning of karma. Like the English translation of the Sanskrit word karma is deeds, actions.

Deeds cause the multitude of worlds.

Why does that start Chapter 4?

Master Vasubandhu in chapters 1, 2 and 3 has clarified all existing things from universes right down to subatomic particles. He says, You want to know where all this stuff comes from? Yeah, yeah.

Chapter 4, LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE.

Deeds cause all of those existing things from universes to subatomic particles. All caused by deeds.

The implication then is, deeds will be the cause of your pure world as well. Thank goodness. Probably different deeds than create a various suffering world.

But deeds nonetheless. LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE.

Deeds cause the multitude of worlds. All the planets, all the beings on all the planets, everything every being experiences moment by moment on all of those planets all come from karma.

In course 4, we were focusing on showing us that our minds go on when our body dies. In this course 4, we're focusing on how our actions and the effect that our actions have on our own mind go on as the cause of our future experiences.

So not just our experience but our whole world within which we are experiencing moment by moment.

Every detail of every moment of our me and our ‚my world‘ comes from our own past deeds. And every moment of interaction with those moments is creating our future moments.

The 3 Categories what people believe cause the world

(35:05) In Master Vasubandhu‘s time, there were non Buddhists who held one of three beliefs about where the world came from.

The commentary is pointing out how this chapter is specifically addressing these non Buddhist neighbors of the Buddhists who are Abhidharmists.

The Abhidharmists understand about karma, and this text, it teaches the details more, but it's also addressing an audience that understands karma but in a very different way. Karma as duty or karma as predestined.

Whereas our understanding of karma, it is not set.

Yes, everything is run by karma, but it doesn't mean we have no ability to make choices, to change things.

In Master Vasubandhu‘s time there were groups of people who had one of three different beliefs in where things come from who made the world.

We heard this a little bit in last course.

GYU TAKPA means an unchanging cause.
TSOWO means a main principle, like a primal energy.
WANGCHUK means a creator being, Ishvara or Indra at that time.

Master Vasubandhu addresses these. He's addressing these by way of saying, No deeds cause the world.

In the commentary it's pointing out Master Vasubandhu‘s argument, or pointing out the inconsistency with these beliefs in an unchanging cause, a primal energy that's also said to be unchanging, and a creator being—whether they're changing or not.

He gives suggestions for why these as the explanation of where our world comes from is inconsistent with how we actually experience our world.

They don't really answer why bad stuff happens to good people.

They don't answer why you can do something nice to somebody and they can do something nasty back.

They don't answer why you can do the same thing six times in a row and get six different results from the same apparent action.

So let's take a look at these.

An unchanging cause, this is an impersonal thing, it's not a being. Like there had to be a first cause, but the first cause didn't have a first cause. It's like right, the big bang. Don't ask what caused the big bang please, because nothing did.

Can an unchanging thing cause anything?

No.

Is the big bang an unchanging thing?

No. That's changing.

Can a changing thing come out of nothing?

No.

Can an unchanging thing make something?

No.

But here is this belief in an unchanging cause that sets everything into motion. In which we always have a cause result experience.

It just doesn't make sense that some uncaused thing sets into motion a system where everything needs a cause. It's just inconsistent.

It doesn't explain our experience.

Could it be true?

Sure.

But it doesn't help us to figure out how to stop perpetuating a suffering world if we rely on some uncaused big bang as the source of everything that we experience.

It's like thank you very much, but that doesn't help. So you're welcome to it. I quit believing.

Yet there was a time when I rejected these other two and went to science that had all the answers, because it could prove stuff. It's like the big bang was the answer and, Yeah. It's like, Oops.

It just is insufficient.

TSOWO means a primal energy.

But this primal energy that's been there forever, this unchanging force.

I don't know enough about what people call the quantum field and what qualities they believe quantum field has, but it kind of makes me think that idea of the quantum field. Is there a quantum field? Yes. Is it the cause of our world?

Well first of all, if it's an unchanging thing, again, not possible to create a changing, changing, changing world from an unchanging thing. It just can't do it. If it could do it, if it did do it, then something had to propel it to do it. Which means it wasn't the actual cause. The thing that propelled us to make our world was the real cause.

I'm not saying there's no quantum field or no TSOWO. I'm just saying the way it's explained that this unchanging energy force creates our changing, changing world. It's inconsistent with our experience.

Then the third one, WANGCHUK.

WANGCHUK means a creator being who made it all happen and keeps perpetuating it, like a one in charge. Maybe they have many, many different forms. Maybe they're changing, maybe they're not—depending on who you talk to.

But does the idea of a single creator being who's all powerful, all loving, all compassionate, all knowing and all powerful actually explain our experience of obvious suffering, the suffering of change and pervasive suffering?

Their argument is, if this creator being makes the world, they could have made everything in a single instant. Nothing would have to depend on coming from something previous.

There would be no need for linear time. There'd be no need for cause and effect. Everything would just exist in all times from all time. Things wouldn't have to happen in stages.

The way that's worded, it's like, Yeah, they could do that, but maybe they didn't do that.

If you cook that, it's like if this being is all powerful and all knowing, and all loving, and they could make us instantly enlightened beings, why would they not?

I'm not saying there is no such being. I'm saying that the way I'm thinking of that being, and my personal experience, they're inconsistent.

That means what I know about that being can't actually help me stop my suffering. Maybe they can help somebody else. I hope so.

But it doesn't explain my experience.

Do you remember when we were first studying, where was it? Somewhere in the last four courses. In deciding whether or not the Buddha‘s teachings are authentic. I lost my train of thought.

In the four aria truths. The first one is everything is suffering. And our reasoning was, that's something that a being who can't hear themselves say anything incorrect, heard himself say, and I heard it and I, from my ignorance state of mind can confirm it.

Yes, pain is pain, a good thing that wears out leaves me disappointed and wanting more, and no matter how good everything's going, I'm getting older. My best friends are moving away or dying or both. It is all ending.

So whoa, I can confirm something that a fully enlightened being has spoken.

From that we're supposed to be able to connect the dot and say, Oh then I can believe things that they said that I can yet directly confirm.

Then in the course of my work with the dharma, little bits of other stuff that have been taught by Buddha get confirmed by my own experience.

Then our confidence grows and grows and grows.

Confirmation that there is a teaching that is consistent with our experience, which is: I can do something nice to somebody and they'll be nasty back.

Why? Oh, because I've done that and I know I have.

And the other way around as well. I can do something nasty to somebody and they just grab me and hug me. They just love me more. That's happened too, in a way.

It's kind of reassuring when we can understand how those both can be valid, accurate experiences that are not inconsistent with what the teacher of the process—not the maker of the process, but the teacher of the process—has told us how we can use it.

These three different beliefs in where our world come from, that were prominent in 350 AD timeframe in India, are still prominent now. They are deeply ingrained in us. Even if we were never really deeply devoted to any of them, we are raised in a culture where one or the other of these is the prominent belief system.

We have it in us and at some point it'll come up and it'll be time to address it. Meanwhile it's like this little shadow inside that even as we work with karma and emptiness, there's something down inside there that's saying, God's watching, or big bang's going to end, or whatever it is.

So it is not just ancient history, it's something to cook, to think about, to really look inside and see where is that belief still in there.

I don't mean to find it and reject it. I mean to find it and explore it.

It took me a while in deep retreat before I realized that I had seeds for being mad at God and I didn't think I ever believed in God. And here I had this being mad at this being probably my whole life and I didn't even know it until I was digging around in myself in three year retreat.

Wow, that was a surprise. So we had a chat and we got it sorted out. But it surprised to me, they're in there.

With these three different beliefs, and any that are similar to them, they are useful. They were useful to us in different times. They are still very useful to many people. So don't disrespect them to other people for whom they are still beneficial.

When we reach a certain level of intention in our own personal spiritual path, we see that relying on an other to take care of us, to solve our problem or to be the one that we can blame for something is an obstacle. It's an obstacle to that personal responsibility that is a necessary piece for the seed planting to be able to start to rip out the mistaken view.

As long as we're okay blaming something else, we won't recognize that it's our own moment by moment behavior that is where our power lies.

It's our creativity, as moment by moment interaction. As long as there's somebody else in charge, we just go along for the ride. I'll be good, I'll follow the rules, everything will be fine. And it will be for a long time, but not ultimately.

I already said that Master Vasubandhu says, If the creator being makes the world, they could have made everything all at once, and it wouldn't depend on linearity. There wouldn't be cause and effect. But there is.

So he says, I don't buy that as the cause of the universe.

Okay fine, they're part of my existing universe, but they're just not the cause of it.

Then he says, and if these two others that are said to be unchanging things are still the cause of the universe, that's just ridiculous. Because an unchanging thing can't cause anything.

If an unchanging thing does suddenly cause something, something else had to cause it to change to do that. In which case it's not the cause. The thing that caused it to be the cause is the real cause. Then if that's a changing thing, it had to have a cause that made it be the cause to make the unchanging cause become a cause.

Do you see? You can never find the thing that is the cause. Classic Arya Nagarjuna who comes several hundred years later to remind us.

(55:35) He says, these three cannot possibly be the cause for things and we can't continue to believe these are the cause for things AND reach a deep understanding of where things do come from. Because if we believe in these, we don't go looking for any more accurate reason.

When we find the accurate explanation for where things come from, these other three become inadequate answers for that. Doesn't mean we have to fight with the world to say they don't exist at all. Because they do for the rest of the world.

Where does our world come from?

LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE. Deeds cause the multitude of worlds deeds make our world. If we believe that 50%, then we'll work with our behavior 50%.

To change our world 50% it's not enough. It's a start but it's not enough.

It takes a hundred percent understanding, belief and understanding in LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE in order to make the changes in our own behavior that are sufficient to make the change in our world that we are wanting to make.

Even if what we're wanting to change is changing to Nirvana.

Which is what the school we're studying, that's the highest thing they believe they can get to. It still takes 100% buy-in into ‚my deeds create this world‘.

Master Vasubandhu is trying to show people—us included—how to stop creating suffering. So he showed us all existing things and then he asked, Where do you think those come from? And he points out, not there, not there, not there.

Here's where it comes from: deeds.

He goes on to say, Deeds cause the multitude of worlds.

What are deeds?

They are movement of the mind and what it motivates.

Mental movement is a deed of thought.

What it causes is deeds of body and speech.

These are either communicating or not. So that's the first paragraph of chapter 4.

It's the essence of the whole chapter.

The rest of it is describing what's meant by those.

You have a memorization assignment, which is what I just said, so I'll say it again.

Deeds cause the multitude of worlds. What are deeds? They are movement of the mind and what it motivates. Mental movement is a deed of thought. What it causes deeds of body and speech.

These are either communicating or not.

Then we don't need to go any further than that. So if you're doing the memorization, that's what it is in case it's not clear from the homework and reading.

Forget these three and put LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE on top of DENI SEMPA DANG DE-JE.

Deeds cause the multitude of worlds.

What are deeds? That's not in there, but it's implied.

DENI ‚this‘ meaning deeds causing the multitude of worlds

SEMPA DANG DE-JE means movement of the mind and what it motivates

SEMPA YIKYI LE means movement of the mind

So mental karma, SEMPA YIKYI LE, and the impulse to act in speech and body— SEMPA DANG DEJE—is what is meant by the karma that makes the multitude of worlds.

DENI means ‚that‘ meaning the karma.

SEMPA means movement of the mind

DANG is ‚and‘

This looks like DEJE, but this day has two syllables, DE-JE, which means what it does or what it motivates.

Here's movement of the mind again, YIKYI LE is karma of the mind and YIN-NO means ‚it is so‘.

Tibetan sentence structure is backwards and inside out from my perspective.

What this is saying is ‚Karma is movement of the mind‘.

Unwritten is what are deeds? I'm sorry.

Deeds cause the multitude of worlds.

Unwritten is what do you mean by deeds? They are movement of the mind—SEMPA YIKYI LE, and what that movement of the mind motivates—SEMPA DANG DE-JE.

What does that motivate?

It motivates us to say something, and or do something.

So karma of the mind, movement of the mind, is just the shift of awareness from this to that.

With that happens a thought, not even necessarily a thought in word, but it is a thought to move from seeing the blossoming suarow to seeing the Buddha on my altar. That's a movement of the mind. And with it there is a nonverbal thought that's different. My response to the awareness of blooming suarow is different than my response to the awareness Buddha and my altar.

That's movement of the mind.

That movement of the mind inspires thought, speech and action.

When we're with other beings, our mind moves, we say, we act. We act, we say, right? Those aren't necessarily one and then the other.

Speech karma and physical karma are not cause and effect, but they're happening often together, not always together.

Deeds cause the multiple of the worlds.

What do we mean by deeds? We mean movement of the mind and what that motivates.

What does it motivate? Actions of speech, actions of body, which are ripenings and plantings, right?

They're ripening in the sense that they are a reaction to that movement of the mind circumstance. And in their process our mind is aware of what we say to another, what we do to another. That awareness of those actions make an imprint on the mind and that makes new mental seeds, new karma. That's collecting karma, to make an imprint. It's step two in the wheel of life.

We can get a sense of how it's happening perpetually. Ripenings and plantings are happening. You could make a case where it's all happening simultaneously, in which case maybe that one that made the world simultaneous could really be true, but don't go there.

A ripening has to ripen before we can plant in response to it.

That process is what we mean by ‚deeds cause the multitudes of worlds‘.

Movement of the mind, what it motivates is the cause of our experience me and my world—not in the moment but in this sequential happening of that process.

Communicating and non-communicating karma

(67:20) Then that opening verse goes on to say, ‚and these deeds of body and speech, these are either communicating or not‘.

To be honest with you, it still escapes me why these deeds being communicating or not is so important that it's in this opening statement of chapter 4.

It's one of those that I've got on the shelf cooking, because it just doesn't seem that important to me. I hope you have an insight you can help me.

Communicating karma is called NAMPAR RIKJE

Non-communicating karma is NAMPAR RIKJE MAYINPA, meaning it's not. Communicating karma and not communicating karma that's not that not communicating.

What do we mean by communicating karma?

If we are observing someone who, say they're in a church and they're kneeling and they have their hands in prayer, and we just saw them do that, we would infer that they're praying. We might be wrong, but given the information that we have, they're in a church, they're doing all the things that you do when you pray, probably they're praying.

That person is making communicating karma by their bodily action. If I could hear them whispering, then their speech seat action would also be making communicating karma. Meaning what they're doing communicates to another something about their motivation.

Okay, great. Communicating karma.

Then non-communicating karma.

The example they use is, suppose you are at someone's ordination ceremony and you don't know it's the ordination ceremony. You walk in just at the moment that the Lama’s cutting the lock of hair, and you know about those things. So there's communicating karma happening, because you infer they're getting their vows.

You infer from that they must have some amount of devotion.

We make all kinds of inferences based on what they're showing us with their actions and speech. But then, a couple hours later, you see that person in the kitchen and they're just washing dishes. You look at them and that communicating karma from before when they were getting their vows, they have their vows, but you can't see them.

Their non-communicating karma is this aura of goodness that they accumulated by way of the karma they made as they were doing the thing that was communicating karma.

We can do things that communicate karma. After we're done with that, we still have some influence within us from that deed, but it's not anything that is communicated to anybody else.

What is so crucial about that?

I think it gives us a little glimpse into what imprints of our behavior, like some of the ramifications of that imprint. We tend to be thinking, oh, it's a little teeny seed inside my heart. But it actually makes us up. Those seeds make us up.

But it isn't something that we can see on another, or that another can see on us. Because those karmas are non communicating.

Most of our karmas are non communicating.

Think about it.

It's two forms of karma: communicating karma and non-communicating karma.

Maybe we want to make more communicating karma so we can communicate karma and emptiness to other people. I don't know. I really don't know.

Two ways of dividing karma: communicating and non-communicating.

Motivating karma and motivated karma

(73:56) Another two ways of dividing karma is called by way of the most basic kind of karma.

The most basic kind of karma we just learned: movement of the mind and what it motivates. The what it motivates is speech and action. So there's mental karma and there's body and speech karma as two different kinds of karma.

Sounds like three, but it's divided. Mental and physical.

Speech being part of physical.

They also call those motivating karma and motivated karma.

Which one do you figure is motivating karma?

Movement of the mind. Because it's what makes us say and do.

So motivated karma is what we say and do, which was motivated by the movement of the mind.

Within that movement of the mind is our emotions, our mental afflictions, our beliefs. All of that is movement of the mind. Many, many layers of movement of the mind, at most subtle, maybe most subtle is just the shift of awareness from this to that.

But from that, this ball rolls to identifying things, having judgment about things, discriminating between things, wanting things, diswanting things, and in an instant we're saying something, we're doing something that Boom, is replanted a new movement of the mind and what it motivates. and the cycle turns.

Everything in the world comes from karma.

What do we mean by karma? Movement in the mind and what it motivates.

What does it motivate? Actions of speech and body.

What do those do? They imprint new movement of the mind and what it motivates.

And all of that is what creates the JIKTEN NATSOK.

Who is the creator of the world?

Yeah, okay, I'm the creator of the world. Will you all just behave please. Do your homeworks.

No. You are the creator of the world. Sarahni, would you lay off and not make us do our homeworks?

Who's the creator of the world?

Then which one of you? I mean of each one of us?

This one, or that one?

The one before, or the one that's coming later?

Which you?

Aren't you different now than you were at the beginning of class?

Yeah. So which ones the creator, the one from class before class, or this one now, or the one 10 seconds from now?

Right, exactly.

5 Qualities of non-communicating karma

(77:57) I got one more thing for class, and that is in this information about communicating karma and non-communicating karma, this thing about non-communicating karma is so important.—Like I'm being a little tongue in cheek here, but poking fun at myself, not the tradition, not Geshe Michael.—That they give us five characteristics, five qualities of non communicating karma, and you have it on your homework and even on your quiz.

So it must be more important that I understand. I hope you figure it out and you can tell me.

Here are these five qualities of non-communicating karma.

Even during distraction. What that means is even when our mind is not thinking about it, that aura of non-communicating karma is still there. In the vow taking example, we got our vows. While we were taking our vows, we were making communicating karma. After we're done, we have this non-communicating karma. Nobody else can see that we have vows. We can't even see that we have vows. But we still have that non-communicating karma vibe that makes us up even when we're not thinking about it. Thank goodness.
Even when the mind is stopped. Now, technically you can't ever stop your mind. But there are circumstances when our mind is so slowed down that it might as well be stopped. Like deep sleep, like unconscious drunk, like really, really zoned out, some kinds of meditations that our tradition does not encourage or teach. But when the mind is really, really minimally conscious, that non-communicating karma is still there.
It‘s virtue or not. That non-communicating karma is virtue or not. It means that that actual vibe or aura, it has an ethical component. The karma that made it, the karma that it is, was either powerful goodness or powerful badness—not goodness. Technically they say, when we use the term vows, we are assuming that we're talking about taking a vow of non harming, or taking a vow of Bodhisattva vows, certain vows to avoid this and try to do that. It has by implication the vow to be kinder, to be nicer, to make good karma. But, when you join the military, you take a vow to do whatever you have to do to serve your country. That implies that you're probably going to have to kill somebody or be involved in killing somebody. It's still a vow and you get a non-communicating karma. But it's one that when it ripens will ripen you in a situation where others have taken a vow to be willing to kill their enemy or contribute to that, and if you're the enemy, you're in trouble. So a vow, a non-communicating karma can be virtuous, a good one, something that's going to bring us a positive result. Or it can be a negative one that will bring us a negative result. They both qualify as non-communicating karma. Somehow a non communicating karma can't be neutral. I think it has to do with the strength of the imprint. Neutrals, too neutral to become this thing called a non-communicating karma that gets carried through when we're distracted, when our mind is almost stopped, because it doesn't have a virtue or not. Doesn't have strong enough goodness or badness to carry on.
It continues even after, the words are: it continues even after. Meaning it carries on in a stream. That communicating karma vibe within us follows us through time and space. As long as we don't actually destroy it in some way, and depending on the kind of vow, it continues through time and space until our body finishes. As in our individual freedom vows and our refuge advices. They go away when this life ends. Bodhisattva vows, Diamond Way vows, they carry on.
It takes the great elements as it's caused, which means that this non-communicating karma thing that we're talking about is actually composed of some kind of subtle physical matter. The elements are physical matter. The subtleties of what makes up physical matter is everything is some combination of earth element, water element, wind element, fire element and space element. It doesn't mean our physical bodies have dirt inside them. But the earth element means the quality of solidity of form. The water element means our quality of fluidity, the quality that allows blood and lymph and snot and urine to flow to move. Then, fire is the quality of temperature, metabolism. Wind is the quality of movement. Space is the quality of place, where things are and everything, every existing material thing is made up of some combination of those elements. So is our non-communicating karma. Again, it's like I don't understand, it's a physical thing, this non-communicating karma. But very, very subtle. Geshehla said, Don't worry, it doesn't make you heavier. You can't say, oh, I just have too much non-communicating karma. You're not allowed to do that.

That actually finishes our class 2 for this course. I was tempted to go to the next class, but then that would double up your homework. So I would rather book the extra minutes, but I'm also very happy to stay and entertain questions about anything if anyone else cares to stay and you don't have to. But if anybody's going to leave, I'd like to do the dedication before you go. If you're going to stay, we can… Anyway

Let's do our dedication and then stay or not. We'll see.

[Usual dedication]

Q&A

(91:00) What karma I plant when I visit others at night in my dreams. Oh, interesting. Karma in dreams is made and ripens similarly to karma not in dreams.

If we are leaving our bodies and going and doing stuff during sleep, and what we see ourselves doing is trying to be helpful, we're planting good seeds.

If what we're doing is going and interfering, we're planting negative seeds.

If we just show up somewhere and nothing's really happening much, then we're making neutral-ish seeds—if we can say there's such a thing as neutral karma, I'm not so sure.

But the next question then is, well, what's the karma for that to happen? And then the question would be, well, are you aware that it's happening? Are you intending it for it to happen? Which would be a different kind of karma than if it's just spontaneously happening and you don't really know about it until somebody says, Hey, you were in my bedroom last night at 2:00 AM. In which case it's like you don't make the karma for it until you hear that it happened.

Then the karma is, I go places in my sleep. The awareness of that happening.

There is a whole high level Diamond Way practice of cultivating lucid dreaming. There's non-Diamond Way people that cultivate lucid dreaming as well for lots of different reasons.

In the Diamond Way, the reason to cultivate lucid dreaming is that means that you are aware of yourself in your dream, which means that you can direct your behavior in your dream. And because dreams are so much less limited than physical world, you can direct yourself to do all kinds of things in your dream that you wouldn't even begin to think of directing yourself of doing in your worldly life.

So in our tradition, they say if you're going to do lucid dreaming practice, then your task is to dream yourself into being your fully enlightened being and do your angel deeds in your dream.

So at one level that would be to meditate on seeing emptiness directly in your dream. You might actually be able to do it in your dream, even though you can't do it in your physical body.

Will it be the direct yogic experience of emptiness?

I don't know until you see what result it has on you coming out. But no reason it couldn't be. But it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be.

If one has a creation stage practice, for instance, then you dream yourself doing your Sadhana practice, and it becomes much more real in a dream than when we're reading it, imagining it. We're planting seeds for it in the dream as well.

One can get to the point where you're doing your practice in your daily life, and you're doing your practice in your dream life. Now it's not eight hours of Bardo and the rest of the time planting seeds. You're planting seeds 24/7–the advantage of lucid dreaming.

That the not well-trained, lucid dreaming, however, can interfere with the sleep cycle that our physical bodies need in order to do what they do during sleep. Which whatever that is, clean the brain, relax. You don't want to be doing a lucid dreaming where all you do is dream all night long, because then your physical body's going to wear out.

Why one spontaneously leaves their body at night, and others don't have any awareness of doing that, that would all be based on previous life seeds, and previous life ripenings and et cetera.

Class 3: Three Types of Deeds, and the Nature of Motivation

13 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 3

Welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 3, June 13th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

Again, listen to The Source of All My Good

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 2

(12:40) This class is called GEWA DANG MIGEWA—virtue and non virtue.

We kind of need to see how we get led into that.

In the opening lines of chapter 4, LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE, Master Vasubandhu is saying, You want to know where all of that stuff that we talked about in chapter 1, 2 and 3 come from?

The commentary says, reading between the lines of the root text, Abhidharmakosha is that, All of those things of the world,

they don't come from the big bang,
they don't come from the force and
they don't come from a creator being who would have the power like to create anything and everything.

The qualities of those three being unchanging, being all powerful but creating all powerful and all loving but creating suffering. It's just inconsistent with the world as we know it. It doesn't really explain stuff.

Are they useful beliefs for some people? Absolutely. Not to be disrespected.

But once we have reached the place where we're saying, Wait a minute. The world they created is unacceptable. Where does that leave us?

Okay, fine. You created this world, but I'm going to, there's got to be another way here.

LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE: Where did all this stuff come from?

Deeds.

Technically karma.

What's karma? Movement of the mind and what it motivates.

That's how we come up with: deeds cause the multitude of worlds. Because karma is movement of the mind and what it motivates—what we say and what we do.

What we think, do and say is the cause of our world, Samsariq and otherwise. Which is why it will work. It will explain our suffering and it will explain how we can end that suffering and how we are the only one who can do it for our personal experience.

What were those two reasons why those three—Big bang, the force and a creator God—couldn't be the real causes of our world?

One of them was because if those things are unchanging, as they were held to be, an unchanging thing can't affect anything else. So they either aren't the cause or they aren't unchanging. If they're not unchanging, then something had to act on them to make them be the cause, which means they're not the original cause. The thing that made them be the cause is the original cause. But guess what? That had to have something act on it too.
Then the argument against the creator being creating everything is that they would've created it all perfect all at once. Then there wouldn't be any sequentiality to it. But there is. So it just doesn't explain our situation is why that one fails.

What is the cause of our world? Deeds, karma.

What were those two main divisions of karma?

So I'm really asking this question.

(Ale) Verbal and non verbal?

(Lama Sarahni) Kind of, but not exactly. Motivating and motivated.

What's motivating karma? Movement of the mind. So would qualify as nonverbal, but that doesn't give the right idea. Movement of the mind.

Geshela says ‚thought‘. But I find it confusing to call movement of the mind ‚thought‘, because to me thought means blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah inside there (pointing at her head). Words, stringing ideas together, coming to a story.

Whereas movement of the mind is just (moving her hands from one side to the other). This movement of the mind from this to that, to this, to that—that's still karma, that's still imprinting. It's inspiring us to have a thought then something we say and or do.

So motivating karma is just this movement of the mind. It includes thought we could qualify thought as conceptual thought and non-conceptual thought. But that doesn't make sense to me.

Movement of the mind motivates us to say and do say, say and or do, do and or say—you get it.

What we say and or do is called motivated karma.

Now as we get into understanding karma, we'll understand that sometimes when we're using the word karma, we're talking about what we're imprinting.

Sometimes when you're using the word karma, we're talking about what's ripening. So what's being exprinted, projected, perceived. We'll call it perceived from this school, level of school. They use the same word karma—LE—for whether it's the imprint or the ripening.

Two basic types of karma, motivating karma + motivated karma.

Then of the motivated karma, there's that which communicates, that's what is communicating, and that which is non communicating.

The non communicating karma had those five qualities.

Five characteristics, remember?

For interest of time, I'm just going to rattle them off because I have them in my notes. Otherwise I couldn't do it right. Don't get the wrong idea.

That non communicating karma is:

still with us even during distraction,
even while our mind is stopped,
it is virtue or not,
it is continuing after. And lastly,
it takes the great elements as it's causes. Meaning that it has some very subtle material quality to its existence.

So park that in your head. You had to have it for your homework and your quiz and it's going to be important later on at some point. I'm not exactly sure when, but nothing is superfluous in these classes.

Vocabulary for Class 3

(22:00) Okay, so we're onto class 3 and there is a lot of Tibetan in this class.

Please forgive me. You don't need it for your homework. We're just planting seeds to make sure that we still have access. So although I'm tempted to not do it, I'm not going to not do it.

This class is about GEWA DANG MIGEWA.

GEWA means virtue, also called good deeds.

Now later on, by the time we get, I don't know, into 10, 11, 12 courses, we'll make a distinction between good deeds and virtue, about distinction between good karma and something called merit. But right now Geshehla was just using synonymously virtue and good deed.

But now what he's meaning by good deed is a kindness.

We tend to hear good, bad and we have this judgment. But then when… we will see later.

So GEWA means virtue, and MIGEWA non virtue.

MI negates it, virtue and non virtue is what this class is about.

Geshehla called it „good deeds and bad deeds“ to simplify things.

So he first got us the definition of good deeds, bad deeds and deeds that are neither, meaning neutral deeds if there is such thing.

That definition is not in Abhidharmakosha, that I'm aware of. He went to a Sakya text for these definitions, and I don't know what text. He just said it from a Sakya text.

But when we go word for word through a definition, it helps us to get a bigger understanding beyond just the English translation of the words, which I'll give you that as well.

Virtue/Good Deed

Here's the definition of GEWA, a good deed, a virtue.

It goes like this:

DU RESHIKLA NAMMIN YIDU ONGWA DEWA NGONGWA DANG TENDU DUKNGYEL LE KYOPPAY NYANGDE TOPJE GEWA

There's the word GEWA. GEWA is what we're talking about.

In the Tibetan syntax it's backwards, and I don't know where the backwards picks up with the four words. I'm just going to start at the front and go through the words and then I'll put it all together for you.

We are talking about the definition of good deed.

DU RESHIKLA means in the short term.

So if it starts out saying, well in the short term, da da da da da. It's going to also say, And in the long run, da da da da da. We're going to see that.

In the short run, NAMMIN YIDU ONGWA DEWA.

NAMMIN is the word for when the pot of rice that you're cooking is done. It's the rice is fully cooked, meaning you have the result of cooking the rice.

But here it's talking about the karmic ripening. Karma gets planted, it cooks and then it's ripe, and it ripens into its result.

The Tibetans intentionally use this word, like what word would really describe how karma, the karmic result happens? It's got to cook and get finished, and then you can eat it. NAMMIN, it means the ripened result.

But hold that connotation of ‚it had to cook‘. Some stuff had to happen to it for it to get there. NAMMIN.

In the short term, this ripened result of a GEWA, a good deed is YIDU ONGWA DEWA.

YIDU means desirable.

ONGWA means attractive.

They seem redundant: desirable and attractive. DEWA means happiness. That seems triple redundant. But it means a good deed, in the short term brings a result that's desirable, attractive, happy.

We can roll that all together into pleasant, a pleasant result.

But it's really bigger than just plain pleasant. It's desirable, attractive and happy.

NGONGWA means to experience.

YIDU ONGWA DEWA NGONGWA means the ripening result in the short run is this experience that is a desirable, attractive, happy, pleasant.

In the short run, a good deed brings us a pleasant result, is what that's saying.

DENDU, which means ultimately

DUKNGYEL LE KYOPPAY NYANGDE

DUKNGYEL, anybody know the word DUKNGYEL?

(Claire) Suffering.

(Lama Sarahni) Suffering good, beautiful. Suffering.

Ultimately, DUKNGYEL LE KYOPPAY means protects us from suffering.

KYOPPAY is to protect

LE here is not karma. It's ‚from‘, in the long run, like ultimately, that good deed protects us from suffering.

NYANGDE TOPJE. Anybody remember NYANGDE from class 2?

To blow out, Nirvana.

NYANGDE TOPJE means brings us to nirvana.

GEWA, a good deed, is a deed that in the short run brings us a pleasant experience and ultimately stops our suffering by bringing us to Nirvana.

That's interesting.

Does that mean then that just any old kindness qualifies as a GEWA?

Some say yes, some say no.

You could say yes, any old kindness qualifies as a GEWA, because if we do a kindness and we get a bad result. If that happens enough, we're going to start thinking: there's something wrong here, right?

I need to figure this out. This isn't working the way it's supposed to. So a kindness that brings a bad result will help us wake up. In that way, any old kindness will eventually take us to Nirvana.

But more directly, a kindness done with a mistaken state of mind is a kindness that will bring us a pleasant result, but that pleasant result will wear out because we don't have the wisdom in our mind through which we are perpetuating the goodnesses that we do and receive the result from.

In that way, a kindness it's done still with an ignorant state of mind can only bring us in the short term pleasant, which wears out, which technically is a suffering.

When good things wear out, that's suffering number two: leaves us wanting for more leaves us disappointed.

If the deed that we did to bring the goodness that wears out is actually a suffering result, can we say the goodness that we did is a GEWA?

No. Because it's not also bringing us to Nirvana.

There are three time periods in which NAMMINs from the planted karma can happen.

We can plant a seed in this life in such a powerful way that it will cook and get ripe within this very lifetime. That's the basis of the diamond way.
Otherwise the seeds that we plant in this life are more likely going to ripen in our very next life, or in any lifetime after that. Which means that the things we are experiencing now, and now, and now, are things that are most likely from deeds that we planted—things that we did in either our immediately, previous lifetime or any of our lifetimes before that. It is possible that some deed that we did in this lifetime was done with enough strength, power, and wisdom that it could be ripening as your current experience. But very likely, if you are like me and I don't know for sure, the experiences that we're having moment by moment in these lifetimes are coming from lifetimes before. Either the immediate one or anytime before.
And it means what we're planting now, and now, and now, and now, are likely going to be ripening in our next lifetime or anyone after that. Which means our deeds now, and now, and now, and now, and now are creating our future circumstances. Our deeds from before are creating our future circumstances of this life. And our deeds in this life are creating for future circumstances, for next lives. Technically, to be Buddhist, our concern for our behavior in this life would be directed towards those future lives. Much more so than directed towards this lifetime. This lifetime will reap benefits from the behavior change that we make, because we have similar seeds planted in past lives that we're working on. Those behaviors in this life are adding to those other seeds and so we can see results that seem to be from what we did last month. But if you were able to see which seed is it that's ripening, it's not the one we planted a month ago. It's the ones that the one we planted a month ago have added to, and they're the ones that are ripening. Minor detail. But the point is where our focus of looking for the result is. As a Buddhist on their spiritual path, our focus would be next life and after that.

(37:24) In order for a kindness to qualify as a GEWA, something that will bring us a pleasant result in the short term and ultimately help us reach Nirvana.

The deed that we do needs to have a high level of consciousness about the selflessness of the subject, the object and the interaction between.

So that that little bit of growing wisdom is included in the motivation for doing the deed, in what we see ourselves doing, and what kind of result we are intending to create by doing that deed.

The more our awareness of selflessness of the three spheres is in our mind as we're interacting throughout our day, the more powerfully those seeds are planted with less ignorance than before and allows those seeds to grow into seeds that would qualify as being GEWA.

The purposefulness and high level of awareness of the empty nature of the three spheres is the piece that helps our deeds shift from plain old kindness to a kindness that will end suffering.

When we jump schools and talk about Bodhichitta, we've already done the class where with Bodhichitta, even the teeniest little good deeds are the cause for your Buddhahood. You remember that there were like five of them?

Five qualities or benefits of having Bodhichitta in your mind as you're brushing your teeth, sweeping the porch, doing anything. Here you can see why, right?

It's how we impose even intellectually our motivation for the highest thing, for the greatest number of people because of our understanding of the no self nature of things.

Gewa.

Bad Deed/ Non Virtue

(40:23) MIGEWA means non virtue, not virtue.

We get a definition again. I think I have the whole one here.

NAMMIN— in there it is again, the ripening result.

YIDU MI-ONGWA MIDEWA NYONGWA NI MIGEWA

YIDU was pleasant.

I'm surprised that doesn't say MI-YIDU, but it doesn't.

NAMMIN YIDU MI-ONGWA

If ONGWA is, what did I say? It was desirable.

What do you figure MI ONGWA is?

Undesirable, not desirable.

YIDU was attractive. Isn't that what I said?

No, YIDU is desirable, ONGWA is attractive.

YIDU MI-ONGWA is meaning undesirable, unpleasant, unattractive. Something we don't want.

A non virtue gives a ripening result that's undesirable, and MI DEWA unpleasant. NYONGWA is an experience.

NI MIGEWA. Here's the word, non virtue.

Non virtue is that deed that ripens as an unpleasant experience.

Short term, long term, doesn't matter.

When we get a negative experience, it's the ripening result of some non virtue that we did before.

When we get a pleasant experience that leaves out leaving us suffering, that's a ripening of a kindness that we did with the mistaken state of mind.

When we get a pleasant result that leads us to nirvana, how are we going to know that? It was from a deed that we did with some amount of wisdom.

Are you seeing that a deed's quality of being a virtue or a non virtue is not based upon the deed. It's based upon the result we get from that deed.

There lies the conundrum. Because technical, what deed planted that seed that made that result is deeply hidden reality.

We can't know the connection. By the time we get the result we don't even know that we did the deed that was the cause. It's like lifetimes ago. Let alone last lifetime. Let alone when I was 10 years old. I don't remember. I don't connect the dot.

We're stuck needing to rely upon an authority.

In this tradition it says, Right, we need an authority. Your job as the student is to prove to yourself the authoritativeness of the teaching and teacher that we're studying, not meaning me, not meaning Geshe Michael. But meaning the Buddha teachings so that we can reach that point where it's like, Okay. I understand that I can believe.

Not just blind belief. Buddha said so, I'll do anything.

That's nice. But those seeds can wear out.

When we've proven to ourselves that this being, when they talk about karmic correlations that I cannot directly see, I can know that those are accurate guidelines for me to follow to get the result that those guidelines say that they will bring.

When I've logically proven that to myself, I've made a valid perception of it, valid perception of something makes that something exist.

It's worth the effort to again and again and again, go through that argument, How do I know that the Buddha has become correct? Like course 4. It was so confusing, but it's a really important one to get that sequence clear in our thinking.

Geshela‘s example here was, in our ordinary state of mind and within the societies within which we grow up, it is perfectly acceptable and expected that we will kill the cockroaches in our kitchen to get rid of them.

There's the cockroach, you pour poison down the sink and you don't see cockroaches for a while—sometimes. So we say, See? The poison got rid of the cockroaches.

In this society we are expected to smack the mosquito, because it carries disease and if it bites somebody else, they could get hurt, and so I'm going to protect everybody else by smacking that mosquito before it bites me too.

But, if the instant we smashed that mosquito our ribs got crushed, like we got smashed. How many mosquitoes would you smash before you learned not to smash one? I hope none, because you'd watched somebody else smash, crash. Whoa, I'm not going to do that.

But, there's that delay I, and we really don't believe that the result of smashing the mosquito will be that someday we will be smashed.

But, who was watching when I smashed the mosquito?

My video recorder. Technically it was watching like this.

Then when that series of, what do they call 'em? Frames, frame. Films get cooked, get developed and out they come, guess what? I'm under the mack truck as it falls over and smash. And I'm not aware of that enough to go, Whoa, I wish I hadn't smashed that mosquito, and neither does everybody else in my world go, Whoa, she shouldn't have smashed that mosquito. Because we don't connect that dot.

But technically, cause-effect. Karmic cause effect never fails.

It's a circular argument because it's like, if you say that to have a result means you had to have a karmic cause and you're experiencing results moment by moment, then of course you made karmic seeds. And it feels like that doesn't seem like a proof. But when you get in and really dig into it, and see how these teachings reveal that a deed is neither good nor bad until you get its result.

How deeply profound that is, and how deeply frustrating it is because it's like, yeah, but I can't see it. I can't prove it. Because the deed's already done long ago.

Once we catch it, we'll realize that it's like, Oh, okay. Well, if I can't really know what's good and bad except by what I experience, I very clearly know what's pleasant and what's unpleasant for me.

That alone gives us a lot of ammunition, sorry to use that term.

But a lot to go on if all we did was choose our behaviors based on thinking: When this comes back to me, will I like it?

In that way, the Buddha‘s teachings are empowering us to make our own decisions, to take responsibility for our behavior.

It also means then that when anything unpleasant does happen to us, we can't blame anybody else but our own past deeds. And a lot of people don't like that.

A lot of us still want to blame somebody else. Thank you very much.

It takes some working with this to reach that place where it's like, Oh, okay, I think I'm getting it. Deeds aren't good and bad by their own side except by way they're going to come back to me similarly. And that's the clue: they will come back to me similarly.

Buddha does give us some guidelines. In the literatures it sounds like Buddha is saying: Do this, don't do that. Take these vows, keep these vows.

If we misunderstood, it would sound like, Because I'm Buddha and I say so—which he never said. He in fact said, You figure it out yourself. Check these teachings like you would check gold. Don't take my word for it, test it all out.

But there's some stuff that you aren't going to actually see directly until your omniscient. For that stuff, prove to yourself the value of following my instructions, and then do it if you want to stop perpetuating your own suffering, let alone anybody else's.

When we're talking good deeds, bad deeds, things I should do, things I shouldn't do, those words take on a whole new meaning.

The good deeds I do are the deeds that will bring the result that will bring me and everybody else to Nirvana. That's what we mean by good deeds.

Things that I should take up and should give up are the things that will grow my ability to make the good deeds that will bring everyone to Nirvana, and to give up those habitual selfishness is through which I perpetuate suffering.

We could use the words good, bad, should, shouldn't, but if we're talking to not so well-educated people, those terms are loaded with judgment.

You're saying, what's a good deed? What's a bad deed?

Buddha says, what we should do, what we shouldn't do?

Come on. That's no different than the religion I left.

Just be careful with your words when you're talking outside the arena of a well-educated Buddhist here.

Then even for your own mind, check and see when you hear the teacher or somebody say, Well, you know what you should do, and you feel that, Don't tell me what to do, right?

It's because we're having this wrong connotation.

Hopefully the teacher's going to be really sensitive to that and not say something like that. But our own minds do it to ourselves.

You know what you should do, Sarahni. Don't tell me what to do, right? I do it to myself. Whereas when we understand what we really mean, this is what it takes. This is what it needs to stop doing in order to stop perpetuating all of this pain. It's all in this beautiful course about karma.

Neutral Karma

(55:45) A GEWA in the short term brings us a pleasant experience, and in the long term brings us to Nirvana. A wrong deed, a negative deed, a not gaa is a ripening result that's unpleasant, period.

Within which are all three kinds of suffering, obvious suffering, suffering of change, pervasive suffering.

There's a third. That definition, the definition of LE LUNG MA TEN

LE LUNG MA TEN means karma, LE.

LUNG MA TEN means not spoken by the Buddha literally. But it doesn't mean he didn't ever say anything about neutral karma. But it means not clarified, not designated, not specifically, no, not clarified by the Buddha.

Karma not otherwise clarified. What they mean by that is neutral karma.

LE LUNG MA TEN means neutral karma is

YIDU ENG MI-ENGKYEPA DINYI LE SHENPAY LE LUNG MA TEN

YIDU we know is desirable

ENG is a word for result. We're going to see it in other words as well.

Here, the desirable result.

MI-ENG would be undesirable result

KYEPA is ‚gives you‘, and

DINYI means these two.

LE SHENPAY LE LUNG MA TEN means neutral karma is that which brings you something other than those two.

The ‚those two‘ is YIDU ENG MI-ENG, pleasant results and unpleasant results.

A neutral karma is a karma that brings you a result other than pleasant or unpleasant.

Well, what is pleasant? What's other than that? They call it neutral. I don't really understand what they mean by neutral karma.

Geshela said, when you're just zoned out like a vegetable, you're making neutral karma. But I kind of disagree with that. But you get the idea. Not doing anything, just staring at the tv, not even paying attention. That kind of, again, I don't buy it.

But here it is in the scriptures at the level of detailist school. You know if there's good karma and there's bad karma, there must be neutral karma. All right? If there's neutral karma, it ripens in some way other than those other two.

All right, you got your homework.

Let's take a break.

Four Kinds of Good Karma

(60:22) GEWA, virtuous deeds, meaning a deed that once planted, ripens into in the short term a pleasant result, and in the long run, taking us to Nirvana. That's what we're talking about here.

There are four kinds, four basic kinds of GEWA, good deeds.

Here's the Tibetan for the four:

dumdam gewa

ngowo nyikyi gewa

duchak mepa

shedang mepa

timuk mepa

ngotsa

trelyu

tsung-den

kunlong

1. Ultimate Good Deed

DUNDAM GEWA

DUNDAM means ultimate. We've had it before.

Ultimate Bodhichitta, ultimate reality, DUNDAM.

DUNDAM GEWA, so it means ultimate good deed. And remember in Abhidharma, which is the knowledge that takes us to the highest thing. What was the highest thing? Nirvana.

So here as well, DUNDAM GEWA, the ultimate good deed is referring to Nirvana. It's not another name for Nirvana. You don't hear them say DUNDAM GEWA in place of NYANG DE. But the ultimate good deed is being in Nirvana. It's a little weird because we think, Oh, the ultimate good deed would be the deed that finally gets you to nirvana. But they say, No, no, that's not what this is talking about. Being in Nirvana is the ultimate good deed.

So they say, technically it's a GEWA nominally, in name only. Which in this school is a little different than what we mean by nominally, which is seeds ripening only, which is true. But DUNDAM GEWA here means it's not the seed you plant to get to Nirvana, it's being in Nirvana. So it technically isn't a deed, it's a done, it's a ripening result

But it gets to fall within these four kinds of GEWA.

2. Good Deed by its Nature

The second one is NGOWO NYIKYI GEWA.

NGOWO means nature

NGOWO NYIKYI GEWA means a good deed by its very nature.

NGOWO NYIKYI GEWA is a good deed by its very nature.

Doesn't that make your Middle Way head go, What? Nothing has its own nature.

It's like that can't be, but we're not in high school right now. We are in the school where things that function have some nature of their own. They're not self existent. Don't be silly about that. But, they do have some nature of their own because they are functional things. Come on.

So here's a GEWA, a good deed that is a functioning thing. Something we do plants the seed, going to come back as a good result that leads us to Nirvana.

NGOWO NYIKYI means these deeds have in them something that makes them good. But in a moment you're going to see that thing in them that makes them good is actually an absence of something. So technically it still fits with Highest School.

We'll see that later.

5 Kinds of Deeds that are Virtuous by its Very Nature and the 3 Root Virtuous Mental Functions

A deed that's virtuous by its very nature, there are five deeds that fit within this category of being a deed that's virtuous by its very nature.

DUCHAK MEPA - Ignorant Liking
SHEDANG MEPA - Ignorant Disliking
TIMUK MEPA - Ignorance
NGOTSA - Shame
TRELYU - Consideration

Ignorant Liking

These are divided into the first three and the second two.

Anybody recognize the words? DUCHAK, SHEDANG, TIMUK?

That's asking too much.

DUCHAK means ignorant liking

DUCHAK MEPA means no ignorant liking, non ignorant liking.

Meaning when we are in the experience of that pleasant bowl of ice cream, apparently pleasant bowl of ice cream, and our understanding of the selflessness of Me, the selflessness of the ice cream and the selflessness of the pleasure I expect to get from eating that ice cream, that state of mind will make me not have ignorant desire for the ice cream, and will probably propel me to share that ice cream with somebody else.

Nobody's there? I offer it. Even if anybody's there, I offer it first. But look for somebody to share it with, because I know where it came from in the first place and I want to perpetuate it.

So say there's 20 people in your living room and you've got this one bowl of ice cream. Your awareness of these three selflessness are so strong that there isn't an instant of, That's my bowl of ice cream. I should take the first bite, or at least I should get the last bite. But you just hand it, and by the time it goes around the 25 people, there's not even a bowl to lick anymore and you don't get any.

This DUCHAK MEPA state of mind is like, Great, 25 people got a bite of ice cream and there's no like, And I didn't get any. Because DUCHAK MEPA is there. The absence of DUCHAK makes a pleasant experience, a GEWA.

Takes a lot of thinking.

Why is it even a pleasant experience then if I don't even get to bite it? Because it is so pleasant to see everybody else enjoying it, I would guess.

Ignorant Disliking

SHEDANG is ignorant disliking

SHEDANG MEPA is no ignorant disliking

But because we are so clear on the selflessness of me, the selflessness of that unpleasant—I don't know what would be the example, cockroach scurrying around my kitchen counter and I've got company coming—and the interaction between, which is so many. Like, oh, I want to smash the thing, or Oh, I've got to get rid of it before my company comes, because what will they think of me? Right?

All the different things that'd be going in your mind. You've got your mother-in-law coming and you've got cockroaches on your counter.

If you have this SHEDANG MEPA, understanding the emptiness of this situation, there would be no ignorant disliking. There would be no inclination whatsoever to harm that cockroach to protect your reputation.

Maybe you're going to lovingly catch it, right?

Maybe you'll put it in a little cage and show it to your mother-in-law. Look at my new friend Henry.

I don't know what you'll do with it, but it will not occur to you to smash it or hurt it.

So now our experience of the cockroach, which would have been unpleasant, is SHEDANG MEPA, a virtue. Because instead of, Oh no cockroach, it's like, Oh cockroach, can I make you happy? What would you like, a piece of cheese?

I don't know.

Ignorance

TIMUK MEPA

If DUCHAK MEPA is ignorant liking not, and SHEDANG is ignorant disliking not. What do you think TIMUK MEPA is?

Ignorance not. Ignorance not is no self nature to anything.

If we have ignorance not in our mind, you can't have SHEDANG or DUCHAK, so you automatically are going to have ignorant liking not in your mind, and ignorant disliking not in your mind because you've got the not ignorant in your mind. Which technically we don't get there as a direct experience until we actually reach Nirvana.

After direct perception of emptiness, we don't quite have DUCHAK MEPA, SHEDANG MEPA, TIMUK MEPA, but we have DUCHAK, don't believe it.

I don't know how to say that. SHEDANG, don't believe it. TIMUK, don't believe it.

Our deeds are getting a little closer to GEWA as Arya.

These first three are called three roots of virtue.

We'll learn about roots of virtue later. There's more than three, but these are three main ones. They're actually mental functions, things going on in our awareness as we're interacting with pleasant things, unpleasant things and things—like all things. To interact with things with these three states of mind makes our interaction a GEWA, a good deed, that will bring us a pleasant result and eventually to Nirvana.

You can see how it would.

Even when we're imposing the ignorant liking not, it's like, Yes, there's ignorant liking for that ice cream right now, but I'm going to override it. Because I'm going to think empty me, empty that, I want more ice cream. Here, somebody eat this ice cream for me. Because we want more ice cream. Same with cockroach.

Shame - NGOTSA

(73:41) Then, the last two of these five good deeds that are good by their very nature is these two states of mind. They're called the two thoughts of Virtue: NGOTSA and TRELYU.

We'll talk about these two states of mind a lot in the course of our ACI. They get more and more subtle, more and more deep.

