7. Karma

[WFGS pp. 128–35]

Karma is a mental action; it can be positive, negative or changeable.

There is also neutral karma which is, for example, a movement without any reason, such as a movement we make in our sleep. A neutral action has no specific motivation.

To create Dharma actions doesn’t mean that the mind has to be free from the Dharma point of view, which means free from greed, hatred and ignorance, where it would be impossible for these things to ever arise again. But what we mean by “free” in terms of the ordinary mind is that we practice the Dharma, we practice virtuous actions despite the fact that our mind is still not free of greed, hatred and ignorance.

KARMA AND EMPTINESS

Positive or virtuous karma is any action that cuts samsara. It is any action that will leave a positive imprint on the mindstream that will ripen as a positive, happy result. Negative or nonvirtuous karma is the opposite: the action that leaves a negative imprint and results in suffering.

Creating positive actions within our meditation on emptiness is the most powerful way to create virtuous, positive karma. It’s a very powerful method to cut off samsara and always causes rebirth in the upper realms. This kind of karma is recognized as the perfect positive action. Other kinds of positive karma, such as making charity, that are created without meditative concentration on emptiness are seen as more indirect methods but they can still help free us from samsara. These are still good karmas but not so strong.

The most powerful antidote to samsara is the realization of emptiness, particularly seeing that the sense of I that we hold is not self-existent as we see it but is the complete opposite. It’s empty of inherent existence, empty of self-existence. We should be aware of this all the time. For instance, even when we offer a stick of incense to the Buddha, we should think we are doing it in order to be free from samsara and to release all beings from samsara. We should also add that the I that is making the offering has no self-existence, the action of offering has no self-existence and the Buddha we are offering it to has no self-existence. This is the most powerful way to make an offering, the most perfect way to cut off samsara. Any positive karma done with awareness of emptiness becomes a direct method to achieve this.

Without emptiness, an action can still be positive and cause us to take rebirth in the upper realms, but it’s not nearly as direct as the positive karma created with emptiness.

“Self-existent” is the opposite of “non-self-existent.” We are completely empty of a self-existent I. When we normally think of our sense of self, we feel that we are our body and mind, that the I is a kind of self-existing entity within the aggregates. That is completely the opposite of how the I exists. The I exists as merely imputed on these aggregates; it is a mere name, empty of any more existence than that.  There is no I that exists by itself, without depending on the aggregates and also without even depending on the name “I.” That self-existent I doesn’t exist anywhere.

In the same way, the action of offering and the object, the Buddha, are empty of self-existence. Similarly, when we are prostrating, meditating or creating any other positive karma, we should think, “I, my mind and form, are empty of self-existence and the Buddha himself is also empty of self-existence.” Always think like this.

The same thing is true in terms of our self, body and action. We act through our speech and body. These aggregates are completely empty of self-existence, of any action that exists by itself without depending on the function of body, speech or mind. It’s the same thing with the name and the same thing with the Buddha. This is how to create positive karma that is direct action with awareness of emptiness.

The karma created with the realization of emptiness is the principal force that destroys all negativity. Meditating on this emptiness of subject, object and action is the opposite of creating karma with ignorance.

Virtuous karma that is created without an understanding of emptiness, without meditating on the absolute truth in this way, is still positive karma, but because these actions are done with the mistaken concept of a truly existent I and object, there is a degree of ignorance to it. This kind of wrong concept is the principal ignorance, like parents who give birth to many children. This wrong concept that thinks that the I is self-existent and the object is self-existent is the main ignorance that we are talking about.

Positive karma created without emptiness can help us attain enlightenment, but it’s not a powerful method to fight ignorance. Therefore, although the motivation is positive, it’s an indirect method to liberation. Just as a tree can be cut down easily and quickly with a very sharp axe but can also be felled by hitting it with an iron bar, although it takes a very long time, this is the same with positive karma created with an understanding of emptiness and without it. Emptiness is the direct method, like the axe. The other method is like the iron bar—it will break the tree but it will take a long time.

Understanding emptiness doesn’t happen instantly; it takes time. Creating positive karma with the practice of emptiness is utterly unlike creating positive karma without it. With that, because the mind is ignorant, the object is viewed with that ignorant mind. Although ignorant, it can be valid, such as one person mistakenly seeing a person as a tiger and another correctly seeing them as a person. Both fail to see the emptiness of the object, so both are still ignorant, but one is valid and one is not.

The greatest ignorance is seeing ourselves as truly existent. That truly existent I doesn’t exist at all, not even an atom, and believing in that hallucination is the cause of self-cherishing and the cause of samsara. The I held by this ignorance doesn’t exist, whereas the I that appears to the understanding of emptiness, the merely labeled I, does.