NGOTSA. The word is translated to English as shame, which doesn't seem like a pleasant state of mind. We're talking about GEWA, a good by its very nature. So to have this state of mind of shame, they're saying it's a good deed. I don't know about you, but my heart's going, no, there must be something I'm misunderstanding because… (clarification with translator)

Shame, but let me describe what NGOTSA means and then I think we'll see that shame isn't quite right. NGOTSA means that when you are choosing an action to do, when you're about to make a karma, do a deed. If you are in a situation where the deed that you're going to do nobody but you will ever know about it. NGOTSA is this state of mind that says, I am not going to let myself do an unkindness or whatever because I hold myself in too high a self-esteem.

It would be below me to smash that cockroach even if nobody ever knew about it.

My sense of self-esteem, the conscientiousness, self conscientiousness, I hold myself to a higher degree, and if nobody knows. That's what it's meant by TGOTSA. See how shame doesn't quite fit for me? Because this is a really powerful positive state of mind.

Consideration of the Impact - TRELYU

TRELYU is this same sense of considering the impact of what I'm about to do only in TRELYU this is about making our behavior choice based on some kind of consideration for the impact it will have on others.

If somebody else sees me do this…

I'm going to choose my behavior based on, If somebody else sees me do this.

At the first level, it's like, suppose you're an aspiring Buddhist and you're in a group of other Buddhists who you perceive as being higher along the aspiring chain than you are, and you're about to smack that cockroach, right? And you go, ah, no, I'm not going to do it because they're going to think badly of me.

It's still self, I'm concerned that they'll not like me as much. But it stops my bad behavior, my behavior that would come back to hurt me.

Then later this sense of TRELYU, it's not so much avoid doing a harmful deed because of what they will think of me. It's more about what the impact it will have on them to see me do that. Which is different.

It's like I don't care so much if they like me more or like me less from not smashing the cockroach. But I'm not going to smash it to set this good example for others.

You do it the first time and you get razzed for it.

Then the second time the situation comes up, somebody points out.

Like I'm in this exercise group and there is a bug walking across the room, and everybody else is doing the exercise. And I just stopped and I grabbed the bug and I threw it out, and the leader of course teasing me about it. But then a couple of weeks later, there's another bug walking across the floor and the leader of the group goes, Sarahni, there's a bug. And I went and I got it and I threw out. Everybody else would've just smashed the bug.

It crosses our mind. Even if nobody else knew I would've picked up that bug.

Or, what if? Because nobody else would know. It's easier just to smash the darn thing right?

Wrong NGOTSA. That's not having NGOTSA.

Nobody else is going to know so I can get away with it.

TRELYU is, without TRELYU it's like I don't care what anybody else thinks, I'm going to kill the bug.

These two states of are positive states of mind positive influencers on our choices of behavior. Technically we have them in our minds already to some extent.

They are in the category of good deeds by nature, because these two states of mind are what even ignorantly keep us from just doing any old thing that we want to do.

As ignorant beings, our animal brain says, Protect yourself at all costs.

So our natural reactions to things is grab what we want, destroy what we don't want. That's our automatic, driven by past seeds.

The extent to which we don't behave like that, which we don't mostly, is because we already have some level of personal self-esteem through which we choose what we will do and not do, and concern about our impact on others. That is included in how we choose our behavior.

So now we're wanting our NGOTSA and TRELYU to be informed with our understanding of emptiness of the situations, and be informed with our understanding of ‚behavior plant seeds that will ripen as similar bigger results‘.

Now I have better guidelines for the decisions I make through my two states of mind of shame, self-esteem and consideration for others.

Got it?

Five good deeds by nature. It's not the nature of the deed, it's the state of mind with which we're doing the deed that makes the deed have the nature of goodness.

Do you see?

These four kinds of GEWA, good deeds:

DUNDAM GEWA, being in Nirvana
NGOWO NYIKYI GEWA doing our deeds under the influence of these states of mind.
TSUNG-DEN means by association.
(KUNLONG)

3. Virtue by Association

(83:05) As we are interacting with other, subject object interaction between happening, we're focusing. We have a narrow focus of what's going on, but at the same time the mental function is going on.

There are other mental functions happening as well. We're not going to talk about all of them. But the other non-dominant mental functions get colored by the virtue or not of the main mental function that's going on.

When our main mental function is a virtue, all these others get are virtuous as well by way of this association. It's called a mental link, or by association.

The example they give is, suppose mental functions are clear and then your particularly good virtuous mental function that you're acting on is blue. Then all the other otherwise clear mental functions that are riding along with it, they also become blue.

Like if the floor of the swimming pool is painted blue, the clear water that goes into it all looks bluer than water usually does, because of the blue walls of the swimming pool.

Same idea of our main mental function, colors all the others.

Here we're saying that if we have this category of good deeds, if we do a good deed, then all these other mental functions become good deeds by nature also.

The other mental functions have to do with awareness of form, feeling, discriminating between things, like our intelligence, our awareness, all this other stuff that's going on.

The same is true in terms of this association with negative states of mind.

When we're having a big anger or jealousy outbreak, that's coloring all the other mental functions that are going on at the same time, which means we're perceiving the whole situation colored through the jealousy, colored through the anger.

Just like we're seeing it all colored through the goodness when we have a positive state of mind. It's actually affecting our ability to assess what's going on around us. Which then affects how we react again, because we react and react and react and react.

It's not like we react once and then everything settles down for a while. It's constant.

By association.

4. Virtue by Motivation

(87:10) KUNLONG. It means virtuous by motivation.

Virtuous by motivation can only apply to verbal and physical karma.

Which seems funny. It seems like you have a motivation for certain thoughts as well, but somehow that's a different thing. I'm going to guess that's in the TSUNG-DEN category.

Virtuous by motivation means that the deed of speech or physical action that we do become virtuous by way of the motivation with which we do them.

There's a story to illustrate this.

There's this really, this poor guy, like literally poor. He owns the cloth robe around his waist and he owns his pair of sandals, and that's all he is got.

He's walking in the rain down this muddy road and he comes by a Buddha's statue by the side of the road and it's getting rained on and he goes, Oh, this is terrible. I need to protect the statue of Buddha.

So he takes his sandals off, his precious sandals. He turns them upside down. He puts them on the head to protect the Buddha from the rain and he goes on.

The story says, that's a really, really great goodness.

Later, rain's gone, everything's dried up. Another guy comes walking along, a devout Buddhist. He sees this Buddha statue with two dirty sandals on its head. He goes, What jerk would put dirty sandals on the head of a Buddha? I've got to take those off. And he takes the sandals off and he throws them away.

Also makes huge virtue. Opposite deed, same motivation.

Oh, Buddha getting rained on.

Oh, Buddha dirty sandals on your head.

Fix it.

Motivation. Motivation is really a key player as we're growing our wisdom.

Typical in these teachings is, before we try to grow a new motivation, train yourself to recognize your habitual mistaken motivation. Find it first, and then have a chat with yourself. Like this old motivation, is it really serving me? It's going to say, Yes I do. I look after you. You are the most important thing to me. You can rely on me. I've taken care of you for eons. Yes, you can rely on me. I am the habit of taking care of yourself first. Grab what you want, what you need. Push away what you don't. I will help you do it.

You keep chatting with that habitual, you explaining karma and emptiness. Explaining this class until that part of you goes, Maybe there's a different way. Okay.

When you have that opening, that's when we can start trying to apply these new motivations.

I'm brushing my teeth because you're supposed to, because they feel better. Because I don't want to get cavities.

I'm brushing my teeth in order to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. Do you remember that lecture that we had?

It's like what brushing my teeth have to do with reaching Buddhahood?

Everything and nothing. It's the state of mind with which we do anything.

Can we be so imbued with Bodhichitta that tying your shoes is a cause for your Buddhahood?

This is KUNLONG, motivation.

A high motivation influences the deed that we do.

Now, does that mean I can have really, really high motivation and smash that cockroach?

It makes a good debate. There's that story about Buddha in a previous life as the Bodhisattva ship captain. There's the guy, he reads the guy's mind and he intends to kill the 500 other passengers for the goods. And the ship captain kills the guy before he can kill all the others.

When we first hear the story, we think, wow, how noble he saved the lives of 500 other guys. But then the punchline is that's not why he did it.

He killed the guy to protect the guy from killing 500 other guys, and he was willing to take the karmic hit of killing somebody motivated to protect them. That that ship captain guy, he does end up dying. He goes to hell as a result.

But they say he bounces out, in and out, like from that trampoline, because his motivation was so good.

So yes, motivation colors the seed, but it doesn't completely negate us hurting somebody. But it's going to change how the result comes back to us.

Maybe we get hurt by somebody with a high motivation. I don't know. Is that a good deed or a bad deed?

We want all of this karmic stuff to be black and white, and it's not black and white.

The more we think about it, the more we learn about it, the wiser our choice making can be. That's the point of all of these classes.

Yikers, I'm running out of time and I'm not going to finish class without going really fast.

The 10 Non Virtues

(95:05) There's an analogy.

Nirvana is like a healthy body.

Good deeds by very nature is like a medicinal herb, which has the power to cure.

Virtue by association, TSUNG-DEN, is like the liquid in which we mix the herb. The liquid takes on the power.

Then virtue by motivation is like the mother whose milk is beneficial because she is the one who's been taking the medicinal herb.

Motivation is like once removed, but still powerfully effective.

Non virtue is the opposite. Samsara is like a sick body. The result of a poisonous herb mixed in liquid taken by the mother whose milk then becomes not beneficial, or even harmful.

That'll be in your reading.

Buddha teaches that we have 84,000 negative deeds that we do that perpetuate Samsara. If he wrote about all 84,000, they say, that would be a really long book. Like the Canon is not a really long book, but it would be that much longer.

Buddha boiled all 84,000 wrong deeds down to the main 10.

They're called the 10 non virtues.

These are 10 behaviors that we are doing in some way, shape or form, almost constantly, through which we perpetuate this broken suffering world that we live in. The practice then becomes recognizing when we're doing them, being able to clean out the seeds from when we did them before, clean out the seeds from when we do them now, plan out the opposite and train ourselves to apply the opposite whenever we can.

Maybe not within the actual situation, but somewhere else in order to grow these new habits.

The 10 non virtues are an important piece of the encyclopedia that you want in your mind. Then next class we go into the karmic correlations to those 10, the karmic results of those 10.

Here's the 10, I'm just going to say them fast.

sok chu

majin len

lokyen

dzunma

trama

tsik tsub

tsik kyel

nabsem

nusum

lokta

3 of body: SOK CHU, MAJON LEN, LOKYEN

4 of speech: DZUNMA, TRAMA, TSIK TSUB, TSIK KYEL

3 of mind: NABSEN, NUSUM, LOKTA

These are called the three gateways, the gateway of mind, the gateway of speech, the gateway of body.

In these 10 virtues there are three negative deeds that we do habitually that perpetuate our suffering physical world.

Four of speech through which we perpetuate the sound part amongst other of our suffering world.

Then three through which we perpetuate the mental experience of our world.

Most of us know these already: killing, stealing sexual misconduct.

Killing

SOK CHU, killing and here the scripture say specifically, To take the life of any being. Is what we're talking about in the 10 non virtues. We don't actually take vows to say I will never kill anything ever, because that's impossible as a human.

We don't actually take vows against these 10 non virtues until way, way later.

But we make this concerted effort to avoid anything that would kill or contribute to killing, even get close to harming something that we perceive as a living creature.

It includes taking one's own life.

In this tradition they say life begins at conception. So by extension it would mean killing a fetus would also come back to us as our life being shortened, which is what it means to be a non virtue.

It comes back to us as an unpleasant experience.

Nothing about killing in and of itself that's a bad deed.

What's bad about it is we kill somebody, we're going to get killed. Which means our opportunity for whatever is going on gets cut short.

Stealing

MAJIN LEN means stealing, literally taking what has not been offered. Taking that which has not been given. Obvious stealing I hope none of us do, but there are subtleties.

We're all supposed to fiddle with the figures when we apply our taxes so that we can get the benefit. And it's like, right. But if you're fiddling to the extent to avoid paying taxes, that's a kind of stealing. To what extent are we willing to fiddle with our tax numbers thinking we're going to get the benefit of paying a little bit less tax when the result that we get is somebody steals from us. Somebody fiddles with what they owe us and they don't pay it.

I'm not being critical. Society says, Get your numbers right. Don't be generous with your taxes. What are you crazy?

But when we understand better, it's like, No, no, no, I know I don't have to claim that, but I'm going to. And our tax lady goes, Why? Because I don't want to be stolen from. And she goes, Eh?

There are little ways that in our society, Yeah, it's fine. You put the pen in your pocket from work and then you go home and then you dump the pen on your desk, and now the office's pen is in your house and nobody thinks any differently.

But, if the supervisor at work has not said to you, You know what, if from time to time you end up taking a pen or some paperclips home, that's just fine.

If they've not said that, we planted seeds for taking something not given.

All of these ubiquitous things in our sunsar world that are okay, are perpetuating our lives where we can't find the things we need. We lose stuff.

We can't get that visa when we want it.

I mean, little things that it's like, No, I didn't do anything to cause that. Well, we had to. We made it all.

Taking what's not been given is the non virtue.

Sexual Misconduct

LOKYEN means sexual misconduct. Mainly they mean here adultery. Having intercourse with another person who is not freely available, or if you are not freely available. So if you or the other are in a committed relationship, then you and the other are off base. If we want to create a world that has pure relationships, relationships that are reliable, are functional. Not just partnership relationships in terms of man, woman, but any kind of partnership.

Did you ever play on a sports team? Maybe you played on a team where everybody really got along and then the next year you're playing with the same team but a couple of new players, and they don't show up for practice. Sometimes they play great, sometimes they play terrible and it's like, What's wrong with you people?

We wouldn't go, Man, that's sexual misconduct.

Who would figure that one out? Because we are in a partnership and it's not working out. Because I interfered with somebody's partnership.

In the reading, it goes into these details about other aspects of sexual misconduct that influence the way our world will be in the future.

Some of that, again, if you need to just put it on the shelf for now.

Geshele reminds us that these 10 non virtues are being offered to us by an omniscient being who knows directly what we need to give up and take up in order to stop perpetuating our suffering world—us, our own suffering, and the suffering of others. That's where these come from. Based on the suffering result, they're going to bring us from the seeds that we do by doing these deeds.

If we keep that in mind, they're easier to work with when we're understanding that they're not just doctrine.

They are clues for our own liberation.

Lying

Now we have four of speech, DZUNMA, TRAMA, TSIK TSUB and TSIK KYEL.

DZUNMA means lying. Lying means literally giving a false impression.

That's from obvious gross to very subtle. It's ourselves hearing ourselves telling somebody something that we know is not true, not quite true, even exaggerated for whatever reason.

It's our own awareness of our motivation and the words that we use and our intended impact on that other person.

Geshela‘S example was, in our society if the husband says, you didn't stop and get groceries like I asked you to. Instead of just saying, Yeah, I didn't, I was too tired, I didn't want to, I say, Yeah, I got delayed at work. He goes, Oh, okay and gets over it.

It seems like I tell this little white lie coverup and I get a good result.

He doesn't get mad at me. This has never happened. David does not get mad at me, but suppose.

Then some other place, I used the same excuse. Oh, I got tied up at the office and that person goes, well, I don't care what happened at the office. You said you were going to stop for groceries and you didn't do it, and I was relying upon you and now I can't ever rely upon you again. It's just like, Get out.

I used the same excuse. It worked once. It didn't work the other time. What happened?

Yeah, the result of lying is that in the future we won't be believed.

No, no, I really did get delayed at the office. Doesn't matter. They're still not going to believe me. Because not from the weeks before lie, but from previous lies.

When we lie, the result is we get lied to and we get not believed amongst other things.

Buddha wants us to be believed.

Why? Because someday we're going to teach, and we need the karma for others to believe what we say.

It's not like when you're teaching the Dharma, you just spurred out everything. That's true because there's no such thing. It's up to what you hear, and it's up to my karma to make it such that I'm believed by people.

You see? It's about the result.

Lying.

Divisive Speech

(Harsh speech, swearing, calling people names.

I'm sorry, I'm ahead of myself.)

TRAMA is divisive speech.

Divisive speech means speaking to split people apart.

You are talking to somebody about the boss and you're wanting them to agree with you about those bad qualities of the boss. So you're saying they did this, they did that, they did that, and you're hoping that the other person will go, Oh yeah, yeah, that's a rotten boss.

In doing so, the other person ends up thinking less highly of the boss than they did before because of my wanting some kind of comradery in my blaming misery, divisiveness.

It doesn't matter whether or not what I'm saying about the boss is true to experience or not. It’s this ‚Does my speech make the other person like that person less?‘ Speaking to split people up.

Sometimes grossly we do it. Obviously, yes, I want to split people up. I'm going to say bad things about them. But for most kindhearted humans, you try not to do that, but inadvertently we do as we're telling our stories.

It's something to be careful of. Then as we see the result of divisive speech and how it shows up in our life, we can look to see. It's like, oh my gosh, I get that result all the time. I never realized it was from divisive speech. Let me see where I'm being divisive and I don't even know it.

Divisive.

Harsh Words

Harsh words is swearing, calling people names, sarcasm.

There was the question, outright criticism, even using nice words, but in a way to hurt somebody's feelings. Harsh speech, loud. We're talking speech here, so you have to be saying something, but it applies to the result of harsh speech is loud music, loud cars, screaming children, no offense Jam, unpleasant sounds all the way to the buzzing inside my head from harsh speech, because it's harsh, it's unpleasant inside there.

Harsh.

Meaningless Speech

Meaningless speech, useless talk, small talk, gossip, movies, tv, politics,

Geshe Michael would say.

But more so saying our prayers and thinking about everything else.

I am really good at that.

Saying one thing and thinking about something else, especially with prayers, is considered useless speech.

We end up with useless sounds. Again, the buzzing inside my head. Useless noise in there. Background traffic noise. Useless, from useless speech.

Now there's a caveat here. There are times when we need to make small talk.

We need to be pleasant and sociable, and we can do so with a high level of motivation of, The minute I'm out of here, I'm shutting up. Or, I'm making small talk in order to fit in so that someday I can teach these people the Dharma.

Some shift in motivation that allows you to be in your family making small talk or job situation where you have to fit in, and still influence it in such a way that you're not ending up with a bunch of useless talk karma that makes our practice harder.

I have three more. It'll probably take me six more minutes. You want to stay?

I have a whole lot of minutes booked in the bank. Can I use them now?

Okay, good, thank you.

We get to the three mental deeds: NABSEM, NUSUM, LOKTA.

Coveting

The words NABSEM is coveting. It means coveting.

That's a weird word. People don't say, I covet my neighbor's car. It's just an old fashioned word.

But it's the one that's used. It means to desire the things that others have.

In a sense it's related to jealousy. Jealousy means I'm upset because they're getting something I want, or I'm upset because they're getting something I don't think they should have. All these subtleties.

Literally coveting means I want what they have, which is sort of silly. I don't want their house, I don't want their…

But when we see a co-student getting more time with the Lama, I definitely want that.

There's some part of my mind that thinks I got to get them away from the Lama in order for me to get more time with the Lama. That's where that state of mind of coveting or jealousy interferes with our healthy choice of behavior.

We either go right at removing them from the Lama or we subtly get in the way, interfere, cause trouble. It happens and then we think, yeah, yeah, it's just life. That's what you do when somebody's getting what you want there in my way. It is a combination of ignorant liking and ignorant disliking.

It grows in subtlety to being this sense of unhappy when you see anyone getting some amount of happiness.

I mean that's nowhere close to coveting and it's not really even jealousy, it's just this icky feeling inside that we can't see somebody getting something good and go, Wow, so cool. Our rejoicing practice has helped out a lot to where we're recognizing, Wow, yay. Wow, yay.

But if you remember back before you started and you saw somebody cuter, smarter, happier, more successful, there's this cut inside our heart, it's from this NABSEM, coveting.

Ill will

NUSUM is ill will.

Ill will literally means wishing something bad would happen to somebody. That's like the grossest level of this non virtue. Somebody you don't like, you wish something awful would happen to them.

I hope none of us have ever had that.

But then the subtleties are, Well, there are people I don't like, and when bad stuff happens to them, a little part of me goes, see. I was right. You deserve that.

It never comes out, but it's inside there, and that's ill will.

It goes all the way to bad stuff's happening to that person I don't like, and I'm kind of, I'm sorry, but I'm not about to go help them because I don't like them, I don't trust them. Still ill will.

When you flip it around to the opposite of ill will, it's the willingness to rush to the help of someone in need, whether you like them or not, whether you're afraid of them or not. No matter, just because you see somebody in need, your heart goes out to them. That's the opposite of ill will.

Wrong View

Then the last one is LOKTA, which means wrong view. Which is the classic wrong view that makes it the 10 non virtue, in the 10 non virtue list, is not understanding how our deeds now will bring us a result later, that our deeds now create the circumstances of our future.

Technically, LOKTA means not believing in karma, but those words are too superficial. It's not knowing that our actions will bring consequences and especially that our actions bring consequences, but not the ones that come immediately after the action. Which we're seeing in this study of karma.

We think we put the key in the car, turn it, and the car starts, and we think turning the key starts the car. But it didn't.

Because sometimes you turn the key and the car doesn't start. So it cannot be the cause.

LOKTA is this insistence that the morality level of my behavior is inconsequential. That's the wrong view. It has a lot of ramifications out of that.

If we see ourselves as a human being in a suffering world, we are doing these 10 non virtues. We have done them, and we are doing them to some extent.

That's harsh reality, because we're kind people, we're good people.

But these 10 are still happening in some way, shape or form. Our honesty would be, I'm going to go look for them and see where I'm doing them in subtle ways or gross ways and just track it. We have to know what we're doing mistaken before we can fix the mistake.

Okay, that's class. You can do your homework.

The homework's going to ask for the 10 non virtues, and either the homework or the quiz or the meditation, I'm not sure which one, says and what would be the 10 virtues? Flip them around, make the positive out of it and see what you can come up with, what the 10 virtues would be, and we'll talk about that next time too.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you everyone for the opportunity.

Class 4: The Correlation of Deeds and Their Results

16 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 4

For the rerecording, welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 4, June 16th, 2024. Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

(7:36) Again, The Source of All My Good to remind us why we're here.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 3

(12:22) Why am I reading that before every class?

Because most of it is about morality, and morality is the conclusion when we understand the details of karma and how karma works. There's a reason.

Last class we learned the definition of virtue and the definition of non virtue, and then the definition of neutral karma. If there really is such a thing.

The definition of non virtue is, anything that brings a karmic result which is unpleasant. Undesirable unpleasant experience. Simple as that. No short term, long-term.

For a virtue, the definition had those two parts. In the short term, it's something which gives us a pleasurable result and ultimately protects us from suffering by bringing us to Nirvana.

We had that discussion. Well then is just any old kindness, a virtue?

We came to that conclusion that no, it's not.

So does that mean kindness is a non virtue?

Kindness done mistakenly is really a non virtue?

You wouldn't say that to people if they were really early on their path. But the implication is, any unpleasant experience we have, it's a result of some deed that we did—technically kind or unkind—but that we did with the state of mind that believed that me doing it has my own nature. That what I'm doing has its own nature and who I'm doing it to, what I'm doing it to has its own nature.

So if that's the case, have we ever, if you're not Arya or better, have you ever done a virtue? According to this definition, no.

But the Lamas are so kind. We're trying to do those kindnesses from this different perspective. So yeah, yeah, you've done virtue. It's okay, right?

Yes, rejoice in your virtues. But, you know, if we were really going to pin ourselves down.

It takes some work to shift a plain old kindness into a kindness that's going to bring us a result of reaching Nirvana, not just a pleasant experience that wears out.

Stuff to think about.

Then the neutral karma was that which gives a result, which is other than those two.

If you get a result that's neither pleasant, that leads you to Nirvana eventually, nor unpleasant, whether obviously unpleasant or the pleasantness that wears out unpleasant, or the pervasive unpleasantness—if there's such a thing as other than that, that would be neutral karma. The school believes there is neutral karma. That is Mind Only School. I'm not so sure about the other two.

Then we talked about those five things that are virtue and within those five things, the last two were two mental functions that are considered virtuous and the Tibetan words were NGOTSA and TRELYU.

Your question was, give the Tibetan word for shame and consideration and explain them.

NGOTSA is the term that they use the word shame as the English translation. I prefer personal integrity, because what that state of mind is, it's the state of mind that makes us avoid doing a harmful deed regardless of whether anybody else would know anything about it. Just the fact that I would know that I did that deed was enough for me to go, No, I won't do that deed. Personal integrity. They call it shame.

TRELYU is the state of mind that prevents us from doing a harmful deed because of our consideration for its impact on someone else.

Whether our consideration is, They'll think ill of me. That's all right. That's a consideration that will make you not do the deed, all the way up to being a consideration for how it might influence their own choices of behavior later if they see me do it. To what extent does our personal responsibility expand in this state of mind of TRELYU, consideration?

We all have already certain amounts of NGOTSA and TRELYU, because we all have certain behavior rules about our behavior choices that we already follow for whatever reason we follow them.

We're considering: If somebody else sees me do this, does that make me not do it?

If nobody else sees me do it, do I still have something that says, No?

At what point? What crosses that line?

That's these two states of mind that when we're deciding about a deed to do, these two states of mind are present in our decision making, and it helps for them to be more wisely present, more intentionally present, and wisely present in the sense of why we're wanting to have those high level of personal integrity and consideration for others. Because it's going to help us choose the seeds that we're going to plant that's going to make the future for everybody.

I just skipped schools there.

(20:05) Then your last quiz question was, Name the top 10 non virtue deeds group by the three gateways, and what might be the top 10 good deeds then, that we didn't talk about in class. It isn't in the reading. If we apply our understanding of what we've learned so far, it would be what's the opposite of the non virtue. There's a wide range of what could be the opposite there.

There are three basic non virtues that we do through our physical actions.

Nattie, I'll bet you know those three, right? Not because you've done 'em, but because you've studied them.

(Nattie) Yes. Killing, not killing, not stealing and non sexual misconduct.

(Lama Sarahni) So you're saying the non virtue is not killing?

(Nattie) No. Yeah. Non virtues. Yes. No?

(Lama Sarahni) Right. No, the non virtue is killing. Sexual misconduct

(Nattie) Yes, the other way. Okay.

(Lama Sarahni) So what would the virtue be?

(Nattie) The virtue is saving life.

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah. Which is a little different than not killing, right? It's one thing to not kill. It's another thing to protect life. It's another thing to flat out save a life.

How many opportunities do we get to flat out save a life?

How many times have you seen somebody floating down the river that you could jump in and grab them?

Maybe for most of us it won't ever happen like that.

But do we save a life when we step over the line of ants walking along this. Yeah, we do. We could have ignored it and stepped right through them or on top of them, or we could go, Oh, land of ants, I won't step on them. That's protecting life.

What about making a full on stop behind the limit line of the stop sign? That's protecting life as well, right? Yours, any pedestrians, any oncoming car? We just think, I stop at this stop sign. But we're protecting life a lot. A lot more than we know.

We want to bring it up a little more consciously to be actively practicing the opposite of the non virtue, because we do or have done the non virtue so much. In doing its opposite, not only are we avoiding more of it, but we're planting seeds that are negating it. Opposites.

Nice.

Not killing, not stealing. The opposite of not stealing would be?

(Nattie) Destroying property for somebody else's property.

(Lama Sarahni) So the opposite would be protecting others' property.

(Nattie) Oh yeah.

(Lama Sarahni) Being so safe that somebody would leave their $10,000 computer in your care, and they know that you won't run off with it, you won't pawn it, you won't use it, you won't break it. You'll take care of it.

Not sexual misconduct, honoring other partnerships. Not just sexual partnerships, but the other company has this employee you really, really like, and you really, really want them to come work for your company. And so I'm going to find a way for that employee to come to my company. I'm splitting up a partnership in doing so. It's like, well then I never get to hire the best employees? No. By not stealing that one away from your competitor, you will get the best employees. You will get better employees than that one was ever going to be.

The next week? Maybe, maybe not, but eventually. Because you honored and protected someone else's partnership, relationship, your partnerships, your relationships will work, will function, any kind of relationship, any kind of partnership. Then there are four of speech. Who would like to give us the four non virtues that we do through our speech?

(Liang Sang) Lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle speech.

(Lama Sarahni) And what would be the opposite of those? Do you figure?

(Liang Sang) Speak truthfully, harmony speech, bring people together, gentle speech, and meaningful speech.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. It seems like we wouldn't have much to say if we really followed these, would we? There's a goofy movie called The Invention of Lying. It's about a world where people couldn't lie. There was no such thing as lying, and it ends up not being what one would think, but in fact everybody just says what pops into their mind at the moment. They're totally uninhibited, no social boundaries at all. They just say what's on their mind, and it's awful. It's like one person says to the other person, That dress looks terrible on you. And the one who hears it just takes it in stride, because you just expect people to tell you good stuff and it's just an awful, awful thing. Then somebody just hit by some kind of radiation from somewhere. He tells a lie at the bank. He says he has money in the bank with it he didn't have, and the teller, it's like, okay, my computer's down, but if you say you've got $800, all right. She gives him $800 and it's like bing, his brain changes and he realizes that he can make up stuff and people will believe him. Then of course it goes haywire and he gets into all kinds of trouble and it's a very quirky movie, but it's something to think about.

Can we really be a hundred percent truthful and still be kind?

There's a big art to it.

(27:55) Then we have three of mind. Claire, the three of mind please.

(Claire) Yeah, the first one craving. So when we want something that someone else is getting, so it's like jealousy. And the good one is when we are happy when someone is receiving something nice. The second one is ill will. When we wish something bad happen to others. And the opposite is when we are feeling compassion to others when they are in trouble. And the last one is about wrong views. It's like thinking that things are coming from their own side. And the good one means correct view. So it means that things do not have their own nature.

(Lama Sarahni) The first of the 10 non virtues is coveting, not craving. Craving is the main one of our main mental afflictions. But the term coveting is a little different than craving. Jealousy is a better more modern term, although it's technically a little bit different than what's meant by coveting. It gives a better connotation of this state of mind that we must have often for it to qualify for the top 10. Is being a little unhappy when somebody else gets something that we think we deserve.

Then you're right. The opposite of that is being happy for other’s successes. Whether we want that success or not, being happy for others. And it is amazingly difficult to do for a lot of us, to be happy for somebody else doing better than we are.

Then Ill will, exactly the being happy when others get some misfortune. Usually that's related to others that we don't like, and we gloat a little bit all the way to full out willing to harm them, because they hurt me. Vengeance, revenge.

Then the third one, wrong view. Wrong view does mean believing things have their own natures. But here as one of the top 10, the wrong view is not believing that our behavior brings us personal consequences. It's a little funny because we all do believe that our behavior brings us consequences. We just think the consequence it brings is the immediate next thing. I cook lunch so I can eat lunch, and I think my action of making lunch made the lunch that was there for me to eat.

So it's funny, it's like LOKTA would be not believing that, which seems more like correct view. The lunch I just made that I'm now sitting down to eat did not in fact come from the lunch I just made. The lunch I just made came from having made lunch for somebody else. Which means now the lunch I just made can be fed to me and if I don't share it or at least offer it, there'll be a time when there's no lunch for me to make. But technically this LOKTA is, I don't believe that my deeds in fact create my future experience. It's funny, our ignorance is so weird.

We don't understand accurately how our deeds create our future. That's LOKTA. Because we choose deeds to get what we want, and we choose the wrong deeds to get what we want. The problem is most of the time it seems to work. On the few times it doesn't work, we just make some reason for why it didn't work.

Instead of thinking, now wait a minute, turning the key in the car can't really be the cause of starting the car if one time in 200,000 it doesn't work. LOKTA still believes that turning the key starts the car but doesn't believe that it was giving rides to somebody else that makes turning the key start the car. See? LOKTA is subtle. But it's that personal responsibility for the creation of my experience, to not believe that that's the case, is LOKTA for the 10 non virtues.

So the opposite is this correct view that knows: my deeds, now, now are creating the circumstances of my future without any exception. Correct view.

But there's so much more to correct view as we are learning.

Consequences and Results of Karma

(34:39) All of this is about what is meant by the term karma.

What is meant by the term karma is: movement of the mind and what it motivates me to say and do.

Then we said some of those things that I'm motivated to do are virtuous and some are non-virtuous. We determined that whether the deed is virtuous or non-virtuous is not determined by the deed. It's determined by the result that I get from the deed. Which I don't get until a long time after I did the deed. Maybe so long after I did the deed that I don't even remember having done the deed. In which case I think I'm these experiences from something else. Something that I think I can immediately see, like the boss yelling at me is making this unpleasant feeling when in fact that can't be true. We'll learn how to come to that conclusion.

We want to know all the fine details about the workings of this thing ‚movement of the mind and what it motivates‘, so that we can have more and more information at our disposal to help us make wiser choices. Until we can experience directly the direct cause result relationship between our experiences. That won't happen until we are omniscient. Mh, okay, and how am I going to see myself as omniscient as I've got to clean out my karma? Purify and make merit. So I want to learn as much as I can about these details of the workings of karma.

Tonight's class is about karmic consequences and all these details about how to think about karmic results. Consequences and results. We're using those terms synonymously. The consequences of a deed means the result we get.

There's a bunch of different ways to consider karmic results, like to think of them.

Not meaning this deed brings that result. Will get to that part. But all these different factors in the consideration about karmic results. That's where my vocabulary needs to come in.

tong-gyur gyi le

kyene nyong-gyur gyi le

len-drang shen-la nyong-gyur gyi le

shuk drakpo

yonten gyi shi

gyun-chaksu

pa ma supa

shing gi kyepar

sampay kyepar

(38:10) One thing we need to know about karmic consequences is the time period within which they can occur. We've already heard this once, but we get it in a little bit more detail.

Karmic Consequences (by when you experience the result)

Karma you will see in this life

TONG-GYUR GYI LE means LE, karma, which we see. TONG here is to see, same as path of seeing, TONLAM.

TONG-GYUR GYI LE means karma whose result we will see.

What that means is, there are certain deeds that we can do in this life that we will actually receive the karmic result of that deed within this same life.

That is possible. It's the basis of the Diamond Way teachings, how to make karmic seeds so powerfully that they cook and ripen, finish their cooking within this very lifetime.

Karma you will see in your very next life

Second category of timeframe in which karmas can ripen is KYENE NYONG-GYUR GYI LE.

KYENE, I've never seen this as one word, although it's clearly that in my notes, but I'm going to separate it, because that looks more familiar.

KYENE NYONG-GYUR GYI LE. This means after we were born.

NYONG-GYUR means to experience.

The karma we experience after we're born, but it means in our very next life.

Say we did some deed in our immediately previous life and we did it with certain characteristics, qualities involved, and so that seed or series of seed is such that it actually ripens in this lifetime.

Probably some of, maybe much of what we've experienced in this lifetime is from seeds from our immediately previous.

How can we know?

We can't know. As ordinary suffering beings, we can't know.

But to understand this principle it's like, oh, then there are seeds that I can do in this lifetime that will influence my immediate next one.

It's like bringing our behavior a little bit closer to, I don't know, increasing our motivation a bit. We can influence our next lifetime by what we do in this life.

Karma which you experience in any other life after your next one

Then the third one is LEN-DRANG SHEN-LA NYONG-GYUR GYI LE. Karma, which we experience in any other life than the very next one.

Karmas that we do now may not ripen at all in our next life, immediate next life. But they will ripen in some lifetime after that one. Which means results that we're experiencing in this lifetime could be from any previous lifetime that we've ever had before. It's like covering all the bases.

Is there anything else than this lifetime? The one immediately before or any of the others? Is there any other place that karmic results can be planted?

No, that covers all possibilities of meat.

Why is it important? Mostly in the sense of showing us that it's through our own personal behavior that our future circumstances are created. We already showed ourselves. There's no creator being who's saying, You will do this, you will do that. But there's no nothing at all. There is this process that we're learning about. The better we get at using that process intentionally, the more creatively we can interact with others in a way that will bring us future experiences that are pleasant in the short run, and protecting us from suffering by bringing us to Nirvana in the long run.

Then you add our Mahayana aspiration. It's not just Nirvana that they bring us to. It's full on Buddhahood, that state where we help everybody do the same.

Four Kinds of Karma which must ripen

(44:01) The three timeframes that karmic results can ripen is the first little encyclopedia piece that you stick in your knowledge base.

There's another way of thinking about karma and its ripenings, its results. Is that there are four kinds of karma that must ripen. We haven't even gotten to the four laws of karma yet, but I think we all have heard them, know them.

One of the laws, the fourth law is that a deed done must give a result. And so it seems funny that they say there are four kinds of karma which must ripen because it implies that there are other kinds of karma that don't must ripen. Yet one of the laws of karma is every karma is going to ripen eventually. It's not contradictory.

It's more in the sense of, there are karmas that we do, deeds that we do, that plant seeds in our minds that are less distinctly planted such that other deeds that we do shift 'em, change them, maybe even keep them suppressed. So that the original deed that I'm talking about never actually gains enough power to get over the threshold into its ripening result.

They call it, they stay latent. Which doesn't mean there's something in them that keeps them latent. Keep them protective. It just means that they're not being added to, they're being subtracted from, they never get over the threshold.

There are some deeds that we do that are such strongly planted seeds that it's almost like you can't do anything to keep those seeds latent. They are going to ripen. Later on we're going to find you can always do the four powers. And so we're not talking about applying the four powers. You can't do that to these four kinds of karma. These are deeds that they're done with such strength that the seed is full and complete, and Geshehla says hard. Although that isn't quite the right connotation—that they are going to ripen in one of those three timeframes. So not necessarily in this lifetime, but such that they're not going to just go latent.

There are four kinds, here they are.

Deed committed with strong emotion

The first one's called SHUK DRAKPO.

SHUK means force and DRAKPO means fierce.

A deed done with really fierce force makes that imprint so strong that it's one that can't be inadvertently softened such that it won't ripen. Yes, we can still do intentional purification, but without that, that seed is so strongly planted that it's going to bring a result.

The SHUK DRAKPO means a really, really strong emotion, whether that strong emotion is a positive one, or a negative one. It's the strength of the emotion while we're doing the deed that makes the seed planted so powerful that it gets into this category of a deed done that must ripen.

Like you find the ant hill of the ants that are coming into your kitchen, and you've tried everything to deter those ants. They still keep coming into the kitchen and it's like, okay, I draw the line, I found their ant hill. I'm going to pour that poison down the ant hill and I know I'm right to do it, because that's what's going to stop those ants from coming in my kitchen.

It's like I'm just sure and determined and I'm doing with this strong intention. All of those factors make that deed a really strong imprint.

We're going to see all these factors come up later. It's the strength of the emotion.

Positively it would be, say your neighbor has searched out the ant hill and is ready to pour the poison down there. And you're like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that. It'll just hurt you and it won't stop the ants. Please, let's find another way to help get your kitchen be clean. Please. We can't kill all those ants. Strong, strong emotion.

Planting those seeds, make those deeds that karmic deed, a deed that will ripen.

It can't inadvertently become latent.

Deed committed towards a very holy object

YONTEN GYI SHI

SHI means basis here.

YONTEN means good qualities.

So this is saying deeds committed towards a basis that has good qualities, meaning the object towards whom you are doing. Your deed has these really good qualities. We call it a powerful karmic object.

Here in YONTEN GYI SHI they say specifically a deed committed towards a very holy object like the Three Jewels: Buddha jewel, Dharma jewel, Sangha jewel.

Which we've studied the three jewels. Recalling that anyone who is Arya is two of those three jewels, so we might very well have a physical being that we interact with who is at least two of the three jewels.

Then how do we interact with the Buddha jewel?

Hard to say we're interacting directly, but we could say we're interacting indirectly all the time.

Deeds done towards a high holy object are deeds that are so powerfully imprinted that those seeds will not go latent.

Deed committed over and over again

GYUN-CHAKSU means over and over again.

They say deeds, a deed done repeatedly strengthens it.

You give the dollar to the guy on the street. The next day there he is again, you give another dollar. The next day, another dollar, next day another dollar.

Each of those is a seed, but there's similarity. Means they're adding to each other, and so the seed is getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

Repeatedly done deeds become our deeds that won't just go latent.

Killing your father or mother

PA MA SUPA means killing father and mother.

These others were sort of nonspecific deeds. This one's very specific.

To kill one's mother or father is a powerfully planted seed that won't just go late. It's going to give us a result, because of the power of the karmic object.

You could say it should fall under the YONTEN GYI SHI category, but they separated out. I don't know, maybe because in the past we must have done it.

The scripture says, killing mother, killing father, intentionally, accidentally, or even thinking thinking we're helping them in some way by doing so.

It can rub us a little raw, because we live in a society where if anybody is hooked up to life support and they're not expected to live, and our perception is we're just prolonging their suffering, let's unplug them and let them go.

This tradition would say, You don't know if where their mind's going to go next is going to be better or worse. At least if they're still in the human world, or appear to be anyway, they're burning off karmas, and that we don't know if by stopping their life support we're sending them to a better place or not.

They say with mother, father in particular, because they are the ones that gave us this body, this human body with which we can get enlightened in this lifetime, that they are in particular such powerful karmic objects that no matter what you want to help them sustain life.

It's a tricky, tricky concept. Again, don't think of, oh, Buddhism says you can't unplug somebody. Buddhism says, we will reap the consequence of unplugging somebody, and we make our decision based on that.

It's one of those seeds that won't just go latent.

Two Factors that help us make karma ripen in this life

Another classification of karma, meaning things to know about karma, is: There are two factors that help us make karma ripen in this lifetime.

That's something we'd want to know. Because we want to use it to avoid making negative karma that could ripen in this lifetime, and we want to use it to make virtue karma to ripen in this lifetime. Thank you very much.

These two factors are SHING GI KYEPAR and SAMPAY KYEPAR.

Doing a deed toward a distinctive (powerful) Object

SHING GI KYEPAR

SHING means the object and KYEPAR means distinctive. To do our deeds towards a distinctive object. It‘s the similar idea to ma and pa being powerful karmic objects. It's a similar idea to the YONTEN good qualities in the being or the object. It's the same idea here.

If the object towards whom we're doing our deed is a powerful enough karmic object, that's one of the factors that goes into making seeds that are strong enough that they will outgrow other seeds and ripen within this lifetime.

The story Geshela shared was from one of Shakyamuni Buddha's previous lifetimes, not Buddha yet lifetime, where he was a monk in a monastery during which time a schism occurred within the monastery. Which is a really serious thing.

Another monk was able to go to everybody and patch up the schism. This monk, Buddha, not yet Buddha, he got jealous of the monk that patched everybody up, and he did or said something that insulted that monk. Because of that deed, because the monk was such a powerful karmic object because he removed the schism, brought those people back together, that powerful goodness made it such that the guy who insulted, the one who solved the problem, took birth in the hell realms for 400 some odd lifetimes, says the reading.

And it says he goes on to take 400 more lifetimes as a woman. Sorry ladies when you read that. It really is derogatory and insulting. Lady Tara, she got told the same thing. I think you know this story.

You know honey, pray for a next life as a man and you can get enlightened in that lifetime. And she goes, you know what, honey? I'll show you. She does it in a woman's body. So don't take offense. It was the timeframe when women were not thought highly of. They were everybody's mothers, but… You get it.

It was quite derogatory to say 400 lifetimes as a woman, because they're so limited.

Anyway, the point is don't insult a high karmic object if you're intending to make progress on your path in this life or next ones.

Now we want to know what makes things a powerful karmic object then. So we can either find them and avoid doing unkind to them, do service, serve them.

The things that make an object distinctive is

How much have they or it benefited you?
How much do they or it benefit others? And thirdly,
How many others can they benefit?

So within that category, we have parents—benefited us by just giving us this body, regardless of what else they did or didn't do.

We have those who have loved and nurtured us and taught us, and helped us—whether they were parents or not.

We have all of our teachers, the one that taught you to tie your shoes, to tell time, to read, to play tennis, whatever. People have taught us things. They are all on some level of higher karmic object than Joe Blow on the street. Because of how they've benefited us. Then of those people, people that benefit others, so us and others, and then us and others. A lot of others versus just a few others, increases the power of the karmic object, you see?

They give us a list, kind of in order of strength: Father, mother, Lama, Arya, Arhat, Buddha—in terms of distinctive objects.

You could add in there temple, dharma center, stupa, monastery.

All right, two things make karma ripen in this lifetime towards a distinctive object. That was all the distinctive object.

(Break)

Deed done with an extraordinary motivation or thought

(64:45) The second is SAMPAY KYEPAR, which means deeds done under the influence of distinctive or extraordinary SAMPAY, which is thought. So deeds done under the influence of some distinctive thought. I don't think this means one or the other. It means deeds done with both of these—distinctive thought towards distinctive object, is the factor that makes seeds strong enough that they can ripen in the same lifetime.

The distinctive thought means under the influence of a really strong motivation. Strong motivation. But we can have a strong negative motivation, heaven forbid,

Heaven forbid we ever would. But we could have really, really strong motivation towards a distinctive object and do a deed that's negative, that's powerful enough that it ripens within this lifetime.

Conversely, we can have a strong positive motivation with which we do a deed towards a distinctive object such that that seed can be one that will ripen in this lifetime. As I said before, that's the basis of the secret teachings, the Diamond Way teachings, how to cultivate this strong motivation and this clear vision of the distinctive nature of the objects towards whom you are interacting.

Geshela gave this example here from the scripture. I think it's in the reading that back in ancient times, the kings would have castrated men serve as guards of their harems. Because there would be no worry that there could be any hanky panky by the guard, but you still had a male guard overlooking all the queens.

The castrated male was called a eunuch.

Apparently there was this euch who belonged to the king who saw 500 calves being led to castrated. He had such compassion for those calves that he went and bought them before they got castrated, and let them loose somewhere. And as a result of that powerful deed of compassion and kindness, his organ grew back, is the story. And it's like, really? And if we're thinking human, it's like, Come on, that's got to be just a story.

But if we're understanding karma and emptiness from a higher school, it's like karma shifts. You wake up one day and you've got 'em back again, because of the power of the goodness. Now, was it just because he was protecting 500 cows, cattle?

Probably he was seeing those cattle in a higher way than as the baby calves that I would see that made those seeds strong enough for him to get that kind of result within that lifetime.

But there it is in the scripture, and if we've proven to ourselves that the scriptural authority, then it's like, okay, if I don't understand this or I don't believe it, it's because something I'm not understanding and I'll keep cooking it.

It's in that category for me.

Powerful objects and powerful motivation is the bottom line here.

Doing our deeds towards powerful objects with powerful motivation, we can use that to set about create a future that we want to see.

It works for virtuous deeds and it works for non-virtuous deeds.

We don't want to do it with non-virtuous deeds.

We don't want to act highly motivated from a mental affliction towards a distinctive object.

We want to wait until our mental affliction calms down before we do something. Because otherwise we're planting the seed with this strong motivation towards a strong object.

Don't interact with your parents when you're mad. Buy yourself some time.

Four powerful objects that cause karmic results to ripen in this lifetime

(71:20) There are four examples of powerful objects that will cause karmic results to ripen in this lifetime.

I don't have any Tibetan for this one.

A person that comes out of a cessation meditation for the first time

A powerful karmic object is somebody who's just come out of what's called a cessation meditation for the first time. A cessation meditation is a meditation where the mind is almost shut down, but it closely resembles Nirvana.

A person who's just had a meditative session in which they were so close to Nirvana, when they come out of that meditation session, they are this powerful karmic object, and a deed we do towards them will be one of those deeds that will ripen in this lifetime.

How do you know if somebody's just come out of a cessation meditation for the first time?

I don't really understand. These are one of those teachings I've got on the shelf, because I don't know.

But then one of the conclusions from, I don't know is, Well, why not consider anybody who's just come out of meditation as having been in that one? I don't know that they weren't. So I'm going to interact with them in some kind way just in case.

I tell the story on my husband David. We were in the position of scheduling people's retreats and probably the ones that are there when they needed some help and ones that were there when they came out of retreat.

David was mostly up in that part of the property more than I was.

There were folks that were in retreat that I personally know that my husband didn't think so highly of these people. But he came to me one time and he said, So-and-So just got out of retreat, and I saw him and I hit the ground in front of him, because he just came out of retreat and I knew he was a high karmic object. It so startled the kid that here—David was seen as dad, right?—Dad is bowing at kids' feet.

The kid interacted with David differently after that. And I was so impressed.

I don't think I would've had the presence of mine to do so, right? I would've said, Hi, how was your retreat? But David hit the dirt, and it's this idea just in case that that kid had been in cessation meditation for the first time. David's prostration is this really powerful seed that he planted.

Someone who has come out of a meditation called immeasurable Love for the first time

Immeasurable love, it's not quite the same as meditating on the four Immeasurables. This is a deep state of meditation that approximates one of the different levels of path of habituation, a meditation that approximates that. Someone who's just come out of that meditation also is so close to their Nirvana or Buddhahood, depending on their path, that they become a high karmic object.

But again, how am I going to know?

Someone who's just come out of the path of seeing

That one we understand a little better. But again, how are we going to know?

Someone who's just become an Arhat

Someone who's just become an Arhat, just ended all their mental afflictions and seeds for more, because of having seen emptiness directly and used what they learned to stop planting new mental afflictions, and damaging the ones they already have and creating the seeds for no more suffering.

Put it in the mix for how to use that one.

Four things that make an object of action special

(76:30) Then there are four more things that make an object of action special.

Higher form of life

One is a higher form of life, is a more powerful karmic object than a lower form of life. What they mean by higher or lower is a higher form of life is a form of life that's more likely to reach enlightenment in that lifetime.

This tradition says that the state of having a human body, you have all six things needed that if you are properly trained and properly practiced, those six things are what can be transformed into your four bodies of your Buddha.

Any human has that capacity.

Do they have the circumstances? Maybe, maybe not.

But non-human don't have those six things needed.

So humans by way of having those six factors, they are necessarily a more powerful karmic object than a non-human.

A being who is in serious suffering

A being who is in serious suffering is a more powerful karmic object than a being in less serious suffering. Now, we're all in serious suffering if we're Samsaric beings. But some are trapped under an automobile. They're in urgent, serious suffering.

Some are, life is they have everything that they need. Their obvious suffering is not so great. You could make a debate there in worse suffering than the other guy, because they're not going to want to find some other way.

But it's this perception of the seriousness of the suffering.

Then you might have a human that you could help, or this starving dog that you can help. Which one's the more powerful karmic object?

This one's in need at the moment. This one's closer to enlightenment. No matter what you do for the starving dog, they're not going to reach enlightenment in this lifetime.

Human? Possible.

I've lost students to ACI from this teaching on giving to a human is more powerful than giving to an animal no matter what. That doesn't mean ignore animals and just deal with humans. It does not mean that. All of these are factors that we use in our creation of our future.

Of course, we want to take care of animals. We're not limited to one or the other.

Okay, so

higher form of life
a being who's in serious suffering.

Someone who has given us great assistance in the past
Special object due to possessing high spiritual qualities

These are all like a synopsis of what we heard before, but all things to consider when we're making our choices of interacting with other beings. As if we're limited in some way and we have to choose this one over that one, these are things that we can consider for planting our seeds in a powerful way.

We aren't really ever completely limited in that way, and we can help them all. But realizing that the seeds planted by giving the crumb of bread to the bird versus the crumb of bread to a Buddha, the results are going to be different.

The Three Karmic Results

(81:30) Next Geshe Michael shifted over to Je Tsongkapa’s Lam Rim Chenmo for an explanation of what are called the three karmic results.

But we're going to see it really as more than three.

Je Tsongkapa went through all the scriptures to gather everything that he could about every topic that he studied. And so in his Lam Rim Chenmo, it's like this encyclopedia of everything we need to know.

Ripening - dependent on the strength of emotions + intention when planting

He gives us this explanation called the three karmic results.

One of them we've heard before.

NAMMIN. We've had that word before, NAMMIN. Do you remember?

It meant ‚the rice is cooked‘.

The cooked result of our past karmic deed is its NAMMIN result, ripening result it's called. Now, here the term is being used very specifically. No, not so specifically.

It's being used in this general category of how deeds done in certain ways will ripen upon us. The ripening results of any deed is influenced by the strength of our emotion at the time of the deed. It's influenced by what our motivation was at the time of the deed, and it's influenced by what the actual deed was.

When he's talking about the NAMMIN as the result, he means that for any of the 10 non virtues or technically for their virtues as well, a deed done with a really strong emotion, with a strong intention for the result and then actually carrying it out, and then towards some level of strong karmic object—those four factors make that deed such that if it's the karma that ripens at the moment of death, if it becomes your projecting karma, it will send you to a hell realm.

The example Geshela gives is for an act of killing, of a big bad deed of killing will send its NAMMIN, its ripening result will be a hell round rebirth. Because what it means to be a big bad deed of killing is that you add this strong negative emotion towards the thing that you kill. You have the strong motivation that you want to kill it, and you do kill it, and it was some level of strong karmic object.

Then all the little details of all of that, you have those seeds planted too.

But the main thing is that that deed will push your mind into seeing itself as a hell realm being in the future.

It would be the same for a big bad deed of lying, or a big bad deed of divisiveness, or of stealing, any of the non virtues done in this really strong: strong emotion, strong intention, do it and karmic object, we'll send you to a hell realm.

Corresponding (Consistent) Result - Similarity

Then the second category of NAMMIN is a medium bad deed.

So with this one, your emotions about it are medium, and you're intention is medium, and the object is medium, which is kind of funny. How do we side?

The ripening result then is a craving spirit realm.

Let me do the third one too and then maybe it will become a little bit more clear.

Environment Result

A lesser bad deed would be, for instance, killing by accident.

You had no emotion about it, you had no motivation to kill, but you saw yourself kill something by accident. If that seed is the projecting karma, it sends you to an animal realm, because of the mindlessness involved when we were planting that seed.

Really, really strong negative. If it's the projecting karma, it ends up as hell realm.

The circumstances of the hell realm will be unique according to other factors.

A medium bad deed would be you're not setting out to kill something. It's not a powerful karmic object. But you see yourself. Like it would be the anthill thing, justifying killing the anthill because everybody wants a clean kitchen and ants are dirty kitchens. I don't really want to do this, but in order to make everybody else happy, okay, I'll kill these ants.

That kind of medium bad deed lands us in a hungry ghost realm. A realm where we can't get our needs met.

So it's interesting to think of that correlation: hell realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm.

Lama Tsongkapa says, if at the moment of death your projecting karma is not any one of these three kinds, and in fact your projecting karma actually projects you into another human rebirth.

Then karmic seeds ripen in one of these other ways.

These other ways are GYUTUN, JEPA and DAK DRE.

GYUTUN means corresponding, corresponding results.

So if you manage to get another human line, then we want to look, want to know about how our seeds are going to fill in the details of the circumstances of that human life, and the experiences that we have throughout that experience life.

One of those ripening factors is called the corresponding result.

But in the homework and answer key, he shifts the word to consistent result.

That means that there will be a similarity between what we did to plant the seed, and the experience that we experience as a result of that seed.

A very personal experience that's consistent with, or similar to the deed that we did that made the cause for that result that we're experiencing.

We're on the side of doing the experiencing, and we're complaining, Why do my knees hurt when I help others exercise all the time? And now my knees hurt? That's not fair it doesn't work like that.

I'm not thinking, whoa, I guess I overworked others before. Didn't just help them exercise. I made them bend and squat and hurt their knees.

We're going from experience and looking backwards. Why? What's the point of that?

First of all, so we know what we're burning off.

Second of all, so that we know to do the opposite.

2 Factors of Corresponding Result

In the corresponding, also known as consistent result, there are two. There's the NYONGWA, the experience. Meaning we get a similar experience to what we did. There's the corresponding result. This is a little confusing. Meaning the corresponding result, it's the specifics of experiencing similar to what it was that we did.

These are just two different ways of explaining that we experienced something similar to what we did that created the cause.

The GYUTUN and the NYONGWA.

For example, for an act of killing the consistent result, the experience that comes back to us is that our life would be cut short. They say and/or we find ourselves getting sick a lot.

Then the second factor here is JEPA, which means we have the habit.

We have the similar habit of repeating that deed that we're experiencing.

We did a deed, we did deeds in our past life. In this life one of the results of that is we'd have the habit for doing that more.

Maybe we're not yet getting the experiential result back. Say we're being a person who killed a lot, and somehow we managed to get another human life. In that human life as a little kid, we're one of those little kids that likes to go around pulling the wings off butterflies and slingshotting birds. You're right, just that's our habit. We have not yet ripened the result of being sick a lot or getting our life cut short. We just have the habit of doing that deed more.

Same could be for the opposite. Goodnesses.

You could be the kid from the person before that shared and shared and shared and shared. Then you're one of those little kids where every time you get a cupcake you go give it to somebody. There are little kids that do that.

Same idea. The habit ripens.

With these two ideas, we can identify what we've been like before.

Looking at our current personality and circumstances, we can kind of look back and go, Oh, I was like this, this, and this.

Find the good things.

When you get in a bind about some mental affliction situation that you can't figure out from this life, then look into a past life and go, oh man, okay. I was the jerk that did that. Recognize that you're not the jerk that does that in this life anymore, and hooray for that. Let's burn it off and get on with it. You can be really helpful.

Then the next factor in these ripening results that are specific to a human life is DAKDRE, the environmental result.

The same deed, killing the ants, will bring a similar experience to me. It will contribute to the habit, and it will contribute to the environment that I experience around me—the physical environment, including the environment of the people in my world. So the very circumstances of life are driven by the seeds that we were planting in last life, and every life before that.

If we're lucky enough to get a human life, then we can apply these correlations to be able to understand where things are coming from. But better to understand how to respond to the things that are happening. Because if we respond in the same old, ignorant human way, we're just perpetuating the mistake.

Whereas now we have this opportunity to respond in any different way and, maybe we need to try on different ones for size, but we'll get it right eventually.

DAKDRE means environmental result.

(97:12) Geshela said, if we live in a world with a lot of violence, our place is a dangerous place, it's a result of having killed in past lives.

The muggers in the big city are results of having harmed others in the past.

Sexual misconduct results in living in a place that's smelly and filthy where there's urine and feces all over the place.

There are correlations like this for each of the 10 non virtues.

Then you can take those and flip them around to see our world would look like if our seeds were the 10 virtues.

Geshela was pretty harsh here. He said, read the headlines tomorrow, and every one of them is a result of our own past deed and an opportunity to see what we need to stop doing if we're still doing, purify if we're not doing, and do the opposite of if we're not already. It is a clue.

Buddha spent as much time teaching morality as he did teaching emptiness, as we see in the Lam Rim prayer. It's because things lack any nature of their own, that morality is necessary if we want happiness.

If we don't want happiness, no need for morality.

The bottom line is if we want to be happier than we are, then it's up to us to change our choices of behaviors with others according to guidelines. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

You have a homework that says select the three wrong deeds, one from each gateway, and explain the four consequences it will produce.

The ripening result says, any one of those 10 non virtues could result in a hell realm, hungry, ghost, or animal realm. If I happen to get a human rebirth, then killing will bring me blah, blah, blah.

I'm going to read it to you, and then you'll see it in your reading and you'll see it in your student notes. I think there's a great synopsis of it in the student notes, which is easier to find than in the reading.

The consistent result for killing is your life is short.
The consistent result for stealing is you don't have enough to live on.
The consistent result for sexual misconduct is you have problems keeping your partner from others. Whether it means you're a sexual partner or you're any other kind of partner, you have competition for them.
The consistent of lying is nobody believes what you say, whether you're telling the truth or not.
The consistent result for divisive speech is you lose friends easily.
The consistent result of harsh speech is you hear things as bad sounds. Meaning there's harsh sounds around you, but also you hear people when they talk to you, it just sounds like they have a nasty tone of voice, or it's just unpleasant.
For useless speech or idle speech, nobody listens to you.
For coveting, jealousy, our personality is dominated by desire.
For ill will, our personality is dominated by anger.
For wrong view, our personality is dominated by stupidity. Ouch.

Then it goes into a little bit more detail from the chapter on the true and the sutra on the 10 levels, which are both Buddha‘s sutras that say that there are two consequences for each of the 10 non virtues that happen even if we do manage to get a human lifetime.

These are similar to the list that I just gave you. The consistent consequence, but here it says you get two of them for each non virtue.

For killing: Your life is short and you get sick easily.
For stealing: You don't have enough to live on and what you do have is all just common property with others.
For sexual misconduct: The people who work around you are inconsistent, meaning unreliable, and you find yourself having competition for your partner
For lying: No one believes what you say, even when you're speaking the truth, and others are always deceiving you.
For divisive speech: The people around you are always fighting against each other, and the people around you have undesirable characters.
For harsh speech: Result is we hear many unpleasant things and when others talk to you, it always seems as if they want to start a fight.
For useless speech: No one respects what you say. No one thinks that what you say has any particular value, and you are afflicted with a lack of self-confidence. So who would think that someone with low self-esteem, it's a result of useless speech. And if you're the counselor and you're helping somebody with low self-esteem, like would you just quit gossiping? That is not going to go over well. But as the counselor, you would be helping them weave their way to see how their own behavior was trying to be meaningful or not, to help them gain their self-esteem versus I don't know what you do to help somebody gain self-esteem in the psychology world. But my guess is, it's not speak meaningfully.
For coveting, jealousy: Your personality is dominated by desire and you're never satisfied with what you have. Curious.
Ill will: You find yourself without help or never find the help you need and you're always hurting others or being hurt by others.
Wrong view: You are a person who keeps harmful views and are deceitful. It's like if you don't believe that your deeds are going to come back to you, then it doesn't matter whether you're honest or integrous or deceitful, right? You wouldn't even see it as deceitful. You're just doing what you need to do to get what you want.

Those are the results related to oneself.

Then each of those 10 have results that we see in our outer world as well.

You could ripen seeds related to yourself from the category of lying, and be ripening an environmental result related to coveting.

They're not necessarily all happening in the same arena, if you will.

The environmental, also called the dominant consequence, each one of tendon virtues has something that's unique, although we can see that they overlap.

The environmental consequence

Of killing is that food, drink medicine, crops in the field, other things have little power to help us. They're always inferior. Food has little nutrition or potency. It's hard to digest. They even cause disease. And because of this, the majority of living beings around us die before reaching a full life. Interesting, isn't it, with what we're seeing now.
For stealing: Because we have stolen the crops are few and far between. They have no power to remove hunger. They spoil easily. They don't come up on time. Dry spells stay too long. Rains rain too much. The crops die off from either drying up or rotting. So this was all from an agrarian society. Now we can say grocery stores. Grocery stores don't have the things we need what they have. You get 'em home. You buy that delicious fruit and you get at home and it's rotten inside. Things lie to us in that way. Or I'm sorry, we can't get our needs met. We can't find the things we want. Our grocery stores in the US are like 50 different kinds of cereals and 35 different kinds of bottled water. I walk up and down the aisles looking for this specific peanut butter that has nothing but peanuts, and out of the whole grocery store I can't find it. I can't find what I want in an entire Walmart. It's like crazy, but I can't get my needs met. It is a result of stealing. It's not that stupid Walmart. All it gets is things with sugar in it. It's like wrong thought. So we can't get the things we need.
Sexual misconduct. We live in a place where there's urine and feces all around, mud and dirt and filth and everything stinks. And everywhere seems unpleasant and distasteful. We've traveled in third world countries and it's interesting how karma shifts when you supposedly cross a border. Our natural inclination is, What's wrong with these people? But it's not that it is coming from me.
For lying, because we've, we lied, we live in a world where when we undertake some kind of work in cooperation with others, in the end, the work fails to prosper. People can't work well together. For the most part people are cheating one another. We're afraid. And there are things to be afraid of. We live in a world of mistrust because of pest line divisiveness. Our environmental result is the ground in the place you live is all uneven with Crays and Gullies highs and lows so that travel is difficult, and where you're always afraid and there are things to be afraid of from divisive speech, splitting people apart.
Harsh speech: The ground we live is covered with obstacles like trunks of fallen trees, thorns and stones, lots of dirt, sharp things. It's rough and dreary. No streams or lakes or springs of water. The whole earth is parched, poisoned with salt and borax, burning hot, useless, and threatening, and the place has lots to fear like that desert, it's like Arizona's desert is made of our harsh speech. Odd. All of us? Yeah, if we find the desert full of plants that want to hurt you, then it's a result of harsh speech. But the little squirrels, they can run all over that plant without getting prickled by it. They live in a desert, but not because of harsh speech.
Useless speech from meaningless fruits refuse to grow on trees. They grow at the wrong time. They seem ripe, but they're not ripe. Their roots fail. There are no places to take our leisure, no pools of cool water and many things to make us afraid. So the environment around us is useless because of our useless speech.
Then because we've coveted what others have, each and every good thing we ever manage to find gets worse and less and fewer and fewer. Each of the passing seasons, month to month, day to day, we have less and less, because we've coveted what others have.
With ill will: Because of wishing bad on others, we live in a world of chaos where diseases spread and evil is everywhere. Plague and conflict and fear of armies of other nations where there are lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. Where everywhere there's venomous steaks, snakes, scorpions, poisons. You're surrounded by harmful spirits, thieves or muggers and the like.
Results of ill will: You're in a world full of ill will towards oneself.
Because we held wrong views we live in a world where the single highest source of happiness is steadily disappearing from the world. A world where people think that things that are unclean, things that are suffering, are actually nice and sources of happiness. A world where there's no place to go, no one to help, nothing to protect you. A world where what we go to for entertainment is actually harmful, but we see it as entertainment.

When we think of our world in this way, we can say, oh, okay, I'm seeing this because of that, which means I need to stop doing that and do more of its opposite.

We can go through each one of these and correlate it to our own immediate environment, and what we're seeing globally, and decide how we want to go about changing our own behavior accordingly.

It actually gives us a systematic sequential way of approaching our own change.

We can choose what we're seeing immediately around us to work with, or we can look at something huge and global to work with. But we are gathering enough information that we can start mapping out a change in behavior that we want to start applying.

We'll learn the rest of it as we go on with this course and the rest of ACI.

For your homework, you choose of one of killing, stealing, or sexual misconduct.

One of the speech ones. One of the mental ones.

And you give this correlation of:

If I do it in a big bad way, how realm, hungry, ghost animal.
If I happen to get a human life, then my personal result will be this and this.
My environmental result will be this.

For just one of body, one of speech, one of mind for your homework, and I think quiz. Got it?

Okay. That makes your class 4.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you so much again for the opportunity. Thank you for doing your papers and see you this is Sunday, I will see you Thursday. Have a good week. Thank you.

Class 5: How Karma is Carried, According to the Mind-Only School

20 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 5

For the recording, welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 5, already, on June 20th, 2024. Happy solstice to everyone.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

Though again, listen to The Source of All My Good to remind us why we are studying karma.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 4

(13:35) Last class we learned these details about karma, just lists of things to know about karma. One of them were those three timeframes that a karmic deed can ripen in. It's called three types of experiences. But the English doesn't give the right idea.

We learned that there are karmas that we can do whose results we will see in the same lifetime in which you collected it.

There are karmas that we do whose results we'll see in the very next lifetime. And There are karmas that we do whose results we will see in any lifetime after the very next one.

Where else could we experience a karmic result then this life, the very next one, or anything after that? So it covers all the possibilities.

Then, secondly, according to Abhidharma level, Abhidharmakosha text, there are four types of deeds that will definitely ripen into a future experience, which implies that there are some deeds that won't definitely.

Of these three, three are not specific deeds, but some factor involved in the deed done. One of those categories is actually specific deed regardless of the other factors.

One of these four types is deeds committed with strong emotions.

So strong emotion that as a negative strong emotion is definitely going to ripen as some unpleasant experience similar. A deed done with a strong positive emotion is definitely going to ripen or result, which is going to be pleasantly similar.

We're not saying when this deed will ripen, we are saying strong emotion increases the power of the imprint.

Then second thing that increases the power of the imprint is deeds done towards very holy objects. In our tradition, very holy objects are the three jewels.

Which you need to think back what are those three jewels from course 2.

Then third one is deeds committed over and over again.

The more we do a similar deed, the stronger all the imprints grow.

Then fourth is the deed of killing one's father or mother. Regardless of the motivation, regardless of anything else, that deed is so strong that it will come over the threshold. This life? No, not necessarily. Maybe.

Very next life? Not necessarily. Maybe.

And anytime after? Yes, eventually. Just meaning that it's such a powerful deed that other things that we do won't inadvertently decrease its power and keep it from ripening into a result. But if you think of these three things, wow, I want my positive deeds to be deeds that will definitely ripen even if I'm just thinking worldly this life or better life in my next life, human life in the Dharma. We use all this information that we learn the details of karma and how it works in order to help us better choose our behaviors. When we have all of course 5 rolled together, you'll have the tools to look at what you like in your life, and figure out how to perpetuate it, and see what you don't like in your life and figure out how to reduce it. Even get rid of it eventually. We need all of it together, but we're getting all these little clues. You get to be that detective.

The third on your quiz was: Explain the three consequences, the ripening, the corresponding, and the environmental for each of the 10 non deeds by gateway.

I'm not going to go through that again because it'll take all of class.

But I'm going to ask you to read it again. Think about 10 non virtues done in a big bad way. Hell realm.

It doesn't matter what the virtue was, it's the big bad way that if that ripens at the projecting karma stage, hell realm.

Medium deed, hungry ghost.

Accidental, habitual, not very kind of thoughtless, animal realm.

But if you do happen to get a human realm rebirth, then those tend non virtues ripen in these more specific ways related to the gateways of our wrong deeds of body, wrong deeds of speech, wrong deeds of mind. That they come back to us in kind, they come back to us as the habit of doing it again, and they come back to us as the environmental circumstances, including the people that reflect the result of that behavior.

That's where really thinking about those correlations can be so helpful. Because we may say, I don't ever yell at anybody, but I get yelled at all the time. This can't be true. It's like wrong conclusion. Look at how all these correlations draw together and figure out the deeper event that you are perpetuating that is ripening or is happening within the getting yelled at all the time. Even if you're not yelling back, you're not yelling at other people, maybe the yelling makes you feel, I don't know, disrespected or small or unwanted. When you find that, and you go looking for, Well, where am I making other people beings feel unwanted? Bingo, I see that. I've done that through my whole life. I didn't yell at anybody, but the way it comes back to me is by somebody yelling at me, and that's when I feel that. Do you see? We're reading between the lines. It's so helpful that all the clues are in there.

Background & Vocabulary Class 5

Uma Gongpa Rabsel

mahayana prasangika madyamika

chittamatra yogacharya

tsem tsampa

mikki namshe

mikki wangpo

yul

kunshi alaya vijnana

bakchaks

kunshi nampar shepa

tok-pe tak-tsam

(20:18) The Abhidharmakosha explains a lot about karma and its consequences. But it never goes into an explanation of how karma actually works, how it gets into our mind, how it stays there, how it's carried.

For that Geshe Michael went to a different text and a different school.

For this class, we're leaving Abhidharma level school and we're going right up to Mahayana Prasangika.

All of that is Sanskrit for greater vehicle, Middle Way consequence school. What's called Highest School by this school. Not all schools call it Highest School.

From the text called UMA GONGPA RABSEL.

For this class, I'm going to ask you to hold your questions, because it's like the whole class is one long explanation.

Until we've heard the whole thing, your questions will be premature. By the time you hear the whole thing, you'll probably have a bazillion questions, and then I can stay a little while to answer them if they're right there. Probably they'll come up in between this class and the next and we'll deal with them that way.

UMA means Middle Way, Madyamika

GONGPA means real intent

RABSEL means the total clarification.

The total clarification of the real intent of the Middle Way.

Geshel calls it the total illumination of the real intent of the Middle Way.

It was written by our hero Je Tsongkapa whose dates are 1357 to 1419. Everybody knows that.

The school argues with the Mind Only School called Chittamatra, which really literally means mind—CHITTA, MATRA—only.

Yogacharia, which means deep practice.

SEM TSAMPA is the Tibetan for Chittamatra or Mind Only.

Prasangika argues with Mind Only over some things.

There are other things from Mind Only that they accept and find useful.

Part of what Madyamika accepts from SEM TSAMPA school is their explanation of how karma gets planted and how it actually stays and grows within our mind.

Once we hear Mind Only's explanation, Prasangika will say, That's a great explanation except for this one little piece. We'll hear what that one little piece is as we get through this.

How Mind Only School explains How Karma Works

This is from UMA GONGPA RABSEL. It is a review of how Mind Only school explains how karma works.

Suppose you do something. You yell at somebody.

What's going to happen to you in the future?

We've learned enough that we can all say, I'm going to get yelled at.

Not just once, but multiple times and probably to a greater degree than the yelling at somebody else that I saw myself do.

Then when someone is yelling at you, what's going on?

We can look at this from two different perspectives:

Me making the karma, doing the yelling, and then
Me getting the result.

I know some of you have been longing for my whiteboard, so here it is.

(28:14) This diagram is the explanation in an IDIM of how Mind Only School explains what's happening as we experience a karmic result.

Here's this guy named MIKKI.

MIKKI is experiencing this angry yelling boss. That's what it's supposed to look like.

There's three things that are happening right now. Three factors, three things that are present. The three things are called the MIKKI NAMSHE, the MIKKI and the YUL.

These numbers don't really mean first, second, third, but they mean there are these three factors happening. The MIKKI NAMSHE, the MIKKI WANPO and the YUL. Got it?

Consciousness

The MIKKI NAMSHE, my little line was pointing to the back of MIKKI's head, meaning into the brain where scientists would say that's the location of the brain that carries the visual consciousness. Abhidharmakosha says so too.

There's an area in the back there that is called MIKKI NAMSHE, the eye consciousness.

I'm using eye consciousness for this whole example. But it would be also true for an ear consciousness, only it wouldn't be in the back of your head, someplace else.

A smell consciousness, and a taste consciousness, and a tactile consciousness, and a thought consciousness.

They wouldn't be called MIKKI NAMSHE whatever the word for hearing consciousness would be.

Physical Power/Faculty

There's the eye consciousness and then the MIKKI WANGPO is the eye power, it's called. The eye faculty, which is considered the physical tissue that delivers the information to that eye consciousness.

Science says the eye consciousness is a tissue also.

Abhidharma says, no, the tissue is this MIKKI WANGPO. It's the retina, the rods and cones, all the factors that take in information that eyes take in, which is color and shape. They send that color and shape to a location of consciousness that is specific to color and shape that puts a little bit more information onto those colors and shapes.

Object

Then the third factor that has to be happening in any given experience is there must also be the YUL, which means object. That's the little yelling guy over here.

In order for me, Mr. MIKKI, to experience that YUL, angry yelling boss, I have to have the eye power picking up the information, the eye consciousness, recognizing that information, and the YUL, the object being the information.

In those three places, where is the angry yelling boss?

Ignorance says it's in the YUL.

This is saying, until you have all three of those factors happening, there is no angry yelling, boss for me, Mr. MIKKI, until all of those three factors are arising, are happening. Experiencing it takes all three.

Our eye consciousness, the MIKKI NAMSHE is this awareness of color and shape. For ears, for ear NAMSHE, it's decibels. For smells, it's whatever you call those odors. Each one has its own unique. The MIKKI WANGPO is the factor that presents those colors and shapes, unlabeled.

To the eye consciousness that registers, Oh red round to the little Mr. YUL‘s upset face.

Mind Only says we have these three elements. We're actually looking at colors and shapes. They're sensed by the eye faculty, the MIKKI WANGPO, and based on that, the eye consciousness grows the awareness of red face.

We could say for angry yelling boss that what's being picked up is the red, round, Geshela said, and then decibels. Then the eye consciousness and the ear consciousness come up with red round, angry face yelling.

Maybe there's a nose consciousness at the same time, taste consciousness. You can see, they're so much more secondary unless we're doing something more specific to them like cooking, eating, et cetera.

Our main world is driven by our MIKKI WANGPO and MIKKI NAMSHE, and whatever the hearing one is. Those two along with our tactile probably mix up, I don't know, 90% of our experience.

When we say, I experienced the angry yelling boss, these three factors are happening. Because of those three factors we say, My mind is aware of being yelled at by the angry boss.

They don't call that a fourth factor. That's the actual result that's ripening.

But we think automatically, I'm being yelled at by the angry boss—as a separate thing. This is not saying, it's not a separate thing. It's saying there are three things going on right now:

You are picking up the information,
you're processing that into something and
the object there

With the happening, I don't know how to say it.

Again, we're in Mind Only School, that YUL is a functioning thing. It has some existence from its own side, not self existent of course.

We're not talking about, Does the angry yelling boss exist at all?

We are trying to figure out how and why am I experiencing this in the way that I do?

Because if it's pleasant, we want more of it.

If it's unpleasant, we want less of it.

So the better we understand where it comes from in the first place, the better we can figure out how to make more of the pleasant and less of the unpleasant.

Foundation Consciousness - The Storehouse where seeds reside

(38:43) It's the mind that comes up with, Oh, angry, yelling boss.

It's not the MIKKI WANGPO and it's not the MIKKI NAMSHE, it's not the YUL. But without those three, the mind can't come up with: angry yelling boss.

Mind Only School says, well then there must be a mind that is the foundation within which all of this happens. Because it's what comes to the conclusion. It's what makes the conclusion.

They posit this thing called KUNSHI.

If you've been following the Mixed Nuts, Word’s text, and somebody else is doing a text from Mind Only School perspective. They've been talking about this KUNSHI for a long time.

In Sanskrit, it's alaya vijnyana. Just hard to say.

It means a basis consciousness or a foundation consciousness, also called a storehouse consciousness. I think that's what Geshe Michael uses mostly storehouse consciousness. Only now he says the refrigerator, which kind of throws you. It's like, come on. It's not… anyway, storehouse consciousness.

Mind Only School offers that all of our karmic seeds rest in this KUNSHI until the time for them to produce their awareness.

All of our visually made karmic seeds reside in this KUNSHI until it's time for them to make their MIKKI NAMSHE, their visual consciousness.

These karmic seeds are called BAKCHAKS. It really does mean seed.

We tend to use the term imprint more than seed when we get to Highest School. But it's the same idea this BAKCHAK.

Mind Only School believes that these BAKCHAKS, these seeds that we have in our minds, are functioning things. They in fact have some nature of their own, which means they're a thing which needs a place to stay.

So this KUNSHI, your storehouse consciousness, is the place where these BAKCHAKS are stored until they're ready to bring about their ripening result.

They aren't packed away and stored independent of all the others.

However, they're in this KUNSHI and they're all affecting each other.

They posit this KUNSHI within which are all of these BAKCHAKS and suddenly, from the big pool of BAKCHAKS, is produced that awareness, red face, angry face, boss yelling at me face. Here's the big pool, and then it bubbles up somehow and you've got this experience happening.

You have the MIKKI NAMSHE, you could say triggered by the MIKKI WANGPO. But it's not like sequential. It's like YUL, MIKKI WANGPO, NAMSHE bubbles up.

Within that is not the, I like this boss, I don't like this boss.

It's just the immediate experience, and then comes more I like, I don't like. And then more, and then more, and then more.

We're talking about the ripening result that sets forth that whole process our reaction to which plants new BAKCHAKS. Which is why learning about this helps us be inspired to catch the moment where we can actually affect some kind of change. Once the BAKCHAK has bubbled up into its result, it is done.

It's what we replant that is important for the future bubbling up, whenever that's going to be.

Geshehla said the BAKCHAK does not become the result.

The BAKCHAK produces an awareness of the result. That's a subtle but important piece.

All the schools say there are six consciousnesses, six of those NAMSHEs:

the eye consciousness,
the ear consciousness,
nose, smell,
taste,
tactile and
thought.

That makes six.

Mind Only School says, you know what? We need two more to really explain our experiences.

One of those is this KUNSHI. Now called the KUNSHI NAMPAR SHEPA.

There it is:

kunshi nampar shepa

tok-pe tak-tsam

Because we need a place for these BAKCHAKS to stay.

Highest School disagrees that seeds need a place to stay

This is the piece that Middle Way consequence group says, You don't really need a place for those seeds to stay, because they aren't an even subtle material thing that needs a place.

They are this energetic imprint that flows along. We'll talk about what they specifically say later.

But this is the only piece that Highest Middle Way disagrees with in this Mind Only explanation is that the seeds don't need a place to stay.

You don't really need to deposit a KUNSHI NAMPAR SHEPA, a specific refrigerator state of mind. Middle Way doesn't say there's no KUNSHI at all.

If we're calling the KUNSHI like the overall or basic mind, thing we call mind.

But as we study further, our explanation to ourselves of what we mean by mind is going to shift. Assuming you're thinking of mind, the way I was thinking of mind 20 years ago when I started this. Like it's a thing that I have, and my mind is this specific thing and out of my mind comes this stuff. It's like, now I see that that isn't quite right.

We just don't need a place for the BAKCHAKS to be stored. Because they are stored, they are there, but they aren't material things that need a place. You don't need a bank. So we'll talk about it.

What's happening when these BAKCHAKs bubble up out of the KUNSHI NAMPAR SHEPA into my experience, angry, yelling boss, angry yelling, me being yelled at by angry, yelling, boss. We think, it seems like this whole explanation has just said, there's the angry yelling boss. There's the YUL, the object, and my eye sees the colors and shapes and sends the message to my eye consciousness that puts it together. My mind goes, Oh, me being yelled at by an angry yelling boss.

But Mind Only says this is incorrect.

They say, the my eye seeing the colors and shapes, and the my eye consciousness gathering it together, that's all my KUNSHI looking like my eye seeing colors and shapes.

That's very different than saying: the colors and shapes come in, and they go here, and then the mind comes up with something.

This is saying: All of that happening is my mind. Is my mind. They don't even say, is my mind doing it.

My KUNSHI is looking like colors, shapes, putting them together. Oh, angry yelling, boss.

My KUNSHI is looking like that right now.

It's hard. I had a hard time understanding this for a long time.

Why would you say my KUNSHI is looking like that?

Let's say my KUNSHI takes that shape. I want to say I experienced my KUNSHI like that, but that would be incorrect also.

Whatever I'm experiencing, it's my KUNSHI happening. Maybe we could say that.

The KUNSHI shape shifting is what we mean by BAKCHAKs ripening.

This karmic seed is producing a consciousness that appears as the eye, the physical matter, but which actually is a part of consciousness. Which is giving messages to the eye consciousness, which is actually a part of the consciousness.

I'm listening to myself say this and it's like Sarahni, that's not really making any sense. Right, I am saying what Geshe Michael said.

Mind Only School is saying that the BAKCHAK ripens as the eye power, the eye consciousness and the object—all from one BAKCHAK.

If that last more than an instant, it's been this BAKCHAK and this BAKCHAK and this BAKCHAK. It doesn't mean one BAKCHAK lasts 10 minutes of the boss yelling at you. But what it means is that out of that one seed comes all three of those factors that becomes the experience.

Mind Only School is known for saying that there's no separate seed for me and the thing that I experience.

When we learn the six flavors of emptiness, it's stated in this negative. There's no separate seed for me and the thing I experience. It's referring to this, that the imprint that goes in has those three aspects to it: an object, a sense consciousness and a sense power.

The seed that ripens has those three in it as well.

The reason that's significant is that even when we say, oh, I believe in karma and karmic seeds and then we complain, „My boss was yelling at me and I know it's my seeds ripening“, we are still thinking that there's the karma for the boss over there, the karma for me over here, and the karma for the interaction.

That's incorrect.

Particularly if we're letting ourselves think the karma for the boss to be here is actually the boss's karma. Because that means it's still their fault for yelling at me.

That doesn't help us if we still have a reason to blame them, even in the slightest way, even if we call it karma, we're giving up our ability to change.

One karmic seed ripens my eye there, the colors and shapes and the mind's interpretation of those colors and shapes.

Mind Only School says all of that's coming out of our KUNSHI. Not coming out of it. All of it is shape shifting our KUNSHI constantly.

So really, there's nothing but our KUNSHI that we're experiencing.

But that doesn't mean you're the only existing thing. Because those things that the KUNSHI is ripening are being ripened as existing things out there. So they are.

There is an angry yelling boss out there, apparently separate from me.

My KUNSHI being that, and when you think about it, it's like, could there ever be an angry yelling boss in your experience that you are not aware of?

No. You have to be aware of them in some gross or subtle way to have an angry yelling boss in your experience.

It has to be included in our awareness, and when we understand what we really mean by „my awareness“, we'll see that in fact that angry yelling boss is my own mind. Not my intellect, not my thoughts, but my consciousness.

Consciousness unique to this subject side might be easier, instead of my.

Mind Only School says every awareness we have is just our own mind, our own KUNSHI, appearing as that.

So who do we have to blame for anything? My own mind.

That's too heavy for a lot of people.

For others it's like, Whoa, then there's nothing I can't make. There's nothing I can't create.

For others of us, there's some days where it's, Whoa. And other days it's like, This is too much, I can't do it. We swing and that's fine. That's the practice.

Then, because all objects are KUNSHI appearing as those objects, Mind Only School says, There are no actual outside physical objects that are not KUNSHI looking like outside physical objects.

I'm going to say it again: Mind Only School says there are no outside physical objects that are not KUNSHI looking like outside physical objects.

There are outside physical objects, but not from their own side.

Is there such a thing as an outside physical object from its own side?

No.

Do we think there are?

Absolutely. If you're like me.

KUNSHI, Geshela uses the term emanates, probably to plant seeds.

KUNSHI emanates, produces an image that looks like an object out there, but in fact is our own KUNSHI looking like that object.

That applies to the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, et cetera, all of them.

Which now means we need to rethink what we mean by our mind, don't we?

It's location. Even if we say, oh, my mind is in here. Too limiting.

We say, my mind is in here. Still too limiting.

Where's the end of your mind if everything you experience is this KUNSHI shown itself that way. There's no limit, is there, to your mind?

I don't know. That gives me a headache.

The ramifications are astounding, says Geshe Michael and we need to cook it.

I remember we were taking this course. We had taken this course by correspondence and then we were working with a review courses, while from the caretakers of Geshe Michael's retreat. We were driving back and forth from that Diamond Mountain to Tucson quite regularly. I'd be like, How can all this be my mind?—as the world is zipping by me driving.

How can all this be my mind?

I just couldn't get it. But I was chewing on it, chewing on it, chewing on it. And now it's like, How come that was so hard? Like duh.

But that's been 20 years of chewing on it, because I am thick as a brick. You guys are smarter than me.

Mind Only School is not to be disrespected. Truly. It kind of seems that way when we do the ACIs. It's not.

Mind Only School says, Look, KUNSHI emanates and produces an image which looks like an object, but really is our own mind looking like that object.

See how it does it. Those mental seeds, this pool of mental seeds produce the object, the power to apprehend it, and the awareness of it—all coming out of the one seed. Then the next one seed that keeps it going, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one. But every one has all three of those. Every one of those bubbles up into all three and then shape shifts, shape shifts, shape shifts. All of it is this thing called KUNSHI, one's own KUNSHI.

There can't be a karma for me to be here, and a separate karma for me to see you here. It's coming out of one seed, one, another one, another one, another one.

One karma ripens the me seeing you and everything about that experience.

Because one seed was planted with everything about that experience, 65 per instant, but 65 discreet imprints.

Geshehla said, how can we ever be aware of anything that is not my consciousness? That explains why everyone can have differing experiences, and it explains why we can all have similar experiences—but not identical.

Emptiness in this school, Mind Only School, is the lack of any separate karmic seed for the object and the mind itself. The perceiver and the perceived object are empty of being caused by separate things.

Mind Only School emptiness.

The mind that sees the angry boss, and the angry boss that that mind sees, both grow from the same BAKCHAK, the same mental seed.

Which mind?

The KUNSHI of the experience.

You can't really even say there's anything but your KUNSHI.

The boss who has their own mind is part of my KUNSHI ripening them having their own mind.

Does that mean I'm the only thing that exists?

No. Not at all.

>> But it does mean, Is there anything that I can experience

that's not an arising, a shape shifting of my own KUNSHI?

No.

>> What shapeshifts the KUNSHI?

The BAKCHAKS.

>> What makes the BAKCHAKS?

My behavior.

The subject side within that KUNSHI that's aware of its

reaction as the thing shape shifts.

>> Is it outside that system?

No. It's part of it.

Mind Only‘s conclusion: even within the belief that there are functioning things that have their own natures, not self existent, are still my responsibility. Any way that I experience those functioning things is my KUNSHI ripening.

Mind Only does say: Everything is our personal responsibility.

Alright, let's take a break.

(70:12) I'll say it one more time. Our entire experience of our world is just us experiencing our own KUNSHI, our own karmic ripenings looking like our world out there and so it is.

If it's pleasant, it came from kindness BAKCHAKS.

If it's unpleasant, it came from unkindness BAKCHAKS of our own mind, our own mind’s BAKCHAKS.

We perceive nothing other than emanations of our KUNSHI looking like outside objects.

Are they outside our physical body?

Yes.

But can they be outside our consciousness and experience them?

No.

Homework question: What 2 things arise from one karmic seed according to Mind Only School?

The answer is, one's awareness, and the sense powers and what they sense. So really there's three things, but they call them two.

The perceiver, our awareness, and that which is perceived, which requires the eye power and the eye consciousness.

The answer is, one's awareness and the sense power and what the sense power perceives as not one thing but one. The other half of this answer. That's what I'm telling.

That‘s how we get to enlightenment

Once that BAKCHAK ripens, it bubbles up and the KUNSHI shape shifts, it's too late to change that perception. It's already there. But how we react to it, how we react within it, how we behave, that's what influences that KUNSHI.

We call that influence a new BAKCHAK made, which has all those three factors within each one as well.

The practice, the game, is to train ourselves to be aware that the ripening is our opportunity to respond instead of react. Because our reaction to that experience is habitual driven by a misunderstanding that in fact this is all my KUNSHI bubbling forth. When we're more aware of it, all my KUNSHI bubbling forth, we see it's like, well great, this is the opportunity for me to influence that KUNSHI in a way such that when that bubbles forth, it will be pleasant.

That's how we can use this process to stop all suffering, to reach Buddhahood. Because that KUNSHI will shape shift according to what bubbles up, and what bubbles up is according to what we put in.

We want to train ourselves to react to our own mind to looking like my outer world with Bodhichitta, with loving kindness, with a little bit of wisdom. Not just our thoughts, but actions speech as well.

Which is why morality is the basis of this transformation we want to make. Because morality means avoiding harming others.

Helping others second level.

Doing both in order to get enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings, third level.

It's the BAKCHAKS we want to plant.

What are we really looking at when we see an object according to Mind Only School?

We're looking at the KUNSHI itself, not meaning we're outside of it, looking at it. Meaning that's what our awareness is, is the KUNSHI.

It's emanating, Geshela kept using that word emanating, the mind and the ripening mental imprints within it.

The BAKCHAKS within the KUNSHI ripen, and the KUNSHI appears as me seeing angry boss, me being yelled at by angry boss. Hyphenate that. Make it all one thing.

MeBeingYelledAtByAngryBoss.

Because it's all coming out of one series of BACKCHACKs.

How Karma Works

(76:40) How does it all work?

How are those karmic seeds planted?

How are they carried?

Geshela explained, suppose we are aware of ourselves yelling at somebody.

As we conclude that deed, the energy of that whole effort, he says is transferred to the KUNSHI.

Well wait a minute, it was coming of the KUNSHI in the first place. So the KUNSHI has been influenced by that energy, by the vibration that we made while we were doing that yelling.

That KUNSHI is influenced in that way.

As we're doing the deed, the force of that deed is gaining in strength.

The longer it lasts, the stronger it gets.

Then once it's done, it’s as if the finishing it, the completion of the deed, packages that energetic imprint in the mind.

We are aware of ourself doing the yelling. That action finally finishes and the KUNSHI stained by that energy. That means that BAKCHAK has been planted.

We call it karma collected.

These things called BAKCHAKS, Highest School says they're not mental and they're not physical, and they are changing things.

There's this category of all existing things that are changing things that are not all physical, not all mental.

Here they're talking about this potential.

If in the midst of yelling at somebody, you catch yourself and make the effort to stop or change at the end, the BACKCHAK‘s going to be different than if you let yourself complete your yelling. Whatever that's going to look like.

The action of being aware, Ooh, I'm making seeds I don't want, I'm going to stop—even in the middle—it's changing the imprint.

It's not changing the imprint. It's a different imprint than it would've been if you let it go all the way to its conclusion.

As we work with that system and we cut off our habitual negative BAKCHAK planting that we're justifying, and we stop making them so completely, so strongly, the next ones that ripen, we'll be able to do that a little bit better, a little bit faster.

We'll start being able to choose different responses.

Then we hear Geshehla saying, you can go kiss those angry, yelling people goodbye, because you're going to make your KUNSHI such that you can't ripen an angry yelling person anymore.

Because you've so influenced your KUNSHI with kind response to all of those yelling idiots, that your KUNSHI can't shapeshift one of them anymore.

That's really the only way we get rid of angry, yelling people at us.

You can't run away from them. You can't change your mind about them.

We can just change our BAKCHAKs and we're the only one who can do that.

Mind Only School says that that energy at the conclusion of the deed is planted in the KUNSHI and it stays in that KUNSHI, the foundation consciousness, until they ripen into their result. Meaning, until they ripen into the KUNSHI shape shifting in the way that they do.

Those seeds have to stay somewhere. I said that already.

They say that this BAKCHAK, it is a changing thing.

It's not permanent because it's going to ripen and be done.

They say that it continues on, moment by moment in a stream of replication of itself, a constant fluctuation in this chain of similar forms.

I don't understand this. This is one of the things I've got on the shelf, because it doesn't seem to me we need all of this explanation.

But it says, all we are, like my identity Sarahni, is this series of constant fluctuations of perceptions of this KUNSHI shapeshifting as those BAKCHAKS do their thing—in, out, in, out.

Like the deck of cards that has the horse and you go like this (showing a flipbook), and the horse is running. But when you take each card, it's just a drawing of the horse in a different position. But then you run it. You've all seen what I mean. The horse is running.

That's a really good analogy of our subject-object-interaction between experience happening constantly.

They explained that each seed in carries along through time, like a billiard ball that touches another billiard ball, and the second billiard ball moves, because the first one touches it.

He's using that analogy, because as one billiard ball touches the next one, there's a transfer of energy. It's not that BAKCHAKs touch another BAKCHAK, they say. But rather than a given BAKCHAK goes along, goes along impacting itself. This is why it's like I either really don't understand this, or Mind Only just explaining something because they feel they need to.

The BAKCHAK isn't static, is the point. It's influenced by something all along.

Geshela said, in the end that for an ignorant being, a being who still is stained by ignorance, every BAKCHAK has within it that ignorance stain. And every new BAKCHAK has in it that ignorance stain.

Because of that similarity, they strengthen each other.

Our seeds of ignorance keep gaining strength, gaining strength, gaining strength.

Their details, like you have a seed of being angry and then you do a deed where instead of in the midst of being angry, you do something kind. That's so different from this seed of being angry that it actually detracts a little bit from it.

Probably not enough to wipe it out completely, the way we could with a good four powers. But enough to decrease it.

But a full on anger seed would add to the ones before. It's more like how sound deadening works. You have this decibel and you give the opposite decibel and they go to zero.

I think of karma, karma is influencing each other more like that. That if you do a equal and opposite reaction, then those two are going to negate each other. But then that's not quite right either. Because you don't want to negate your good seeds. You just want to use your good seeds to negate the old seeds and get good seeds to grow. We can do that. So my analogy doesn't quite work either.

I see myself. I'm aware of myself yelling at somebody.

My KUNSHI gets colored by that.

That color carries on, either growing or diminishing, growing, diminishing until it grows enough strength that my KUNSHI looks like me being yelled at and I am.

That is my experience, and then I react. I put a new stain. The old stain is done and gone. I put a new stain by my action and that system is happening constantly.

My perception is me and my world, me and my experience.

(88:15) Technically, when we perceive ourselves doing something to another, we are imprinting, and we perceive someone doing something to us.

We are actually, I want to say ex-printing but ripening.

But we have it backwards. We as ignorant beings, we see them doing that to me, and we see me doing something to them. But really it's the reverse.

Then they say the BAKCHAKs are going along, not bumping into each other, but their own energy is growing diminishing, growing diminishing until, they say, when conditions are right.

The BAKCHAK ripens into a perception of something. The result flowers.

That's just so vague, „when the conditions are right“.

Come on, we're back to something outside me that influences my BAKCHAK‘s ripening. That's not what they mean.

It's when the conditions of the BAKCHAK itself are right, that's the one that bubbles up, that shapeshifts are KUNSHI.

If the conditions are right for the one that I planted when I yelled at that other person makes that be the one that shape shifts my KUNSHI. Then I experience somebody yelling at me, with all the subtle details of the experience. All coming out of that series of BAKCHAKs that are shape shifting my experience in that way.

It does not stop things being unpleasant just by knowing that it's our own mind. What it helps us do is choose other than automatic response. Helps us have the power to choose a kinder response.

Why does Karma grow?

(91:10) Someone asks, why does karma grow? Why doesn't the energy as it flows along deplete itself?

Because that really seems more what we see in our world, is that energy will dissipate. Isn't that thing about chaos prevails?

Their answer is that it's the ongoing ignorance that feeds the system.

Which implies that if we can stop, if we cut the ignorance, that we would no longer feed all of those seeds.

If we could cut it all in one fell swoop, none of those seeds could ripen.

That doesn't tend to be how we do it. But you can see how the gateway of Arya has this powerful impact. Because we are no longer feeding all of our BAKCHAKs, the ignorance that keeps their power growing.

Then every perception is actually starting to detract from those BAKCHAKs.

The ignorant BAKCHAKS. You're planting wisdom ones.

The Mentally Afflicted Consciousness

I said that Mind Only says there's two extra consciousnesses.

The other consciousness that they posit is called the KLESHA consciousness, or the mixed up consciousness, the mentally afflicted consciousness.

This is the consciousness that is aware of the KUNSHI and misinterprets it due to our ignorance.

It's ripening with the KUNSHI‘s shape shifting, and it is the misunderstanding that perpetuates those BAKCHAKS. It's the ignorance that makes all our mental upsets.

Highest School, as I said, criticizes Mind Only School for saying that the BAKCHAKS need a place to stay. Highest School says, look, they aren't things that need a place to stay. They are the influences on our consciousness by what our consciousness is aware of its subject side thinking, doing, saying.

So those BAKCHAKs, they are just carried along in the simple unexamined me.

This feels as incomplete as the Mind Only saying that the BAKCHAK hits it and goes on. But what they're saying is that if we don't do any examination, we have an awareness of our me. That simple me, subject side, constantly there. If you don't analyze, that’s fine.

Buddha say, I'm Shakyamuni. We say, I'm Sarahni. You say, state your name.

We say, „I am“.

That simple me flows along from moment to moment to moment to moment.

That's where the seeds stay. It does make sense in a way, because,

Can we have an experience independent of a subject side part of it?

Subject side means you. Your you. Can you experience something independent of you?

No.

Like every seed has your you in it. Every seed out has your you in it, and every seed in it has your you in it. And we can just say that simple me flows along and the BAKCHAKs flow with it.

Technically we are it.

Karma is planted in the me and stays in the me, and the me is that me that's changing, changing, changing, changing. Never the same two moments in a row, but never not existent.

This very process that we're calling karma, imprints of what my me is aware of me doing, influences my very conscious awareness of my me and what it's doing, and influences the me and what it's aware of doing.

We are the process.

Within that process there's always the subject, the object, the interaction between.

So yes, we have this pool of BAKCHAKs. But it's us.

It's not me with a refrigerator that it's all inside.

It is our me and my world happening, happening, happening, happening.

We want to say, No, let's freeze frame the whole thing and figure out where everything is.

But that wouldn't be helpful, because it never freeze frames.

Quote from the Sutra Requested by Upali

(98:14) Geshela quoted from the Sutra requested by Upali that says:

The Sutra Requested by Upali includes the following lines:

A splash of pleasing flowers open their petals,

Golden palaces blaze in breathtaking beauty;

Look for their maker, but you'll never find him,

For all of these are built of conceptions -

The world is an invention of conceptions.

Meaning our own conception, conception means you take information and you come up with a identity.

This is saying, who made Buddha Paradises?

Acme Construction Company?

No, the ripening mind of the being who planted the seeds for Buddha Paradise.

Who made the hell realms? Acme Construction Company?

No, the minds of the beings that are experiencing themselves there.

Highest School View: The world is just what you label it.

Everything's created by karma.

We are that karma.

Our subject side is part of it.

Buddha says over and over again, your world and the beings within it are only made by your own mind.

Mind Only School says, Look, Buddha said so. Our world is only mind. So let's name our school after it, Mind Only School.

They knew what they were talking about.

But then the rest of us come along and go, oh, Mind Only. We're thinking the wrong thing about Mind Only.

Highest School says, well look, Buddha didn't really mean „only mind“ as in „everything you experience is your KUNSHI showing up“.