The ignorant mind and the mind understanding emptiness view the object completely differently. The ignorant mind is incapable of seeing the object correctly, in its absolute nature; the mind with awareness of emptiness does. Understanding emptiness is like the axe cutting a tree.

UNDERSTANDING KARMA LEADS TO UNDERSTANDING EVERYTHING

In one way, karma is not definite. The more we research the subject of karma, the more our wisdom grows, and the more we become aware of the evolution of ourselves and others. The best medicine for the suffering mind is the understanding of karma. Karma is not definite—all beings are different, no face is the same—some are large, some small, some have big heads, big hands, short legs and so forth. Animal bodies are also all different.

In Tibet, when there is no water, the monks in the monasteries make prayers and recite mantras as shown by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. They offer a puja for the nagas in a special place, and after one or two days the water comes. It’s not always monks who perform in the ceremony; sometimes lay people can do it as well. This is very common in Tibet; the person doing it is not considered to possess some high power. Still today, in Darjeeling, India, they do pujas to protect the crops. There are beings in this world that we don’t see. Due to the power of the method shown by the Buddha, these prayers can have a positive effect. The prayers are connected to the karma of the people of that area. If the nagas are not happy with the people, if they are distracted by the people, they keep the place dry and don’t allow rain. This is rooted in karma.

Collective karma can be seen when, for example, a hundred people die in a bomb explosion or during a meditation course. The Chinese have the collective karma to control Tibet; the Tibetans have the collective karma to be under their control. A heavy storm is not only the elements at work, it’s also related to spirits. Basically, it is rooted in people’s karma; the storm is the cooperative condition. In the same way, when a person beats us with a stick, they and the stick are the cooperative conditions. The principal cause of suffering is our own mind.

Meditating on karma is one of the most important meditations we can do. Just consider what we don’t understand about “life.” Disregarding all those complicated matters of rebirth, absolute truth, clairvoyance and so on that we find so confusing, at a basic level, what is the meaning of life? What is the creator of suffering, the creator of happiness? We are completely blind in our understanding of these things. We have created so much confusion, not finding a solution to our worldly problems. This all comes about due to a lack of understanding of karma.

Also, all the negativities of body, speech and mind that we have created until now have been caused by not understanding and not believing in karma, which in turn is caused by the ignorance of the mind. As a result of this, we have all of these problems on earth now: fighting, disease, famine and so forth. They are all caused by not having a full understanding of karma. Rich people and poor people are all suffering due to not understanding karma.

This meditation is a checking meditation involving research with understanding, not ignorance. The kind of research it involves is the kind in which the understanding of one thing, karma, leads to the understanding of the whole thing. It’s very useful to study karma and to meditate on this subject. It is like a mirror where we can see all objects reflected without physically being there ourselves, without having to change position. By understanding karma, we can understand the evolution of every single existence, we can realize every single nature, we can fully see each and every existence with the achievement of omniscient mind. Every subject in this world is included within this subject.

Finally, understanding karma, we can fully achieve all the wisdom of the enlightened beings. As well, it brings the realization of every meditation much more quickly, including the realizations of higher tantric practices and the yogic development of clairvoyance. To achieve full understanding, we should do this checking meditation on the evolution of karma. It won’t make us ignorant. Rather, it will lead us to control our negative mind and allow us to observe our karma, which is essential for the attainment of perfect peace. This is the nature of the Buddha’s teaching.

KARMA IS DEFINITE

[WFGS p.135]

Even though the whole universe can one day become completely empty, karma is still definite. As long as the karma has been created, the result must happen, unless we destroy the negative karmic seeds through purification or destroy the positive karmic seeds through a negative mind like anger or heresy.

Karma that was created hundreds of eons ago will still ripen into a result one day. This is more definite than the existence of this whole planet or solar system. For instance, if we plant a seed in a field, it’s definite that it will bring a stem and a plant unless we stop the conditions for it to grow with different methods. Karma is like the seed and its result is also definite. The method to purify negativity must be done before the result arises, while there is a chance; if we are already experiencing the result, it’s extremely difficult to stop it.

Karma is definite because it definitely brings its own result in time. All the results that we have not yet experienced created by previous karma will definitely be experienced unless we can prevent them by following the different methods that stop the results from arising.