He didn't actually mean that.

They say what Buddha also said in these other turnings of the wheel—we'll learn about later—is TOK PE TAK TSAM

TOKPE means by our own perceptions.

TAK TSAM means just labeled.

What Buddha meant by Mind Only is that our world is made of our own perceptions and how we label them.

It's only subtly different. Our world is made of our own perceptions just labeled that way. Our perceptions come from our labels.

Why do we put on the labels that we do?

Those are results of karma, BAKCHAKs ripening. You could almost say KUNSHI shape shifting.

But Highest School says, No. It's not that everything is only your mind, especially if we're thinking of that wrongly.

But when we say, well everything I experienced is unique to my perception of it, how is that different than saying everything is my own mind?

We can both be looking at the same tree, and we are perceiving that tree unique to each of us. We're believing that there's a tree out there that we are each perceiving uniquely, and that would be mistaken.

TOK PE TAK TSAM

Highest School says the eye consciousness takes in information, indications.

The eye power takes in indications.

The eye consciousness processes those indications.

But it's the mind that puts it all together and says, angry boss yelling at me.

All driven by these BAKCHAKs.

Same conclusion.

Why do I take those indications and make angry yelling boss?

I'm being forced to do so by the imprints I made.

What imprints?

Something similar.

Ah, result of having yelled at somebody.

So what do I want to do?

Well for sure I don't want to yell. But maybe I can lie to get him to stop.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.

If it works, I'm likely to try it again.

But what's the result of lying to somebody?

Is it getting them to stop yelling at you? Was that anywhere in the correlations to lying? Oh, people will stop yelling at you.

No, the result of lying is people don't believe me. People lie to me. My place becomes mistrustful. I have the habit of lying again.

When we understand the scriptural results of certain deeds, even if we think in the moment of something negative, Oh, I could do this to get out of that negative—and we recognize, no, that's just going to come back to me in a different bad way.

I'm not going to do that one either, because my NGOTSA and TRELYU kick in as we're trying to choose our reaction.

Same for a pleasant experience.

Do I want to perpetuate it? How do I do that?

Alright, so what is really happening according to Prasangika?

We take certain indications, we form a mental image—angry boss—and mistake the mental image for an angry boss out there. We've heard this explanation before.

We take indications, we form a mental image—angry boss—and mistake it for an angry boss out there and then react.

It's the process of conceptualization happening constantly.

Why do we interpret indications as angry boss? Is it by choice?

No. It's by BAKCHAK, by karmic seed.

The seed ripens in our mind. It makes us see that information as an angry yelling boss. It's real.

We've never seen anything other than something that was a ripening karmic seed.

We can't.

Again, the game is to use up all our lousy BAKCHAKs and make new ones that aren't lousy. Every instant of our experience is an opportunity to do that.

Every detail of our world is this ripening karmic seeds into the label we put on, and take to be them doing that to me.

When an unpleasant thing happens, it's a ripening of a past nastiness.

If we can experience it, and not get mad, then it passes without replanting more negativity.

One series of BAKCHAKs gone. They won't come back without planting new ones.

What Buddha meant with „Everything is Mind Only“

We will tend to say, Well yeah, but what about the indications? Aren't those really there?

Geshela said, just wait. We're getting to Diamond Cutters Sutra. We'll get there soon about the indications.

Then Mind Only School says to Prasangika, well then you guys, if you say Buddha didn't mean mind only. What do you say Buddha meant when he said „everything in the world is nothing but mind“

Prasangika‘s, they give two answers.

One is stated as a negative and one is stated as a positive. We see this recurring theme.

Meaning something that they want us to know is not, and something they want us to know that is.

They say, Prasangika says, Buddha wanted us to know

that things are creations of karma, but not the creations of some creator being. When he said, Oh, the world is mind only, he meant your own mind. Not some creator being that we can then give responsibility too for our unpleasantness and our pleasantness.

Secondly, Buddha wanted us to know that the mind is the main thing. But remember when Abhidharmakosha 4th chapter, LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE, deeds cause the multitude of worlds.

What do we mean by deeds?

Movement of the mind and what it motivates. Karma.

So when Buddha wants us to know that mind is the main thing, Prasangika is saying, what

he means is that movement of the mind and what it motivates, meaning karma. Karma is the main thing that creates our world.

Je Tsongkapa, apparently at some point wrote, I wish Buddha had said, mind is the main thing that made your world, so that then Mind Only school would be Mind is the Main Thing. I don't know why you didn't just say karma was the main thing, except that during Buddha‘s time, people believed very strongly in karma, and what they meant was fate, duty.

Very, very different thing than what I see myself doing imprints on my mind and creates what I see. So Buddha really couldn't say karma drives the world because it would've been misunderstood by just about everybody who already knew what karma was. Do you see?

He had to use this other term „mind only“. But meaning movement of the mind and what it motivates.

Then within this mind, he's talking to ignorant beings.

It's our mind's ignorance that makes us do the things we do that makes us experience the things we experience.

It's our ignorance through which we perpetuate our samsaric world where everything is either outright pain, the pain of change, or pervasive pain.

Like all three going on at once, probably perpetuated by our misunderstanding of where pain and pleasure really comes from.

Perpetuated by the belief that what I do now brings me, what happens next. Unfortunately, a lot of times it seems to. Now and then it doesn't work, but we make excuses for why it doesn't work, because some part of us doesn't want that ultimate responsibility that comes with understanding the true nature of our ignorance.

Which is also empty of self nature.

Practical Application

(113:25) What's the practical application of all of this?

Once we deeply understand all of this, we can never again ignore any of our actions, of body, speech or mind. We will want to cultivate a very fine level of observation of ourselves, watching our behavior, so that we can very carefully avoid harmful acts to such a fine degree that we can burn off the very ignorance through which we perpetuate the cycle.

As we know we are creating our future moment by moment, we become more aware that we are completely responsible for every detail of our world. We want to become so careful with what we think, and do, and say that we can stop perpetuating a world that has suffering.

How do we choose our new behaviors?

We look at our vows. We look at the 10 non virtues for what to avoid, and we explore what they look like in the opposite to train ourselves in what habits we want to grow.

It's really, in my opinion, more fun to work with the 10 virtues, and how I can put those into practice, than it is to walk on eggshells over, „Am I doing a non virtue?“

Show myself what the virtues look like and do those because you can't do a non-virtuous and a virtue at the same time. They're opposites.

In the nick of time, I think this is the end of my vocabulary. Yes. Okay, class 5.

We will go through all of this again and again and again throughout the course of your ACI study. If you're new to this information, chew on it, think about it.

Be fine with not understanding it exactly, perfectly.

Read the reading, do your homework, read the student notes, work with it and explore it. Try to explain it to yourself.

Pretend you can explain it to a 12-year-old and fine tune what you think it's saying.

It's worth the effort to grapple with it.

Thank you for the opportunity to share. That's a really hard class.

Class 6: How Emptiness Allows Karma to Work, According to the Middle Way School

23 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 6

For the recording, welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 6, June 23rd, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

Then listen again to Source of All My Good, the Lam Rim.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 5

(12:55) The basis of our Lam Rim is our morality.

What we mean by morality is our behavior choices, and what we mean by behavior choices is how we respond to any situation that we find ourselves in. Understanding karma and emptiness, we are gaining this understanding, intellectually leading eventually to deep, heartfelt understanding that I am the creator of my own experiences—just not in the moment.

So I am trying to shift my habit pattern from react, react, react to respond, respond, respond, create, create, create, plant, plant, plant.

It's difficult. We're riding on eons of believing that reacting is how we survived.

We're hardwired to react.

We're studying a system that says the way we're hardwired to survive is mistaken.

We're swimming upstream in an avalanche of not just our task is almost impossible. We're studying karma because the better we understand intellectually the process, the more deeply we can take it into meditation, the more inspired we can be to try to pull it off in our day-to-day life.

We will fail. That's what it is to be in Samsara—is we don't understand. So we'll try and we'll fail, and we'll try and we'll fail, and we'll try and we'll fail.

That's okay, because for eons before that we weren't even trying.

Last class, Geshela left the Abhidharma School explanation and went to Mind Only and a little bit of Prasangika for the explanation of how does this thing karma really work in our minds.

Our ignorance is:

I'm me, others are others. Whether they're conscious being others or material thing others.
I have my identity and qualities and they have their identity and qualities.
We come together and have some experience together. Maybe it's pleasant, and maybe it's unpleasant.
Even if it's pleasant, it wears out, which leaves me wanting for more all the while thinking that the pleasure or displeasure comes from the other object, the other person.

That's backwards.

In the process of trying to understand what Buddha taught, our ability to recognize where we believe that extent to which a thing's identity and qualities are in it, we are pulling away obvious ones and then more less obvious ones and more subtle ones as we study through the ACI.

But just because we've studied it doesn't mean we stop believing, right?

That the angry, yelling bosses in them, causing me grief. So I should resent them, be angry with them, do what I need to do to get away with them. Because we're hardwired to believe that, and to do that, react like that. We're hardwired to recognize, wow, that pile of those beans, those ripe beans, if I can get those beans, I can use them to save my family's life. I can eat them, right?

Caveman me, Oh, gather up all those beans, take them home, cook them up, eat them. Yeah. Saved my life.

It reinforces there's something out there that I can get for myself that will be good, be pleasant, give me the pleasant result. So we reinforce the misperception more often than we don't reinforce it. I don't know, in that example, if me caveman gets the beans, cooks them, eats them and gets sick, I don't stop and think, wow, maybe getting those beans was not the right thing to do. I‘d say, whoa, there was something wrong with those beans. I'm never going to get those again.

We still blame the wrong thing when what we did to get what we wanted doesn't work.

We don't go, whoa, there's something wrong with this picture.

We blame the other thing.

As we move up into Mind Only School, Lower Middle Way, Upper Middle Way, that level of thought is trying to fine tune an understanding of really where do things really come from?

You have that quiz question: According to Mind Only School, what are we really looking at when we look at what our eye sees? Let me rephrase that.

What are we experiencing when we look at something?

Mind Only School says, we are in fact looking at the foundation consciousness.

But when I hear myself say the words, it seems like I'm outside the foundation consciousness, and I'm looking at it appearing as all you guys on the screen.

That's not what they're trying to say. We're not outside of it.

What are we experiencing as we're experiencing anything?

The Mind Only School answer is, our own foundation consciousness, and the flow of karmic imprints in it.

It's the place where those karmic seeds stay.

Mind Only School is still at this level of belief that there is such a thing as the foundation consciousness, and such things as the karmic seeds, the imprints, and that when the imprint ripens, it's not like the imprint comes out of the foundation consciousness. The foundation consciousness includes everything.

As that BAKCHAK ripens, it just shapeshifts the foundation consciousness into me experiencing boss yelling at me.

All of it is this foundation consciousness shape shifting, pushed by the BAKCHAKs.

Then, when we perceive ourselves finishing an action that influences that foundation consciousness, influencing all the other seeds that are in there already, and that imprint doesn't come out right away. It takes time for it to have its influence on foundation consciousness such that it's the one that shapeshifts.

(Short clarification of translator channel)

(23:56) Our experiences are actually our own awareness and the flowing karmic imprints within it. Our own mind.

Now, second one, explain how mental seeds from karma are planted, where they stay and how they go on until they produce their consequences, according to Mind Only School.

Mind Only School has to explain this idea. Everything is your foundation consciousness shape shifting. If we're believing that it's a thing, and those karmic seeds are things, then they have to have this explanation.

It's how they get in there, how they carry on and how they create their result.

They say, this thing—mental imprints—are called BAKCHAKs.

The instant we are aware of ourselves completing a deed, they call it the energy of that deed, is transferred to the foundation consciousness.

It's not transferred, it influences it. It's all happening within that foundation consciousness anyway. It's that it takes until the deed is finished for the foundation consciousness to be influenced.

It's like the influence is partial, partial, partial, partial, partial. Ops, complete.

Then that energy potential resides in the foundation consciousness.

Well, where else can he go?

There's no outside your foundation consciousness for you. So of course they stay there, and then they stream along, changing moment by moment endlessly affected by our motivation and other factors. Meaning every other action that we complete affects every action we've ever completed.

Some actions add to it, some actions detract to it, eventually it gains enough power to create its result.

How that quite works, I've not heard a good explanation. But it gets over the threshold, and now that BAKCHAK is the one that shape shifts the foundation consciousness of the moment.

This is happening so fleeting that it's not one BAKCHAK, it's 65 per instant. But this is happening, happening, happening.

Where does Middle Way say those karmic seeds have to stay?

They say, look, those karmic seeds are not physical things that need a place to stay. This idea of a BAKCHAK, a karmic seed, is this understanding how the stream of our own mind, our subject side mind, is the aspect that's always aware.

It's in that stream of the simple me that the influence on the mind from what we've seen ourselves think, do and say stays.

It's not a bank where they all stay. It's in this constant flow that they all stay.

Then you can't really even say, They don't stay there.

They are that. It's this constant imprints, ex-prints. That's not the right word, but it just feels right. But not the ex-print from what we just imprinted. Imprint in this moment, ex-print from something from before.

That process is me and my world, me and my parts, me and my life.

Constant, constant, according to Highest Middle Way.

Then you had a question: Prasangika does not agree that things are mental appearances arising out of a foundation consciousness. But they do say that the mind helps create objects through a process of conceptualization.

We heard that explained as the process through which we receive sensory input.

That sensory input is interpreted into a thing that is labeled, conceptualized. Conceptualization means you take different information and you come up with something.

We are perceiving information, and conceptualizing that information into subject-object-interaction between. Our ignorance includes in each of those a subject in me, from me-the object in it, from it-the interaction between, positive, negative, neutral, because of what's in the object.

All of those seeds are colored with the mistaken view called ignorance.

(30:53) All we ever really perceive, says Highest Middle Way, are parts assembled into concepts which are the objects. Technically subject-object-interaction between.

I don't know, which one feels more Mind Only?

The ‚all we ever experience is our conceptualizations‘, or ‚all we ever experience is our foundation consciousness looking like me and that other stuff‘.

They both sure sound Mind Only.

Prasangika says, when Buddha said the whole universe and everyone in it are mind only. He meant two things.

He wanted us to understand two things.

One is he wanted us to understand that ourselves and our experiences are created by karma and not by some creator God that we can blame for stuff or expect to take care of us. We are our own creator. Not by thinking it, not by wishing it, but by bringing things into being through our behavior.
Secondly, he wanted us to know that our minds really are the main thing in creating our world. Because it's our mind, meaning our consciousness, not our intellect, our consciousness, our awareness. It's the awareness of what we think, say and do that gets imprinted, that crosses the threshold into that— what I'm calling an ex-print—the projection that is the me, other and the experience. Our mind is this process of ever shifting awareness that we're calling the process of karma.

Lama Tsongkapa said, I wish Buddha had said ‚the mind is the main thing‘ school. Mind being movement of the mind and what it motivates, meaning karma.

Really, karma is the main thing that makes our world.

But when I hear myself say that I'm thinking of karma as a thing outside of me and my behavior. Do you see?

Which is what Buddha's audience at the time would've thought too. So he didn't say, look, ‚your whole world's made by karma‘. But it is, isn't it? LE LE JIKTEN NATSOK KYE.

That's why we're studying this. The various worlds are made by karma. Yes, Luisa? Quick one,

(Luisa 34:24) Quick one that's going to be hard. I am very confused with the Mind Only and the Middle Way. So when they say that what we perceive is our foundation consciousness being shaped into what we see. That means for them that are not external objects and we live in some kind of.

(Lama Sarahni) No, there's no object that we can experience that's external to this foundation consciousness through which we experience everything.

(Luisa) But that would mean you have to have already the BAKCHAKs for anything that could ever appear in your world.

(Lama Sarahni) Exactly. Because they can't come from anywhere else.

(Luisa) So for them the difference with Higher Middle Way is that for them I cannot create, plan new things?

(Lama Sarahni) No, that's not true. No, that's a mistaken conclusion of what they're trying to convey.

Our foundation consciousness appears as subject side experiencing an object that's outside of my physical body. But this object that I'm experiencing cannot be outside of my foundation consciousness arising as ‚me seeing pen‘, because it would be outside of my experience.

An outer object, meaning outside of our experience, can we experience something that's outside of our experience? No. So we don't know whether it exists or not. You can't establish something that's outside of our experience, right?

Outside, anything outside of our foundation consciousness is a non-existent thing.

(Luisa) Then the difference with the Higher Middle Way is what? I don't get it.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. There isn't much difference. So the difference between those school‘s state of mind is that Mind Only School still believes that anything that does a function has some nature of its own.

(Luisa) Like what? Can you give an example?

(Lama Sarahni) Right. The pen's nature to be a thing that can write. Because if I'm believing that things have to have some nature in order to function, to hear Highest School say, ‚Things are nothing but projections, nothing but conceptions‘. If I believe so strongly in functioning things, I'm going to say, A conception cannot write. Highest School says a functioning thing can't write. Because there's no such thing.

So we're at just course 5. These details will bog us down for what Geshe Michael wanted us to get ahold of for course 5 about how it is that this thing called karma functions to actually be the process through which we create.

How Karma is Caused Through Lack of Understanding of Emptiness

(38:42) Tonight's class is this marriage of karma and emptiness.

We really haven't spoken about emptiness so far.

As we learn more about either one, we see more and more clearly that we can't have one without the other.

Karma means how things appear to us, including the us.

Emptiness means, they don't have any nature of their own right. They're lacking something that we thought was there, depending on what level of understanding we can manage.

Geshela often says if somebody's teaching karma, and they don't ever mention emptiness, or someone's teaching emptiness and they don't ever mention morality or karma, then it would behoove us as the listener to check carefully the validity of the teachings we're being given—the authoritative source or the qualities of that teacher.

To see this necessary connection between karma and emptiness, Geshe Michael went to two different texts.

The first one is, well not the first one, the second one actually is Master Chandrakirti‘s Entering the Middle Way.

Vocabulary Class 6

Master Chandrakirti 650AD

Lord Maitreya

Gyu Lama Uttaratantra

dakdzin nyi kyi bakchak

gangsak yi dakdzin chukyi dakdzin

chu bab

Master Chandrakirti is an Indian master from about 650 AD. He wrote this text called Entering the Middle Way, which is the main text for Middle Way Consequence School, Highest School, that the monastics used to study that school.

Entering the Middle Way, it's called.

We're going to use a piece of that to understand how karma and emptiness are flip sides of a coin.

Then, to see why we need to know that, we are using a text called GYU LAMA, in Sanskrit Uttaratantra, which is not a tantra. It means the higher line, and this was one of the teachings that Arya Asanga received from his heart teacher Lord Maitreya, when he finally met him directly and went to Maitreya‘s picnic ground, and received the instruction.

When they were done, Lord Maitreya said to Asanga, okay, go back and share this with people. Asanga, I guess typed it into the computer, and then taught from those five books. This is one of them: Uttaratantra, the Higher Line.

Some of us studied it, didn't we? Anybody here do that? Yeah.

It's a pretty interesting text.

What does it really mean to be Buddha and how do you get there?

In this text, one of the classic parts of it is the section where Lord Maitreya is talking about karma, because the main thing that Lord Maitreya is teaching Aria Asanga is emptiness.

But emptiness all by itself isn't helpful.

We also need to understand why things appear the way they do.

Emptiness says, they're not this, they're not that they're not this, they're not that.

Great. That's not helpful without knowing why are they the way they appear?

Why are those flies coming out of the trap in my shower?

I know how they're there. But why and what do I do about it?

Just recall, oh, they're empty? No.

The process through which we perpetuate Samsara is this six step causal practice, causal events through which we perpetuate our world of suffering, through which we perpetuate Samsara. Then the implication is, well, they're somewhere within those six steps that if we could cut it, we would stop perpetuating Samsara.

And that's true.

In this class we get to hear these six steps that Lord Maitreya teaches us.

Ordinarily, if we were a brand new group, this would be new. But I think you've all heard the six steps of Lord Maitreya.

Pretend that you haven't so that you can hear it freshly.

Every time I would take myself through these six, I would understand them in a deeper way. Still, I see them. So if we go into it going, I've heard these before, you're born with the seeds and then this, we are just missing an opportunity to get it a little bit deeper.

Lord Maitreya, in a sutra teaching which this is, he is said to be a high level Bodhisattva. Really high level, if he's got his own paradise that he can take Arya Asanga too in order to give him teachings. He's got his own beautiful park, picnic ground.

In the secret teachings, Lord Maitreya is already a totally enlightened being and he's just waiting until the karma of the people of earth is such that he can be the fifth wheel turning Buddha for our world.

Scripture says however, that although the people's karmas will be such that they can get Lord Maitreya in the flesh, they don't have the karma to be taught tantra.

So it's one thing to say, I'll keep making good seeds so that I can be part of the people that are here when Lord Maitreya gets here. That would be great. But he won‘t be teaching tantra.

We have a world right now where tantra has been taught, Diamond Way has been taught, it is still being taught by somebody and it's an opportunity.

The Six Steps

Anyway, here are the six steps, the first step. I don't have 'em written down, I just have some of the Tibetan that's necessary.

Step: We are born with seeds colored with ignorance

The first step is: in any given lifetime, like our new lifetime, we enter that lifetime with BAKCHAKs from previous lives that are stained with the ignorance of misperceiving our world as ourselves and as other, and as interaction between as self existent.

So now when we hear the word self existent, there's a gradation of understanding. At the grossest understanding of self existent is to think, I exist independent of any other factor. I don't think any of us believe that. We know we depend on a bazillion things to be me, but still: me is me—in me from me. I depend on other things, but I have this self nature. So not self existent but a self nature.

Then what we mean by that, self nature gets finer and finer as we study and practice. What this is saying is that we are born with these seeds from having always perceived oneself with a self nature, every other with their own self nature, and every interaction that we experience as being from them-at me, and so responsible for whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.

That's the ignorance we're talking about here.

Every experience has been colored with that misbelief and so every imprint is colored with that misbelief, and so every ripening will be colored with that misbelief, and every deed we do as a result will be colored with that misbelief.

How do we ever get out of it?

This first of the six steps: we are born with these seeds, ignorance stained seeds.

Step: Ignorance spring up in your mind

The second domino that falls is that from those BAKCHAKS, two kinds of ignorance arise, two tendencies to see things as having their own nature.

It's these two: GANGSAK YI DAKDZIN and CHUKYI DAKDZIN

This phrase: DAKDZIN NYI KYI BAKCHAK

DAKDZIN is the self holding

Meaning to hold to a self having its own nature, whether it's myself own nature, or that the pen has a self nature, or that the you has a self nature.

DAKDZIN is to hold this belief that me and others have self natures.

NYI KYI BAKCHAK, it‘s this is the seed to have that state of mind.

We're born with DAKDZIN NYI KYI BAKCHAK.

When Geshehla first shared this, he was saying, at the start of this life, we are born. This one BAKCHAK starts it. But then later times, he says, we're born with all these BAKCHAKs, which is they're both accurate. The one that pushes us into the next life is the projecting karma, the one that did it. But every other BAKCHAK that's carrying us forward is stained with these as well.

This is the process that happens to push us into a samsaric life. Then it's also the process that keeps us within that samsaric life, keeping us perpetuating it.

DAKDZIN NYI KYI BAKCHAK.

Not meaning there are specific BAKCHAKS for ignorance. Meaning every BAKCHAK that we have, if we're not Arya yet, are infused with this belief, this DAKDZIN.

Two kinds of DAKZIN

GANGSAK YI DAKZIN, which is that self nature me, my own self nature. Oneself—GANGZAK
CHUKYI DAKZIN. CHUKYI means existing thing. CHU usually means Dharma. Dharma actually means existing thing, all existing things. Here it means any and all existing things having a nature of their own, whether they're conscious beings, or not conscious beings, whether it's an emotion, a thought, a belief. All of that lands in this CHUKYI DAKZIN, a belief in a self nature of other, and a belief in a self nature of me, grows out of every one of these seeds that we're born with. Because we put them in there.

A me with a self nature, experiencing my experiences with self natures made those imprints. So they're going to come out with that belief. Born with the seeds, the seeds ripen into these two: me with the self nature other with self nature.

It does not mean that when we have it right, we will have no perception of self at all. Because I am me, you are you.

It's the misperception of in me, from me. Just hold that.

Step: Believing the pleasantness or unpleasantness is in the thing

With these two misperceptions arising with every ripening seed, we then perceive the object’s pleasantness or unpleasantness in an incorrect way. Meaning we perceive the object of the experience as pleasant. The pleasantness is in it. The pleasantness I feel is coming from it.

The unpleasantness I feel is coming from it, is in it, somehow forced by how our seeds were staying.

Forced by our belief: I have my own self nature, they have their own self nature. The interaction between them, if it's positive or negative, it's their fault.

Step three, that was step three, believing the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the other or the event is in it from it.

Because of our ongoing ignorance we believe then that what I do in the moment to get the thing that's pleasant, that will be pleasant for me, and the thing that I do in the moment to push away that thing that is unpleasant, will be the thing that gets me or gets it to avoid.

In our ignorance, we believe that when an unpleasant thing is coming at us, that if we act towards it with greater force, with greater negativity than it's coming at us, that that's how we would push it away.

Yelling boss, we yell back. Angry person, we get angry too.

Science says it's mirror neurons, but it's the habitual ignorant response.

When something's pleasant, I want more of it. I try to get it. I try to pull it to me, because the pleasure I'm going to feel, it comes from me getting that.

In a sense it's true because again, when we get what we want, we get those brain chemicals that pop up that go, yay, I got what I want. But it's all ignorant. It's all reinforcing the misperception.

Step two is the: its identity is in it. Its qualities are in it.

Step three is its pleasantness, unpleasantness is in it.

Step: Having Attachment or Aversion

Step four is the ignorant liking, disliking kicks in, again based on our misperception of it. It's through this three and four that triggers our decision to act.

So step five is how we do what we do, think, say, or do in the face of this event that's unfolding.

Step: Collecting karma

Collect means we make that new imprint.

When we don't understand that the jerk at work is created by the ripening of our own past behavior, we think we understand that there's something wrong with them and they're going to keep being something wrong with them.

So I need to do something to get them away from me.

I need to do something to get them out of the company so that they don't foul us up.

I need to do something to get rid of them because they're the source of my distress.

It happens so habitually and naturally because our seeds are also stained with it that in the moment it's very difficult to stop and say, wait a minute, that reaction will just bring more jerks at work.

It's very difficult. It's all predicated by the misunderstanding of the true nature of the jerk at work. And the misunderstanding of the true nature of our interactions with the jerk at work.

So we choose our action towards the jerk at work thinking, ignorantly thinking, well, if I can just show the boss that they really are a jerk, the boss will get them transferred. Or if I can get enough people to agree that they're a jerk at work, we can finally do an intervention, right?

Those are our strategies. We don't kill him or shoot him or although, my gosh, our own neighborhood, like a mile away there was a road rage event, and the guy got shot. The road rage, somebody got shot and killed. The other guy got arrested.

There's two lives directly destroyed by a spontaneous ignorant reaction that's permanent. I mean not ultimately permanent, but destroyed two lives out of just, You flipped me off, or I don't know what the circumstance was, but right down the street. Yuck. Driven by misunderstanding, driven by ignorance.

So we collect karma by perceiving ourselves interact with others, and we will get back what we've seen ourselves do.

The conclusion is not, oh, so I shouldn't act at all. Like I'm just going to be like a bump on a log for the rest of my life. If I do that, I become a vegetable. And that's not the point.

But can we find a way for the incompetent coworker to be in a project where they're not so incompetent after all? I mean maybe the boss needs to demote them, as unpleasant as that would be. They end up in an arena where they're really good at that lesser job. Or can we help them find work that would be more suited for them.

We don't think of that. We don't think of interacting with someone that we don't like in a way that would help them.

That's so counterintuitive, because our seeds don't have any of that.

If our seeds had some of that, it wouldn't be counterintuitive.

There are some people who very naturally align themselves with people they don't like and try to help them.

If that's possible for anybody, it's possible for all of us, eventually.

In step number five, we think, do and say stuff thinking we will avoid what we don't want and get what we do want by what we do, say and think. But in fact, we are making it such that we will get more of what we don't want, and less of what we do want. Because we have chosen the wrong action of body, speech or mind.

We collect the karma.

Step: the Cycle Turns

Step six is called KORWA KOR. The cycle turns.

It's not really a separate step. None of these are really separate steps. They're dominoes that are the process of me and my life is this constant domino effect of: this because of this, because of this, because of this, because of that.

The end result is this perpetuation of this state of mind and experience we call Samsara where there's birth, aging or illness in some combination, death and forced rebirth. Constant obvious pain, suffering, pain of change, pervasive suffering.

All those things that we've been studying is perpetuated by this process of ignorant seeds ripening those two misperceptions

And so the pleasantness, unpleasantness in them, from them.

And so I act in this way to get and avoid.

And so I plant karma.

And so I perpetuate Samsara

Happening so smoothly and effortlessly that we're unaware of it until we learn about it and go, Let's investigate this. We meditate on it. We try some on for size until we get a glimmer of Oh, maybe there's something to this.

Then we continue the process of the effort of change.

The conclusion by Lord Maitreya is:

Every detail of our world is results of causes made before. We can't affect the results because they're already the result. But we can use the resultant experience to create new causes for different results.

So every experience we have, which is a result, is an opportunity to create our future.

That puts us right into that present moment that other traditions are always talking about, because we plant seeds in our present moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but now and now and now and now.

We're growing this ability, this awareness, mindfulness.

In this tradition, it's not just high level mindfulness, I'm very mindful of eating oatmeal.

But it's ethical mindfulness, very highly mindful of my imprints that I'm making as I'm experiencing things.

Habit is after the fact, we think back, Oh man, I just made some really rotten seeds.

I regret it. I'll do this as my antidote.

But as our mindfulness grows, our ethical mindfulness grows, that gets faster and faster.

We can reach a place where in the midst of the negative reaction something goes, Hello. And maybe we can, yeah, nevermind. I am out of here. And just get out of the situation, even though that will seem like you're really weird. Just time out. I've got to go to the bathroom. Nobody ever argues with that.

Get out of the situation that's got us trapped in the negative reaction.

Every time we do that, it gets a little easier to be a little bit more mindful before it gets out of control.

Really, it's a practice, it's a training.

We can't learn to play piano overnight.

We can't learn to change our behavior choices overnight, and we can't learn to change behavior choices without having the circumstances within which we need to change our behavior.

If we never get challenged, how are we going to recognize where our ignorance is still showing up?

At some point, even all those unpleasant experiences become, Thank you for that yak. Because I have this opportunity to try on something different.

Without it, those seeds would still be in there.

Geshela says when the day comes that we are really aware of the actual true nature of self and other, and interaction between, we will be incapable of those two states of mind. These two states of mind being ignorant liking and ignorant disliking—we will be incapable of those two states of mind.

When ignorance is gone, ignorant liking and ignorant disliking are gone.

Does it mean all liking and disliking is gone?

No. We will like the things that help us stop the cycle.

We will like the things that help us create Buddha paradise for everyone.

We will dislike things that are unpleasant, things that bring unpleasantness, things that aren't themselves unpleasant but seem to be.

But we will be wisely liking and wisely disliking, meaning we won't have this ignorant response to them.

What does emptiness have to do with these six steps?

Let's take a break, because I yaked 13 minutes through our break time, please forgive me.

(73:55) So let's go through those six steps backwards. Just really quick.

How is it that we perpetuate samsara (6),

we act: body speech, and mind (5)

why do we act in the way that we do? Because we believe that the pleasantness or unpleasantness is in the thing. So I need to get it or avoid it. (4)

Why do I believe the pleasantness or unpleasantness is in the thing? Because they have their self nature. Why do I believe they have a self nature? Because I have a self nature, they have to have a self nature. Those seeds make me see it that way. (3)

Why do I have those seeds? I was born with them. (2)

Why was I born with them? Because I did all these before. (1)

Where do we break the cycle?

How do we break the cycle?

Is there anything that a teacher can say that's really strong enough to make us stop believing in self existence?

No.

Somewhere along the line we have to prove it to ourselves.

Somewhere along the line we need to experience it directly.

If we've never experienced it directly, how are we ever going to experience it directly? Because seeds grow.

Yeah, but so does the ignorance in those seeds.

It really is a conundrum, because we're thinking that those seeds with the ignorance in those seeds has some nature of its own.

Why do we believe that? Because we were born with that?

Does every seed have an ignorance that has its own self nature?

No.

It's like I just get this crack glimpse of, oh, I see how it can work. And then it slams shut because it's like, yeah, but I've never done it before. How am I ever going to do it for the first time?

But have we ever taught somebody something that it seems like it was new to them?

I mean those of you with kids, you did it so much. You don't even know all this cool stuff you taught your kids that they didn't know.

Technically, they didn't know they knew, because it was their seeds to be able to learn that from you. But still you saw yourself teaching somebody something that they didn't know before.

Those of us without kids, we've also done it in other arenas. Those seeds will grow.

Those seeds are stained with ignorance, because that's why we taught them what we taught them. This is how you self existent child ties their self existent shoes, but at the same time you're teaching them something new.

Did you ever help your parents experience something they've never experienced before? Yes. You.

Just being you for your parents gave them an experience that they would not have otherwise had.

I mean, we have a lot of rejoicables that we just don't think of that will help us grow our seeds into an experience of, Oh my gosh, things can't have their own nature, not just don't. But it's impossible for things to exist in the way that I thought. Just impossible.

Maybe we all see it soon.

So understanding emptiness. Seeing emptiness directly is the necessary imprint to make that puts a screeching halt to this 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

It doesn't wipe out all our ignorant seeds, but it removes the belief that when the seed ripens into the two—self existent me, self existent other—it's like, not really.

And when it ripens into the pleasantness, unpleasantness in it, not really.

When the ripens as, I want to do this, you go, No, that won't do it

It changes every seed planted forever, and technically it's changes every seed already planted.

It takes a notch out of the ignorance of every other seed that's still in there.

Understanding and coming to see directly that what we mean by emptiness is the critical piece to jamming a cog in this six step process. It's true for jamming the cog in the wheel of life process as well.

The Water Analysis

(80:45) Geshehla went to Master Chandrakirti‘s explanation of karma and emptiness from the Middle Way that's become quite a famous example in Madhyamika that has since become famously known as the pen thing.

But this is where it comes from. This is the scriptural authority for Geshe Michael's explanation of the pen.

It's called the CHUBAB, the water analysis.

It looks like CHUBAB, but there's a prenatal N inside here. So it's CHI(N)BAB.

Here CHU is not all existing things, it's water.

CHU BAB is the water analysis, which I think technically it would mean the waterfall analysis, but that doesn't make any sense. So the water analysis, you'll see in a minute. It's very famous in Madhyamika Prasangika.

I need a prop. So see this thing?

You see what's inside? I will prove it to you. (Drinking)

What is this thing? Bottle of water.

I'll just hold it.

Here's how the CHUBAB explanation goes.

Suppose three beings from three different realms gather around a table.

Technically, this is impossible, but if it were possible.

Suppose we have a human, and we have a hungry ghost, and we have a pleasure being.

Apparently in the student notes it says human, hungry, ghost and Buddha.

This example does not work with Buddha. Change that to pleasure being if it's still typo in the student notes.

First of all, we need to understand what do we mean by hungry ghost?

What do we mean by pleasure being?

I think we know what we mean by human.

Hungry ghost are beings whose form is on a vibrational level that humans can't see, some humans can see. But for the most part, we can't see these beings that are in this realm called the Hungry Ghost realm. For them, their reality is very tangible material, as solid and gross as ours is to us.

One gets to be a craving spirit by way of a certain karmic seed that ripens at the moment of death of their previous lifetime that that karmic seed was colored by stinginess, pride.

What was that other thing we heard? Any of the non virtues done with medium strengths. If that seed pops and colors your next life as a craving spirit, your experience is that you cannot get your needs met.

Typically it's in the arena of food. You see something to eat or drink at a distance. The experience is you see something to eat or drink at a distance and you're so hungry that you expend a lot of effort to go get that thing.

You throw yourself into the lake of water, and your experience of what you thought was water is puss in blood, and you come up and then you see another lake and you go running towards that water to have the same thing happen.

Or you go running towards food, looks like a delicious buffet and you get there and it's just gross, disgusting stuff you can't eat.

Other varieties of those beings is they can actually eat stuff, but their anatomy is such that their esophagus is so narrow that they can't chew the food enough to get it to go down. So they eat, but they can't get their hunger satisfied.

Then another variety is that they have the goodness to be able to eat and swallow, but then the food instantly burns them and causes them terrible suffering.

It's driven because this one seed pushed you into that, and then all the similar seeds from eons of selfish behavior, stealing, et cetera, ripen into the details of what kind of hungry ghost you are.

For a pleasure, being a worldly pleasure being, they are beings who actually reach that state from a seed of a deep level of meditation in which they were not hurting anybody, and actually gathering a certain amount of goodness.

They get projected into this pleasure realm where everything is pleasurable, pleasurable, pleasurable, pleasurable.

But ignorantly pleasurable in the sense that there's no awareness that these are seeds ripening and I'm wearing them off, and so I want to share with others.

It's just you partake of your own pleasure, so does the other guy and eventually you wear out all those good seeds of pleasure.

You haven't done any negative, but you got there still with the mind full of negative seeds. You just projected a good one at that moment of death, and now you've used up all your good ones. Where are you going to go?

Not down to a human realm, below they say.

So here's these three beings: human, hungry ghost, pleasure being.

And here's this thing sitting in the middle of the table, all three of them are looking at it. You got the picture?

Human looks at it, what do they see? Bottle of water.

What they think the other two see? Bottle of water.

They take the bottle of water and they hand it to the Hungry Ghost.

What happens from the hungry ghost state of mind?

Yikes, what do you do in handing me that stuff?

The human hands it to the pleasure being.

Wow, they drink the whole thing.

What is the pleasure being seen?

Nectar of the gods.

So here is this one thing.

It's water for the human. It's puss and blood for the hungry spirit. It's nectar for the pleasure being. How can one thing be three things all at once?

Can one thing be three things all at once?

Can the thing in it, from it, be three things all at once?

No.

I'll say it again. Can the object that human sees as bottle of water in it, from it, that hungry ghost sees as puss and blood in it, from it, that pleasure being seized as an actor in it, from it, be any of those?

No.

Does that make it disappear?

No.

Can you catch a glimpse of the mistake that believes that because we're human, it's really water, and it's just that those other two can't see it that way?

Is that correct?

No, because they're doing the same thing.

Why would that human drink that puss and blood? That's so disgusting.

So how do we explain what's going on?

Is there one object in the middle of the table?

Yes. There's not three different ones. There's one.

But there's three different reality beings looking at one object. I want to say, At the same object. But of course that would be incorrect.

But there's the object. How do we explain them what's going on here?

First of all, we could say, well then if human can see water, hungry ghost can see puss and blood, pleasure being can see nectar. That right there shows us that the identity of the object depends on the one who's perceiving it.

That means that the object itself cannot be saying what it is.

Middle Way says, then the single object must have three parts.

It's a little weird. It's like the object doesn't have three parts, but if there are three beings perceiving it, there are three different ways it's being perceived.

It has this potential to be seen in these three different ways at the same time.

They call it three. It has three parts when there are three beings perceiving it.

What if there's only a human and a hungry ghost?

Now how many parts do we have? Two.

What if there's only one being? One part.

What if there's no beings perceiving it at all? No parts.

Is it gone? What? Right. What? You can't establish anything as there, and you can't establish anything as not there, and that's emptiness.

(94:45) Let's go back to the three.

If the human sees the whole thing as water, and the hungry ghost sees the whole thing as puss and blood, how can it be that there's the part that's plus and blood, and there's the part that's water?

Where's the part really coming from?

So even the part of the object that the being sees is coming from them, not the object.

Now why does the hungry ghosts see puss and blood? Why did they make that part?

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Because of their karmic seed. That's seeds that are ripening them, perceiving themselves as the being that they are. I don't know if they go, I'm a hungry ghost, the way we say, I'm a human. I have no idea.

But they perceive themselves as a being who can't get their needs met.

See gross, disgusting stuff being given to them.

Is it in the stuff?

No.

Does it seem like it's in the stuff?

Yes. But that part of the stuff that appears to be puss and blood is not part of the stuff. It's part of the being's mind in the form of their karmic seed ripening me seeing puss and blood. This object is not anything other than the result of their ripening.

So there is the state of mind of the being perceiving it, and there is the karmic seed ripening them to perceive it in the way that they do.

The part of the object is in fact their karmic ripening. Their seed.

There's no other object than the one their seed is forcing them to see.

Does that make the object disappear?

No.

Whoever's perceiving the object, they them there and their karmic seeds ripening, making them see what they see makes what's there be there for them.

That's the emptiness of what's there.

The empty of self nature of the bottle of water is what allows it to be bottle of water for human, puss and blood for hungry ghost, nectar for the worldly god.

If this object had its own nature of any kind, whether it's puss and blood, nectar or water, the other beings would have to see water and then say, yuck. It's puss and blood. But they don't, because there's no water here except for the human.

You can see where Geshe Michael got the pen.

Instead of having to address hungry ghosts and pleasure beings to a modern audience, he said, what two realms can get together? Oh, human and animal.

You all know it. It is quite clear as people follow along the argument, what does the puppy see?

Even if we say the puppy sees a pen, but they chew on it. We still can say, well why does a puppy not write with it? Well, because puppies can't have that experience? Why? Why? Why?

Keep asking Why?

And eventually we come down to, because this is a result of something. Any experience we're having is a result of something.

Then we start to apply what we know about results and their causes, and similarity versus differences. We can actually derive for ourselves the four laws of karma. I am not going to do it now. But it is worth chewing on it.

Keep asking why does the puppy see a chew toy, and a human see pen?

Find the state of mind that says, because it is a pen and the puppy just can't use it that way. But if the pen is a pen in it, from it, independent of the karma of the being who is perceiving it, then it would be in charge of what anybody does with it, wouldn't it?

So if its identity and function is in this object, even as a puppy went to chew it, the pen would make them write the love letter to their puppy dog friend, says Geshe Michael.

The pen would make us see it and use it the way it says.

Therein lies arguments. Because here I am human offering to the hungry ghost water. And they go, Yuck, how dare you?

I was just trying to be nice. Why do you act like that? And we fight, because they don't see it the same way I see it. But we're so sure that the way I see it is how it really is. That even when I think, okay, maybe they see it differently, they're just wrong. Because really it's like this.

That's a really strong state of mind that we have, that I think personally, I refuse to admit that it's like, okay, I buy that they have different opinions.

But deep down the ‚but‘ is ‚They're just wrong. I have to be right‘.

It's so mistaken. It's so mistaken, because then even though it's like, yeah, yeah, you can have your own opinion, there's a little bit of resentment. Because they don't agree with me, and they're probably doing the same thing back to me.

It's these little frictions that build up into: in my own neighborhood, somebody gets shot, he flipped somebody off for I don't know why. I don't know what triggers road rage. But it's like, oh my gosh.

From this misunderstanding of where things really come from.

Everything is karma.

Why is everything karma? How can everything be karma and everything have its own nature?

Those two don't fit. Because karma is my karma.

My karma makes it a bottle of water.

It's not that, here's a bottle of water and the hungry ghost is seeing the bottle of water as puss and blood.

Here's a something that has no nature of its own, and so it's infinitely available to be anything that anyone's karma forces them to see.

So can this thing be a horse?

Technically yes.

Can this thing be a rocket ship to the moon?

Yes. Technically.

Anything can be anything, but not once it's perceived the way it's perceived. Now it's too late because we're seeing it as bottle of water.

We can't go. No, no. Wait, wait. I changed my mind. It can be horse.

Sorry. You've got to start over.

New bottle of water. Whoops. Already. Start again.

Horse. Nah, right?

It's not by wishing. By the time the experience has happened, the seeds are ripened, it's too late. But understanding that the reason it ripened in the way that it did is that it and everything about it and me is blank and available. Now, how I interact with it is crucial because that's how I make the future experience, like future now experience.

You can see how these two explanations, the CHUBAB, leads into Lord Maitreya‘s six steps, and how Lord Maitreya‘s six steps help us understand what to do with our understanding of CHUBAB. It takes both.

Why do those three beings see three different things? Their karma makes the part they see. CHUBAB.

Why does their karma make that part that they see?

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That's why. They were born with those seeds to see it that way.

Those seeds ripened, and then ignorant self existent me, self existent other.

Then pleasantness, unpleasantness in it.

Then, I want, I want to avoid.

Then then I do, and then KORWAR KOR.

But none of it with any nature of its own, which is how that can work. If any of it had natures of its own, then all of that couldn't work. The bottle of water would say, I am water. You must drink me. Then you wouldn't be able to wash your hair with it unless it decided, Wash your hair with me. But even that can't work because it would've had to have somehow looked at you and said, oh, I want her to wash her hair with me instead of drink me. So it was influenced by me somehow.

So even if it's self existent, it can only tell us to do one thing with it. Otherwise it's being influenced by somebody else and that makes it not self existent.

We go, yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it, I get it. But the next time somebody yells at you, wait and see. Right?

Why are you yelling at me?

It's the same as yelling at the bottle of water for letting you wash your hair with it.

You wouldn't do that. You'd go, thank you very much.

Our ignorance is so stupid. Truly. It's so ridiculous, truly.

It's so in every single seed that it's like, ugh, we can't just go, wow, this is stupid and stop it. Maybe you can, I can't.

But it is possible and we're getting there.

So yes, Luisa, I think I said what I needed to say. Let me be sure. No, I missed a couple. Can you hold your question just a minute?

Are all 3 beings having a valid perception?

You have a question: Are all three beings having a pramana? Are all three beings having a valid perception?

Yes, is the answer to the question.

You cannot have two valid perceptions towards the same object at the same time.

So you can't say there's a bottle of water and there's a bottle of puss and blood at the same time. Especially, or even if you're the human and you believe you know what the hungry ghost is seeing, and you thought to yourself, well this bottle of water is also being a bottle of puss and blood. We're thinking of it wrongly.

The valid perception won't allow both of them at the same time.

Yet all three are having valid perceptions looking at the one object. And the object is all of what they see. That's why they say that the object has three parts, but the parts are not from the object. The parts are from the karmic ripening of the bing that's perceiving it.

What is the material cause and the contributing factor?

Then there's a question about the material cause. I'm going to read it to you:

At the moment that the three beings are looking at the object, there have to be three parts to the object.

One part acting as the material cause for the object's identity, and the contributing factor is the karmic ripening of the mind of the being.

The material cause doesn't mean the molecules of water.

It means the thing that flops over into the object for the one who's perceiving it is the material cause, and then the mind of the being perceiving it that way is the contributing factor. It seems backwards.

It seems like the mind of the being should be the material cause, but it's not what flops over into the thing. So material cause and contributing factor.

Contributing factor is the being's karma.

There's a question that says something like, so is what each being perceiving the actual thing for them?

The answer is yes. That human is seeing actual bottle of water. Craving spirit is seeing actual bottle of puss and blood, not bottle, but container of puss and blood. Pleasure being, same.

It's not a human being seeing puss and blood as water. And it's not the craving spirit seeing water as puss and blood, et cetera.

It is validly perceived what they're perceiving, forced on them by their ripening karmic seeds. Which means we could ripen the karmic seeds to perceive everything as something that gives us pleasure, pleasure, and more pleasure. If we knew how to create those seeds and the cycle that perpetuates them.

That's called Buddha paradise. Because of CHUBAB and Lord Maitreya‘s six steps.

Your Buddha paradise is inevitable, actually. So congratulations on that.

Okay, I think that finishes your homework.

Now, Luisa, yes,

(Luisa) I have a question to the three beings. Let me rephrase. So for that object to be there, to be perceived or created in three different ways from these three different beings, then there is some additional karma for having all these beings together, creating this object in three different ways. You know what I mean? There is the karma. Each of them have to perceive it in the way they perceive. That is my karma to have created this other two beings to perceive it the way they perceive.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. Does that mean they don't exist? Does that mean they don't really exist?

(Luisa) I don't know. I am still chewing on that. For me, I am still thinking, is there any other people in the world. Like really, really. But it is just my karma. Is everything in my mind. How to say, it's my own movie and you are just characters of my movie.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. And we are very real. There's no character. There's no me other than the character in your movie.

It's a stage, right? You're very skillfully showing us a stage that we go through in our chewing on karma and emptiness. That is a stage because our seeds for believing in things must have some nature on their own to exist independent of me, is so strong that when we start to bump up against it, it says, Nope, nope, you can't understand this. So that feeling, and I know it well, if everything is coming out of my mind, my karma, there's nothing real but me. And it's a misunderstanding of the ramification of everything is coming out of my karma. We just have to keep chewing on it, chewing on it, chewing on it before we can crack that nut.

Because everything is my karma, it all exists. It's all very real. It's always been, this one's karma. This one can't experience anything other than my karma exceeds ripening the experience I'm experiencing and it's real. And it's never been real beings independent of my karma. For me to experience them in the way that I do. That's what makes them real, is my karma makes them real. It makes them other than me. It makes them have their own consciousness. It makes them have their own karma.

(Luisa) But it makes them for me, it makes them for me to be there and it makes them for you with your karma. So I don't know, this is still very complex for me to grasp that I am creating. But my question was towards this group karma. There is a karma of all these three beings to create one object simultaneously that is perceived in three different ways simultaneously. Because if not, they will have their own bottle of water. You know what I mean? They will have their own, there will be three different objects. But why one object, one object is then for three beings simultaneously being something else? Is because they had the karma to have that object at that moment being that different things. You know what I mean?

(Lama Sarahni) But maybe the one object looked like this to one of the beings and looked like this to the other being.

(Luisa) But it is one object, is what I'm saying. And what is the karma of that it's just one object? Who brought them together?

(Lama Sarahni) It's all part of the karma. You could say it was the karma of placing one thing in front of 16 different people sometime in the past,

(Luisa) But is the karma of each of the beings. But somehow together?

(Lama Sarahni) They all did the same thing. They all put something in front of multiple beings in order to have this experience that we're saying. And it's all unique to each one of them. Hey, there's my first mosquito of the season. We had rain yesterday and I have mosquitoes today. Cool. Right?

(Luisa) Okay, Lama, thank you.

(Lama Sarahni) I know. Your questions are great. And the answer is always belief in self natures is the blocker.

(Luisa) The problem is when we say cook it, cook it. What does it mean? Cook it. You keep thinking, but then you don't cook. You keep getting more confused. So it's also a bit frustrating. Keep cooking, but there is no answer coming out.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. If it were easy, there wouldn't be so many crowds in Samsara, Geshe Michael always says. If there were words that had the self existent power to put it into your head, I would use them. I promise I would. Cook it. Sorry.

Alright, so that completes our class 6.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you again for the opportunity to share. Thank you for doing your homeworks. I will see you Thursday.

Class 7: Black and White Deeds, the "Path of Action", and the Root and Branch Non-Virtues

27 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 7

Welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 7 on June 27th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

Again, Source of All My Good.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 6

(14:00) Last class, we skipped schools, and were learning about the relationship between karma as we've been talking about it from Abhidharma School, movement of the mind and what it motivates, is the cause of myriad worlds, meaning all existing things.

Last class we skipped schools to Lord Maitreya‘s teaching to Asanga about how our suffering world is perpetuated, how Samsara is perpetuated.

Then hot on the heels of that ee learned the Highest Middle Way’s explanation of what's going on when we perceive something as the explanation that allows us to investigate what must be the actual nature of the thing that we're perceiving versus the nature we think it has.

Lord Maitreya gave us those six steps. There are three basic dominoes that are falling, like technically 65 per instant I would guess, through which a samsaric being perpetuates their samsaric existence. It's really an abbreviated form of the wheel of life. But the same idea.

The first of the six is that you die with bad seeds in your mind, right?

No, it's something other than that, right?

Oh, Natty nodded her head. Okay, what's the first one? Yeah, you are unmuted but we can't hear you, but I read your lips.

We're born with the seeds from having misperceived things in the past. Misperceived them how? Believing they had their qualities and natures in them, self natures. Self existent, let's just use that term. We're born with the seeds of seeing things as self existent. They haven't ripened yet, although of course they're ripening constantly. We're born with the seeds.
Then second one, what happens? Those seeds ripen. The instant we're born, they are ripening. Those seeds are ripening with that ignorance. The ignorance that grasps to me and my parts as self existent. Me and my parts does mean me, whatever that is, and my parts. But it also means me and everything I experience. Me and my parts. From this arises what?

(Natalia) Ignorant liking and ignorant disliking, emotions.

(Lama Sarahni) No, you're skipping one.

(Natalia) Seeing them separately from coming from their own seeds.

(Lama Sarahni) No.

Their pleasantness or unpleasantness is seen as being in them. They have their own nature, and so their pleasantness or unpleasantness is in them.
From that we want or we don't want, ignorant liking, ignorant disliking arises. It's called the misunderstanding arises as attachment or aversion towards the object.
We act to get or push away.
We have perpetuated the cycle.

It's not like first we're born and we hang out for a little while being born and then those seeds ripen. It's like, ding, ding, ding. All of these are happening, simultaneously you could say, although they can't be simultaneous. But in every instant of me and my experience, these six are going on if we perceive ourselves as a suffering being in a suffering world. Because of them we are perpetuating that suffering world. We're planting new seeds that we will be born with that will ripen me, other, own natures, pleasant, unpleasant, in it, I want, I like, I do to get or avoid. Oops.

Where does that cycle get broken?

(Natalia) When we see things, they're coming from their own side.

(Lama Sarahni) When we see things as coming from their own site and we don't believe it anymore. Because then we won't believe that the apparent pleasantness or unpleasantness is in them from them. And then we'll want and not want in a different way. So we'll choose a different action towards that object.

We can stop perpetuating Samsara if between step one and step two, although it happens if we don't believe it.

When do we get to the place where we don't believe it?

After seeing emptiness directly for the first time. Yeah.

But does that mean the instant you become Arya Samsara stops for you?

(Natalia) No.

(Lama Sarahni) No, because you still have seeds from having seen things and believed it, and those seeds are continuing to ripen. But the seeds that you're planting from then on out, they are not planting seeds that perpetuate Samsara.

Does that mean they're not planting seeds at all?

No, of course they are. We continue to plant seeds forever, like Buddhas plant seeds. But are they perpetuating their Samsara?

No, they're burning it off. Thank you very much.

Technically, Aryas don't collect karma and we'll see why that's true at the end of tonight's class. It does not mean they don't plant seeds and ripen seeds. They do. But the terminology, it gets more specific as we understand better and better what we mean by karma.

Lord Maitreya doesn't say anything about emptiness.

It's being implied that if something has a self nature, and stopping believing that the things‘ self nature is really in it, implies there's something else you know about the subject-object-interaction between nature's identities and qualities. But it doesn't specifically say, oh because of emptiness.

We need a little more information to be able to understand.

Geshe Michael went to Master Chandrakirti‘s Entering the Middle Way text, I think is the one we were studying, and the section in there called the CHU-BAB analysis, the water analysis, which is the equivalent of the pen thing.

In that, this is Madhyamika Prasangika‘s explanation of what's happening when three different beings are perceiving the apparently same object: one object, three different beings looking at it.

To increase the depth of the investigation, Master Chandrakirti says, Just suppose that those three different beings aren't just three different humans, although it would work that way, but three beings from three different realms.

We heard it, human, hungry ghost, worldly pleasure being. The explanation was, all three are looking at a single object and all three are having completely different experiences of that object.

How can that be true if the object has its identity and quality in it the way we think? They ask, What's happening when three beings perceive three different things when they're all looking at the apparently same thing. When they're all looking at one thing, how do they see three different things?

The explanation is a little bit cryptic, which is why it took 20 minutes to explain it.

Each of the beings is perceiving what their mind is forcing them to perceive.

Their mind is forcing them to perceive information with an identity.

When their Highest Middle Way is trying to explain the process, they say that their mind is perceiving thing that has its material cause, and the identity and qualities of that thing, and each is unique to the being whose perceiving it.

The object is serving as the material cause, and the being's karma is pushing that projection into that object's identity and qualities.

Someone asked, oh, does that mean the object has its own material cause and so it's outside of the karma of the being whose seeing it?

No.

Another way of explaining this would be there's data, there's information that gets the label. Does that mean the information thing is there first, and then it gets the label?

Only in the sense of how we have to describe what's going on.

But then if we go look for the piece of information, what we find is there's a more subtle piece of information that's getting a more subtle label.

You can't say, Oh, everything's just projection and you shoot this projection out towards the outer space and it lands. There's nothing to land on.

But as soon as I say it has to have something to land on, our mind thinks, oh, that's something's there independent of my label landing on it.

No.

Think of the projection as being forced by the karma, and within the karma is the thing with its material cause and my identity of it. All of that is what has to be happening in order for a given being to see what they see there.

In the debate you would keep checking, well then what is the object in the middle of the table? How can one thing be three different things all at the same time?

To wiggle out of that, you say, well that object has three parts.

But there's no object having three parts.

There's three different beings perceiving the whole object the way they do.

So in order to explain how that can be there to be the object as perceived by the hungry ghost, the object as perceived by the human, the object as perceived by the pleasure being.

But if you take one of them away, now you have an object with two apparent parts.

From its own side?

No, no object with no parts from its own side.

But if there's two beings perceiving something, in order to describe it you would say, well that thing has to have, its being perceived by the one being and it being perceived by the other being.

The way in English you say that, you say, well, there's the part that's perceived by the hungry ghost and there's the part that's perceived by the human.

In another way it's like, here's the object that here's the part you're seeing as the front. Here's the part I'm seeing as the front. We are both seeing it in different ways and so we can say, I see this part, you see that part.

But we all believe we're seeing a whole thing.

But I see, all I see is the front, and you see me seeing the back. And that's why we fight. Don't be silly. I'm looking at the front of it. And you say, don't be silly, I'm looking at the front of it.

All right, so the answer is, their material cause and contributing factors cause them to experience the object in a certain way. Water for human, puss and blood for a hungry ghost, nectar for the pleasure being. Therefore the object has three parts, one for each of the beings perceiving it.

Okay.

Black and White Karma

(31:50) For tonight's class, we're back in Abhidharma school, the source of which is the sutras, Lord Buddha's direct teachings.

It's a few more different details about this thing we call karma.

The more of these little details we have in our encyclopedia about karma, the better we will grow to understand what's meant by that process.

Then the better we can apply it to our own behavior choices, which is really the only reason to be studying all of this.

These are just, here's another way, another set of things to know about karma.

There are the terms black and white karma, and they're apparently badly misunderstood.

If we just heard the term ‚black karma, white karma‘, we would probably think black karma must be karma that I make that's really negative and awful, which now I know means that that's a deed that I've done that will come back to me as really ugly, really unpleasant.

And a white deed must mean, oh, something I do that's going to come back to me as nice, as pleasant.

Although that is a factor in these concepts, that's not what they mean.

Vocabulary Class 7:

nakpo le

karpoy le

kar nak drepa

sak-me kyi le

jikten pay lam

jikten le depay lam

le lam

shi

sampa

du she

nyong-mong

kun-long

The Tibetan for black karma is NAKPOY LE.

NAKPOY = black

White karma is KARPOY LE.

Then there's also a category called KAR NAK DREPA, which means black and white mixed, KAR NAK DREPA.

It reminds me of a mixed breed dog that's black and white. If I ever end up with a mixed breed dog that's black and white, their name's going to be KAR NAK.

Which also, there was the amazing KAR NAK from Jimmy Carson. What was his name? Johnny Carson Show, the Amazing KAR NAK.

Anyway, you guys are too young for that.

The Different Realms of Existence

(34:54) In order to understand NAKPOY LE and KARPOY LE and KAR NAK DRENPA, we need to talk about the realms of existence.

Tibetan cosmology offers that within Samsara, within a samsaric existence, there are three different realms of existence:

One is called the desire realm.

One is called the form realm.

One is called the formless realm. Which means not no form at all, but the minimal, minimal, minimal amount of form.

As humans, we are in what's called the desire realm.

They say it's called the desire realm because the beings in the desire realm’s main motivating factor is food and sex, like food and procreation.

It feels to me that it's more subtle than that in the sense that it's this being driven by „I want, I don't want“, and „I need to survive“.

Desire realm is this survival realm, and it consists of six types of beings:

Hell realm beings,
Hungry ghost realm beings,
Animal realm beings,
Human realm beings,
Jealous God realm beings and
Pleasure being realm beings.

Each one, like all in the same location—if there's such a thing. But all existing at different vibrational levels and so they tend to not be visible to each other.

Hell realm beings can see other hell real beings of course, just as humans see other humans. We're kind of unique because we see animals, and presumably animals see us. But it's very rare that there's a human that perceives the hungry ghost realm, or the jealous God realm, or the pleasure being realm. The vibrational levels are too different from our sensory apparatus's ability to perceive.

As humans we can experience an approximation of the form and formless realms in deep meditation.

In fact there are practices, meditation practices, where the training is to take your mind deeper and deeper until your sense power function shuts down, or you actually become unaware of it, and you then continue to focus your mind more and more subtly, and you actually move through these layers that they call:

Now you're in the first level of the form realm, second level of the form realm.

You can move yourself through all of those.

You aren't actually in those different realms, but you are in a state of concentration that is such that if any one of those seeds planted while you were in that level of meditation becomes your projecting karma. It would push you into that level of that form realm for your next rebirth. They're called causal levels.

You're not actually in those former formless realms while you're meditating, but your mind is as if it's there, and it plants the seeds that could land you there.

Our tradition says, those meditations are very pleasurable and very compelling, because each level of the form realm, each level of the formless realm, is more and more pleasurable to be at. Once you start into that, it's like our natural misperception wants more. Which isn't wrong, it's just that we're not using it to apply our understanding of where that pleasure is actually coming from. It's a dead end, says our tradition. It will land you in a form of formless realm rebirth, and as a form realm being your experience there is pleasurable, pleasurable, pleasurable.

There's no wisdom involved and so there's no impulse to share that pleasure with anybody. To the extent that you perceive other form realm beings, they are all also blissed out.

Why do you need to share anything if everybody's already happy?

You don't, and you are using up those seeds, burning them off. Burning them off, burning them off, unaware that that's what's going on. And eventually you run out.

When you run out, all that's left in your storehouse consciousness—if you have one of those—is your negative seeds that weren't the projecting karma that sent you to that realm.

They say that form and formless realms are dead ends, because you're going to wear off all that goodness. You end up in a lower realm and you have a whole lot of work to do to get to the point where you have enough goodness to hear somebody tell you about the pen.

Our tradition says, don't do those meditations.

However, our tradition does say, we need to reach the meditative concentration level that is the level that's planting seeds that would put us into the first level of the form realm, if one of those was to be our projecting karma. But the reason we're doing it is that when we get there, we turn our deeply concentrated mind onto an analysis of the true nature of our object of meditation. So we use that deep level of meditation to investigate emptiness and dependent origination, and we don't go any higher in concentration.

The point is, there are these realms, form and formless realm, where everything is very pleasurable, every instant experienced is pleasure, pleasure and more pleasure—but with no amount of wisdom.

Those two realms, form and formless realm, they are still samsaric realms.

They are not desire realm, but they are still samsaric, because those beings still have pervasive suffering.

No obvious suffering, no that suffering of change, but their seeds wear out, and that's pervasive suffering.

Black Karma

NAKPOY LE, black karma.

Black karma has these two components. It has what's called

black karma collected and
black karma by essence.

Black karma is karma which is collected in the desire realm, which is non-virtuous.

What do we mean by a deed done which is non-virtuous?

It's non-virtuous by way of the fact that when we get its result it will be unpleasant. We're talking about a deed done in the desire realm, which when it gives its result, it will be unpleasant.

When we say a karma collected, it means the deed gets done and the seed gets planted. It's been collected. It hasn't ripened yet.

But when it does, by way of what black karma means is, it's going to be an unpleasant thing.

Black karma is a karma collected in the desire realm, which is non-virtuous.

They say, its essence is black and its result is black.

The result being black is what we just talked about: a deed done in the desire realm that will bring an unpleasant result.

The essence is black means that the being in the desire realm, doing that deed is mentally afflicted. The essence is black, means that that mind doing the deed is suffering, is a suffering being.

The suffering being is doing deeds that's going to make more suffering in their effort to stop suffering.

See how pitiful we are in our effort to stop suffering?

We do stuff that just perpetuates suffering. No wonder we're crazy.

When we say the essence is black, it means the state of mind of the being is mentally afflicted.

Grossly, subtly, if we see ourselves as humans in the desire realm, we are mentally afflicted. Some days are worse than others, but all of them.

The black karma is collected in the desire realm. It will bring back a result. It's unpleasant. It's essence is black, because the state of mind of the being doing it is suffering, and what they're doing is creating more suffering. Then the result is black because by definition it's going to bring more suffering. The result's going to be a suffering.

Black karma. Can we as humans make black karma?

Yes. Animals can make black karma. Hell beings. Desire realm beings can make black karma.

White karma

(48:52) KARPOY LE

White karma is virtuous deeds collected in the form realm.

I want to rephrase that and say, white karma would be virtuous deeds collected in the form realm. Not the desire realm.

The essence is white and the result is white.

The result being white because the result of that deed will be pleasure.

The essence is white because the mind of the being doing that deed is a pleasure being who's free of outright suffering.

Yes, they still have pervasive suffering. But they're not afflicted in the moment of their doing a deed.

But now, the thing is, we just said, beings in the form and formless realm, they don't make any good karma. They aren't compelled to share their pleasure. They're just enjoying it, enjoying it, enjoying it.

They are making imprints as they enjoy their pleasure, but they're not actually going out and doing what we would call a good deed, a white, a virtue.

If they did, they would be making white karma that has white result in white essence.

Black and White Mixed Karma

(50:52) KAR NAK DREPA means black and white mixed karma.

This actually refers to good deeds, virtue collected in the desire realm.

Any virtue collected in the desire realm is this category of black and white karma, mixed black and white. I don't know, maybe we should call it gray, but they don't call it that.

With black white mixed karma the result is white. We did a kindness.

But its essence is black, because even as we did a kindness, our body and mind are suffering being. We have a more obvious suffering or suffering of change going on as we do the deed that ends up qualifying as a deed that will make a pleasant result. But it's still done under this influence of a mentally afflicted mind, actively mentally afflicted, and so the essence is black.

We can't actually do a white karma in the desire realm, because of our state of mind, our three kinds of sufferings going on.

The terms black and white karma does not refer to good deeds and bad deeds done by humans. Good deeds and bad deeds done in the desire realm.

It's a much more specific terminology.

In the desire realm, we can make white, no, we can make black karma. And we can make black and white karma. But we can't make white karma.

Just another piece of the puzzle, right?

Don't be discouraged. It doesn't mean we're doomed. It doesn't mean that not at all.

Unstained Karma

There's another piece of information we can know about karma.

It's called SAKME KYI LE.

SAKME KYI LE means unstained karma.

There's this karma called unstained.

Abhidharma says there are some kinds of karma that we do that don't have a black or white result, but which function to remove black karma.

This is getting really detailed.

There's something we can do that will remove black karma, but it itself is not making a new different karma. Its function is to do that removal and it's already done.

In this school, Abhidharma school, the direct perception of selflessness, it would be an unstained karma. Because that experience is a, they call it pure karma, which wipes out old black karma, but it itself does not produce its own karmic result.

Now, quite why they say that, I don't understand. I think it has to do with the absence factor.

It tells us though that as desire realm beings who can't make pure white karma, we can gather the goodness to help create the experience of the direct perception of selflessness, which that event wipes out black karma. Which is really helpful.

Does it wipe out all our black karma from forever?

That's a long story.

Geshela said at this point it's important to note that when deeds are pure like a Buddha’s, they're not called karma anymore.

Maybe that's why they're saying the direct perception of selflessness negates black karma, but is itself not a karma when it is an imprinting on the mind for sure.

But because it's a state of ultimate, not the ultimate but ultimate for that school, you no longer call it karma.

The term karma implies having to do with Samsara, with the suffering realms.

When we say Buddhas don't make karma, they collect the two collections, they collect merit and wisdom. It means that they are imprinting and ripening and imprinting and ripening. But what we call that process is the two collections.

They do have movement of the mind and what it motivates and it's all pure, it's all unstained.

Hopefully our goal is to reach that level of purity. We want to bring all these black and white karmas to an end. Meaning black ones, that not black ones, and white ones, but all the black ones, and all the black and white ones. They're their own category.

To do that, we set about to purify our karma, and go on to collect the two collections instead.

As we do that, we will lose interest even in generating white karma, because white karma is karma of the form and formless realm that we know come to an end. So we're not even interested in that when we understand better.

Once we recognize that all pleasures end, leaving us wanting for more, we finally experience this shift in aspiration to something better, something higher. That's what we mean by renunciation. When we recognize that there's nothing in this life that can really satisfy what we're looking for, and we understand why it's true that nothing can satisfy what we're looking for, we stop looking for it in this wrong way, in this wrong kind of world.

Two Ways to Remove Desire for this Life

(60:02) There are many levels of Buddhism where the practitioner prays to be taken to Amithaba‘s pure land, or to Tushita paradise. It is the tradition, and there it can be very devout. If there's no understanding of karma and emptiness, then their prayers are very likely motivated by a perception of an improved worldly life when they get there. Like having the wrong idea of what it will be to be in Amithaba‘s pure land. Without this understanding of emptiness and karma, those prayers are generating a false aspiration, a false idea of what the result will be.

It's hard to conceive of pleasure that won't wear out, and pleasure that is really pleasure.

Abhidharma speaks to two methods that are taught in order to help us reach that place where our desire for more suffering life comes to an end.

But let's take our break. I see we're at break time, so I'll stop share.

I'll pause the recording. Please get refreshed.

(62:28) These two different methods of developing our renunciation, not the only two by any means.

One is called JIKTEN PAY LAM and the other is JIKTEN LE DEPAY LAM.

The Worldly Path

JIKTEN the word for our world, our suffering world, our samsaric world.

PAY LAM means the worldly path.

The worldly path to developing renunciation in the sense of cutting our attachment and grasping to what we think is pleasure in the samsaric realm.

This worldly path is the methods taught where we train our mind to reach those deep states of meditation that I was describing before, where you move your mind through from the desire realm up through each of the levels of the form realm, and then into the formless realm, and into each of the levels of the formless realm.

Each of those meditative concentration levels get more and more subtle.

When we reach those different subtle levels in meditation, they're called the causal levels, meaning causal form realm level one, causal form realm level two. Because you're not actually in the form realm level one, you're in the concentration level that's making the seeds that will cause you to be in form realm level one someday if those seeds ripen at the right moment.

Whatever level you spend the most time in makes the most of those seeds and increases the likelihood of one of those seeds being the projecting karma.

Not that they take so much weight over any other seeds, but the more you have, the more likely they could be one of those projecting karma.

To have the direct perception of emptiness, I already said, the mind must be in the causal level called the first level of the form realm.

Meaning it's the first actual level where your desire realm sensory apparatus is so shut down that your mind is, there's no ripening of those during that time. So there's no effort or struggle to be distracted by them.

They're just, the mind has them all shut down and we're in this level of the form realm.

It is pleasurable. It's very pleasurable just to reach that level.

Then each of the next levels of form and then formless realm, they get more and more pleasurable, which is how it's so compelling. Those meditations are so compelling. It's like it's so pleasurable to be there. You stay easily for the period of time that you said you were going to stay.

What if you go into that and you didn't say, my meditation's going to be an hour and two minutes?

There may or may not be anything to pop you out. Six days later you come down out of your first level form realm meditation and your world has passed you by somehow.

Because it's so compellingly pleasurable, when we come out of it, we want more.

We reach a platform where it gets easier and easier to go higher and higher, and it gets more and more pleasurable and so we want to.

Our worldly pleasures pale in comparison, and you could see how this could become quite dysfunctional. If you're a family person and you have a job, and you have obligations and you get into meditations that are so pleasurable, you don't come out of them. It's like that's going to cause trouble.

The problem with those meditations is if we're not well trained, we won't use that platform to look at the emptiness of the object, and we'll just go for more and more pleasure.

Although this is a method of overcoming our desire for worldly pleasure, it's not in the slightest, says our tradition, a method that overcomes our ignorant wanting.

Blissed out. When you do come out of it, you're right back into samsaric state of mind thinking that these worldly desires are like nothing compared to what I experienced there. But still thinking that the berry pie has the pleasure in it.

We haven't gotten anywhere except that now we want this other kind of pleasure.

Our tradition says, yes, this is a method to reduce our attachment to worldly pleasures, to grow renunciation. But it's not a method that helps us stop perpetuating the misunderstanding that makes our samsaric world be something we even want to renunciate.

The Path Which is Beyond the World

JIKTEN LE DEPAY LAM is the path which is beyond the world.

Geshela says probably better is the path which transcends the world.

In this method you don't use moving through the different levels of meditative concentration to retire and higher pleasure to come to see that the pleasures of the world are not worth or not worth or not worth it.

Instead, we give up our ignorant desire and ignorant aversion of the desire form—and even formless realm to some extent—because of our understanding of selflessness.

Abhidharma school uses the term selflessness, no self nature.

What they mean by it is a needle teeny bit different than what we mean by emptiness. But we can think of it similarly.

When we understand an object’s selflessness, it allows us to eliminate our desire for it. When we see that the triple berry pie's pleasure is not really in it, from it, then what happens to my grasping to that thing?

I'm calling triple berry pie in my effort to get the pleasure from it.

It's like just at the level of, oh, realizing the pleasure doesn't come from it—if we can hold that in the face of a beautiful slice of pie.

We might still eat it. And if we have pleasure from it, have a different concept of what's happening.

Our renunciation does not mean no more nice things at all. That's not the right conclusion about ‚the object's pleasures are not coming from them, in them‘.

Objects that bring us pleasure are ripening results of some way in which we did something kind to somebody else, because through that piece of pie, I'm ripening some kind of pleasure.

Pleasure that wears out, but some kind of pleasure.

Our attachment and aversion shrinks as our wisdom about where pleasure and unpleasure comes from grows.

Because they're contradictory, you can't blame the piece of pie for your pleasure and know that it doesn't come from the pie at the same time.

We can toggle, but you can't have them both in your mind at the same time.

The path which is beyond the world is this path of study, training, contemplation, study, meditation, where yes, we're wanting to reach that level of concentration where our sensory perceptions are shut down so they quit distracting us. Thank you very much.

But then we use that concentration to penetrate into that true nature and qualities of our object of meditation. Whether the object of meditation is the Lama, or paradise, or that berry pie, or that yelling boss experience.

When our focus can be in there on that without, what was that? Whoa, itch, scratch. Without that kind of distraction, we can penetrate very deeply, swiftly and clearly into the no self nature nature of our object. Which will grow to include our subject side, perceiving the object. Which will grow into a clear and clear intellectual understanding which gets stronger and stronger, through which we're able to then choose the behaviors that will help us see it even more clearly.

Both of these methods require training and meditation, concentration. But that's about where they divert.

(75:36) In order to reach those levels of deep meditation, it takes training. Some people they hear about it, they can sit down and do it just like the natural athlete that can watch somebody play baseball, and then step up and hit home runs without training.

But most of us need to practice.

We need to be taught. We need to learn the details, the steps, apply them, make mistakes do better. Try again. Train.

Training for meditation is just like training for everything else. A little bit daily, especially when you don't feel like it, goes off a whole lot further than, oh, I'll do it on weekends when I have time.

It needs to become a priority.

The priority of it comes from our own wish, our own desire—not from somebody telling us we have to do it. Of course.

Geshela says our hero Je Tsongkapa, he spent lots of time in meditation, he spent lots of time studying, and he spent lots of time praying to his Lama.

Who was his Lama? Manjushri, Lord Manjushri.

Asking Manjushri, Please give me wisdom, give me wisdom, give me wisdom.

It just feels weird. Nobody can give us wisdom. So why would somebody like Lama Tsongkapa spend time begging his Lama to just give him wisdom.

I'm going to leave the question open.

Think about it in terms of karmic seeds planted.

Why do we ask for blessings if even Buddha can't give blessings, or can they?

The Path of Action (DCI‘s 4 Steps)

(78:05) There is another thing to know about karma.

That is that when any karma is collected, meaning any deed that's done that plants that seed, there are many different factors involved that influence what that result is going to be like.

We could do the same deed, we probably do this a lot. We do the same deed every day, and we might think, oh, then I'm planting the same seed every day.

But when we look at it, we'll see that there are all these nuances of what's going on in the time when I'm doing the same deed over and over again. Which when we understand these other factors, we'll see that of course I can't ever do the same deed exactly the same way, and so I can't have two karmic seeds ripen in the identical way.

The more we understand all the different factors that influence the seed being planted, we come to see how those influence the result as well.

It gives us more information that we use to design our choice of behaviors.

This is called the four parts to a karmic path, or called a path of action—LE LAM here.

This is what has evolved into Diamond Cutter Institute's four steps. No doubt you're familiar. This is where it came from.

You'll see that Geshe Michael has morphed it a bit to make it more user-friendly for the four steps. But when we see these details, it's like, whoa, now I've got more information to work with in doing my DCI four steps.

I hope I can impart that.

It's called a path of action—LE LAM.

What it's trying to convey to us is these different factors involved in planting our seeds that influence the different factors of its ripening.

They say that there are four parts of a path of action and it doesn't mean that if you're missing one of them, you don't make a karmic seed. It's that the karmic seed we make is different than if you have all four at their highest strength.

It's like we've got these myriad nuances that this is teaching us about.

The four parts of a path of action are here.

SHI SAMPA JORWA TARTUK

It's like a mantra.

SHI SAMPA JORWA TARTUK

SHI means the basis. It means the object involved, the object towards which we do our deed—whether it's a living object or a non-living object, it's the object, SHI.

SAMPA is that thinking involved in doing the deed. It has three factors itself [see '3 Kinds of the Thinking (SAMPA)' below]

JORWA is the undertaking of the deed.

TARTUK is the finalization, finalizing the deed.

These are most useful when we understand them in the context of the deeds of the 10 non virtues. Then you can extrapolate that to the deeds of the 10 virtues.

For the 10 non virtues, you want to figure out how to use this information to make them not strong, or to not make them at all.

For the 10 virtues, we want to use this information to see how we can make them very strong and repetitively.

For instance, for example, Geshe Michael chose the non virtue of killing as the example for these four parts of a path of action. It does so in your reading.

But I would encourage you sometime to sit down and go through these with each of the 10 non virtues and then as a fun exercise, flip them around and go through them with what would be the 10 virtues.

Example of the path of action for the non virtuous deed of killing

Your example, your homework asks, give an example of the basis in the path of action for the non virtue of killing, for example.

The object is that the being you're going to kill, that's the object.

That object has to be a living being. You can't set about to kill a rock.

If you did, you wouldn't have a complete path of action, you'd have an incomplete path of action, which still makes karma. Some weird karma of trying to kill a rock would be planted in your mind.

It would come back as some weird experience.

I don't know, somebody trying to kill your shoe or something. It doesn't make sense. So the basis for stealing, the basis would be an object that we see as being owned by somebody else.

Second one, the thinking, SAMPA—the thinking.

Mainly this means our intention, our motivation. But it has these three different factors. I'm going to come back to them.

What am I thinking about this living being that is my object?

JORWA is the undertaking. It's where we are going to do the deed.

In this act of killing, there's this living being. There's something in my mind that's compelling me. I find my weapon. I go find the being and I set about to carry out my action.

Now you can see along the way there's going to be a lot of different factors going on here.

TARTUK is the completion of the deed.

In order to collect a complete path of action, we have to complete the deed.

If we don't complete the deed, we don't have a complete path of action, but we do have karmic seeds planted. They're going to ripen differently than if we had completely completed the deed. I misunderstood this for a long time.

It's like, well, so I set about to kill something, and I stop then. I don't make that karma at all.

Well, I still made my SAMPA and my JORWA karma, and I probably made karma of not completing the deed, which in killing would be a good thing.

But not completing deeds can be not good things. So all of these are factors.

We don't actually complete the path of action until we see the result happen to the object we intended.

The TARTUK may not happen at the moment.

Suppose I go to kill the chicken for dinner, and I injure it, but it gets away. So I didn't actually complete the deed, but I go looking for the chicken and an hour later I find it three miles away, dead of its wound. That's when I complete the deed.

Do you see? It has to be done for the complete path of karma to now have a seed that it's going to ripen as a complete path of karma seed. Which is going to be different than if I went to kill the chicken but didn't.

Or if I injured the chicken but never found whether it died or not.

All of those scenarios are going to come back to me in different ways than if I completely saw myself finish off that pork chicken.

We have a basis that's consistent with what our deed is going to be.

We have what our thinking is.

We have our setting about to do it, and we have our completing it.

Within the thinking about it, there are these three factors involved.

3 Kinds of the Thinking (SAMPA)

(89:35)

DU-SHE means the correct identification of our basis.

The karmic path is different if we've incorrectly identified our object. That makes sense, right?

I want to go kill a chicken for dinner. But on my way to finding the chicken, I come across an already dead rabbit on the side of the road, and I decide, oh, the rabbit will make good soup. I don't need to kill the chicken.

My chicken that I wanted to kill for dinner, I went to do it, but I didn't do it.

Different path of action than if I left the rabbit, went after the chicken, finished off the chicken the way I intended.

DU-SHE.

Proper identification also means it has to be the one you intended to do your deed towards.

It's a different karmic seed if you intend to kill Joe and you sneak into the bedroom at night and you see these lumps in the bed. You think Joe is on the right side. So you stab Joe, and it turns out to be Joe's wife. It's a different karmic seed because you didn't go in intending to kill Joe's wife. You were intending to get Joe, but you didn't get Joe. You got Joe's wife.

You still get the seed. Do you see? Of killing something. But you had wrong identification. So now the seed is different.

NYONG-MONG is mental affliction.

Geshela says bad thought. Any thought under the influence of one or more of the three poisons qualifies as a NYONG-MONG.

But our bad thoughts can be flagrant or they can be subtle.

Again, we can imagine the different karmic seed planted if I'm after that Joe, because he hurt me so badly and when I go after Joe, it's going to be different than if I'm just in a really bad mood and I feel like hurting somebody, and he happens to be the one.

Different seeds.

Are they awful seeds? Absolutely. But they're going to give different results.

A result where somebody's after me. They're so mad at me versus a result that somebody's just had a bad day so they do something nasty to me.

The bad thought that's pushing us to want to do towards the object what we're going to do, whether we fully do it or not.

KUN-LONG means the motivation, or the intention.

KUN-LONG is like the level of motivation, influences that seed as well.

For instance, I'm really, really upset with that guy Joe, and I've got justified that I should kill him. That's different motivation than if I run over Joe by accident with my car because I was being careless.

I still have done the same thing. I've killed Joe. Joe was a living being. But I didn't have the set out to do it under a big, bad, mental affliction.

When I hit and killed Joe with my car that was out of carelessness, and maybe even in the moment I saw Joe as like a scarecrow. I didn't even identify him well.

But I did end up seeing him dead. I've got seeds that are different than if I set out to do it.

Law does the same thing. There's a difference in punishment from manslaughter versus premeditated murder. Our minds are doing the same.

HW Question: If one‘s country is at war, who collects what karma?

These different factors involved influence the seed being planted.

All of these apply to our seeds, whether we are the one doing the deed or we've put somebody else up to it.

I might say, I need Joe killed. But I'm not willing to do it. I know somebody who is willing to do it for the money. I'll pay that guy and let him do it, and he'll get the bad karma. Right?

Yes, he gets bad karma too. But I get the karma of killing the guy, even though I didn't do it.

In the reading it actually says, they all get the same karma as the one who does the deed since they all are engaged in a common goal in the case of war or the like.

It is like, ooh, this hits me in the gut every time I read it, because there are so many things that seem to be so far out of our control that we as citizens are then getting the seeds for just because we're citizens and we have a government that makes decisions on our behalf. This does not cut us any slack.

Geshela says that probably the best we can do is to write our government administration each time it changes, and just say, I pay my taxes, I will pay my taxes because I have to. I understand some of those taxes are going to go to military interventions, but all the things that you don't agree with, and just say:

Because I believe in karma and emptiness, I reject being a part of my taxes having to pay for that stuff.

You're going to get an answer back that says, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this matter, right? It's not going to address anything.

But you've seen yourself make a statement that you've tried to remove yourself one step from that karma that our country is making that we are a part of.

Then we four powers as much as we can, because not enough.

There's no place we can go where we can avoid this situation of making karma related to all the rotten stuff that our governments do.

But on the other hand, our governments do a lot of good stuff too, and we get that karma as well. Focus more on that.

I never wrote a letter saying, thank you for doing all this other stuff. Maybe I should do that too, but that's a thought.

Geshela said this is a lot of food for thought. It really is.

When I say we're getting pieces of the jigsaw puzzle all in different piles, this is a really important pile—this force parts of a path of action and this understanding that anything I'm a part of, I'm still making those karmas as if I'm the one on the front line, and how to work with that.

Geshela's example, he said, if I work for a company and the company does negative deeds, how is my karma influenced?

We are getting that karma.

If I eat meat that I buy in the store, how is that karma different in its result than if I go fishing for fun and eat what I caught?

How is it different than if I'm dying in the desert, and I manage to catch a mouse?

They're all different scenarios, similar situations, different results will come about. Geshela says it's easy to fool ourselves thinking we're totally innocent when in fact we're just ignorant.

Once we know the principles, we must use them to change our behaviors on gross and then more subtle ways.

Not must because Geshehla says so.

When we understand the principles, our own heart says you can't keep doing what you're doing and expect to get anything different than what you've ever gotten Sarahni. Quit blaming everything and everybody else and do something different, act differently, behave differently.

The only thing that can bring a good result is kindness, the motivation to be kind, to be helpful.

When the motivation to be kind, to be helpful is to plant positive karma for everybody's benefit, then our kindness can help us go up the spiral instead of spiraling or even sinking with our spiral.

It's so easy to fool ourselves into thinking our motivation is to serve others when it's stained with self gain.

If we happen to take some action from which we immediately experience some pleasure, it's just coincidence. We don't see it that way, at all.

The goodness has come from some goodness that we've done in the past.

When we can know that as it's happening, we would live our lives very differently.

We would be very keenly aware that it's what I do in the moment that's important.

Not a reaction to something, it's the response that's important.

It's not really even important what I did in the past or what I want in the future. When we understand the principles of karma, it's like, yes, we want something in the future. But it's our behavior now. Behavior now, behavior now, is where our power lies.

But situations are not black and white. If they were, it would be easier.

We find ourselves in a situation where we need to choose how to behave.

That's the thing, choosing how to behave. We don't know the others. We think we know the other's intention, but we really don't, and we don't really know how we're going to respond is going to influence them. We try to be kind and they yell back.

We think that, oh, that didn't work. Maybe I should yell at them. No, that's wrong.

We still be kind. They still yell back.

We do the best we can in the moment.

If we keep doing what we've always done to avoid unpleasant and try to get pleasant, we will keep doing the wrong things. When we do something and it seems to bring us something pleasant, it will fool us into thinking that that worked. It will allow us to perpetuate our wrong thinking.

In a sense, it's better when we get a reaction to something that is not what we expect. Because it's an opportunity to go, oh, see, it doesn't really work. It's like if you turn your key and the car doesn't start, instead of saying, oh shoot, what's wrong with this car? Go, Yay. Prove to myself that what I do in the moment doesn't bring what comes next.

The Path of Karma

(105:30) There's two more things we need to talk about. It's called LE KYE LAM.

Oh, one more thing. But it has two parts.

LE KYE LAM means a path of karma.

This is confusing. A path of karma versus LE—a karma.

Think of a path of karma, meaning a path to karma.

Karma means movement of the mind and what it motivates. Meaning my mind moves to something and I think, do and say something towards that.

The path to that is something that makes the mind move.

There's something that makes the mind move that is the domino that triggers the do and say.

We've been talking about movement of the mind and what it motivates as karma. But we haven't talked about what makes the mind move.

Why doesn't it just sit there?

Well, of course it's moving all the time.

In yoga tradition, they say, well, the mind moves because the winds move.

But what makes the winds move? The mind moving.

Wait, how's that work?

There's something that triggers the mind to move, and that's called LE KYE LAM, the path of karma.

I think of it as the path to karma. because it makes the karma happen.

What are these things that are a path of karma?

Your reading will say,

Let's consider the three wrong deeds of mind,

craving ill will and wrong view.

These are a path of karma

because they function to move the mind to its object.

The implication here, or what Geshela is teaching us here, is that these three—craving, ill will, wrong view—are this path of action, path of karma, but not themselves karma.

This is where it gets confusing.

If you think of it as these three—craving, ill will, wrong view—are the path to karma. They are what trigger the mind to move to an object.

The trigger is not a new karmic seed being planted.

The mind that moves, and then the saying, doing as a result, those are planting new seeds.

The triggers are called the path of karma, but not karma themselves.

Is it karma to have craving, ill will, wrong view in our minds? Yes.

But those three poisons are like this ubiquitous state of mind that yes, they're inside every karmic seed. Yes, they are planted and replanted, but they are the thing that triggers the mind to move.

Our ignorant liking, ignorant disliking, is the ‚I want, I don't want‘. It's that subtle.

The instant our eyes open in the morning, we have this. ‚I don't want to get out of bed, but I want to go to work.‘

It's happening, bing, bing, bing. That at the most subtle level, it's that that triggers the mind to go to an object. It's an object that is what we want or what we don't want. And all of it is being misperceived, of course.

This information about karma is that these three non virtues of mind, the three poisons—craving, ill will, wrong view—trigger the movement of the mind.

That movement of the mind then leads to that action, body and speech.

Those three are paths of karma, but not a karma—your answer key says.

The seven of body and speech, meaning the other 10 non virtues of body and speech, those are both karma and paths of karma.

They also trigger the mind to move more, and they are the actions that that mind does.

Your homework is going to say something like:

What's a path of karma but not a karma?

What's a karma and a path of karma?

What's a karma but not a path of karma?

The path of karma or the path to karma are those three poisons in the mind.

A karma, but not a path of karma is the movement of the mind that they trigger.

Then things that are both a karma and a path of karma is the mind moving and the deeds and speech happening.

The path of karma but not a karma is that which triggers the mind to move, meaning those three poisons. I said that already.

Geshela says, the tradition says that we need to cook this. Or no, it says, the reading says, there's a lot of debate about this.

Geshela says, when the texts say there's a lot of debate about this, what they mean to say is that the ramifications of what I just shared really can't be perceived without contemplation and meditation upon them.

This is one of those things that's like, okay, I've got the terminology down, but why is that important?

Why are they making a distinction between something that triggers the mind to move, versus the mind moving, versus what we do and say and think as a result of the mind moving. Why is that so important?

That's class seven. You are becoming karma encyclopedias truly from this course.

It's quite extraordinary. That's a great, great goodness and with it you will someday help that other in that deep and ultimate way such that they will go on to stop their distress forever.

Maybe they won't even ever need to study all the ACI courses because you did it for them.

That's a great, great goodness and so be happy with yourself and think of this goodness, like a beautiful glowing gemstone that you can hold in your hands.

Recall your own precious, holy God. See how happy they are with you.

Feel your gratitude to them, your reliance upon them.

Ask them to please, please stay close, to continue to guide you, help you inspire you, even challenge you.

Then offer them this gemstone of goodness.

See them accept it and bless it, and they carry it with them right back into your heart.

See them there. Feel them there. Their love, their compassion, their wisdom is there for you.

It feels so good we want to keep it forever. So we know to share it.

By the power of the goodness that we've just done

May all beings complete the collection of merit and wisdom

And thus gain the two ultimate bodies that merit and wisdom make.

Use those three long exhales to share this goodness with that one person to share it with everyone you love, to share it with every existing being everywhere.

See them all filled with happiness, filled with loving kindness, sharing it with everyone in their world, and may it be so.

Thank you so much. Class 7, thank you for doing your papers. I will see you.

Class 8: The Concept of the Most Basic Virtue, and the Distinction Between Projecting Energy and Finishing Energy

30 June 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 8

Welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 8 on June 30th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

Again, listen to the Source of All my Good

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 7

(12:52) Last class, we learned the difference between what's meant by black karma, white karma, and black and white karma. Meaning black deeds, white deeds, black and white deeds, not meaning gray.

We learned that black karma, what they mean by black karma is a non virtue, a deed of non virtue done in the desire realm.

They say its essence is black because it's collected, meaning the deed is done by a being who is suffering—outright obvious suffering, suffering of change, pervasive suffering. They have an active suffering happening.

They say without black karma, its result is also black, because its result will be unpleasant.

Black means black essence, black result, only is something that can be made in the desire realm.

White karma then would be a virtue done in the form realm.

Its essence is white, because the being does not have any outright suffering.

Yes, they have pervasive suffering. But they don't have any active mental afflictions.

Not that they're in Nirvana. But they don't have this active suffering while they're doing the deed, that has something about what deed they do of course.

Its essence is white and then its result will be white, because the result is going to be pleasurable because that's what it is to be a virtue deed.

I don't know if white karma is actually done by any being in the form realm.

It doesn't make sense with what they say happens to beings in the form realm.

But if they did do a good deed, it would be a white one.

Then black and white karma we learned are good deeds done in the desire realm.

Why are they called black and white?

Because their essence is black, because they're done by a being who has outright suffering.

How do I know they have outright suffering?

Because they're a being in the desire realm. We all have outright suffering.

That's what it is to be projecting me in a desire realm.

So even the best, best, kindest, most amazing things I do have black essence.

But their result can be white. They can be white because their result can be pleasure.

Now technically it's a pleasure that wears out.

That would start a debate: if a pleasure is going to wear out, is it really a white deed that brought a pleasure that wears out?

Doing such a debate would actually lead us through from lower schools to higher schools. We're not going to do it.

Then the other question on your quiz was about those factors that influence a given deed’s results.

They're called the four parts of a path of action.

You were asked to give the four parts and an example using the first of the non virtues killing as an example, as an explanation.

The four parts of a path of action is:

SHI SAMPA TORWA TARTUK

like the mantra.

The basis, the thinking, the action, and the completion.

The basis, the SHE basis, is the object the other that you're going to do your deed towards for the act of killing your other needs to be a living being. You'll have a basis which will be a living being.
Second influencing factors is your thinking about the situation, whatever it is. The level of your intention or not intention. I mean there are a lot of factors in that thinking. Did I mean to kill them or did I kill them by accident or anywhere in between?
Then the third factor is undertaking the deed. So this includes all the different specifics of what you do to go about completing the deed that you're wanting to do towards that object that you've identified. Whether it ends up that it happens by accident, there's still a doing of the deed.
Then the last one is the completion of the deed, or the deed we set out to do. It's not a complete karma until we get the result that we thought we were going to get. For killing it's not complete until we see that the being died technically died of what we did.

Again, it does not mean you only make a karmic seed if you have all four of those factors complete.

This teaching says all the different variations in all of those four factors are part of the seed planting that's happening in the course of doing that deed.

The extent to which all these other factors are in play affect the way in which that result will be experienced.

It gives us this clue as to how it is that our experiences are so diverse.

It really isn't: I give an apple, I will get 50,000 apples back again, because there are all these other factors that were happening when I gave the apple that will influence what the result's going to be like.

Then your quiz asked in the SAMPA, the thinking part, has three parts of its own:

The correct identification for the act of killing. Did you kill the being you intended to kill versus, oops, wrong person, or oops, it wasn't alive after all, or oops, some goof.
The NYONG-MONG, the bad thoughts. Which mental afflictions one or more were you under the influence of as you set up this deed that you were going to do and as you did it. The mental affliction that we were under is going to be recorded as part of that seed, and it's going to influence the experience of that seed’s result, that series of seeds‘ results.
The third one is your actual motivation, the intention. A seed planted killing somebody that you were violently angry with and wanted to see them hurt and wanted to hurt everybody who knows them and you set about to kill them, and you do. Is going to bring us a different result than if there's that white flies on my plant and I want them off my plant so that it doesn't hurt the plant, and I really don't want to hurt them. But every time I try to get them off my plant, five of them go free and one of 'em gets squished. Oh man, right? That's going to be a different kind of killing result that I will get, clearly different result than the previous one. So motivation doesn't override everything else, it just is included in the result’s experience. What we perceive as the motivation of the other. What we perceive in the experience that we have as the result will include. Like if we kill by accident, we're going to get killed by somebody's accident. We can see how all these factors play into our experiences.

Every experience we're having now and now and now is results, and the results of deeds that we're doing with these four different factors in some way, shape or form.

We can start to kind of unravel why life is the way it is and then ravel what we want it to look like sometime in the future. Like a best guess and then set about how I want to behave now and now and now that will plant the seeds in my mind that will come out as what I have in my mind or better, probably better.

If we say, oh, I want the result to be a six foot two blonde haired, blue eyed guy with a British accent, and instead what shows up is a redhead with freckles and not so tall, I'll just go, nah, right? That's not the one. He doesn't look right.

Then maybe I missed my angel, you see? Because I had my result envisioned too specifically.

Geshela says, you need what you want specific. And it is true. We need to be clear karmically what we want to create. But then when it shows up, we want to be open to what it might look like, what it might actually appear as in the experience.

It is a delicate thing to set up our behavior by way of what we want to happen and then let go of whether that ever happens or not. Because we used it just to determine how to help somebody else better. Which is really what we're trying to do, is develop this ability to choose our: when we want something to go help somebody else in some way.

Yes, if we match it closely, it feels like we're doing the best job we can. But technically you don't have to match it. You just have to go help somebody.

Even still, it's like, okay, I'm only helping them because I want something.

At the first steps, the baby steps that our usual motivation is I'm going to go do something for me because I want something. That flat out doesn't work, but we're fooled into thinking it does.

The first baby step is to say, okay, I want that. I'll go help them because you said so. I'll try it on for size. And we find it's like son of a gun. It was fun trying to help them. It was more fun trying to help them than it was trying to get what I wanted in the first place. And that sets this pattern going to where we aren't so much wanting to help the other in order for me to get a new apartment, but rather I'm helping the other get a new apartment so that I can create my new home, which is going to be Buddha paradise for everybody.

But we have to start somewhere and the karmic seed planting by choice is where we start.

Vocabulary Class 8

(26:51) Tonight's class is again one of these classes where we're just getting more information to add to the mix, another pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces. We're going to get all in one place.

The subject matter in tonight's class is called the root of virtue and how it can get cut so that we can avoid doing that.

Then the second subject matter is called projecting karma. Which we've talked about a little bit before. It's that karma that pops at the end of one life that directs the mind to the next life in that life's realm of being.

Let's go to our vocabulary.

sunam gyi tsok

yeshe gyi tsok

rupakaya

dharmakaya

ge-tsa chu-pa

lokta

kontro

te tsam

nge-pa

In order to understand about cutting our root of virtue.

Yes, Tom,

(Tom) Sorry, before you start this subject, how do we know or is there karmas that we're going to do now and they're only going to ripen in the next life? Is there a way of knowing which ones.

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah, which ones are going to ripen in next life versus any lifetime after that? I think that we don't know specifically, Oh, this one, I'm doing it right now and I'm going to make it ripen in my next life.

I think we get to a place in our practice where you can make seeds in that way. But as a general rule, no, we don't know which ones. We don't know which will be the ones that ripen in this life, next life or any life afterwards.

We don't have that specificity yet.

(Tom) Thank you.

Cutting the Root Virtue

There are these two phrases:

SUNAM GYI TSOK and YESHE GYI TSOK

SUNAM GYI TSOK means the collection of merit.

YESHE GYI TSOK is the collection of wisdom.

In our dedication prayer at the end, these are the two things that we're giving away. That we're praying that by the power of the goodness we did, everybody will collect these two collections.

The collection of merit refers to all the goodness that we do related to the first four perfections.

So we're in Mahayana level practitioning. That means we are working with our perfection of

giving,
moral discipline,
not getting angry,
joyous effort,
meditative concentration, and
wisdom.

The six perfections of a Bodhisattva.

We've learned that the first four: giving, moral discipline, not getting angry, and joyous effort are the activities that we do under the mind of the inspiration to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.

Those deeds become the causes for our form body of our Buddha, our future Buddha, our appearing body.

There's two of them, the paradise appearance and the emanating appearance.

Those are created by our collection of merit. They're created by the good deeds that we do of giving, moral discipline, not getting angry and joyous effort.

Then, the good deeds that we do related to meditative concentration and our wisdom, meaning our understanding, intellectual understanding, all the way up to our direct perception of the no self nature nature of all existing things, including one's self emptiness.

Wisdom refers to our understanding of emptiness.

The collection of wisdom refers to these goodnesses that we make in relation to perfection five and six, meditative concentration and our growing wisdom.

These become the causes of our wisdom body of our Buddha, a mental body of our Buddha.

It also has two, it has its omniscience and it has its emptiness.

The omniscience is perceiving emptiness directly and appearing reality directly of all existing things in all three times. And the emptiness is the emptiness of that, the no self nature of that, and the no self nature of the appearances that that mind is aware of.

Our samsaric intellects blow fuses when we try to work that out, because our language won't let us actually get it right. If you feel like every time you're trying to work out these four buddies of a Buddha thing and we just can't quite get it, be proud of yourself. You're trying enough to blow a few fuses and that's a good thing.

Yeah, you just plug them back in and they work again.

Collection of merit, collection of wisdom.

These don't mean simply all the times I've been kind, and they don't mean all the times that I've read a little bit about emptiness.

These are specific deeds that we do with a mind motivated: I'm practicing my six perfections in order to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. That state of mind is the factor that makes a good deed into a collection of merit, and that makes our thinking about emptiness into a collection of wisdom.

It took Buddha Shakyamuni three times 10 to the 60th countless eons, which is number of years beyond count, in order to complete the two collections.

Once that being got their Bodhichitta—I'm going to become a Buddha for the sake of all beings—then it started, this clock started ticking.

We'll learn how long a countless eon is, in some future course.

Why do there need to be two collections to make us into a Buddha?

Because your Buddha you needs to have an appearance, and it needs to have a mind. Those are different things, they require different causes.

The collection of merit makes our rupakaya, our form body. We learned this some previous class, I think it was course 2.

The collection of wisdom creates or becomes our dharmakaya, our mental body, our aware being of Buddha.

These six perfect then are the activities that create the goodness that will create what we look like as a Buddha and what we think like as a Buddha.

It takes a big accumulation of both of them to create this paradise body, an emanation’s being, and omniscient mind. The emptiness of the mind is there already, but the emptiness of our Buddhahood is not there until we reach it.

It takes a lot of accumulation. Once we start doing our good deeds of the first four perfections under this mind that wants to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, we are collecting a collection of merit.

That collection is growing.

Until it brings about its result, we are in danger of damaging it.

This collection of merit and collection of wisdom, not so much, but collection of merit, is called our root of virtue.

Some people use the term root of virtue to just mean your accumulation of all the kindnesses that you've ever done. And that is true. We all have kindnesses that we've done. The seeds are in there. They create all the goodness that we experience, even as it wears out.

But for it to be called the root of virtue, what they're talking about is collection of merit.

Good deeds done related to the first four perfections under the influence of a mind that wants to reach total Buddhahood for the sake of all beings.

Those seeds are especially precious, aren't they?

Because they are different than just any old kindness.

GE-TSA means this root of virtue

CHU-PA means to cut it.

It is possible to have this growing bank account of root of virtue, and still do something, heaven forbid, but do something that cuts it. And the scripture apparently says, cuts, obliterates that root of virtue.

The reason we're talking about such a nasty subject is that we want to know how to avoid doing that.

If we've managed to have any collection of merit, we want to protect it like the most precious tiny baby. So we want to know what would break it, what would cut it, what would I have to be like in order to cut it?

Then if I do cut it, am I just lost or what could happen?

Again, be clear. To cut a root of virtue does not mean you've cut all the kindnesses you've ever done.

It doesn't mean that if you do the deed that cuts your root of virtue, all of a sudden it's like no nice thing will ever happen to you again. It's not that.

It's we're cutting those growing accumulation of seeds that would've taken us to Buddhahood starting over, needing to start over.

Which is probably more, anyway.

(41:35) Apparently in the sutra where Buddha is talking about this subject, the word in the Sanskrit, I don't know what it was, but the word in the Sanskrit that became the Tibetan is that the root of virtue is obliterated. Which sounds in English, it's just completely destroyed, gone, done.

But we're going to see by the end of class that what's getting obliterated is really our connection to that root of virtue in the sense that it growing and us being able to add to it. Like when we do our cut of virtue, it's like it freezes the bank account and it's not going to grow any interest and you can't add to it and you can't take from it.

It's just unavailable completely.

So although the term is obliterate, it's more like our access to it is obliterated somehow. But not like we had voluntary access to it anyway.

Two Things that can Cut Your Root of Virtue

GE-TSA CHU-PA means to cut this root of virtue.

Who is it that could do such a thing, and what would we do that would make this happen so that we can avoid it?

There are these two things: LOKTA and KONG-TRO

Are the two deeds that we might do that would sever our access to our collection of merit.

This information comes from Abhidharma, and we'll see how Madyamika adjusts it a little bit.

Thinking the Complete Opposite

LOKTA

The TA in LOKTA means view

LOK means diametrically opposed.

So LOKTA means opposite view, completely opposite view.

Geshe Michael said, pardon my speech, but it means to see something ass backwards, you just have it completely wrong. What they mean by this specifically is the LOKTA state of mind focuses on something which exists, and it holds that it does not exist.

That's odd, isn't it?

Because isn't that Highest worldview? To look at something that we think exists and say that doesn't exist like that.

But then Highest worldview off the cliff of wrong view is, well then it doesn't exist like that at all? That would be wrong view, but not diametrically opposed.

It's one of those things if you think about it a little bit, it's like, wait a minute, what?

Here LOKTA is diametrically opposed in the sense of two very specific viewpoints.

For LOKTA to be the thing that cuts our root of virtue.

One of those is that we would be focusing on our understanding of karma, doing this analysis and coming to a very clear conclusion: Karma cannot exist.

Coming to the wrong conclusion that we had previously come to the right conclusion.

We believed in karma for this to be a cut your root of virtue, we had believed in karma. We had believed in karma and reaching Buddhahood enough that we were actually working with our six perfections and growing our store of merit.

And then something happens, and we revisit this belief in karma, and we apply the logic and we clearly identify a logical sequence that says: No, karma cannot be true.

We think, oh man, that could never happen to me.

But the interesting thing is that we could very well be strong practitioners, and in the process of our practice we get challenged by crap ripening, really rotten things happening. Maybe one really big rotten thing, or maybe a whole series of rotten things that the state of mind that's experiencing all this bad karma coming up, bad karmas were made with really strong ignorance, really strong mental afflictions.

They're going to be inside those karmic seeds ripening.

We could find ourselves in a ripening situation where our ability to think through karma and emptiness is just gone.

Then our thinking through it will bring us to that conclusion: There's just no way I can have been so kind and this bad stuff can be happening to me.

Even though we know, No, it was from before and right now we know that.

But when we're in the midst of a really, really terrible circumstance or a string of them, our ability, like we don't have the same quality of thinking when we're there.

We think the quality of thinking that we have, we have, and it will always be this or something better. And that's not true. We could lose it.

One of the hardest times apparently to really keep our clear understanding of karma and emptiness is when we're in deep grief.

In deep grief, we usually think, oh, it's from the loss of a loved one.

But we'll grief, we'll grieve when a loved one just gets disabled. They're not dead, but they aren't ever going to be the way they were before. We go into grief.

We could lose a job, we could lose a home, we could be part of some big disaster and get into a grief cycle that makes it such that we just can't think clearly anymore.

Clearly enough to recognize the wrong conclusion of, oh, karma doesn't exist.

Because that's specifically what this LOKTA is talking about: Karma doesn't exist and Buddhahood doesn't exist.

Not just, oh, I don't think I can ever get there. That's not LOKTA.

It's like something we believed was true, had proven to ourself was true enough to have been working towards it, and then circumstances change and now our logic says: That was stupid. Why did I ever believe that? That was just wrong?

Do you see how it's diametrically opposed to what we had when we were making our collection of merit?

You can see how it's just going to cut that off, because we just, it's not in our possible experience anymore to want to do good deeds in order to Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. Because my deeds and what I get are not related. We think, man, no way that could happen to somebody who's already on the path.

But apparently it does.

(51:13) Geshela said, it's the wrong conclusion to hear this and say, oh then I will never doubt. I never doubt a teaching, because I don't ever want to come anywhere close to coming up to the wrong conclusion.

We've already learned that Buddha said, Doubt my teachings. Think about them, work, chew on them, prove them to yourself. Don't just accept them because I said so.

That means we have these minds that are able to clear think, and to work through the solution.

In order for LOKTA to break our collection of merit, we would need to apply a clear thinking, rational process of thinking to come to an ass backwards conclusion.

So we're not just talking about when I'm in deep grief, and I can't think and I reject emptiness.

It's like because of this grief, my seeds are ripening me not able to believe anymore.

I clearly think out why it is true that karma can't be true, and come to this wrong conclusion.

Geshela says, when we have doubts about a teaching, even this one, we want to put it on the shelf for later:

Well, this one I just can't quite understand.

I don't seem to have enough information to work it out myself.

I don't have access to the scriptures, so I'm not going to flat out reject it,

although I want to.

I'm going to put it on the shelf and wait until more information comes and

I'll come back to it later.

The reason he says to do that is because we don't want the seeds to flat out reject anything. Because flat out rejecting-anything-seeds have the potential to ripen into us flat out rejecting something that we've learned before, or that we hear new about something we've learned before.

I don't know, it is kind of a thing that we do. We hear something and then go, nah, and then maybe listen to it and revisit it.

It seems to be a human habit to reject first and then revisit.

This teaching says, catch yourself doing that and be open.

It doesn't mean you believe everything.

It doesn't mean not check it out.

But see where we're rejecting and protect ourselves from LOKTA by setting it on the shelf.

Yeah, maybe somebody you're in a conversation with somebody and they say something, and it's like you want to go, nah…

Yeah maybe.

Put it on the shelf in order to protect our own minds.

Anger Directed Towards a Bodhisattva

(54:40) The second thing that we might do that could cut our root of virtue, meaning our collection of merit, is this KONG-TRO.

KONG TRO means anger.

LOKTA comes from the Abhidharma. Abhidharma's explanation of cutting the root of virtue happens by way of LOKTA.

Madyamika says, yeah, yeah, that'll do it. But so well does KUNG-TRO, anger.

But not just any old anger. Thank goodness.

This specific designation of the kind of anger that will break our root of virtue comes to us from master Chandrakirti in his works on the Six Perfections as they relate to the Bodhisattva bhumis, the Bodhisattva levels.

Once we see emptiness directly under the influence of Bodhichitta, we come out on Bodhisattva level 1, where our task is to perfect the perfection of giving. To use the wisdom in our mind to share, to grow this willingness to share anything and everything.

Then, as that becomes realized through some meditative experience, we move to Bodhisattva bhumi level 2 in which we now do our giving and focus on our practice of moral discipline, avoiding those 10.

We work our way up through the six perfections, and the realizations of them take us to up the Bodhisattva bhumis.

Within that third Bodhisattva bhumi is the perfection of not getting angry.

This is where the KONG-TRO comes in.

As we are growing our perfection of not getting angry, we start out in a situation that makes us angry. We get angry, and old me just blast forth. Whatever my reaction to anger is at the moment, I'll just do it—believing that that's what I'm supposed to do, that's what will get me a good result, that's what will get the whatever I'm angry at to stop.

As I grow my practice, I am able to apply my mindfulness faster and faster to recognizing that feeling of anger is just a feeling. It's not really coming from what's happening right now. I don't have to react to it in the same old way.

I still feel angry. I just choose a different action.

Maybe the actions just be like a bump on a log, don't do anything until it passes.

Maybe I can do something kind instead.

As I work with the situations that piss me off and I don't react in the same old way, the actual getting angry in a similar situation will diminish.

It takes time for that to happen.

We've perfected the perfection of not getting angry, or started to perfect it when a situation that ordinarily would've pushed your buttons, you can be in and the button doesn't get pushed.

The perfection of not getting angry is not to be angry and not blow up. It's to stop getting angry altogether.

Then it's not just angry, it's any kind of unpleasantness.

When we're in a situation of unpleasantness, we try to avoid it and we do something to get out of it.

The perfection of not getting angry goes all the way to the ability to use unpleasant circumstances as a opportunity to grow my collection of merit.

Do you see?

When we get there, it's not about avoiding unpleasant and finding pleasant.

It's about the joyous effort of applying our planting ability regardless of the circumstance.

That's how you move up to the joyous effort practice.

LOKTA, this anger that can happen, that will break or cut our access to our root of virtue is anger towards a Bodhisattva.

We see it in Master Shantideva‘s Guide to the Bodhisattva‘s Way of Life.

He says,

A single moment of anger directed towards a Bodhisattva

cuts your root of virtue.

It's like, oh man.

Then it says,

Do you know? Can you tell who is and who isn't a Bodhisattva?

It's like, holy moly, right?

That means any moment of anger towards anybody, Sumati even says even towards myself—seeing himself as a Bodhisattva—cuts my root of virtue. I'm just stuck.

But then in the fine print of the scriptures, it says, technically the anger that cuts our root of virtue is a Bodhisattva having anger towards another Bodhisattva.

Now we can see how powerfully awful that would be. Because the Bodhisattva would have to be in a way out of control state of situation that's overridden their Bodhisattva-hood state of mind such that they could have and sustain anger towards another one that they knew as a Bodhisattva.

In a sense it's like, oh, phew, right?

So my anger won't be the kind of anger that will break my root of virtue.

But on the other hand, we do know how dangerous moments of anger can be.

One big blowup at a really close friend, and that your relationship with that friend is forever damaged. It doesn't matter how much you apologize. There's just a little bit of mistrust there.

Is she going to blow up at me again?

From our own side too, when somebody gets angry.

To say, oh, it's just one Bodhisattva to another, and I'm not even a Bodhisattva yet, so I don't have anything to worry about.

Don't go there. Rather feel like, okay, I see the power of working with situations of unpleasantness, and the mindfulness of being aware of the feeling arising before it turns into full blown anger, so that I can cut it off at the pass with a different choice of behavior. So that we can prevent having the seeds for some future time when we do have a collection of merit and we get angry at a Bodhisattva, and blast at them and damage that merit, that collection of merit.

Profile of Who can Collect LOKTA

(63:28) Abhidharma says there is a profile of a person who's likely to get LOKTA, this wrong view.

They must be a human—male or female.

Meaning other realm beings cannot actually sustain a philosophical thought to come to a wrong conclusion.

They technically can't sustain the thought to come to the right conclusion, although maybe they had it. Well, no, because they're such suffering beings.

They're either suffering too much or they're too pleasured out.

Only humans are in the position where some can have this ability to think it through clearly.

The scripture says a human who is a eunuch can't get looked because they also can think clearly through to sustain a conclusion. Right or wrong, I don't know.

Eunuch means that their sexual hormone maker has been removed.

It would be different if you had those removed before you reached puberty or after you reached puberty.

I'm not sure which ones they're talking about here, but according to scripture, if we don't have adequate sexual hormones, we can't think clearly enough to come to a clear wrong conclusion.

On the shelf.

But fortunately in our society, we don't make eunuchs out of people, intentionally.

Hopefully you aren't one of those.

Humans of the intellectual type

Abhidharma says, and amongst human beings, there are those who are the intellectual types, and there are those who are the sensual types.

Those who are of the sensual types, their actions and reactions are based on how things feel. Pleasure, displeasure, avoid, get.

They're not driven by logic so much as by action, reaction.

Technically, those kinds of people also will act from heartfelt, not clearly calculated, figuring out that karma doesn't work.

It's one thing to out of this heart feeling, ‚Karma can't be, nah‘.

That's not strong enough to be LOKTA.

It means a human who's got the intellectual capacity to first learn and show karma is true, Buddhahood is true.

Then something happens and they do a similar process and come to the opposite conclusion. That's what can cut.

In a sense, that's us, right? We're studying ACI.

We are the intellectual types. It's like we are built for that.

Again, when we get in situations where our emotions are taking over—which is when we're in the position of terrible grief, terrible survival mode—we're not thinking things through.

We're acting and reacting from our animal brain. It's designed to protect us.

It is not designed to figure out whether karma is true or not.

This intellectual conclusion that karma is not true and Buddhahood is not true, needs to be sustained, a sustained rejection for it to break our LOKTA, for it to break our store of goodness, for it to be the GE-TSA CHUPA.

Which is funny. It's like, well, at what point does the cut actually happen?

Is it at the first moment of, Oh no, karma's not right?

Or is it 10 days later, or two weeks later, or six months later?

The vagueness of this actually is what allows us to see that cutting our root of virtue, although it sounds really permanent, it is not permanent.

That we can in fact reactivate the bank account and get access to it again.

How might that happen? That if we've cut our root of virtue?

I went right through our break time. That's why I have all these stares.

Let's stop and take a break. Sorry, 10 minutes over.

Okay, I'm pausing the recording.

Ways to Restore the Access to the Root of our Virtue

(69:42) Can we restore our cut root of virtue?

It seems like if they were really obliterated, we would have to start over.

But apparently they say, No, you don't actually have to start over. You can restore your access to that collection of merit.

How do we do that?

We would want to know how to do that.

At least we have the seeds in there, if we ever do get in that wrong view, we maybe would have the seeds for getting right view back again.

Again, this is from Abhidharma.

It teaches that there are two ways we reconnect to those virtues:

One is by growing or having this thing called TE-TSAM (doubt).
The second is NGE-PA, reaching NGE-PA (certainty).

Doubt

TE-TSAM is the word for doubt.

There's good doubt and there's bad doubt.

It's bad doubt that led to the LOKTA in the first place.

That bad doubt came about because we were in such a bad place, such an unpleasant series of ripenings, that we started to doubt what we thought we knew about karma.

Then, that grew into the full on reconsideration and conclusion that, Nah, that was all garbage. I fell for something stupid and I'm not doing it again.

Your access to your collection of merit is now behind locked doors, unable to access it, can't add to it, can't take away from it, nothing.

Until some state of mind arises where, Wait a minute, maybe that conclusion wasn't so right.

That's TE-TSAM about my LOKTA.

Do you see?

LOKTA came to the wrong conclusion.

TE-TSAM is, Well, maybe I was wrong about that.

Geshela says, the story might be:

You meet the dharma as a young person and you apply your logic, you come to the conclusion that it's true. You come to the conclusion Buddhahood is possible, and it's something you want. So you work really hard at being good, being good, being good, being good.

Then life just slams you, slams you, slams you, slams you, and you start to have some doubt.

Then your doubt grows bigger, and your clear-minded ability to think it through comes to the wrong conclusion, and you reject it.

Life goes on. Who knows?

You reach older age, and maybe sometime in that older age you get to thinking, All the crap just kept happening. And I kept reacting to it in the same old way, and it just kept happening. Maybe that karma stuff, maybe it was true.

To have doubt about my wrong view—it's not yet correct view—but it's just enough doubt in what I was holding to be correct view that was really ass backwards from the view I had before.

That's enough to start us back to the ability of adding to our collection of merit.

It's not enough yet to be adding to the collection of merit.

We would have to go on to apply our logic to, Oh no, no. Karma is the explanation for why things happen the way they do. Karma and emptiness is the ticket.

We would have to come to that clear conclusion and the wanting to reach Buddhahood. We would need to grow our Bodhichitta back again before we were starting to add to our collection of merit again by trying to practice the six perfections, or the four of the six.

But the TE-TSAM is this little bit of doubt in our view, is what restores our access to that merit, so we can add to it.

Just doubt in the wrong view, says Geshela. That's why the habit of a healthy skepticism is a good thing.

Because if we have this healthy skepticism, even when we decide we come to some conclusion, we'll have some skepticism even about our conclusion.

But then that means we're going to have skepticism about our conclusion about emptiness as well.

That might be a good thing, because if we think we understand emptiness intellectually accurately, we're mistaken.

Our intellectual understanding of emptiness is not accurate to what the direct perception will show us.

So maybe a healthy skepticism about my knowledge about emptiness is a good thing, but not about karma and emptiness as an explanation for why we experience things in the way that we do.

I hope that came across.

Certainty

NGE-PA is to positively identify something. It's the term for certainty. Certainty.

TE-TSAM is simply doubt. Doubt in my LOKTA. Eh, maybe I was wrong about that.

Gives us, we can start adding to our merit again.

NGE-PA is certainty that our wrong view was wrong.

We come to some clear certainty that, Oh my gosh, all those years I quit believing in karma and Buddhahood. Oh man, big mistake. I know it for certain now.

Restores our access to our collection of merit, and would put us back to maybe where we were before, even in terms of our Bodhichitta.

If we had some experience of certainty, like where we left off when we got our doubt that led to our LOKTA, we would pick up there and start again—is what this implies.

That kind of certainty.

Then, I think hot on the heels of that certainty would be a huge amount of regret.

Like, Oh man, all those years. If that scenario was many years before our doubt in our view showed up.

That's what we need to know about cutting our root of virtue so we don't do it.

Please don't do it.

If you're getting close, call me.

Second subject. That subject's done that little pile of puzzle pieces. Now let's build another pile.

Divisions of Karma: Projecting and Finishing Karma

(78:44) PENJE KYI LE and DZOK JE KYI LE is this topic called the projecting karma.

PENJE means to project something. But as in like throwing a dart.

You're playing darts, the dartboards on the wall. It really is that idea.

You're throwing something at the target, PENJE.

Projecting Karma

PENJE KYI LE means the karma that throws something.

Here it's the specific term to the karma that throws us into the next rebirth.

We've heard a little bit, I think, about through the ordinary death process, there'll be that final moment of the end of this life, and then there'll be a moment that comes after that, where the mind is still moving. Not your personality you, not your intellect, you but the awareness.

There'll be a last moment of this life and a first moment of what comes next, which is called bardo, the in-between.

In that instant, one karmic seed pops, just like 65 were going off. We're talking about the one seed in that one moment at the end of this life that throws us into the next moment. That's called the projecting karma. PENJE KYI LE.

That karma is what determines hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, jealous god, pleasure being, form realm, whatever level of the form realm, formless realm.

It has to be a seed we already have, and by the time we get to that place, we aren't in any way able to decide which seed's going to go.

Geshela calls it, it's like a lottery system.

In the old days the lottery system was this jar full of ping pong balls that had different numbers, and the blower is blowing, so they're popping all around inside.

There's a little hole in the top, and that blows all the balls and all of a sudden one pops up and that's the winner.

It's similar in that way and the factor that would direct which ball comes out the hole would really be based on how many similar ping pong balls are in there.

If you've got a thousand ping pong balls and 999 of them are seeds from a mind of stinginess, the likelihood of popping a seed of stinginess that would push us into a hungry ghost realm is a whole lot higher than that one ball that was patience.

I am being absurd, because it's not like that at all. We have many of all of them.

But in the lifetime that's ending, whatever habits we had, was making more seeds than behaviors that we did that were unusual or rare or occasional.

The things that have more seeds are more likely to be one that ripens at the moment of death.

Highest School says, look what's on your mind at the moment of death. Is what is the seed that's going to project us.

But we're not talking about an intellectually aware ‚what's on my mind at the moment of death‘. We're way beyond that.

What would be on the mind at the moment of death would be the things that were habitually on the mind during life.

If you've got this mind that's constantly „I want, I want, I want“, there's going to be a seed very likely going off at the end of death.

Regardless, it's the seed that ripens at that moment that is this PENJE KYI LE that colors our next, what our next life's going to be.

But it's only one seed, says Abhidharma.

It's like one seed goes off and is done.

How come we don't just disappear?

They say, well, it's more like a time capsule seed.

It's the one seed that goes off and it keeps going off until you run out of that next life and then it ends.

Highest school says, come on, that can't be. But one seed does direct us, but that one seed is not likely some random event.

It's got zillions of similar seeds that those are the ones that are going off after, after, after, that carry us through that entire lifetime.

Similar seeds, similar hell realm being seeds going off that keeps us as a hell being when they stop going off our hell realm.

Life ends just like when this lifetime seeds stop going off, this lifetime ends.

Completing or Finishing Karma

(85:15) There is one seed that sends it, but then all the rest of these are called the DZOK JE KYI LE, which are the filling in the details seeds.

One seed sends you to hungry ghost realm, and then all these others make you into the hungry ghost with the experience that you're having.

The scriptures say the PENJE KYI LE is like the master painter and he sketches the outline, and says green here, blue there, et cetera.

But then it's all the apprentices that come in and they paint the picture.

The apprentices are the DZOK JE KYI LE.

Projecting karma can be either good or bad.

Meaning it can be for what's called a higher birth or it can be for a lower birth.

Not meaning higher than where you are, although it could mean that.

But humans, jealous god's, and pleasure beings are considered higher birth.

Animal, hungry ghost, and hell realm beings are considered lower birth—within the desire realm.

Your projecting karma can be either for a lower, which is a bad projecting or for a higher human or higher, which would be a good projecting.

Then you can have the finishing karma. Geshela calls DZOK JE KYI LE finishing karma.

They can be good or bad as well.

4 Permutations

It gives us these four permutations, remember MUSHI MUSUM? Complicated thing.

It gives us four permutations that could happen at the last moment of this life pushing us into the next moment of the next life.

Your homework asks. What are the four permutations and give examples.

One could have a good projecting karma, but bad finishing karma. That would be one combination.
One could have bad projecting karma, but good finishing karma. Second possibility.
One could have good projecting karma and good finishing karma. And
One could have bad projecting karma and bad finishing karma

That's the four.

Examples

What might be examples of a good projecting, bad finishing? Anybody care to guess? Some being has died and their projecting karma is a good karma.

What might it give them?

(Nattie) Human being.

(Lama Sarahni) Like a human realm. Good projecting karma would be human next time. But with bad finishing karma, bad details. What would that be like?

(Nattie) Maybe not very healthy.

(Lama Sarahni) Exactly right. Disabilities. The human that's in this situation of constant survival mode. Somebody really, really poor, living in a place of war.

Good.

So how about bad projecting, good finishing? What might be bad projecting karma? Your cat, Flavia‘s cat, poor cat. Bad projecting, but good finishing. Flavia‘s cat, right? Because she belongs to Flavia instead of being a street cat that all the dogs are after. The scripture says bad projecting, good finishing example is, you get projected into the hell realm, but your good finishing karma is you're the Lord of the hell realms, you're the head honcho of the hell realms.

Somehow that's not as bad. Bad projecting. Good finishing.

How about good projecting, good finishing?

Human in the dharma. Human who reaches their enlightenment in that lifetime. That'd be good good.

What about bad projecting, bad finishing?

Scripture says a hell being in the lowest hell.

Something more immediate would be a cow, like the cattle in our desert.

They are cow, and they're going to get butchered.

They live in this dry, awful, horrible desert. They eke out a living, and then they get slaughtered and somebody eats 'em.

Bad projecting, bad finishing.

Not an instant of relief except maybe during the rainstorm they get cooled off a little bit.

We all have seeds for all of this.

I hope what we would be thinking is how can I increase my likelihood of getting good projecting and good finishing, so that at any moment if my life ends, I can know I'm sitting pretty.

I know I've got lots of rotten seeds. What can I do about those?

Now I understand a bit about choosing my behaviors and trying to plant seeds that any one of which could throw me to a good projecting karma.

We see, it grows our sense of, How do I want to manipulate my behavior such that I can increase the power of, or the likelihood of getting another human rebirth?

Because it is not technically even a good projecting karma to get jealous god, or pleasure being, although technically they're called a good projecting because it's a higher birth.

But it's not a birth for someone who's on their path. It's not a birth we want.

We want to be designing life such that we're increasing our odds for getting another human life.

Then not just another human life, but another human life in the dharma, or at least with the leisure and fortune to be able to find the dharma versus a human with bad finishing karma.

We can set about to increase the likelihood of that happening by

Cleaning out the negative seeds that we already have.
Cleaning out negative seeds that we put in day by day.
Adding to the goodness seeds that we already have.
Putting in new goodness seeds to the best of our ability and then
It becomes our system, our way of life.

There's something else I was going to say about that, escapes me.

That completes our class 8.

Oh, again, I've got a few extra minutes.

I'm happy to take questions. Or I'm also happy to say we can finish class early and I will keep those minutes for later. There's another class where I'm using it.

(95:02)

(Ale) You said that if we feel that we are about to start doubting or lose the purpose, we should call you. If we will become in many, many years, probably future lives, teachers, if someone called us, how we can dive into not go to that extreme.

Or if we are seeing someone that is starting to go through that path, how we can help them, even if it's not directly our karma? If we are seeing someone going to that route, we have our karma there.

(Lama Sarahni) To be honest with you, I don't know.

But what would happen in my experience, what would happen is that I would have that person be describing to me their situation. I would be listening, listening, listening, listening—for not so much the words they're saying, but what they're meaning. Listening to the words they choose to give me clues about the deeper issue than the surface story that they're telling me.

I would try to guide their thinking to recognizing this deeper issue that's happening, so that they could take this surface pain and go a little bit underneath.

My experience has been that when someone who's in such a state of agitation, gets deeply heard, it calms everything down.

I would anticipate that if the surface situation is making this doubt happening, and they're going around in the circle, circle, circle. If I can get them to spill it, and go a little bit deeper, it would be able to mellow the surface out, and bring them back to, Oh yes, their correct view, again.

If it's someone who never had the insight into karma and emptiness, I think it would still work to bring them into a different state of mind. But mostly for a practitioner who's feeling like they're losing it, I think that that would be the method I would use to see if I could get them tethered again in their correct view.

(Ale) Thank you.

I have other question. About how to restore the goodness. If we lose a goodness that you described how we can restore it.

We restore the goodness that we have in this life, or the goodness that we have accumulated in all our past lives?

(Lama Sarahni) Well, we're talking about the root of virtue, which means specifically the good deeds we did related to giving, moral discipline, not getting angry, joyous effort under a state of mind that wants to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.

A moment of anger at a Bodhisattva does not destroy all the kindnesses we've ever done. Just our access to our collection of merit.

Then that would be the collection of merit from all time. Assuming this is your 3000th lifetime as a Bodhisattva growing your collection of merit.

If this was our first lifetime of growing our collection of merit, then it's only this lifetime collection that we cut. But probably it's not, probably we have picked it up from before and carried on.

Actually, it just pops into my mind. It would be a rejoicable then to say, I must have already had some amount of collection of merit that when I heard about a Bodhisattva ideal, my heart jumped. I wanted to be a part of it. That those have to be seeds from some previous life. So I must have not cut my root of virtue ever before, or at least if I did, I got it back. Yay, right?

Yay, I, yay. Right?

Truly, it sounds so silly, but our habit is to, yeah, I believe in past and future lives, but deep down, this is the one I've got to deal with.

It's almost over. Come on, right? I'm in my third trimester here.

I have that tendency, and then I don't have this relationship with my being that has been since forever, and will go on forever. I mean, not so much. A little bit I do.

But expand that in order to be here studying these things in this way, you've had many lifetimes in the dharma.

Now that means we didn't quite get all the way in that lifetime. Okay. Don't beat yourself up for that one.

Rejoice in the fact that we were there and all the kindnesses we've done as a result that are contributing to what we have now.

So we want to perpetuate them, and so we want to share them.

Nice.

Anything else? While we're at it? Okay.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Class 9: The Five Immediate Misdeeds, and the Concept of a Schism

4 July 2024

Link to Eng audio: ACI 5 - Class 9

Welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 9. It is July 4th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

Class opening

Once again, listen to The Source of All My Good.

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

[Organizational announcement]

Review Class 8

(13:25) Our review from last class.

What does that root of virtue mean?

All the goodness I've ever done since forever. Right?

No, it's specific. It's our collection of merit.

(…) Our root of virtue means our collection of merit and our collection of merit means the goodness done by way of our practice of the first four of the six perfections.

But that's some important goodness that we want to protect, and keep, and grow of course.

Then, what kind of person can lose their most basic virtue?

This root of virtue, we learned that it has to be somebody who's human, who can hold a sustained reasoning, and reach a clear conclusion in their mind about something, technically about anything. But then they use that ability to come to this clear conclusion that's going to be one that is such that it cuts the root of virtue.

They have to have the intellect to be able to evaluate something thoroughly, develop a conclusion that they then hold to.

Then we learned there were two actions that can cause this loss of our root of virtue.

One of them was called ‚holding wrong view‘.

Which didn't mean just any old wrong view or we'd all be stuck. But meaning specifically having believed in karma and emptiness enough to make a root of virtue. Then, applying clear thinking, clear logic to come to the clear conclusion that that is just not true. To believe that something is true is not true—that ass backwards viewpoint we talked about.

Classically the wrong view that breaks our root of virtue is the rejection of the truth of what's meant by karma, and or the rejection of that Buddhahood is possible for anybody, that just as a concept it's impossible.

Then the second one was that one that seems more dangerous: strong anger directed at a Bodhisattva. But then technically a Bodhisattva having strong anger directed at another Bodhisattva.

You could see how that would be so awful because the Bodhisattva would have to be under a wicked mental affliction that would make them lose their Bodhisattva ideal long enough to be angry with another Bodhisattva and sustain it.

So really dangerous.

Then they say, and so anger directed at anybody, strong sustained anger directed at anybody is dangerous, because it's still damaging our goodness seeds big time.

Even if I'm not a Bodhisattva and it is not directed at another Bodhisattva, strong anger is still a difficult and heavy karmic seed to plant.

But then we also learned that there's two methods for restoring our most basic virtue. One of them had to do with having doubt about that previous conclusion.

Just doubt. Hey, maybe there's something to that karma and emptiness.

I've heard Geshela say just to hear a teaching on emptiness and have the thought, wow, maybe that's true. Wouldn't that be cool if that was true?—is such a powerful karmic goodness that it puts us onto this different path than we were before we had that thought.

How many times have you had the thought, wow, wouldn't that be cool if emptiness and karma really were true? And that if I could see it.

Every time we have that puny little thought it reverberates in all of our seeds. So have it a lot.

Then the second one is having certainty about the wrongness of that previously held view. Meaning you come to a valid perception that that view you were holding to is mistaken. Was mistaken.

Vocabulary Class 9

tsam me nga

ma supa

pa supa

dra chompa supa

gendun gyi yen jepa

deshek la ngen sem dyi trak jinpa

penpay shi

yunten gyi shi

The Five Heinous Deeds

(20:20) This class is another topic of consideration that's quite ugly, unpleasant to think about.

Again, we're learning about it so that we can know what to avoid, like the plague.

We already have these two things

coming to the wrong conclusion about karma and emptiness,
having strong sustained anger towards the Bodhisattva.

Now we've got five more and then there's five that are similar, so technically 10 more.

This topic is called TSAM ME NGA.

NGA means five.

TSAM ME means no interim.

The five no interims.

But what it means is the five immediate misdeeds, often called the five heinous deeds. That's a weird English word. Nobody really uses it in real life.

Heinous means the most awful, terrible, H-E-I-N-O-U-S, heinous.

You usually use it when you're talking about a criminal. Somebody did some really, really awful criminal behavior and you say, oh, that was just heinous, so so awful.

There are these five so so awful deeds that that karmic seed will be your projecting karma, and it will ripen you as a hell being, very next life.

That's why they are called immediate.

These are deeds that if done in this life guarantee an immediate next life as the hell realm being for the length of time that you have other hell realm seeds that could ripen.

The deeds we're talking about, however long they take you to make them, you have that many 65 imprints worth of seeds, which wouldn't make all that long a hell realm.

But once you get yourself into perceiving yourself as a hell realm being, all your other seeds that if any one of them was your projecting karma that would've sent you to hell realm, they're all going off to keep you in a hell realm.

So hell realm seeds are made by a whole bunch of ugly stuff. And so we can be in a hell realm for a really long time once we get there. Because we're there until we have no more hell realm seeds to ripen.

Just like we're in a pleasure realm until we have no more pleasure realm seeds to ripen, and then we drop.

Fortunately at the end of a hell realm life, right? You come out, you don't have any more hell realm—for a while, at least until you make more hell realm seeds. Which apparently is so easy to do anyway.

TSAM ME NGA is these five immediate misdeeds called immediate, because they will cause your immediate next life to be a hell realm.

There is a bardo, probably doesn't last very long, and there's no opportunity, no matter what to get diverted from that bardo into someplace else. Which apparently is possible for other places Bardo might be sending us.

Those words didn't come out right.

Here are the five.

This is from Abhidharma level school, but all the schools agree.

These five, not in their order of severity, but in the order in which Lord Buddha taught them.

MA SUPA Killing your mother
PA SUPA Killing your father
DRACHOMPA SUPA Killing an Arhat
GENDUN GYI YEN JEPA. Create a schism in the Sangha
DESHEK LA NGEN SEM GYI TRAK JINPA. Try to kill a Buddha with evil intent

Here's the five.

1. + 2. Kill your mother, kill your father

SUPA means to kill.

Not like Lama SUPA, that's a different spelling of SUPA.

MA SUPA means to kill your mother, PA SUPA means to kill your father.

The scriptures have in it an interesting conversation or interesting debate because somebody's trying to work out, well, just exactly what you mean by my mother.

They say, what if one woman gives the egg but another woman actually carries the pregnancy?

And suppose a third woman actually takes care of you until you're independent?

Which mother are we talking about here?

It's pretty interesting that these ancient, ancient scriptures are wondering, is it the egg donor?

I mean, I don't know, were they doing that kind of stuff back then?

The answer is: It's the egg, it's the egg giver.

It's the mother that provides the material that contributes to the physical body of this lifetime.

We could say, well, wait a minute, the mom whose womb was in, she contributed a lot. Yes, she did. She's a powerful karmic object.

Then wait a minute, what about the mom that fed me, cleaned me, taught me, protected me? She did a lot too.

Yes, she did. She's a powerful karmic object. But this MA that is the one that if we kill plants a seed that will be our projecting karma straight to hell, is the one whose egg it was. Because to have a human body puts us so much closer to reaching enlightenment than anything else anybody else can do for us except our Lama. Which we'll get to, except Buddha.

MA and PA, the same's going to hold for the PA.

Which PA are we talking about here?

The one who donated the DNA.

For both MA and PA, it actually here in this circumstance, we are not talking about the quality of their parenting. We're just talking about the fact that their bodies were instrumental in giving us the body of this lifetime.

That's what makes them this kind of powerful karmic object.

The other ones that take care of us, they're powerful karmic objects too. But not ones that will create this seed that will be the projecting karma that will ripen us as a hell realm being.

To kill one's mother, or to kill one's father.

Both of those are deeds that send us straight to hell realm rebirth.

What does that say in the monopoly game? Do not pass. Go. Do not collect $200, you just go directly.

Someone asks, well then what if your mom, the mom that gave the egg and you're in her womb and giving birth to you, she dies.

Did you kill your mom?

Are you doomed to a hell realm next birth, no matter what happens to you as a little infant?

They say, they don't go, no, absolutely not.

But they say, well, probably not because you didn't have the four parts of a path of action going on.

You didn't have a clear identification. There was a vague identification.

You didn't have the clear thinking about it. You, the infant, right?

You the infant didn't have the action, the action plan that you said about to do.

The deed did get completed, but it wasn't your deed, right?

So yes, she dies, but you didn't. And yes, your birth did cause it, but you didn't cause it. You didn't set about to make it happen.

That conversation says then there's various factors involved in this killing MA, killing PA.

What if she made me promise that if she was hooked up to life support, I was supposed to say, Take it off.

What if I was trying to take care of her and oops something happened and she died instead?

There are all these ‚what if’s‘ versus ‚I set about to kill my mother and I did it‘, right?

Yikers. Clear heinous crime.

All the rest of these are variations on a theme, and so it is still a little bit hard to say.

Did the scripture say that even if it's totally by accident, you still are headed for a hall realm?

I can't answer that, personally. But as we think about it, it's like it just rather than trying to see all the different ways in which we could wiggle out of making one of the five immediate misdeeds, our thinking would be, Okay, how am I going to go out of my way to avoid in any way, shape or form, contributing to my mother's demise?

Then we'd flip that around and say, well then how do I contribute to her health and long life? Because if we're doing that, the likelihood of even falling into an accidental contributing to her death would be much less likely.

Because if we had that in mind, even as we're driving her somewhere and protecting her life, „I'm protecting her life“, we would be on pins and needles to drive carefully.

Does that mean some stupid driver is not going to come slam into us?

No. But then that's not my killing her just because I was driving when the other guy slammed into her. Do you see?

All of these nuances, that's why we're learning all the nuances,

so that we can be thinking about them as we are recognizing what kinds of things we've done in our past that we can remember,
and drawing conclusions about what kinds of things we must have done in our past because of what we see in our world,
and deciding: So what kinds of things do I want to do that will stop creating those and start creating their opposites?

We can design our own behavior. Then we have our vows to help us make those choices. It is empowering to know all these details.

But it can also be overwhelming if we think, Oh my gosh, at any moment I could be part of killing my mother. That would be so horrible.

We could get frozen. And that's not the point.

So MA and PA, first two of the five.

3. Kill an Arhat

(34:51) Next one, DRACHOMPA SUPA—killing a DRACHOMPA

DRACHOMPA is the Tibetan word for Arhat.

They translated as enemy destroyer

DRA is the enemy

CHOMPA is the destroyer.

To kill an enemy destroyer means to kill an Arhat.

The enemy that the enemy destroyer has destroyed is their mental afflictions and seeds for more. So it means someone who themselves is perceiving themselves in Nirvana.

For us to kill them, they are a powerful, powerful karmic object because they're free of mental afflictions.

All that they had to do to get there makes them a powerful karmic object.

If they're on the Mahayana path, and even I suppose if they're not, they are so much closer to their total enlightenment, that that makes them a powerful karmic object.

MA and PA are powerful karmic objects for a different reason.

DRACHOMPA are powerful karmic objects, because they're free of mental afflictions and seeds for them, and they're so much closer to reaching Buddhahood.

Technically anything we do towards them is powerful seed planting.

But to contribute to their death is a seed that will ripen and will send us to a hell realm.

Then there's that funny little caveat.

How do we know who's in Nirvana and who's not?

Oh, Nirvana, I can't kill a DRACHOMPA because I'm in Samsara and they're in Nirvana, so the two do not mix.

No, actually. Any one of you could be in Nirvana and I wouldn't know it, except maybe by the little blist out expression on your face. But they could be all around us and we don't know.

So it's like, hmm, we're kind of in that situation again of: Could I have killed Arhat and not know it? Well, that means you'd have to have killed somebody that you saw as at least a human. I hope none of us have done that.

To kill an Arhat, number 3.

4. Creating a Schism in the Sangha

(37:50) GENDUN GYI YEN JEPA

GENDUN is the word for sangha.

Technically, sangha means a gathering of four or more monks or nuns is a sangha.

YEN JEPA means to divide.

So this fourth nasty deed is to cause a division in the sangha, to cause a schism, to cause a schism in the sangha.

But this one is very, very specific. It is in fact of the five immediate misdeeds, it's the worst. The hell realm that ripens as a result of having split the sangha is called the Avici, meaning the hell of no respite, meaning the worst level.

Again, I think it's course 8 where we learn all the details of all the levels of hell realms and et cetera. This one throws us to the worst of the worst, and it's a bit of a long story.

For splitting the sangha to be a deed that is this misdeed that will send us to the worst of the worst hell realms, the sangha we're talking about is the sangha of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Which means we can't do this one. Because Shakyamuni is not here.

So Shakyamuni does not have a sangha. All the sanghas that we have, meaning the ordained beings that live together, yes, they are Buddhist sangha, but they're not Shakyamuni‘s Sangha.

Meaning during Buddha time as he gathered disciples, he gathered them to live together, and that he gave them rules to live by so that they're living together would create good seeds instead of bad seeds.

The way the rules came about is somebody was living it amongst them and they did something that caused an uproar, and Buddha goes, Okay, no more of that kind of behavior. And everybody had to live by the new rules.

The rules got made, the vows got given, not the vows, the rules got made based on people's mishaps and how to fix them to prevent them from happening again.

During Buddha's time, these different areas of monasteries got developed, and he would be living in one for a while and then he'd travel. He'd go to another and some of them would go with him and some would stay.

Over time, as disciples got more and more familiar with the teachings. Maybe they heard them all once or twice or three times before.

There's a particular monastery where Buddha‘s away teaching someplace else and there's a particular monk in that monastery who's a good monk, keeps their vows, charismatic, but kind of goes off a bit and wants to gather disciples of their own.

So they come up with these five new methods of reaching Nirvana. They teach these five new methods of reaching Nirvana, and some of the other ordained who are not yet Arya, are attracted to that new method. And they start to follow this other monk, and the others that don't believe there's this conflict. There develops this split.

Fortunately at that time two of Buddha's main disciples, they're called the two special disciples. Who is it?

Shariputra and Magdhayalyana, they show up and one of them is able to fix the schism before it breaks apart completely.

But that monk who intentionally made up stuff, told a lie, told lies to the Sangha in order to get a gathering of his own students, even though the schism gets fixed, he still has made these seeds that sends him to the worst of the worst hell realm.

It isn't the schism, it's the willingness to tell the lie to get the disciples of their own that makes the schism, that makes the terrible seeds.

Geshela says when he is translating this information about this fourth of these nasty behaviors, he says, it reads like an explanation of something that happened during Shakyamuni Buddha’s time. But it reads as if it's an outline of something that happens within the sangha of any Buddha who's in Shakyamuni's same position.

Like when you're the Buddha of a particular world, it's going to happen that somebody's going to do this.

It's the specific kind of criteria about the person, and the circumstance, and how it gets fixed that's going to happen.

Then there are certain criteria for when it can't happen—that I'm going to get back to in a minute after I talk about this fifth bad deed.

5. Try to Draw Blood from a Buddha with Evil Intent

(45:55) DESHEK LA NGEN SEM GYI TRAK JINPA

TRAK JINPA means to draw blood

NGEN SEM means with evil intention.

DESHEK is short for DESHEK SHEPA, which is Those who have Gone Thus, or Those Gone to Bliss, meaning Buddha.

This fifth worst of the worst bad deeds is to draw blood from the Buddha with evil intent.

It is also kind of peculiar because come on, nobody can hurt a Buddha. Even if they tried to kill him, they couldn't.

Remember the story of Angulimala who's got 999 fingers on a necklace around his neck and he only needs one more finger accumulated on his necklace of fingers to reach his liberation according to his teacher.

So he's going down this road and here's this guy walking along and he goes, ah, my thousandth thousand's a victim.

He hurried to catch up to the guy walking slowly and the hurrier he went, the behinder he got, even though the guy in front was not walking any different speed. He just couldn't get there.

Finally he gets close enough to ask like, what's going on here? How come I can't get close enough to you to kill you? I need one more finger to get liberated.

Buddha said, you can have my finger, but it's not going to get you liberated.

Because of his experience, the guy's willing to listen. Like, who the heck are you?

He becomes a great disciple and he goes on to reach Arya, and I'm not sure, maybe even Arhat. Even though he has killed 999 people for their fingers.

Why did I go there?

You can't draw blood from a Buddha, but you can try with evil intent, and that seed—even though you fail to do so, or maybe you do—sends you to a hell realm.

But not the lowest hell realm. Curious.

The story of this one, not of this one, not what made this one, but about this one is that in Prince Siddharta‘s time he had a cousin named Devidharta.

Devidharta was insanely jealous of his cousin Prince Siddharta, and when Siddharta goes on to become Buddha, Devidharta is crazy jealous of him.

In this mental affliction he makes a catapult, like he's up on a cliff and Buddha is down below, and he catapults this rock towards Lord Buddha.

Devidharta wants to kill him. He's so jealous.

All the rock manages to do is scratch Lord Buddha's shin and cause a little bit of blood.

Some people say Buddha just let that happen because you can't hurt Buddha, no matter how hard you try. But it appears that Devidharta wants to harm the Buddha and all he manages to do is give him a little bloody booboo.

But that's enough for poor old Devidharta to ripen his very next lifetime as a hell being. And I don't know, maybe he's still there. I hope not.

(50:23) These five deeds are the deeds we want to absolutely avoid.

Two of them we can't do anyway.

We can't even try to draw blood from a Buddha with any kind of intent because Buddha is not walking our earth.

Shakyamuni Buddha is not walking our earth.

According to lower schools there is no Buddha walking our earth right now, because there are not enough people with enough merit, enough goodness to see one. Which means maybe they're all around us, we just can't see them.

But it still puts us in the position that we can't do this fifth deed to make the projecting karma to send us to a hell realm.

We also are not alive in a time when there is that the Buddha of our time Sangha, that we could be the one who somehow lies to the sangha but has enough goodness for them to believe and break them up.

Geshela always says, but don't be overly confident.

Yes, we can't do the immediate misdeed of those two.

But to contribute to a schism and any group of people that have a common purpose is terrible seeds. Because they ripen as us always being split from some group or some good idea.

Then in particular to split a spiritual group with a common focus.

Again, the split alone, regardless of how you do it, is a serious set of seeds that block our own progress towards the happiness that we're wanting. Because in creating a split, you've made some people happy and some people unhappy and you've kind of done it intentionally.

The Profile of a Monk who can Create a Schism

In this fourth big bad deed, but creating the split, you have a homework question that says: What's the profile of the monk that creates the schism?

They are full monk who's keeping their morality.
They're intelligent and charismatic.
They have a good reputation.
But he intentionally—he or she—intentionally sets forth these five new ideas for achieving Nirvana that they know are different than Lord Buddha’s. Maybe they believe that they could work, but they know that they're outside of what Buddha taught. So they know that they're telling something wrong. Geshehla says they're lying on purpose, but it feels a little bit… Yeah, maybe it is lying.

Circumstances under which no Schism is going to happen

They say there are certain circumstances that either are present or can't be present in order for this to happen.

One is:

that this situation cannot happen when the Buddha is present in the monastery where this monk is. It can only happen when the Buddha Buddha is absent from that monastery. Meaning he's just gone someplace else to teach.
But even when the Buddha is gone from the monastery in the first 12 years of Buddha's teachings, everybody is still so enamored of what Buddha is teaching. They're still learning new things that nobody else, no matter how good their karma, how charismatic, how intelligent, nobody's going to listen to them over what Lord Buddha has taught.

After the first 12 years, apparently, by after the first 12 years, Buddha‘s got centers in different places and he's not in all of 'em at the same time. While he's gone, others are teaching what he's taught to others. Because he's gone for a while, sometimes what gets taught gets twisted a little bit or corrupted a little bit.

We see in our lineage how important it is to always clarify, This is what I was taught from the scripture, from my teacher. This is how I put it together and worked with it. But being really clear that we teach according to the lineage so that we're not the one that twists things up a little bit. At least without saying, this is how I've twisted it to help me. But keep it clear so that the lineage stays as pure as we can keep it. Which is still not going to be perfectly pure.

Like that game telephone, you whisper something and by the time it gets around, it's so different.

After the first 12 years the Buddhism can get more easily corrupted and changed.

Geshela said, we'll get to a point where we've taken all the courses, maybe more than once, and we get into another one and our mind just goes, I've heard it before.

I've heard it before, I've heard it before.

We're still interested and eager, but it's natural for us to start to think, Where is there something new and different?

We can reach this point where we start looking into even other traditions looking for just another clue. When really we just need to apply ourselves to what we've learned deeper, more subtly, and do it again and again and again on these different levels.

But the tendency, the human tendency is, okay, finish this. Let me do that.

We do it going through our ACI, and the Diamond Way is the same.

Then the tendency is going to be, well now what?

‚Well now what‘ means put it all together, make it work, go deeper, deeper, deeper.

Not go elsewhere.

But the ‚go elsewhere‘ is like human nature to keep looking for more and more.

(59:35) Not within the first 12 years of a Buddha teaching.

Then they say another time the schism will not happen is

when Buddha is at the end of his life. Because when Buddha is manifesting his withdrawal, everybody's unified in their sadness. Buddha manifests their Parinirvana, it's called, meaning withdraws their emanation from the earth. Because there are no longer enough beings on the earth to sustain perceiving that being who is a being of such virtue. So when not enough beings have enough goodness, it's time for Buddha to go.

That pattern happens again and again. Buddha was this earth's fourth wheel turning Buddha. A fifth one will come when there are enough beings with enough goodness to be able to see him.

Then some of those beings will finish right and go, or die or whatever, and then there won't be enough. And that being will withdraw as well. Even though their main disciples are all there around them.

The main disciples still have the goodness, but there aren't enough others to sustain it even by those who have the goodness to see him.

All that are left are unified in their sadness and so nobody's going to believe somebody else who says, I have another way.

Because they're not going to say that at that time.

It also can't happen if those two special disciples are not, I don't know, in existence or not available or not around.

Again, these are one of the ones I've got on the shelf like, well, where do they come from? Anyway.

I already said Buddha has to have been elsewhere.

Can't happen at the beginning.

Okay, wait, wait, wait, there's a couple more of these when it can't happen.

It can't happen in the 12 years.

Where is it? I'm going to the answer key. Hang on.

It can't happen right after the Buddha has started teaching,
it can't happen as the Buddha is passing into Nirvana and right afterwards,
it can't happen in the first 12 years of his teaching,
it can't happen before those two main disciples appear,
it can't happen in the time after the Buddhas apparent death, because everybody's grieving too much and
it can't happen before there's multiple monasteries. There needs to be at least one monastery and then someplace else where Buddha has gone.

Again, why this information is important enough to be on our homework?

I don't quite understand.

The nuances are telling us something about the power of monastic life, the power of Buddha‘s teachings. Stuff to think about.

The important thing about the danger of a schism. Actually, I see I've gone by our break time. Let's take our break and then I'll talk about important thing about the schism.

(64:20) Apparently this whole situation of the monk telling this lie to get disciples of his own causing a schism, the two special disciples showing up and fixing the problem takes 24 hours.

The reason this is the worst of the worst deeds is that it's also called breaking the wheel, meaning breaking the wheel of the dharma.

That during that 24 hour period, says the Abhidharma teachings from Lord Buddha, nobody in the world at that time can perceive emptiness directly.

The nature of that disruption of the sangha is such that it affects the harmony of the entire world, such that even if somebody was so close to seeing emptiness directly that it was going to happen in those 24 hours, it wouldn't.

Which you can feel the power of that, right? It's like that situation changes the whole resonance of the whole universe in such a way that everybody's goodness is blocked.

Do you want to be the responsible for that?

No.

That seed, worst of the worst, hell real lifetime. So it's a really, really serious thing.

Geshela says, and so by way of onion skin theory, to be someone who contributes to any kind of conflict within your spiritual community is really serious negativity.

Is it going to send you to a hell realm?

Maybe, maybe not, but is it going to block everybody's ability to understand emptiness?

Maybe, maybe not.

But it's serious to do anything that breaks up the harmony of your spiritual group. Because we can see at the worst case scenario, it just freezes the goodness of all existence, like all humanity.

Maybe I'm going too far to say all existence, but all humanity gets frozen in their goodness for the 24 hours until it's fixed.

Geshela says, if you're with a group, as that group carries on, you will have experiences where somebody in the group pushes your buttons.

There'll be somebody who either comes to the group, or is in the group that you don't like. Just because you're all in the same group doesn't mean you're going to like each other.

But being in the same group by default got this common goal, and so we've all sort of pledged at least to ourselves that I'm going to try to help everybody else in this group get what they want.

Then the instant we determined that there go the buttons.

Well everybody but them, they should know better.

They're higher than me in this group. How dare they treat me like that?

Don't they know about karmic seeds?

It's like, ooh, man.

Geshela says, if we expect that there'll be people that irritated us, that there'll be people we don't like, that there'll be people we do like do things that we don't like.

If we expect it and we're ready to use it for our own growth and behavior management opportunity, that's what the group is for.

We will then refuse to let ourselves be the one that's pointing out the bad deeds of the other one to somebody else that's pushing other people's buttons, because that's what we do in a spiritual group.

I now have permission to push your buttons, and it's like, No, you don't.

To expect it, then we can be on our best behavior in terms of our own seed planting opportunity with powerful karmic objects, our co students, let alone the Lama.

We don't want to be the cause of disunity in a sangha.

We don't want to be the cause of disunity in your neighborhood, in your family, in your workplace.

Yet it's kind of not human nature to say, no matter what, I'm not going to be the cause of disunity. We say it, but then a circumstance comes up and it's like, no, no, my own needs are greater than the unity of the group here.

That's the practice, is to keep pushing our bar up of how we use those irritating moments in our practice.

The 2 Factors that make the 5 Deeds so Bad

(70:50) These five deeds, what makes them so extraordinarily negative and what's the order of their negativity?

We already saw that the schism is the worst of the worst. Then there's a little bit more explanation for why here.

This is the topic called PENPAY SHI und YUNTEN GYI SHI.

SHI is that word for basis.

Where we had it before in the four parts of a path of action, the basis was the object involved that it's similar here.

1. Factor: Help Basis

PENPAY means help.

The basis help, is what this means.

But what it is saying is the amount of help that that object has given you or is giving others, and how many others.

The more help they've been to you, the more help they give to others, the more help, the higher help they give to many, many others, the stronger the PENPAY SHI, the stronger the object is.

Three of these five deeds have to do with killing.

Three of them are outright killing.

One of them is attempted killing, and one of them is creating the schism.

But it's not so much the schism, it's the lie that's being told that creates the schism.

Two of the PENPAY SHI, MA and PA, I already said they're special because they benefited us by way of giving us this body for this life.

A human body, a human life with a human body, I think those two go together, is the only circumstance from which we can reach enlightenment in that lifetime.

Can't do it as a hell being, can't do it as a hungry ghost, can't do it as an animal, can't do it as a jealous God or a pleasure being. Only human.

Technically any human has the six things needed.

There are a lot of other things we need as well, leisure and fortune, a Lama, enough goodness to want it, et cetera. But just having a human lifetime, human body.

Because of that, the ones who gave us that are such powerful karmic objects.

Again, it's not the quality with which they took care of us.

Just the fact that they made our body for us.

The reason that's so bad to kill them is saying to our own mind, I reject this benefit that they have given me, and that extends to rejecting our own Buddhahood.

They gave us this thing from which we can reach Buddhahood.

You kill them, you kill your belief, your ideal of becoming a Buddha.

It's very subtle. It's like, No, I'm not thinking that.

Apparently you don't have to be thinking it. It's the ramification of killing the one that you know gave the egg and or the sperm. Something I guess deep in our subconsciousness.

To want to kill your parents means you reject them and want to eliminate them. By so doing, you are rejecting and eliminating your possibility of Buddhahood.

The seeds are planted for that, which those seeds are going to carry on.

So even if you do get outside your hell realm eventually, the likelihood of having seeds of even it occurring to you, that becoming a Buddha is something that one would want to do. Let alone hearing about Buddha would be a long, long time and a lot of goodness needing to be created before we could get that back.

The association is the rejection of your Buddhahood for killing mother, killing father.

2. Factor: Extraordinary Qualities of the Object

Then, the second factor, YUNTEN GYI SHI, this is the object that has good qualities, the object with the good qualities.

The qualities of Ma and Pa, they maybe don't have good qualities at all.

But they're powerful because they gave the body.

Maybe they do have great qualities too, but that's not the thing.

Here the good qualities that we see in the other makes them the powerful karmic object, or that we know the other has or by way of who they are.

This one's talking about we have Arhat, the DRACHOMPA, we have sangha, this thing about the schism and we have Buddha.

Order of Severity of the 5 Heinous Deeds

These last three are terrible deeds because of the power of the karmic object towards which our deed is done, their good deed, their goodness.

All of these are about the powerful karmic objects. But these last three are because of their goodness.

To kill an Arhat means to reject and want to eliminate them, which just like rejecting MA, PA rejects our Buddhahood. It's rejecting Nirvana, reaching Nirvana, cutting off our belief or ability or even interest in reaching the end of our own suffering.

Then, to create a schism is to reject and eliminate the unity of the sangha. Technically, the Buddha‘s sangha.

Then try to harm a Buddha with evil intent is to reject and try to eliminate the Buddha, even though one can't.

Those last three would require a big strong disrespect and disregard and even rejection of those three and what they stand for.

That's why they're so powerfully, mentally, to create seeds that will be the projecting karma that will send us to the hell realm.

The schism being the lowest.

Creating a schism causing the damage of the Dharmakaya

Creating a schism, says it damages the dharmakaya.

Trying to kill a Buddha damages the rupakaya, the form body of a Buddha.

The schism is more powerfully negative, because in damaging the dharmakaya, not it, but damaging our own mind‘s belief in it, understanding of it, damaging the dharmakaya, is damaging that thing that is the end of all suffering for everybody.

Whereas damaging or killing the body of a Buddha is damaging the rupakaya, the appearing nature of a Budha. Which is serious negativity, but the form is not what stops the suffering. The form is the form through which the Dharmakaya teaches people. But it's the dharmakaya, our own dharmakaya, that will be the end of suffering for all beings everywhere.

To see ourselves damage a dharmakaya means ours, we'll never get, we’ll never become or not for a really, really long time.

It's the most serious because that's the end of all suffering.

Trying to kill a Buddha damages the Rupakaya

Second most serious is harming the rupakaya because it's through that form that Buddha teaches. It's through our rupakaya that we will teach.

You can't become Buddha without a rupakaya.

But it's only second most terrible, because the rupakaya is not what ends the suffering. The dharmakaya is what ends the suffering.

So damaging the dharmakaya is the worst of the worst.

That happens by way of the schism.

The unity of the sangha represents the dharmakaya—that's interesting to think about.

Killing an Arhat rejects Nirvana

Then third worst is killing an Arhat, because they represent our reaching Nirvana. They've reached it.

If we know them that they've reached that, that's our seeds ripening.

To kill them means we reject.

Killing Mother/killing father rejects our possibility to reach enlightenment/our own Buddhahood

Then MA SUPA, killing mother is next one less serious than DROCHOMPA.

Somehow the mother's egg giving is more beneficial than the father's sperm giving.

My guess it has something to do with the factor of being carried in the womb.

To kill MA is a little worse than to kill PA.

So if we were to put these in order of severity, the least severe is killing father, next severe killing mother, third severe killing Arhat, fourth severe trying to draw blood from a Buddha, trying to harm a Buddha with evil intent. And fifth and worst is creating a schism within the sangha.

Two of these we can't even do, Phew.

So really we've got three that we can be especially careful not to contribute to.

Of course we have no intention of doing any of them, I suspect.

Working with the Concentric Circles to Avoid the 5 Heinous Deeds

(85:51) Geshela says, morality is like concentric circles, or we work with our morality thinking of them as concentric circles.

It's the onion theory that I think you've all heard.

The example he gives is, a monk takes vows to not have sex. Technically not have sex with a woman, that leaves a lot of open stuff. But in our case has this vow to not have sex with a woman.

To not have sex with a woman is the very center of the onion.

There are these rings out. So imagine there's a bullseye and here's, I'll just get my board.

Here's the bullseye.

In the middle of the bullseye is the vow to not have sex with a woman.

In order to avoid that, one could say, well, what would help me avoid having sex with a woman is if I establish for myself that I won't even touch one.

I won't give hugs, I won't give handshakes. I'll just be polite but not touch.

If I don't touch a woman, if I don't let myself touch a woman, I for sure am not ever going to get into the middle circle of damaging my vow of having sex with one.

What would be next step out from not even touching a woman?

Maybe I will establish for myself that I will always stay more than an arm's length away from one,.

Or maybe I will establish I will never be in a room alone with one.

If I'm never in a room alone with them, I'm much less likely to get close enough to touch them. I'm absolutely not likely to have sex with them.

You can keep working your way out in the behavior you're trying to completely avoid, to find the beginnings of that that could lead to that behavior, and avoid that.

Then find the beginnings of that behavior and avoid that, and the beginnings of that.

You keep working your way out until you find a space where, well, this is how I'll interact with members of the opposite sex in the places where I need to.

You can have it all kind of planned out in your mind and very keenly aware of what line you will not cross just to get this far.

If you refuse to cross this line, you aren't ever going to get inside there.

Same for whatever mental affliction we're trying to work with.

Work your way out.

It requires a pretty high level of mindfulness.

Of course, it's one thing to avoid having a relationship with somebody.

It takes a lot more subtlety to avoid touching them, avoid a conversation with them, avoid whatever your criteria is going to be.

In these five schism things or five worst deeds, we're probably not in danger of doing any of them. But we can work our way through this target and see: Where can I really, really carefully avoid ever even getting close to any of those.

Geshela taught it by way of, I'm going to avoid this, I'm going to avoid that.

I like to think of it too in terms of turning it around and doing the opposite.

If we're training ourselves in the opposite of killing mother, killing father, killing Arhat, and we can add that to our onion skin thing, we're training ourselves in these protective behaviors.

Then we're not ever going to get close to the negative behaviors—that's really protecting us from the center.

If your mother's still living, and she's asked you to be the one to pull the plug, think it through. Have a deep conversation with her. Maybe you decide, Mom, I just can't do that for you. Then do what one needs to do to protect life such that she never gets in that situation.

People can just drop dead. People can not get put on life support.

It's not a failure for someone to die, but we don't want to be in the position of being the one that has to bring it on.

Even when we understand they're going to go on, they're going to have another life. It's okay. We don't know for sure what they're projecting karma is going to be at the moment.

Geshela says,

Think of the deed you're wanting to avoid.

Think of the thing that takes us to that deed.

Think of the thought that leads to the thing that would take us to that deed.

Find the habit that leads to the thought, that leads to the thing that leads

to that deed

And work at the habit.

Change the habit and then that whole domino won't happen.

That's true for anything we're trying to avoid doing.

We find the thing we want to avoid.

Find the thing that triggers it.

Find the thought that triggers the thing.

Find the habit that triggers the thought.

Work on that habit.

It's much easier than trying to work on the actual wrong deed.

Almost done here.

Second Set of 5 Close to the 5 Heinous Deeds

(93:41) There's a second set of five.

These are called the five immediate misdeeds and the five that are close to them.

These other five are the five that are close to them, and these five are:

To rape your mother, who's also an Arhat. It apparently happens.
To kill a Bodhisattva of certainty. A Bodhisattva of certainty means that that Bodhisattva has only a hundred kelpas to go before they reach total enlightenment. It's like at a certain bhumi level of Bodhisattvahood. How do I know? I don't know.
To kill any one of the seven high practitioners. The seven high practitioners refers to those on the path of seeing and beyond. So path of seeing and the seven levels afterwards.
To steal the property of the sangha.
To destroy images, alters, temples out of anger and hatred.

These five that are close to the five that are the worst, Geshela says, I don't really understand what's the difference between them.

He says, the scriptures just says, the hell realms from these other five are just not so bad as the hell realms of the original five.

It's like, come on, a hell realm is bad no matter what.

So here's five more things to avoid and to develop the opposite of.

In the reading there's this debate that somebody says, Well wait, you're saying that these are the five worst deeds and the five that are close to being the worst deeds. But in the scripture, Buddha says, the most serious bad deeds are the mental bad deeds. And none of these 10 are mental deeds.

It is a good question.

But then the explanation is, when Buddha was talking about the mental bad deeds are the worst bad deeds, he was talking in relation to the 10 non virtues as they are organized by the three gates—body, speech and mind.

In comparing the bad deeds of body, bad deeds of speech and bad deeds of mind, the bad deeds of mind are the worst.

That seems odd, because it's like, come on, being jealous of my neighbor is worse than killing somebody?

The scripture says, no, not like that. But in the sense of the bad deeds of mind are what motivate us to do any of the others.

It would've been my jealousy, or my anger, or my ill will, or my just plain wrong view that made me think it was okay to go kill somebody.

If we didn't have wrong view, if we didn't have wrong mental factor, we would never allow ourselves to do a deed that's harmful to another.

We only do a deed that's harmful to another because we think it's going to help us in some way.

We don't just go have fun doing harm to others. Some people do.

But then there's this big debate if they get happy harming others…

Five Wrong Views that Lead us to do Harmful Things

There are actually five kinds of wrong view through which we allow ourselves to do any other deed that will come back to us as harmful.

It's through one of these five.

This is not on your homework, it's not part of class, but Geshela gave it as part of classes. I don't know, some extra credit or something.

The first of these five kinds of wrong view—we learned the one called LOKTA already, it's the fifth.

The first one is called extreme view. Extreme view means to believe that things exist in just the way they appear to exist. And if they don't exist like that, they must not exist at all. Sound familiar? That's called wrong view or extreme view, both extremes. This extreme, that extreme.
Second one is called perishable view. This is to believe that me and what belongs to me are self existent. Me and what belongs to me have their identities, their qualities in them. First link in the wheel.
Third one is called mistaken view. All of these are mistaken, but this one gets the title mistaken. Which is to practice mistaken kinds of morality and asceticism thinking it will take us further on our spiritual path, mistaken view. There are other traditions that say, stand on one foot for 30 years and you'll gain your liberation, or beat yourself to burn off your bad deeds. This tradition says that's a hugely mistaken view. Enough bad stuff's going to happen to you. You don't have to bring it on.
The four is called best view—which is kind of funny. It's not the best wrong view, but it means that you think your views are the best, but the views that you're holding to are wrong. You don't know they're wrong. My view is the best. Who doesn't have that one?
The last one is the ass backward view, the LOKTA, the wrong view that has determined that karma can't be, there's no such thing as karma. There's no such thing as Buddhahood. Ass backwards.

One or more of these wrong views is what's in motion as we're choosing our behaviors in order to get what we want and to avoid what we don't want.

Our practice is to recognize that and decide, no, I'm under the influence of that wrong view.

What's my right view? Can I apply it?

It's really hard to do that when you're in the midst of an event.

We use our meditation time to practice, to think it through, to get familiar, to work it out, which increases the likelihood of us being able to actually apply it when we get in a situation.

If not actually in the moment of the situation very swiftly afterwards.

Oh man, missed it again. The sooner we have that regret, the less damage is done.

The seed gets negated quickly when our regret kicks in.

every time we do that, it gets a little bit easier, a little bit faster for the regret to kick in.

Can we get to where the regret kicks in as I'm starting to say that nasty thing back again?

Then mid-sentence.

That‘s a milestone, to get to that.

It's is a practice, it's a training.

It can be like a game, really, if we don't take our successes and failures so personally. It's like, oh man, black stone into the pocket, but some white ones also.

So again, Geshela says we're probably not close to doing any of these deeds and hopefully never will be.

But: do the target thing.

Get yourself way out here on the outer rim and so you can live with some greater assurance and ease.

Okay, that's class nine. I get 10 minutes back in my bank.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you. I'll see you Sunday for class 10. Have fun. Thank you for doing your homeworks, everybody.

Class 10: The Relative Severity of Deeds and What Causes It

7 July 2024

Link to audio: ACI 5 - Class 10

For the recording, welcome back. We are ACI course 5, class 10. It's July 7th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Usual opening]

The Source of All My Good

The source of all my good

Is my kind Lama, my Lord;

Bless me first to see

That taking myself to you

In the proper way

Is the very root

Of the Path, and grant me then

To serve and follow you

With all my strength and reverence.

Bless me first to realize

That the excellent life

Of leisure I have found

Just this once

Is ever so hard to find

And ever so valuable;

Grant me then

To wish, and never stop to wish,

That I could take

Its essence night and day.

My body and the life in it

Are fleeting as the bubbles

In the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall

The death that will destroy me soon;

And help me find sure knowledge

That after I have died

The things I’ve done, the white or black,

And what these deeds will bring to me,

Follow always close behind,

As certain as my shadow.

Grant me then

Ever to be careful

To stop the slightest

Wrong of the many wrongs we do,

And try to carry out instead

Each and every good

Of the many that we may.

Bless me to perceive

All that’s wrong with the seemingly

good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted.

They are the door

To every pain I have.

Grant me then

To strive instead

For the happiness of freedom.

Grant that these pure thoughts

May lead me to be watchful

And to recall

What I should be doing,

Grant me to give

The greatest care

To make the vows of morality

The essence of my practice;

They are the root

Of the Buddha’s teaching.

I have slipped and fallen

Into the sea

Of this suffering life;

Bless me to see

That every living being,

Every one my own mother,

Has fallen in too.

Grant me then

To practice the highest

Wish for enlightenment,

To take upon myself

The task of freeing them all.

Bless me to see clearly

That the Wish itself

Is not enough,

For if I’m not well trained

In the three moralities,

I cannot become a Buddha.

Grant me then

A fierce resolve

To master the vows

For the children of the Victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain

The path where quietude

And insight join together;

One which quiets

My mind from being

Distracted to wrong objects,

The other which analyzes

The perfect meaning

In the correct way.

Grant that once I’ve practiced well

The paths shared and become

A vessel that is worthy,

I enter with perfect ease

The Way of the Diamond,

Highest of all ways,

Holiest door to come inside

For the fortunate and good.

Bless me to know

With genuine certainty

That when I have entered thus,

The cause that gives me

Both the attainments

Is keeping my pledges

And vows most pure.

Grant me then

To always keep them

Even at the cost of my life.

Bless me next

To realize precisely

The crucial points

Of both the stages,

The essence of

The secret ways.

Grant me then

To practice as

The Holy One has spoken,

Putting all my efforts in

And never leaving off

The Practice of the Four Times,

Highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that

The spiritual Guide

Who shows me this good road,

And all my true

Companions in this quest

Live long and fruitful lives.

Bless and grant me that

The rain of obstacles,

Things within me

Or outside me

That could stop me now,

Stop and end forever.

In all my lives

May I never live apart

From my perfect Lamas,

May I bask in the glory

Of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly

Every good quality

Of every level and path,

And reach then quickly

The place where I

Become myself

The One who holds the Diamond

Review Class 9

(13:05) Last class was the immediate misdeeds.

Called the immediate misdeeds because the instant you do them, you immediately go to the hell realm, right?

(Nattie) Bardo and hell.

(Lama Sarahni) No. But the seed is planted with such power that that seed will be your projecting karma at the end of this life. It's not that you drop dead the instant you do one of these and go to hell.

It's that your very next life will be you in a hell realm.

We wanted to know about those five and the five that are close to them so that we can avoid them, right?

That's enough review. Let's go to this class.

Class 10: How to Make Karma More Powerful

A natural question that would come up in our minds after hearing all this stuff about karma. Like two natural questions come up.

One is eh gads. What do I do with all the crap karma that I know I've got?

And the other question is, well, now that I understand more about what karma really means, my behavior imprints on my mind in such a way that the results are either pleasant or unpleasant according to what I did. So oh my gosh, my behavior now is my power, my superpower. And that we can make those seeds in a vague kind of way or we can make those seeds in such a way that they could be powerful enough that we could even transform ourselves in this very lifetime, if we knew how to do that, to stop suffering for everybody.

So our question would be how do we make karma more powerfully?

Again, if we understand how we make karma powerfully, we avoid making negative karma powerfully, and we focus on making good karma powerfully. It increases the power of our choice making.

Geshela shared that at the end of the Abhidharmakosha, there's a chapter that's talking about the six perfections.

Which is curious because we learned this is a teaching from the Sutras to a Lower Way audience, a lower capacity audience, who believes that the highest achievable thing for oneself is reaching Nirvana. And that the way you reach Nirvana is by coming to intellectually understand selflessness and eventually experience selflessness directly so that you can really start burning off the seeds for those mental afflictions and stop making more of them, and reach that state of mind called freedom from grief. Free of all grief, the end of all grief—Nirvana.

So why would that text that's teaching that, have a section on the six perfections.

The six perfections are about the Mahayana practice of becoming a Buddha.

They're directed at first growing the goodness so that we can grow the two Bodhichittas. Meaning the Bodhichitta of the wish, the deceptive Bodhichitta, that feeling I want to be Buddha so that I can help stop everybody's suffering.

And ultimate Bodhichitta, which is that state of mind experiencing emptiness directly, called emptiness at that level instead of selflessness from the other level.

But the lack of the absence of self nature that's experienced is identical regardless of those two practitioners.

How it's interpreted when you come out is a little different, actually a lot different.

Technically, says Geshe Michael, that what is meant by Bodhichitta and so what's meant by a Bodhisattva is different at Abhidharmakosha level than what's meant by Mahayana.

The debate that comes later is Lower Schools don't generate Bodhichitta, and their argument is, Yes they do, because there it is in Abhidharmakosha, chapter on Bodhichitta and the six perfections.

But those are still in the context of how to reach Nirvana, in that what they mean by my enlightenment is reaching Nirvana.

It's not contradictory, says Geshe Michael, but we can use it.

In that chapter that's talking about the practice of the six perfections, it gives some details about the aspects of those six perfections that will help us apply ourselves to those six perfections as a way of life—whether we are doing it to reach Nirvana or doing it to reach Buddhahood.

The information that Abhidharmakosha gives us is usable by both of us, all of us.

That's why we're studying it. It gives us these details about planting seeds—in relation to the practice of giving is the one that Geshe Michael covers in this class.

The text goes into the others as well.

Geshela suggested that it would be well worth one's time to take the information given about giving from this class and work your way through it for moral discipline, and not getting angry, and joyous effort, and meditation, and wisdom.

When you've got that all mapped out, you have a roadmap that you could refer to about how to do any one of those perfection-izing deeds to the highest extent at any given moment possible. It'll be what you need to self-manage your behavior.

Not that just because we know it or have a nice chart made up that we'll actually be able to do it. But by review, practice, fail, try again, we grow the goodness through which we can be successful in making those changes.

The Four Kinds of Giving according to Abhidharma

Vocabulary Class 10:

jinpa

dak ki dun chir

shen dun chir

nyi kye dun chir

nyi kye min chir

(22:15) JINPA is the name of the first perfection.

In Mahayana tradition the perfection of giving has four aspects of the practice

giving material things,
giving protection,
giving love, and
giving the dharma.

In Abhidharma level they offer four types of giving as well, but they're different.

They're more like four different states of mind we might have as we're doing our act of giving.

These are the four:

DAK KI DUN CHIR. Giving for one‘s own benefit

SHEN DUN CHIR Giving for others‘ benefit

NYI KAY DUN CHIR Giving for boths benefit

NYIKAY MIN CHIR Giving for nones benefit

DAK = me

SHEN = other

DAK KI DUN CHIR

CHIR = benefit

DUN CHIR = for the benefit

So one level of giving is giving that's for one's own benefit, giving to another for one's own benefit.

SHEN DUN CHIR is giving for others benefit. SHEN is other.

NYI KAY DUN CHIR is giving for the benefit of both—self and others.

You can guess what the MIN CHIR is. Is giving for the benefit of neither.

Let's look at these.

1. Giving for one‘s own benefit

(25:10) The first type of giving—DAK KI DUN CHIR—giving for one's own benefit.

It sounds like, oh yeah, selfish slob giving. It's not all together a bad thing.

We're still giving, versus hoarding, versus not giving. We're still going to give.

But in this level of giving, it means we are giving actually to an inanimate object, or to a being that we can't—like giving to a Buddha—we can't actually see them get it.

We can imagine we're giving something to a Buddha, but they're not physically there to say, Oh, thank you. Further they don't need it. They don't need anything that we might give.

The one who gives to either an inanimate object, meaning a temple, a church, the altar, or to a being who isn't actually there to receive it is referring to the giving in that way done by a being who's not yet free of desire for the desire realm.

This person does whatever giving they're giving in order to get results within their desire realm. Not necessarily expecting it within that lifetime, but probably doing it for some result in this life worldly results in my lifetime.

They say this kind of giving for one's own benefit.

Also someone who's in a deep meditation, in those levels of concentration where they are so withdrawn, they're unaware of a desire realm world, and in their meditation they're making offerings—I guess they're talking about here—they're still making karmas that will come back to them in the desire realm. Because they are perceiving themselves as a desire realm being going into that meditation. And when they come out of that meditation, they're back to seeing themselves as a desire realm being, and so they're going to get their results in the desire realm.

Again, it doesn't mean avoid that, because we're still given something.

It's better than saying, well no, I'm not going to give anything to anybody because I'm still a desire realm being, and I'll just do it in that lesser way. Those are stingy karmas, and we don't want those.

So this kind of giving is a goodness, but the mindset of the person is doing it at this lesser level for some personal benefit, some personal worldly benefit.

2. Giving for others benefit

Second, kind of giving—SHEN DUN CHIR—giving for the benefit of others.

This kind of giving, the giver really has no care about any desire realm result that will come to them from their active giving. Their full on interested in benefiting the other in their decision of what to give, who to give to, when to give, none of the, „Well what result will I get from this“, crosses their mind.

They say, for a being to do this kind of giving, they would have to be a being who has no desire for the desire realm. So we're talking about an Arya or beyond.

This situation would be an Arya or higher, giving something to someone else simply in order to help them. Now, just because one's an Arya does not mean you've lost all desire for all desire realm results. You've only lost three mental afflictions, technically.

But you can have a state of mind that's solely motivated to help somebody else in certain circumstances, certain levels of high levels of concentration. You could as an Arya be completely unconcerned with the result and simply see an opportunity and give in order to benefit the other.

Is the Arya going to get a pleasurable result from it?

Absolutely. But they don't care about that.

That's not included in their planning, in their implementation, in their completion.

3. Giving for both’s benefit

Then the third one—NYI KAY MIN CHIR—is giving to benefit both self and other.

This one we could kind of work out.

The giver would be a being who still desire realm desirer. Who we choose we're going to give to, what we're going to give, why we're going to give, still has this underlying theme of „I'll get something good back from it, that's why I'm going to do this“.

Then we're giving to a being who is also a desire realm being. They're wanting a desire realm result. They're actually getting a desire realm result by me giving them something, that's their result of something. My seeing them as a desire realm being and holding myself in that way as well makes this giving benefiting them and benefiting myself.

Still not a bad thing, just limited in its power of its result.

In all of these you can see the key difference is the giver and the level of their mind's identity or attachment to the desire realm.

The scripture also says that at this level for the benefit of both, an Arya could also do giving at this level. If they're in a state of mind that is from those old seeds, even though they don't believe them anymore, they could still be giving with some feeling underneath that „I give this to them, I'm going to get something back“.

So even Aryas can be at this level. But Arya and above can also manage to focus their mind and their giving in such a way that they can do the SHEN DUN CHIR, to benefit only other.

4. Giving with neither benefitting

Then—NYIKAY MIN CHIR—is giving where neither one benefits.

Why in the world would you ever do that kind of giving?

Because it's still giving.

But they say that the being who could do giving that benefits no one, like remember the mantra from Thousand Angels of Bliss—MIKME TSERWAY TERCHIN CHENREZIG—it means Loving Eyes with nothing it sees. This being who gazes on all the world with loving Gogo eyes and they see nothing.

It doesn't mean they see nothing. It means they see the no self nature nature of all the things that they see. And that means they see that all those beings‘ suffering is so unnecessary.

No wonder they're the epitome of compassion and love. They just want to reach right into you and pick you up by the heels, and shake your ignorance right out of you.

It's like, Please do that to me. And they can't.

Someone who's free of the desire for a desire realm result, giving to another being who is free of the desire for a desire realm result, is giving where neither benefits.

They say this situation is where a Buddha is interacting with another Buddha.

They are giving, they are sharing with each other.

Neither one needs it, neither one benefits from it.

But they're giving, not but, and they're giving. Because the mindset's entirely different. Their giving is this automatic natural outflow of their ultimate compassion, ultimate love, and it's how their merit is perpetuated.

Just because you reach Buddhahood doesn't mean you're Buddhahood self consistently. They're still planting-ripening, planting-ripening. It's kind of happening simultaneously, but the process is still happening. Which means there still needs to be merit making happening—and that's what Buddhas do.

Geshela said, we don't actually usually stop to think about what it is we really want when we give something to somebody.

We're just in a circumstance.

You're going to visit a friend.

What can I take my friend?

I find some little thing that I hope that they will like—whether they keep it or not doesn't matter to me, but I just want to take them something.

Why do I do that?

Oh, my mom taught me it was play.

Oh, it makes me happy to see them go, oh, you thought about me enough to bring me something?

It's like, okay, so I do it so they'll like me better.

Okay, so I do it so that…

Why do we do it beyond I'm just supposed to?

Then with that understanding of our motivation, we can fine tune our giving to them.

Maybe we change the thing we give.

Maybe we change the state of mind we have as to why we're giving it and as we're giving it.

We'll see with the rest of this class how we can fine tune our thinking to take that giving that was motivated by just, „That's what it is to be nice to that's what it is to be nice.“ to „That‘s what it is to be nice and I can create this person into a Buddha someday.“—by giving them the same little silly trinket. Because my mind is different as to why I am doing it and as I'm doing it. We'll see.

Four kinds of giving.

(39:20) When we understand these things really well, deeply enough to actually put them into practice day by day, moment by moment, we find that we use our desire realm in order to create happy, ultimately happy beings.

That's how we change the desire realm from desire realm to Buddha paradise realm. It's what it means for the realm to change.

Geshela says, the same system could be such that we could create everything and anything we could want worldly, samsarically.

These same principles, they are what creates our experience.

You want to use them to create your wealth, your perfect partner, your perfect health, save the world and then you die.

That's all right, if that's what you want. You can do that.

But when we really understand, we'll want to use the principles for a higher purpose.

Geshela says, when you really get it, you would just be giving, giving, giving.

You would just be giving. Like take the idea, I would be giving stuff, money, time, attention, anything I could give into becoming the verb—I would be giving.

Just everything about me would be outflowing when we really change our seeds from misunderstanding karma and emptiness to understanding karma and emptiness.

The difficulty is that darn time delay, because our misunderstanding and our doubt flourishes in the time delay between „I'm so kind and my world still treats me badly. And I'm being kinder and kinder, and it still treats me badly.“

It does take that powerful act of faith, born of logic to say, No, damn it, I'm sticking with it. I'm sticking to my story no matter what. That at some point enough yak poop hits the fan and it gets really, really hard.

The most powerful kind of giving is based on the giving in order to bring the highest karmic result, which would include the best result for the highest number.

When we think of it that way, we realize that we can't physically do all the kinds of goodness that even are involved in the perfection of giving, let alone the other five.

It's just overwhelming to think of all the deeds we should be doing according to the verse, bless me, to keep in mind what I should be doing.

Should not because Buddha said so, but should because I understand about seeds. Quickly we say, I just don't have the capacity yet to be everywhere and everything for everybody—which is why I'm on this path so that I can grow that capacity.

So we learn to prioritize our virtue business, Geshela always says.

Prioritization of our Virtue Business/our Giving

(43:58) There are three aspects to the prioritization.

There are qualities of the giver that make their giving more powerful.
There are the qualities of the act, the giving, that makes the giving more powerful for the giver.
There are the qualities of the object being given to that effect the strength of the karmic seed.

When we hear these, they're the three spheres: the self, the other, the interaction between.

But it sounds like it's the subject, the act, the giving, and then the qualities of the object. I always automatically think, oh, that's the thing I'm giving.

But the qualities of the object being given to, it means the other, the one you're giving to.

Yes, there's something about the quality of what you're giving that influences what your result's going to be. But that's a lesser factor in this prioritization understanding.

We're talking about

the qualities of oneself, the giver,
how you go about giving and
who it is you choose to give to. Who or what, because maybe you're giving your money to a program, maybe you're giving your time to the temple. It's not a being that you're giving to, it's an inanimate thing, which is why they call it the object being given to.

7 Qualities of the Giver that makes the Giving more powerful

To understand about the quality of the giver that makes their giving more powerful, the scripture talks about what's called the seven riches of an Arya.

PAKPAY NOR DUN

DUN = seven

NOR = the riches, treasures

PAKPAY = Tibetan for Arya

The seven riches of an Arya.

An Arya is someone who has experienced selflessness directly. So-called a realized being, which is what Arya means. Superior, superior to what they've ever been before, not meaning superior to everybody else.

An Arya has these seven qualities that vastly increases the power of their deeds.

So you, the Arya, have these seven qualities.

Because you have these seven qualities, you know it about yourself.

The seeds you plant as you give include those qualities.

You are a powerful karmic object even for yourself.

Here's the seven:

pakpay nor dun

depa

tsultrim

tong wa

tu-pa khor sum

ngotsa shepa

trelyupa

sherab

drowa

They say, Yes, these are seven that you have by way of being Arya. But it does not mean that you can't have them before you're Arya.

We can grow anyone or all of these seven, grow them in our identity, in our motivational factors, and they will increase the power of ourselves as a giver.

Not the power over others, our own powerful seeds.

DEPA Faith

(48:20) Here we understand faith borne of logic, meaning we've used logic to bring ourselves to a valid perception of something that we could not perceive directly with our senses. So now we believe it based on logic.

Here, faith means because of that we have recognized the goodness of something.

Let's say that what we're talking about our faith is as our faith is in Buddha, or our faith is in our teacher.

The faith in the Buddha means we recognize that being the Buddha's goodness. We admire it and we aspire to become like that.

That's what the quality of faith is here.

It's quite different than what we think of as faith.

This is, Wow, Lama is so amazing. I really admire it. I want to be like that.

As we have that faith in ourselves about Buddha, and we want to be like Buddha, as we're giving flowers to my Aunt Mary, my flower giving to Aunt Mary is more powerful seed planting for me than just me, Sarahni, giving flowers to Aunt Mary.

Do you see?

Our own state of mind makes us a more powerful giver.

Faith is the first one.

TSUL-TRIM Morality

Morality meaning avoiding those 10 non virtues, avoiding harming others in those specific ways, which really covers all kind of avoiding harming.

If we are a strongly moral person, the power of any of our actions is more powerful than for a less moral person.

We get more bang for our buck in any of our deeds from being moral on purpose.

(Break)

(51:56) I see something in my notes that I failed to say about the faith piece. Geshehla said that the faith is about admiration and aspiration to be like the Buddha or be like the teacher.

Then he said, but that sense of recognizing goodness, admiring it and aspiring to be like that, which is the power through which our giving is stronger, that doesn't have to be limited to Buddhas and spiritual teachers.

We can grow the habit of looking for the goodness in others and admiring the goodness that we see. Even when our habit is to see the 16 million lousy things about them. But to just say, okay, let's focus on their goodness and admire that goodness.

It would be really hard to aspire to the goodness in somebody where they have 16,000 bad qualities. But they're one goodness. I really would like to be like that goodness. That effort, to look for the good in others, admire it and aspire to that good quality as we're interacting with them, has a powerful impact on the seeds that we plant that grows in our mind, that you can see where it's going to go. We'll start seeing more goodness around us, and we'll be seen as having those goodness.

Then we're back to, well, is that why I was doing it?

Or was I doing it, because when I'm seeing those qualities, I can have a higher benefit to others rather than when I'm the one with the 16,000 negative qualities and only one good one.

All of these factors, there are all these nuances and that's why we're learning all of them. Because they're all within the purview of how we make our choices, choices of behavior.

TONG WA Generosity

(54:45) Here the generosity of an Arya is that they don't give their leftovers. They don't give the stuff, because they don't particularly want it.

They give from their main pool of resources. They just give what's needed in the moment. With none of these other factors that are like, oh, good, I can get rid of this, or none of that playing out.

They're just generous with their resources, with their time, with their knowledge, with whatever appears to be useful to whatever situation.

It just sort of pours out of them.

Again, all of us have circumstances where we can do that and other circumstances where we can't. That's what it is to be human. We see now that maybe this is one of the factors that I can work on. Maybe it's one that I'll work on later, and you put it on the shelf for now.

TU-PA Learning

TU = learning

PA = hearing

TU-PA = learning and hearing.

This means an Arya, to get to be Arya, put in many, many, many hours of classroom and contemplation, and maybe debate many, many, many teachings and study. Then, as Arya, they're still doing that as they move themselves through their levels.

The seeds made by thousands of hours of repetition, like learning and thinking and learning and thinking, all of it soaks in deeper and deeper.

All of those seeds make us a more powerful karmic object even for ourselves.

Our own acts of giving et cetera become more powerfully planted in our mind. Not meaning giving to myself, but the acts that we do towards the others of our world. The seeds are more powerfully planted because of our knowledge and our study, our hours of effort. Mainly the study and effort is directed towards that topic called the KHOR SUM. I didn't write it. It means the three spheres which we'll talk about in a little bit.

At Abhidharma level, the three spheres is called the selflessness of the three spheres. In Mahayana, it's called the emptiness of the three spheres.

The idea is the same:

being aware of the selflessness of oneself as the giver,
the selflessness of the giving, meaning no self nature of the giving in the giving, and
the selflessness of the being to whom I am giving.

Selflessness doesn't mean whether or to what extent they are selfish or not.

It means the extent to which we understand their no self nature at whatever level we understand no self to mean.

Lower level, Oh, they're changing, changing, changing.

Little Higher Level, they're there, but my seeds make me see them the way that I see. Little higher, 50, 50 little higher still, nothing but my seeds without going off the cliff of, oh, well then they're not real.

They're real because they're my seeds.

KHOR SUM, according to the level that we can manage. As opposed to no KHOR SUM at all:

Hi friend here. I brought you a little something.

Just ordinary me, ordinary them, ordinary giving to please them a little bit.

That's goodness.

But a me thinking of their good qualities that I aspire to, a thinking of my good qualities that I aspire to, increase to whatever extent I can, and my aspiration that someday by this little act of giving, that person will end their suffering forever someday.

In the same activity that seeds planted are very different.

It's all what's going on in my mind as I do it.

Geshela told this story about Lama Tsongkapa.

He was about 30 years old, so he's already a rip snort and debate guy.

He is sitting with his Lama Umapa, who apparently can see Manjushri directly and Je Tsongkapa aspires to be able to see Manjushri directly. He holds Manjushri as his heart teacher and he is desperate to see him directly, but can't yet.

So he and Umapa are sitting there and Manjushri is there with them. Je Tsongkapa can't see him.

He says, Lama Umapa, can I ask Lord Manjushri some questions through you?

Yeah, sure.

Would you ask Manjushri, how's my conception of emptiness? Is it pretty good?

And Umapa looks at Manjushri and Manjushri goes, eh, not so good. So tells Je Tsongkapa that and he goes, well, well wait. Do you mean I'm a Lower Middle Way, not Higher Middle Way? And Manjushri says to Umapa, eh, neither one. Like not even Middle Way yet.

What would you expect somebody who probably already has a pretty good reputation and is probably thinking he's pretty smart, gets told by his heart teacher that he can't see yet. Nah. You're not even close.

I don't know. Our ego might go, Well on you. And walk away.

Horrible seeds.

Or you might go, wow, really I need to work harder, I need to study more, I need more teachings, I need to debate.

Of course that's what Je Tsongkapa did. Back to the drawing board, and he worked further with his study, and then we know the end of the story.

So especially when we think, like I'm talking to myself now, that yeah, yeah, I understand that emptiness thing. No, I haven't seen it directly yet, but I get it intellectually really well. So now I just need to keep working on my meditation to get there directly.

That's a big mistake, to let myself rest on my laurels and not keep pushing and pushing even my intellectual understanding of emptiness by continuing to work it out over and over and over again.

It's hard because you go through the same sequence, you get to the same Aha, you sit there. It's like, how many times do I have to do this?

But you see that attitude is a blocker. Instead of, wow, how many times do I get to do this? Because every time I do, I get it a little bit better.

It's a choice.

We can get habitually, yeah, I understand it good enough, I'm just waiting now.

Or we can say, No. Manjushri would look at me and go, nah, and go back to the drawing board.

Why am I talking about that?

Because the Arya has these great seeds of all that study. They are still studying and that makes them a more powerful giving object.

We can grow that ourselves. Which you are doing by doing your ACI, and your homeworks and quizzes, and et cetera. So good job you.

NGOTSA SHEPA Shame

We've had that term NGOTSA before. Anybody remember?

Technically the word means shame, to be embarrassed about something.

I like the term personal integrity. Meaning you'll avoid doing some kind of negative deed even if nobody ever would know. You're the only one that would know. You still say, Nope, I won't do that, because I hold myself higher than that. Personal integrity, the word is shame.

To have this high level of self consciousness makes our act of giving more powerful than to not have that high sense of personal integrity.

Geshela said, if His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives a hundred dollars to an orphanage, and the neighborhood ax murderer gives a hundred dollars to the same orphanage, his holiness makes hugely more powerful giving seeds than does the ax murderer. Because of the quality of the state of mind of His Holiness versus the ax murderer.

All these different factors involved. Same deed, different qualities of the mind perceiving itself, doing the deed.

Is it a good deed for the ax murderer to give money to an orphanage?

Absolutely.

That karmic seed planting is different.

TREL YUP Avoid bad deeds out of consideration of the impact on others

Someone who has this sense of consideration. Meaning they avoid doing any kind of unkind deeds because of the impact it would have on others.

On one level because of the impact on oneself by way of the other person seeing.

But then at higher levels because of our concern of the impact on the other by them seeing us do such a thing.

This high level of concern over our impact on others.

Our impact on others comes from their karma. So we really don't have control over that. But we do have control over our choice of behaviors based on a concern of whether it might negatively influence them, and if it might decide not to do it. That's the important piece here. That we change our behavior based on what we anticipate could be a negative impact on somebody else.

(68:25) Geshela told us a story of this monk who usually meditated so deeply that he wouldn't do his mandala offerings.

Typically you have your mandala kit, and as part of your preliminaries, you actually do the whole rice thing kit, and then start your preliminaries.

He would sit down into meditation, and just go into meditation. So he didn't do all that stuff physically.

His sponsor was coming to visit and he realized, oh my gosh, my sponsor's coming to visit. I should have my mandala kit in my hands. That would impress my sponsor. Then, before the sponsor got there, he realized that his motivation was not pure and he threw the mandala on the ground, and the rice goes everywhere.

He's sitting there and his sponsor shows up and sees the mandala scattered all over everywhere, and who knows what the sponsor was thinking.

But that monk's teacher, who was far away but clairvoyant, witnessed this whole thing and he sends a message to the monk, it's like, wow, I really admire your pure motivation and your pure actions.

Even though the sponsor goes away, who am I really sponsoring? Who knows? Maybe they even withdrew their sponsorship. But it was a powerful goodness, because it was consistent with his higher motivation, that he had been willing to compromise to please the supporter.

It's a little kind of twisted story there when we're talking about TREL YUP.

You would think it would've been the right thing to do, to hold his mandala so he wouldn't offend his support person. But he was wanting to not offend the support person, because he relies on the support person. So he was willing to deceive the support person, and he decided, no. More important. Do you see? It's slippery.

SHERAB Wisdom

Seventh of the seven riches of the Arya is SHERAB, wisdom.

At Abhidharma level, it's understanding selflessness.

It's the most powerful of these power increasers because understanding the true nature of oneself, the other, and the act of giving as we are giving is what technically makes that act of giving a cause for either our Nirvana, if that's our goal, or our Buddhahood, if that's our goal.

Having emptiness in mind is the wisdom that makes the perfection of giving the perfection of giving.

Again, we can have an intellectual understanding of the emptiness of the three spheres as we give. Long before we're Arya, by training ourselves to remember to do it. It takes time. But do it once and you've got some seeds planted that are hugely more powerful than any we've done before. Then do it again and you've added seeds and added to those seeds from before. Do it again.

Do you see how it's going to build?

3 Qualities of the Act of Giving that makes the Giving more powerful

(73:00) The giving itself can be more or less powerful according to three factors in the act of giving.

While we are giving, there are these three factors.

Attitude of Respect

One is to give with an attitude of respect for the being we are giving to and the way we convey our attitude of respect. We have it in mind and then we convey with our physical act that sense of respect for the other.

Meaning we present the offering in a kind, gentle way.

Our tradition is when you give somebody something, you give it with both hands.

Typically that's towards a higher being than you. Then that would imply, well anybody you see as equal to you or lower, you could give it with one hand.

But why not give respectfully to anybody or even anything?

You're putting something on the altar? Use both hands.

Feeding the carrot to the horse. Use both hands. Keep your palm open so they don't get your fingers instead.

The sense of respect as we're giving.

The story is a king might see that there's a hungry person outside and tell his servant, go get that person a plate of food.

Or the king can say, wait, time out, take a plate of food, and he himself take it out to the hungry person.

The king is showing respect by doing it himself is the classic example.

To give what is really needed at the time

Increases the power of our giving when it is serving a need.

Not meaning that's all the only time we ever give, but it's a factor.

To give in a way that does no harm to anyone else

To give in a way that does no harm to anyone else. That includes the one that you're giving too. They're in anyone else as well.

You wouldn't give somebody who's suicidal something that's poisonous, duh.

But you also wouldn't give alcohol to someone that has an alcohol problem, even if it's the thing that you do at Christmas time. You come up with something else.

You wouldn't give a stolen item to somebody else. Whether you stole it to give it away, or it was stolen and you know it, and now it's yours. Now you're trying to get rid of it. Because you don't want it, you try to give it to somebody else.

Something that has harmed others in the process of being procured, you don't give that either. Scripture says, you wouldn't give a goat to a butcher.

Those are the three having to do with the giving.

4 Qualities of the Object being Given to, the power of the recipient

(76:57) This one we have some Tibetan for.

There's four factors here:

DROWA type of being
DUK NGEL suffering
PENPA assistance
YONTEN good qualities

DROWA Type of being

DROWA means the type of being that we give to.

If you are human, humans can see other humans, and we can see animals. Who are technically in a different realm than ours, but their realm and our realm overlap enough that we can perceive beings of the animal realm. It seems like they can perceive us too.

There are other existing beings that are beyond most of our ability to perceive with our senses.

We really only have these two choices in our acts of giving to make a giving more powerful.

Is it more powerful to give to a human or give to an animal?

With this power of the object, there's a hierarchy, they say. In the sense of giving to a being who, well, we'll see.

Who's benefited us.

Who has the capacity to benefit a lot of others—either is doing it now, or has the capacity to do it soon in the future.

Whether they're actively suffering—big time suffering versus not so much suffering, versus only pervasive suffering.

The extent to which they've benefited us. Did I say that already?

There are all these different factors in this factor of just comparing human to animal within the realms type of being.

It is more powerful to give to a human than it is to give to an animal.

They say, even if the human is some horrible criminal and the animal is Lassie or flipper or Rin Tin Tin. Like I'm aging myself. Who is the animal superhero of these days, is there one?

No. Who is it? Not a cartoon character but a real animal like Lassie.

Lassie was this collie. She could do anything and she saved her little boy's life so many times, and she was so smart and amazing. I mean the service animals now, right? They're all extraordinary beings.

Come on, wouldn't it be more powerful to give to my cousin's service animal than to give to the neighborhood ax murderer?

Technically not.

This is a hard one. Because no matter how amazing Lassie is, Lassie cannot return enlightenment in her this lifetime. The ax murderer can. Crazy, huh?

Is he likely to? Probably not.

But, because he's human, he has the all six factors needed, and like Angulimala „I only need one finger left“, and then, oh, I guess not.“ Changes and reaches Arhat or something in that same lifetime where he killed 999 people for their finger.

So yeah, being human, neighborhood ax murderer could wake up one day, and go on to purify and make merit.

So they are more powerful, active giving than Lassie.

Technically, we are not in positions where we have to make the choice. But if we were and we wanted to make the biggest giving bang for our buck, we would choose a human over an animal.

Do both.

DUK NGEL Suffering

(82:10) The extent to which there's suffering going on.

Giving to someone who's obviously suffering is more powerful than giving to someone who's not in any great need.

Somebody who's cold, somebody who's sick, somebody who's hungry, somebody who's feeling unsafe. Then, now again, it's like, well, if I compare the hungry dog with the happy Lama, now which is more powerful?

You can't say take care of the dog and donate, dedicate it to your Lama.

It's not an either or with these.

These are all factors to consider.

PENPA Assistance

(83:00) Giving to a being who has given you assistance is more powerful than giving in the same way to someone who's never helped you, or even possibly harmed you, done the opposite.

Here in particular, we know about the assistance factor is, that the beings for a human being, the beings who are powerful karmic objects because of PENPA is the parents. Mother a little bit more strongly than father, but parents because they gave us this human body. We've heard this teaching a number of times.

Not the quality of their parenting. Simply the fact that they gave us this human body makes them powerful karmic objects.

But anyone who has assisted us is more powerful than somebody who in our this life we don't see that they've ever done anything for us.

There are lots of beings who assist us in many ways.

YONTEN High Spiritual Qualities

YONTEN means good qualities.

This factor is, it's a higher giving to give to a being with high spiritual qualities than to someone without those high spiritual qualities.

It's like high spiritual qualities according to whom?

It would have to be according to what we see in them.

But remember that thing about anger at a Bodhisattva, and you can't know who is a Bodhisattva and still it's like, well, I can't know who has spiritual qualities and who doesn't either.

But if there is somebody who I do see having high spiritual qualities, they are powerful giving object for me, and I would want to take advantage of them. And they would want me to take advantage of them in that way. Taking advantage, being a good thing, not a bad thing.

That holy being, they don't need anything from us.

They don't actually want anything from us except our ACI homeworks.

That being is purely being an object for us to create goodness towards.

They tell this story of this hermit who lived in a cave by a cliff. But people would come to visit and get teachings from him, and they'd bring these offerings. So they'd offer the offering, he'd do his thing, and then years later when he withdrew his emanation and people were there, I guess they had to clean out his cave the way you do for somebody who's gone. They couldn't find all these offerings that was given and they look over the cliff and there they are all down at the bottom of the cliff.

He would just take those offerings and pitch them. Like, I don't need these. Thank you so much.

Just a clue.

But does that negate the offering by the offerer?

The fact that the Lama took it and threw it out?

Not at all. They got their seeds. Lama was just making sure his place didn't get inundated.

High qualities of the one who we are giving to increases the power of our seeds.

Again, the example is, you buy a bouquet of flowers and you could give this bouquet of flowers to either your Aunt Mary or to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will go, Well, thank you, and hand them off.

Aunt Mary will go, Wow, thank you so much. She'll put them in water, she'll admire them and enjoy them for a week.

What seeds are the more powerful giving?

Do you see these nuances?

It's more powerful to give the flowers to the Dalai Lama who sees them for an instant and then they're gone. From our perspective, his perspective.

Versus ordinary Aunt Mary who enjoys them for a week, it's more powerful to give to His Holiness.

But don't make your mind think, oh, well then I'll never give flowers to Aunt Mary again. Because that‘s not the conclusion.

The conclusion could be Aunt Mary, she has no nature of her own. She looks like my mom's sister, but you know what? Could she be a Buddha giving me the opportunity to give flowers to a Buddha? She'll keep 'em for a week and enjoy 'em every day?

We can find the nuances and play with our own mind because of the empty nature of those objects. We can in our imagination change the power of our seeds by just thinking differently as we interact with the other.

Now, it gets a little dangerous, because it is fantasy. It is made up at first, and so we probably don't want to go to Aunt Mary and say, Aunt Mary, I'm seeing you as a Buddha right now so that I can increase the power of my seeds.

You don't do that.

You keep your Aunt Mary Buddha to yourself and be extra special kind, and helpful to Aunt Mary, and listen to what she has to say. Because if we're going to play out this scenario, she is Buddha talking to you and maybe she's going to say something that's a clue. Then, thank you Aunt Mary. I had a lovely day.

You dedicate it and rejoice that evening: I pretended that Aunt Mary was a Buddha and it was really fun and we had a nice time together.

Then what happens if you pretend Aunt Mary is a Buddha, you bring her flower and she just chews you a new one. Then the task is, She's still Buddha. Yikers, what do I do with this one?

Our own fantasy isn't going to play out necessarily the way our fantasy wants it to.

It's all part of the practice, is working with it either way it goes—if we're going to try this on for size.

YONTEN.

(91:14) Our question would be, I've got $20 in my pocket. What's the best thing I can do with it?

There's no black and white answer.

You're walking around with that $20 working with your state of mind, watching what's going on in your world, ready at the drop of a hat to do the highest thing that you can do with that $20. Making informed choices.

Committed and Collected Karma

(91:55) Last topic for this class: JE LA SAKPO it's called.

JE LA SAKPO it's referring to karma that is collected and committed.

JE = committed

SAKPO = collected

We've heard the term collected before. To collect karma, we understood to mean when you're done with the deed, the imprint gets made and you've collected the karma. Then it takes time before that karmic seed ripens and then we experience the result. But the collection happens at the finish of the deed.

But now they're saying there's this committed, this term committed. Karma that's committed and karma that's collected, and we get these four permutations:

You can have collected and committed.
You can have collected and not committed.
You can have committed and not collected, and
You can have not committed, not collected. Although I think that would be not a seed at all.

There are these different factors at play that make a seed be a seed that is collected and committed.

Committed here means committed to ripening, not the timeframe necessarily. Collected means the seed is planted.

Committed means that seed that's been planted is also put in the lineup that's going to go off eventually.

It implies that there are seeds that we can plant that don't ever get in the lineup to cross the threshold. They're in there somehow, but they don't have enough power to actually get over the hump.

And that there are seeds that get in the lineup. I mean, this is where it kind of falls apart. Because you have to have the seed planted, collected in order for it to be a seed that's committed to ripening. You can't really have a committed without a collected. Because collecting comes first.

A collected seed with certain power also becomes a committed seed, meaning committed to ripening, not committed as in „I committed the crime“. It's using the term committed differently.

We want to make good seeds that are collected and committed and we don't want to make bad seeds in such a way that they are both collected and committed.

Then if we have bad seeds that are collected and committed, we want to do something to damage their ability to get over the threshold to ripen.

If we have good seeds that are too vaguely good to be collected and committed, we want to do something that would increase the power of those vague seeds to get them into the category of being committed to ripening in their good way.

Following me? Collected and committed.

There are six factors that make a deed—whether it's good or bad—a deed that is JE LA SAKPO, both collected and committed. A seed made and a seed made such that it's in the lineup for crossing the threshold someday.

6 Factors for karma to be committed and collected

Deed Done Intentional

It increases the likelihood of the imprint being in the lineup for going off.

Complete Path of Karma

Remember the complete path of karma?

We clearly identified the object.
We had a certain intention.
We undertook to do the deed that we intended to do, and
We saw ourselves complete the deed that we intended to do towards the object that we correctly identified.

When we have all of that going on, we have collected and committed.

When we're missing some or other of those factors, you have a deed collected but not committed for what you intended to do.

Maybe you committed to something else. But it takes all four factors for that particular deed to become both collected and committed.

No Regrets

For a negative such deed, we would have to have no regret about it.

Regret means, oh man, I did that thing. It's going to come back as unpleasant. I wish I hadn't done it right.

That's simple regret, and it is a bittersweet feeling because, yeah, I have to admit that I did something that I am ashamed of. But I know by regretting it means I recognize it, and I really am sorry I did it, and something in me really wants to avoid doing it again.

Will I for sure not do it again? Probably not.

But this sense of regret can be a powerful positive force versus a, Ew, there I go again. That's guilt.

I'm just bad. I can't do it, I'll never do it right.

That sense, those seeds, both ripening and being planted just increases the power of not being able to change.

Versus regret is, oh, now I understand. I understand better. I'll try harder. I can do this.

It's an unpleasant state of mind that's a virtue, they say.

To have no regrets with some negative deed, it means we're actually being happy with what we did. Even if we're not necessarily rejoicing about it, we're not having that negation of it, the regret has on the negative seeds.

No Antidote

Doing the wrong deed with no antidote. It means, because we don't have any regret, of course, we're not going to do anything to make up for it.

Without making up for a negative deed, that negative deed seed is going to grow, and continue to grow.

The most powerful antidote is thinking about the emptiness and karmic seed, dependent origination, of the three spheres of that deed:

the emptiness of the me doing it,
why I did it,
how I was perceiving myself as I did it,
what my motivation was,
what I was thinking
the other towards which I did the deed, the blaming them, thinking their yucky qualities were in them,
thinking that what I did in the moment was going to fix the problem.

Identifying all those aspects of wrong belief that spurred my behavior in order to show ourselves that, oops, I goofed. I made a mistake here.

With that mistake comes the regret.

Just regret. I wish I hadn't done it.

Then from that we decide what can I do to make up for it?

The highest power is recognize the emptiness, and then secondly, we do the opposite. To do an opposite intentionally puts in a seed that is opposite of the negative seeds that are already there, already being chipped away by the regret.

The positive opposite just takes the rest of that seed and neutralizes it.

Then our restraint force, of course. We'll learn about.

Necessary Attendance - Glad you did it

In the four parts of a path of action it's the TARTUK, the completion, and the being satisfied with it. The sense of, and I do it again in the same situation.

This mental wrap up, Geshe Michael says.

Definite Karmic Result

With all those other five factors, you have the karmas that are both collected and committed. So it isn't really a separate factor, it's the addition of those previous five. That is what makes a deed be both collected and committed to ripening.

Not necessarily in that lifetime, because they can ripen in that lifetime, in the very next lifetime or any other. But not leaving him in this vague limbo, which apparently there are seeds in that category.

(103:52) Geshela says, why do you suppose Buddha taught us these four parts of a path of action and then elsewhere, he gives us all these other influences about karmic seeds?

It's like this isn't all from one sequential teaching of the Buddha. Abhidharma has taken everything, and rearranging it to put it into a sequence that we can understand.

So each of these different pieces about karma came out of Buddha according to the needs of the students. Fortunately, somebody put it all together in one place so that we have this encyclopedia.

Now we have this information that gives us these different nuances with which we can pre-plan our behavior according to our growing understanding of how we create our future by way of our current behavior.

But it takes time to piece all of that together.

Geshela says, take the time to go through these different aspects with moral discipline, with not getting angry, with joyous effort, like through the course of your ACI career. Don't sit down to do that all in a couple of days. It's too much.

But cook it. Work with it. Design. Learn how to design your behavior choices.

Geshela said it would be fun to design the ultimate good deed.

What would it be to be the highest aspect of all these different aspects of making a karmic seed? What might it look like?

It would have something to do with seeing oneself like pre Buddha.

It would be something like a Bodhisattva who's giving away any object for the sake of helping all living beings as they're helping just one or two.

This act of giving free of desire for the desire realm to another being who's in suffering, not yet free, but still is some kind of high object to give to, and all being performed in order to bring everybody to their freedom from suffering, so that they can bring everybody freedom from suffering, so they can bring everybody freedom from suffering… You can never stop saying it.

Then if you boil all that down, it would be like, well, that's all Bodhichitta.

It takes ultimate Bodhichitta to have deceptive Bodhichitta. But we grow our deceptive Bodhichitta so that we can reach ultimate Bodhichitta, and we hold Bodhichitta in our mind as we're doing anything. That makes anything we do become the cause of our Buddhahood. We learned in course 2.

We're learning how and why that's true as we understand the principles of karma.

Done, class 10. Yay.

[Usual dedication]

Thank you again for the opportunity. Thank you for this class.

Oh my gosh, we're almost complete. I look forward to you teaching me the final exam. Then we'll do the extra class on the four powers. Okay. All right. Have a nice week. I will see you.

Class 11: Extra Class on the Practice of the Four Powers

17 July 2024

Link to audio: ACI 5 - Class 11

We are extra credit class from ACI course 5 about the four powers of purification.

It's July 14th, 2024.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

(7:35) Thank you to everyone for their kindness and generosity. I appreciate your offerings.

Why doing 4 Power Practice

We've learned the details about this process called karma—movement of the mind and what it motivates.

We've learned how those imprints from our behaviors are carried and influenced, and eventually ripen into our experiences. They give their results.

And we've learned how any one of those imprints can be the one that projects us into our next life at the end of this one.

We've learned how imprints of unkindness, imprints of selfishness, or even just imprints of disrespect, like not caring, will project us into a next life called a lower rebirth—a worse suffering than anything that we've ever experienced as human.

What comes to mind when we hear that?

I think naturally, we'd be thinking back this life: What kinds of deeds have I done?

I know what I've done and so my mind's thinking about big things, little things that have happened to me and my reactions to them.

No doubt: I've been selfish, I've been hurtful, I've been disrespectful.

I didn't know any better. I thought I was doing the best I could.

But now that I understand, it's like, Ewww gads.

Then when we look at our outer world, there are things that we see that we don't like. I see

Food less nutritious or less available.
Crops failing,
Product shortages,
Climate change,
Weather severity,
People fighting.

But I also see

Near global connectivity.
I see many, many more service organizations that I remember knowing about when I was younger.
I see actually eradicating some infectious diseases.
I see increased speed of travel, the ability to get places that before you couldn't get to.
I see information explosion, but information available to everybody. Whereas it used to be you could only get specialized information if you studied it or worked hard to find it.

What we're seeing in our outer world is the ripening results of our own past deeds‘ seeds, imprints in our mind. From when I was a teenager? Probably not so much, but since forever seeds in my mind since forever.

It comes to mind: What can I do with these negative seeds that I know I have based on what I remember being like in this lifetime, and based on the negative stuff that I see in my world that seems to be sustained over a period of time. Which implies that I've got a lot of those seeds. So I can assume I have more of them. Hopefully not many more like, Am I stuck?

Fortunately we're not stuck. Because those imprints in our mind are changeable, they are changing, and so they're influenceable.

They're influenceable in the sense of adding to them, so increasing their strength.

And they're influenceable in the sense of damaging them, detracting from them to make them less able to get over that threshold into ripening.

The more powerfully we do our deeds, the more powerfully the karmic seed is made, we learned. That's true for our attempt to plant seeds that damage the seeds that are already there. So just as our four parts of a path of action, if we have all four parts at the highest degree, we plant seeds with the highest power.

When we are doing a purification practice, similarly, there are four parts to that purification cleaning karma. The extent to which we have these four parts done strongly is the extent to which we damage the negative seeds that we're trying to damage. So it's not an all or nothing.

The four parts of a path of action, when we are applying them to our purification practice, they are called the four powers of purification.

There is a general purpose purification prayer that has evolved, that has been used in the monastic tradition for thousands of years, hundreds of years, and it's available to us. I sent it to you, I'll give an oral transmission of it.

It's used for the monastic practice called sojong, which is the mind training of cleaning out every two weeks on the full moon and the new moon. The monastics gather and they do a ceremonial ritual that is this ritual of purifying any wrongs that have been done and they use this general confession prayer.

In that prayer it says, I confess my bad deeds done since Beginningless time. So it covers everything.

If it was, all we have to do is say that prayer every two weeks, there wouldn't be so many crowds in samsara, say the Lamas again and again.

It takes more than just saying the prayer.

We can use the prayer as an encapsulation, but we still need to have all four powers done in order for the prayer’s effect to be strong.

We've heard the story of Lord Atisha, this great practitioner, great teacher. He would carry a stupa with him. Anytime he recognized he'd had a negative thought, he'd stop and he'd get out his stupa, he'd prostrate, he'd do his four powers and his confession ceremony. And it didn't matter what he was doing or where he was going, like „Stop, stop everybody“, and he'd go do his purification practice.

Other Lamas would have a little stash of white stones and black stones and they would carry them with them. When they had a positive thought, a kindness thought, whatever they are determining, they'd take a white stone and they'd put it in one pocket. Then, when they had a negative thought, they'd put a black stone in the other pocket.

At the end of the day they'd check: Do I have more white than black?

Then they'd do their four powers of purification on the black stones, what they were about. I don't know whether they did or not, but I presume they would do a rejoicing practice, a coffee meditation, on their white stones.

But it's a way of tracking.

We have the six times book, we have the Keep My Vows app. If you don't have it on your phone and you want it, it's available.

A way of just tracking our behaviors.

The point is, when our mind knows it's being watched, it behaves differently.

So just simply stopping and writing something, 2, 3, 5, 6 times a day, is actually enough for our mindfulness to grow. It's not going to grow to its maximum simply doing that.

But knowing that we're tracking our behavior, counting negative and positives, we become more alert to our reactions and responses.

Whatever system works to inspire you versus oppress you. Find some way to be tracking your behavior, particularly tracking our vows once we have vows.

This confession practice, purification practice, it has four parts and all four parts need to be present, they need to be done, for the impact to be such that the seeds of the deeds that we are purifying to be damaged.

Geshla suggests that we learn the four powers and how to do them swiftly, and then have the confession prayer with us or memorize it and use it at the end of the four powers, like as icing on the cake.

The 4 Parts of the 4 Powers

The four powers in English, they can be called the four R’s, the letter R:

refuge, regret, restraint and remedy.

It just is easy to remember them in that way.

The order is taught differently in different places in the scripture.

The order isn't so important as having all four parts happening intact.

In this teaching, the first is called (TENGYI TOP), it means foundation force.

We're calling it refuge for the R.

The actual term TENGYI TOP is usually used to describe the being having to do with the activity that we are confessing. It seems to say, Oh, this foundation force is thinking about the one that I acted towards that made the seeds that I'm wanting to purify. Some teachings say that.

Our lineage says, No. Actually the highest meaning of the foundation force is the foundation from which we push ourselves back up once we've fallen down.

If we're walking along in a swamp with quicksand, and you fall down in the swamp with quicksand, you can't push yourself up. The harder you push the sinker you go.

But if you're walking along a city stream, and it's actually got concrete on the bottom of it, and you fall down, you just get right back up. Because you've got this solid ground that you push against.

So this solid ground, the foundation force is our refuge, our actual taking refuge.

But by refuge we mean reaffirming our understanding of emptiness and karma, our knowledge. One's own knowledge of how karma is the process through which we experience our world and create the causes for experiences that we will have.

So not blind faith, refuge is not blind faith. It's, Oh, these teachings, the ones who teach me, the ones who have experienced the realizations directly themselves, I rely upon them. They are my foundation, and I rely especially on what they've taught me, that what I see myself think, say, do towards others creates the circumstances of my future.

1. Power: Refuge or Foundation Force

TEN GYI TOP

This first force in our wanting to purify some negativity that we have is to recall emptiness and karma, of that situation, of what I did and why I did it.

It may take a while to get our mind wrapped around exactly how we're purifying a particular event. But once we have it clear in our mind, we go for refuge.

It can simply be I go for refuge in Buddha, dharma, sangha.

But not until we've thought it through, Oh, I reacted in that way because… fill in the answer. And now I see that that reaction has planted seeds that will come back to me likely as… fill in the blank. I won't like it when it does.

When that all happened, I was blaming the other person, the other situation for whatever was happening that made me think that if I act this way, I could solve the problem. I could get what I want or I could avoid what I don't want.

Now I see that what I planted in my mind is some situation coming back to me where somebody's doing that to me. Thinking that through is our refuge, doggone it anyway.

When we are looking for what it is we're wanting to clean out, wanting to purify, the confession prayer says, ‚all those harmful deeds, all those negative deeds since beginningless time‘. We learned a little bit about what it is to be a negative deed, a harmful deed.

It's not in the deed. It's in what will the result of the deed be like when it comes back to me. If it's going to be unpleasant, then the deed is a negative deed and we want to purify it, clean it out. If that deed when it comes back to me will be, yay, fine, that's all right with me. You don't need to purify it.

We're looking for those negative deeds, meaning those responses that we've had towards others that when they come back to me, not even necessarily me Sarahni that they're going to come back to, but me, anybody. Whatever I'm going to be in the future when it ripens upon me, will I like it?

Many nuances in there.

Part of the foundation force, for some reason, is the actual confessing of the deed. This tradition says, you can put a Buddha image in front of you. Lord Atisha used a stupa because this stupa represents body, speech and mind of an enlightened being.

Then you talk to that image and you say, oh man, I yelled at that guy. I was just already irritated and push my buttons. He knows better than that, but he did it anyway and I just couldn't control myself and I yelled at him, I blamed him. By the time it was all done, I realized that I made seeds that I don't want to keep in my mind.

Please hear me Buddha, I'm confessing, I'm telling you about it.

Then in the monk‘s, sojong, you're supposed to go around the circle and say, I confess... And that's really hard to do in a group.

Somewhere in between is, have a confession buddy. Someone you trust. Someone who understands why you're doing it. They don't themselves necessarily have to be a Buddhist person, but it's helpful if they are.

You want someone who you know will hold what you say confidential.

You want someone who's acceptance of you is open and unrelated to what you're going to say to them, and nonjudgmental—it's a little bit different than being openly accepting. And someone who will just let it go once you've confessed it, they won't carry it with 'em and next time they see you say, Hey, how's your purification about blah, blah, blah going.

Which tells us what kind of confession partner we need to be: totally confidential, openly accepting, nonjudgmental, go so far as to say compassionate. Yeah, I understand where that would come from. And then let it go when it's done. So you don't really even remember next time.

When we're setting up our refuge and we're thinking through the behavior and saying, oh, karma that planted his seed. I'm not going to like that—naturally leads into the second power.

2. Force: Intelligent Regret

Called the power of regret. NAMPAR SUNJINPAY TOP.

It means to rip out from the heart force.

Regret, destruction force, which is the power of regret.

There's this story that explains regret better than anything I've ever heard.

These three, hot, tired in a hurry guys stop into the bar for some refreshment.

In their hurry they say to the bar keeper, We'll have that. And they just point to a bottle in their hurry.

The bar keeper just grabs that bottle, pours the three glasses, the guys go Salut, and down the hatch.

A few moments later, one of the guys seizes and drops over dead. The other two guys are going 😱

A few moments later, the second guy seizes and drops over dead.

The third guy has regret.

Can you feel it?

Whoa, I shouldn't have drunk that.

Not, Oh, I'm so stupid. Not, Oh, there I did it again. Not, Oh, I'll never be good enough.

Just plain… Fill in the four letter word.

And he seizes and drops over dead.

Regret. When you recognize, I just did something that planted seeds in my mind that are going to come back to hurt me, and hurt others, and delay my enlightenment—which is the worst hurting of others—I just regret. Seriously sorry.

Again, no judgment other than just, damn, I did it again.

The strength of that regret and the rapidity with which it arises to us after the deed, like how soon after, is a really, really powerful influence on those seeds that have been planted.

We've heard that it takes a certain amount of time for the completed deed to make the collected karma and then committed karma, strong enough to be get into the queue. Even if the end of the queue, the ripening of the queue is 2000 lifetimes later, it's in the queue.

As it's going along, it's getting stronger by similar deeds, weaker by opposite deeds. So it's growing, those seeds are growing. Then, oh, finally we have regret. Oh, doggone. I did that when I was 10. Now I know better. That was terrible. I really, really regret it.

That regret is powerful and useful.

But if when I was 10, as soon as I did whatever that deed was, I knew enough to go, Oh man, I just did something that's going to come back to me painful, painful for everybody involved. I really, really regret it.

Those seeds they've gotten collected, but maybe the regret is even enough to keep them from being committed. Meaning committed to being in the queue.

The sooner our regret arises, the more effective it is at damaging or lessening the strength of those negative deeds.

His Holiness calls it the intelligent regret of an educated Buddhist.

It's a very logical state of mind that comes out of this need for refuge. Because we recognize we did something unkind, selfish, et cetera.

When we're establishing our refuge, and we're thinking through the deed, and we're looking at the karma and emptiness, this regret naturally arises. We don't really necessarily have to force it.

Once we start to feel it, that's when we grow it bigger.

Think of the three guys at the bar. Ew yikers. I just did something similar, so that our regret goes from intellectual to also deep feeling.

That leads to the third force called the restraint force.

3. Force: Restraint

(39:00) NYEPA LE LARNDOKPAY TOP

It means we need to include in our four powers the restraint from repeating the deed. And this is why purification is so difficult. Because it's so hard to stop those habitual negative behaviors.

That's what it is to be habitual, right? It comes up without thinking about it. It's our reactions to circumstances. By the time we have the reaction, we're doing the reaction.

Geshela says, four powers of purification is not like a morning after pill.

You can't just, oh, whoops, and go fix the problem with just one deed and be done with it.

The reason is, because we regret a particular reaction and we say, oh, that was so awful. I really do regret. I understand karma. I really don't want to do it again. I'm going to determine that I'm not going to do it ever again.

Then 10 minutes later, the so and so pushes your button again and bam, you repeat the deed that 10 minutes ago, an hour ago you said, oh, that was such a rotten deed, I'm not ever going to do it again.

It's not helpful to come to that conclusion when we're trying to clean out negativities that are habit, habitual.

Yes, probably we have some seeds from this lifetime from when we were younger that we will never be in that circumstance again.

It's a negativity we want to clean out and purify and we can say, I will never do that again, and actually uphold it.

That's worth doing, right? If we've got any of those kinds of things in our history.

But for our habitual mentally afflicted behaviors that we actually think are okay, we need to apply this power of restraint. An intentional determination of the circumstance within which we will not repeat that behavior that would replant that seed that we're trying to damage.

If it is, for instance, criticizing back when somebody criticizes us, it happened so quickly and we know that that particular person at the office seems to be the one that has direct access to my criticize back button. Then in our power of restraint, we don't say, oh, I will never criticize anybody even in my mind.

We say, that one who's the most likely one to set off my mental criticism, I determine that for the first three minutes that I see that person, I will think only good thoughts of that person. Three minutes. That's all we need to do.

Make it 30 seconds if you need to.

Something that we can achieve because then we have our power of restraint intact.

We have one of the four. We need all four. They need to be strong.

It's all right to, when we're purifying some habit, to just pick a little teeny piece of it and really do a power of restraint. Doing that is so powerful that it influences all the other seeds as well. It'll get a little bit easier to do it for 30 seconds the next time. Then a whole minute. Then probably you're not going to get too much beyond five or 10 minutes before you just can't remember, Who was it that was pushing that button?

Things will shift when we do this with some powerful consistency.

Habitual negativities don't go away on the first try. But they will change.

They will lessen. They will be less uncomfortable. They might still happen, they might actually happen more, but rather than being so resistant of them, it's like, all right, another opportunity.

Power of restraint.

Geshela said that when we first start a regular purification practice, it's very common that it seems like more bad things happen to us than did even before.

We're trying to purify so bad things won't happen and duggon it, they get worse.

Geshela says it's a sign that your purification is working.

It's a little hard to quite see how that works. But we're becoming more aware of the situations that bring on the mental affliction that we're trying to purify. So it seems like life is getting worse when it's just that we're noticing it more, and then when we notice it, we have the opportunity to use it instead of just get upset by it, or bitch and moan about it.

Eventually things get better.

But I've had people who just so much yak poop kept hitting the fan.

Life was decent until they met the dharma and then it was like slam, slam, slam, one thing after another and they finally said, I can't take it anymore. I've got to back out.

It's like, I'm so sorry. It's like, you're right on. But I don't blame 'em. It just got too hard.

4. Force: Remedy or Antidote

(46:46) The fourth of the four powers is NYENPO KUNTU CHUPAY TOP, which is the antidote force.

When we're using our four Rs, it's the remedy.

We have refuge, regret, restraint, and remedy.

It means doing something specific to make up for the wrong deed that we're working to clean away.

Geshela told us this story from his days with Khen Rinpoche that there was a Mongolian man in that community who had been in the Vietnam War as an infantry, and he just machine gunned into the jungle. That was his job.

He said, I don't know if I ever killed anybody, but probably I did, and my intention was to kill the enemy, and I had to do it. But now what do I do? What can I do to make up for it?

Rinpoche knew this man's father and that the father kept sheep to sell for slaughter, for meat. And Rinpoche gave this person the antidote, Buy those sheep from your father and take care of them until they die a natural death.

I guess sheep lived 10 or 12 or 15 years. So there's a big commitment that the purification took longer than the deed that he did.

He was probably only in the military for three years.

But then the process is:

this is the antidote,
complete the antidote,
complete the power of restraint, understanding refuge and
having regret.

When that antidote is complete, the four parts of a path of action, know that you're clean.

6 Traditional Antidote Powers

There are six main traditional antidote powers that we can choose amongst.

1. Reciting holy names.

Some of us have learned the 35 confession Buddha practice. That falls into this category.

In that practice, you set up this visualization of these 35 different Buddhas, each one of whom has pledged that when I become a Buddha, all anybody has to do is say my name and they will get purified of a thousand years of pride, a thousand eons of pride. They're very specific.

You do your prostrations, you do your prayer, you make this confession.

You say what it is you're trying to purify, you generate your regret, your refuge, your power of restraint, and your 35 confession Buddha practice is your antidote.

Then you might say, okay, I'm going to do 35 confession Buddha every day for six weeks as this antidote for something, some habit that I have.

Then at the end of the six weeks, I'm just going to stop and watch and see how my behavior has shifted, see how my immediate world has shifted, and if I need to go back and do it again, I'll do it again, right? We can assign ourselves these tasks.

2. Recite Holy Mantra

For a mantra to be a holy mantra, we need to have received it from a holy being, and we must be keeping our morality well in order for our recitation of it to have the effect on our mind that we're wanting it to have.

It is an antidote that if you've received the transmission of the Muni mantra, or that Tara mantra, or whatever Buddha, Medicine Buddha mantra, you can use repetition of that as your antidote force.

Again, you do it very specifically not because the words have any power in them from them. We're using them as the antidote force.

3. Study or Read Scriptures

Then, third is to study or read scriptures, particularly scriptures about emptiness, so Mahayana scripture. But here it says any scripture. It would be specific to the Buddhist scripture.

4. Meditate on Emptiness

Technically this fourth one is the most powerful antidote. Because understanding emptiness is in fact the only thing that will lead to a permanent change.

5. Make Offerings to Holy Objects

We've heard Geshe Michael say, the highest offering to your holy object is your success in your own practice. When you've received a teaching, and you actually put it into practice, even if your practice wasn't so perfect, to offer to them, I really did do my four powers for six weeks using my confession Buddha. Then frankly, I haven't seen much change yet, but I did what I set out to do, and I understood.

All of that would be your offering to your holy object.

Traditionally, it's water to drink, water to wash, all of those offering bowls. But more importantly is our practice effort.

6. Use holy images

This is where at the beginning I said, you could use an image of Lord Buddha, a statue or a Thangka, something that represents Lord Buddha, a stupa.

You'd sit in front of it and talk to it, and tell them what the circumstance was, why you did what you did. Explain now that you know why you're confessing it, why you want to damage it, your understanding of karma and emptiness.

Go through your four powers out loud to your image.

Within these six antidotes, there's a tantric practice called Tsa Tsa, whose specialty is helping people purify. In that practice, you do a visualization and you say that holy being's mantra.

It's using a mantra and using the name of the holy being, and using an image, and built into that is a section on meditating on emptiness. That's what it's for.

It requires a ceremony, receiving a blessing to practice it.

Some of us have it, some of us can give it.

It is not for everybody because it's involved. But because it has all these different factors, it's a very powerful method of making our antidote, because it is more than one at a time.

So is the 35 confession in a way.

Geshela says, wait, let's go back.

Built into our meditation preliminaries is that clean out power.

It just says, I confess my wrong deeds from all time.

But when we learn those preliminaries, we learn how to apply the four powers right then. Not in depth or detail, but swiftly and completely. Then you can say, And I use my meditation as my antidote. Assuming your meditation's going to include something about emptiness.

We have the four powers of purification built in to our daily practice if we're doing our meditation preliminaries.

That will carry us along. But at some point, we would want to sit down and kind of do a life review, and write out all the kind, special, amazing things that you have done in your life. Do the good ones first, please.

Then make another list.

It's like, oh, I criticized my sister and it hurt her feelings. Oh, I blame my brothers. Oh, right.

Just write it all down. You're going to burn it. Nobody's going to see it, but you and your angel. When you've put down as many as you can remember, you go back and you look for recurring themes.

You look deeper into the situation: Why did I act like that?

Oh, because I was jealous. Oh, here's another jealousy. Oh, I didn't even know I was jealous. But now that I look back, oh man, jealousy.

Then if I look into my current life, where is that jealousy showing up?

I can work more specifically on that jealousy, but I end up working on all of this life's jealousy at the same time.

Maybe it was, Oh, I had the habit of fibbing to get out of something. Oh, lying karma, maybe I had…, right? You'll see these different, maybe you come up with two or three patterns that have been ripening in this lifetime. It gives us this clue as to how to start a process of purification where we're actually working on something specific.

Eventually you kind of get to where you're just working day to day.

The danger of getting on automatic pilot with our purification is we get sloppy.

I'm confessing. My purification is sloppy now, and if we have a sequence that we're working on, we're less likely to get sloppy with it.

(60:30) Geshela says, learn how to do the four forces. Maybe for you, you find the first force—regret—the instant I recognize, oh, I did it again, the regret comes up.

Then from regret, you talk to yourself about the karma and emptiness, and then you talk yourself into your refuge.

Then from there, maybe you say, whoa, what's my antidote going to be?

Then from there, you remember, oh, and I need to do the power of restraint. What's that going to look like?

The order isn't so critical between refuge and regret, and antidote and restraint.

Those two can get swapped. But it doesn't work to, you won't feel your antidote first thing, right? That it takes the regret and the refuge before we'll care at all about doing an antidote or a restraint.

Whatever method inspires you, comes with ease, that's the purpose of these practices. It's like not to do them exactly the way the book has taught.

Learn them exactly the way the book has taught, but then work with them until you have developed a system that you yourself can use, want to use, enjoy using.

Otherwise it's a burden. It's like, it just makes me feel lousy and I don't want to do it, and I'm not going to do it if I don't want to do it.

General Confession Prayer

(62:25) We have this general confession prayer. It's sort of like icing on the cake.

I'd like to just give you the oral transmission. That means you just listen and let it pour into you, and it adds a little bit of power for when you use it.

I sent these files to everybody so you have it. You're welcome to use it.

Here's how it goes.

THE GENERAL CONFESSION

In sadness I say this:

I call on my Lama, the Keeper of the Diamond, and all the rest;

all of the enlightened Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all the community of pure beings in every corner of the universe. Please hear me.

In this circle of suffering, in an infinite string of lifetimes, from time with no beginning up to the present moment, I, (state your name) have come under the power of bad thoughts; the thoughts of wanting, disliking and ignorance.

And so in my body, my speech and my mind

I have done harmful things.

I have done the ten non-virtues.

I have done the five great wrongs, and I have done the five which are close to them.

I have broken my vows of freedom.

I have broken my bodhisattva precepts.

I have broken my secret commitments.

I have disrespected my father and mother.

I have disrespected the Abbot and the Master who gave me my vows.

I have disrespected my fellow disciples.

I have done things to hurt the Three Jewels.

I have rejected the holy Dharma.

I have belittled the Community of higher beings.

I have acted against all living kind.

These and other harmful deeds, a great mountain of mistakes I have done.

I have encouraged others to do them.

I have been glad when others did them, and more.

In short, I speak of the entire mass of bad deeds, and the breaking of my vows and

commitments, that ever I may have done;

all those things which will prevent me from reaching the higher births and freedom itself. All those things which will continue to cause me pain in the circle of suffering.

Here, in the direct presence of my Lama, the Keeper of the Diamond and all the rest;

before the enlightened Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all the community of pure beings in every corner of the universe, I openly admit the things I have done.

I hide nothing from you, I reveal all to you. And I swear that from this moment on I will keep myself from all such deeds.

By admitting all and revealing all I shall be at peace.

But not admitting and not revealing I cannot be a peace.

(66:56) We can see how just saying this prayer would not fix stuff.

But using this prayer as sort of over, what would you call it? I'm missing a word here.

A synopsis of our four powers. When we have the four powers intact, it is helping us purify that deed from long, long, long time ago. Because everything we could ever do negatively is included in this prayer since beginning this time.

Maybe we've done none of them in this lifetime. Hooray.

Okay, so let's take a break. What I intend to do in the second section is explain and demonstrate without the fire how to do a little fire Puja purification.

It is kind of nice to do a hands-on something sometimes.

So much of what we do is heady, but to actually throw some seeds into the fire and hear them pop, it's like, Ooh, wow. Cool.

So let's take a break. I'm pausing recording.

Fire Puja

(68:48) I also sent you the file that's called the purification puja instructions. I keep these two together. Here's my confession prayer. Here's my fire puja from when I didn't know how to do this automatic.

The idea is that we establish our four powers of purification, and then we do establish our antidote and from the six main ones. But then in order to get some embodied action of our purification, we make this little fire and we use black sesame seeds to represent the black seeds in our heart that we're wanting to clean out.

We use mustard seeds to represent the obstacles that we have to the opposite behavior, the goodness that we're wanting to grow.

To witness ourself putting these negative habits into these black seeds and then throwing those black seeds into a fire and hearing them pop and burn is so like, it's just more visceral.

It's a little baby version of the big fire puja that happens at Diamond Mountain, that fire puja is about cleaning up mistakes from our retreat, and it's about making all these offerings to help us gather the goodness for all those different qualities to arise in us. Each one of the offerings brings us a different quality.

This puja is more about cleaning out the seeds that we have in our heart and cleaning out the obstacles for the goodness that we want to grow in our heart, grow more of in our heart.

They say, get yourself a tin.

This is a tea tin, like any kind of tin will do.

You can see from the size of my hand and the size of the tin, the size.

It could be a coffee can, but you don't want to. Wee little tea tin. I think this is an eight ounce tin.

Then it needs to have holes punched in it, lots of holes punched in it so that the air can circulate so that a little fire can burn.

I don't know how Sumati made these so symmetrical. He had some kind of a puncher. However you're going to do it.

You can see my fire puja tin is very well worn. You can't even see into that. It's so black.

I haven't used it in a long time, but I used to use it a lot.

You also need a dish for your fire pit to sit in, because this is going to get hot.

The dish that your fire tin sits in needs to be fired clay. It could be metal, but then the metal's going to get hot, right? Fired clay won't get hot and it won't crack.

Like a garden hot saucer, but ask if it's just dried or fired. You want it fired.

To set up, the instruction says, put about a tablespoon of ghee in the can with several wood matches in the ghee.

So you've got this lump of ghee down in the can, and you've got matches stuck into it. But what I find is that doesn't work so well.

What I do is I take the ghee, and I take a nice big lump and I take a wad of Kleenex.

It could be paper, but I like Kleenex, and I put the ghee in the Kleenex, and then put that down in your fire pit.

Because you can light the Kleenex on fire easily.

Then, I'm not going to light it on fire, so I don't have matches. But if you use wooden matches, you would stick three or four or five wooden matches down into the ghee so that the head is sticking up, and you've got this little, like you're making a little bonfire, tiny little bonfire.

Then the instructions say, write out the mental affliction that you're wanting to clean out. Put it on a piece of paper.

Then also on a different piece of paper, write out the obstacle that keeps you from doing the opposite of the mental affliction.

Say that the mental affliction is a lying, the habit of wiggling out of something by telling a little white lie or a big lie, whatever.

If we really wanted to stop lying, we'd just do it. That might mean when I'm about to lie, I just don't say anything. But that's not very effective in life. So we're wanting to grow the opposite habit, and that means being willing, ready, eager to say something truthful or not at all.

Like to admit, I just didn't stop at the grocery store. I was tired.

Instead of saying, oh, I got delayed, and then I was late.

The obstacle to being able to just be honest and it would take a little bit of thinking about it. Why don't I just naturally be honest?

We think it's going to bring us some kind of bad result, or that person will judge us, or they still won't understand. They still won't believe me.

Which would be likely the case if we are having seeds of lying, even when we tell the truth, we're not believed, that's the result of lying. So there's no point in telling the truth because it doesn't work. It's like, right? Because we lie.

So the obstacle to the opposite behavior, you kind identify it and write that down as well.

(Luisa) Sorry Lama, I didn't understand in this specific case, what is the obstacle? Like me not willing to tell the truth?

(Lama Sarahni) Whatever, for whatever it might be, right? For the individual.

One would come up with their own understanding of why can't I do the opposite?

Why can't I tell the truth all the time?

And see if we can identify what's blocking that new habit?

(Luisa) And if we cannot pinpoint it, we can say ‚all the obstacles‘?

(Lama Sarahni) Right. All the obstacles to telling the truth. Right.

(Luisa) Okay, thank you.

Yeah. So the next step, then is you take your refuge, you generate your Bodhichitta, and then you take a handful of your black sesame seeds, black sesame seeds.

A little handful, and you hold them at your heart, and you're thinking about that habit, that deed, that behavior that you're wanting to clean out.

You're thinking of it like it's lots of these black seeds deep within your heart, not your heart organ, but the heart center of your chest.

And you think through the circumstances that make us do that deed repeatedly.

Then you really meditate on that mental affliction, the specifics of it, a recent occurrence of it, and the circumstances that were happening that seemed to make you do it.

Tell yourself this story. Tell yourself why you justified that reaction.

Then tell yourself why you regret it.

Grow that regret.

Grow the refuge.

And when you have it all, the picture all clear, then you breathe onto these seeds. You can hold them up close, you can hold them at your heart, but you imagine that you're breathing the negative seeds from your heart into these actual seeds that you have in your hand.

If you're a visualizer, see that black gunk deep in your chest and see it getting blown into these black things until as you're looking inside your chest, it's like, whoa, I think I've got 'em all.

Then you put them onto your pile, your kleenex and your oil, and they go all over your computer. The first handful is already in there. You can't really see it.

This is how we were instructed to do it.

I have modified it for my own personal use in that I don't put the seeds in first, but in the instruction to do it this way, you have your, like the initial event that you're purifying, those seeds are in the can, and then you think of emptiness as you strike your match, like the light of this match is my wisdom.

You put that wisdom into the can. The kleenex will light, the ghee will start to light. The extra little matches will flare up and light. I find it usually takes more than one match to get it all going.

As you have a nice little bonfire inside your tin, the seeds that are already in there will start to pop.

Geshehla likes to do it this way. The seeds are in there. You light the fire of your wisdom and you put it on them.

I find that my seeds are spread all around the can, and so they don't get to popping. So I like to think it all through with the seeds in my hand, blow it all into those seeds. But before I put the seeds in the can I bring to mind by understanding of the emptiness of the three spheres of that particular situation. And then I light the match and it's like, here's my wisdom that understands. And I get the fire going first.

There's my wisdom. Then I take the seeds that have my mental affliction in and I sprinkle down in, and they go right into the fire already burning, and they go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

Then you take more black seeds and you hold them, and you think back through this life, month ago, and you blow the seeds from some similar deed or deeds done then into the seeds, maybe go back further. Go back further.

Then, when you're feel like, okay, I've got all of this life's seeds done into the fire, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

Take another handful, Man, I must have had lifetimes in which I thought that was the right thing to do. Those seeds into the black seeds.

Do you get it?

You just keep working on the same seeds from the recent deed going back and back and back and back until you are like, I can't do this anymore, enough. I'm out of time, or I'm out of seeds. Wouldn't that be great into the fire?

If you put them in the fire, like huge thing, it will put the fire out. So you have to sprinkle them a little bit out of time. And if the fire is starting to go out, get more Kleenex, a little more ghee if you need to, right? Whatever you need to do to get your fire back again. Because it's very common that we throw our seeds in and it smothers the fire. So we just be careful with that.

Then you take the piece of paper that has that mental affliction on it, and you look at it and you go, I have burnt off those seeds. Done. And you put it in the fire.

Watch it burn. It shriveled, it wrinkles, it catches on fire. It turns to ash.

Really feel, Done.

Then you switch to the obstacle.

For the obstacle you take the handful of brown mustard seeds, in the same way little brown mustard seeds.

You hold them at your heart. You meditate on your selected obstacle, the specifics of it from that day or whatever the timeframe is that you're doing this fire Puja for.

Talk to yourself about that new behavior you want to grow and what seems to be blocking you from being able to do that.

Identify that obstacle as these little brown seeds inside your heart.

Technically, they're not brown, the others aren't black either, but it helps us.

Then blow those obstacles from your heart into these seeds.

When you have it, feels like it's complete for that particular event, you sprinkle them into the fire. Again, they went all over everywhere.

They pop also in this very satisfying way.

Then you take more and you think about earlier in life. I had obstacles to growing this good habit, or I'd have it already and here are ways that it happened and et cetera.

Blow those seeds into these seeds. Burn them up. Lifetimes, burn them up.

When we feel like we're complete, take the little piece of paper.

Again, identify it. Imagine what life will be like when you don't have obstacles to that new behavior, and you no longer have the seeds for the negative behavior. Think what you'll be like. Then that goes into the fire. Watch those obstacles. The name of the obstacles, burn up.

You're done. You still have the fire going.

The instruction is to stay there watching the fire, offering what you've just done to the Buddhas, offering the fire to the Buddhas, rejoicing in the goodness that you've done so that you end on this positive note, ah, I'm clean.

You're supposed to stay there with the fire until it burns out.

You'll get familiar with how much ghee burns for how long.

I don't remember that anymore. Because it’s like I got to go. I can't sit here and wait for it. As long as it's in a safe place, you could leave it. But best is to stay there until the fire sputters out and then let it cool down.

When it's all cool, you take the ashes, you can put them around a base of a tree. Ashes is good for plants or a shrub, or you can put them into a body of water if you have access to a body of water so that your can is ready to go for the next time.

You finish off with your favorite prayer of dedication before you dump the ashes, clearly you finish with your prayer of dedication.

That's the fire puja instruction.

(93:58) Sumati and I, during retreat, we did it a little bit differently on our sojong. We would get out our vows cards. We've got like 300 some odd vows, and we would have black, we would have sesame seeds, a bowl of sesame seeds, a bowl of mustard seeds, and a bowl of rice. We would read the vow, starting with the refuge advices, and we'd read the first one and we'd stop and think:

If I can honestly say I kept that well, then I would take a little bit of rice and throw it in the fire.

If it's like, oh, no, I didn't keep it, I would take black seeds and throw them in the fire.

And it's like I didn't do it, but I had obstacles to its opposite mustard seed in the fire.

We would go through each one deciding black, mustard or white.

We found that to be a powerful way of going through all of our vows. But it's not sufficient for changing mental affliction habits. So if we were working on the habit of criticizing somebody when they criticize me, that just the black seed brown seeded white seed wouldn't be strong enough, I would want to do this whole specific to that habit of criticizing, and what's the obstacle to being able to praise somebody in the situation where they're criticizing me? It doesn't even feel human to do that.

So to work with the fire puja in a more specific way works in this method. Being very clear, using the black seeds to clear out the negativity and the brown seeds to clear out the obstacles.

Okay, now Luisa, you've had a question.

(Luisa) It happened to me sometimes that I have done the fire puja, that let's say I write something, I don't know, anger towards whoever, and then I throw it in the fire and it doesn't burn the paper.

(Lama Sarahni) I know.

(Luisa) It stays, the anger word without burning. And then I'm like, What ? Should I take it out through it again or what? Or is it just like it didn't work? Or how to interpret that?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah, I guess I would interpret it as, Do another fire puja on another day on the anger. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again, until that paper burns.

(Luisa) Then a more general question, and sorry if you explained that, but I came late to the session. I have never had the feeling of that the purification is done. I mean the four powers. Because Geshela used to say, you feel like now it's okay. But I have never felt like it's okay, regardless of whatever I have tried.

(Lama Sarahni) Me neither.

(Luisa) I don't know if I should do it forever or how to proceed.

(Lama Sarahni) Right. So when we finish and we say, intellectually, I know that I have done this purification and I have damaged those seeds—intellectually I know. I admit I'm not feeling clean yet. Just be clear with yourself. And the seeds of that honesty will grow and help us reach that point where we will reach a time when it's like, oh, I just don't see that behavior bubbling up in me anymore.

It won't probably be an Aha until we look back at ourselves later. But do have the thought, I am clean. I don't feel it yet, but I know I am getting there.

That's okay.

(Luisa) Sorry Lama, another question to the 35 confession Buddhists, because in the instructions you say you should do it three times. Like three rounds of the 35 to have at the end, I forgot.

(Lama Sarahni) 108.

(Luisa) 108, yeah. And then is it okay, because this is what I have done. I don't do the whole one time and then the whole second time. So I do three prostrations per Buddha at once. I do the first part, I would call the introduction. And then when I start to mention the Buddhas, then I do for this Buddha three prostrations, the next one three prostrations, the next one three prostrations. And then in total, it's going to be the 108.

(Lama Sarahni) Do you say?

(Luisa) I say, I go down to the Buddha so and so, the one who has gone that way, and then I do the prostration, and then I do it three times per Buddha.

(Lama Sarahni) With the words?

(Luisa) With the words.

(Lama Sarahni) Not just the prostration with the words. That's fine. That's fine.

(Luisa) It's just that I don't do the beginning again and then the end again. Is that okay?

(Lama Sarahni) That's okay.

(Luisa) Okay. Thank you.

Anything else?

All right. That's what I had to share. The other file that I shared was the reading from the practice module called The Four Powers of Purification, and it has greater detail about the four R’s that you can benefit from I hope.

(Organizational clarification for completing the course 101:50-104:28 deleted)

[Usual dedication]

Thank you very much everyone.

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