Also, karma is expandable. We should always think about the fact that there are so many other karmas that we created many eons ago that still haven’t brought their result, and yet we think only about karmas of this lifetime, or maybe the lifetime before. There are so many terrible negative actions that we have done that we have yet to experience the result of—such as the five immediate negativities of killing our parents, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha or creating a schism in the Sangha. We shouldn’t think that because we haven’t created any really gross negativities in this lifetime that we’ve never done them. There is not even one negative action that we have not created in samsara; there is no new negative karma left to create. We should not be complacent due to our poor memory.

Why are we so ignorant, not understanding the Dharma, finding meditation difficult, unable to visualize holy beings and so on? Because the mind finds it far easier to create negative karma. Creating positive karma is difficult, like crossing over a mountain. Usually, we create good karma for a few minutes, and then for the rest of the day we create negative karma. Such is the propensity of our mind. The negative karma that we have created in all our past previous lives is the cause of all the present problems that we are experiencing: the problem of ignorance, of not having realizations, of finding it difficult to develop wisdom, of not clearly remembering the past and not seeing the future, and even not understanding what will be going on tomorrow. All this is due to negative karma.

Therefore, the development of wisdom and understanding the Dharma is most difficult because it works in exact opposition to the negative mind that is the cause of suffering. It’s obvious that if we follow the negative mind that leads to suffering, it’s harder to see the Dharma, which brings happiness.

We should think that all this confusion that we now have—difficulty in meditation, not even understanding what the mind is or knowing where it exists—all this is due to the negative karma that we created in past lifetimes, and other than this there is no cause for ignorance to exist. It can’t be eliminated by any being other than ourselves—not by God, not by our parents, and not by anyone else. Only our previous deluded mind, our ignorance, has caused this suffering.

Parents aren’t the principal cause of our suffering; in fact they are the cause of all of our past, present and future happiness. If they were the cause of our ignorance, we would be right to blame them. But it’s never like this. Parents can be ignorant and their children not ignorant; parents can be free from ignorance—enlightened or bodhisattvas—yet their children may be ignorant. It’s said that Tibetans come from Chenrezig and Drolma and yet Tibetans are suffering. Most children are born without control over their rebirth, so their ignorance has nothing to do with their parents.

Ignorance is not created by God. If it were created by God, then God would be the creator and cause of suffering and all of the world’s problems are his fault and he becomes the enemy. This is impossible; it’s opposite to the notion of what God is. An enlightened being acts only to enlighten all sentient beings, to release all sentient beings from suffering. The enlightened being can never be the creator of suffering; that would make no sense.

We should never just consider this life and think that we’ve created very few negative karmas. Since beginningless lives we have created far more negative karmas than positive. Even since we got up this morning, if we check up on the actions of our body, speech and mind we can see this. Creating negative karma doesn’t mean being outside doing things with other people.

It can happen when we are meditating, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position, looking beautiful as if we are receiving realizations. We should check up on the state of our mind. Negative karma can be our mental attitude as well as verbal and physical actions. As we start to meditate, our mind is out of control, wandering all over the place, spending more time on distractions than on concentration. Past memories come into the mind, leading us to think about things we’ve done before, and we also think a great deal about what we are going to do in the future. All these things come into the mind during meditation. In this situation, it’s definitely possible to create much negative karma.

When we think back on experiences we’ve had in our own country, we feel great attraction for our life there and attachment arises very easily. We can then so easily become attached to the plans we’ve made for when we finish this course. Anger can also arise in meditation when we think of the enemies who disturbed us in the past and who are still disturbing us. We see them as completely negative, with evil personalities. These are just a few examples of how we can create negative karma even when meditating. Creating positive karma is so difficult.

Why do we find it so difficult to create positive karma, to have a mind of non-attachment and non-anger? Why is it so easy to be negative? It’s because we are habituated to negative actions. If there had been no ignorance in the previous lifetimes, no past karma, we wouldn’t find it difficult at all to renounce attachment. Following the negative mind is easy and intuitive. Creating positive karma, however, is very difficult, requiring great effort.

We’ve lived so many years until now and yet we still don’t know what the mind is. Ignorance is beginningless; it’s hard to give up. If ignorance had a beginning, why had our mind originally become attached or angry? We should try to discover why we become frightened at the idea of giving up attachment, how we naturally move toward attachment to something even though it might require overcoming many difficulties.

We work so hard to get what we want—what our attachment wants. We can even give up our life to follow attachment. The world is full of examples. We can see it in the movies or in stories of people who risk everything to gain a good reputation or a valuable prize. Even those who commit suicide when things don’t work out are pushed by attachment.

Take a couple, for instance. The wife is miserable, always worrying about her husband going after someone else. If he is indeed with someone else, her problem is huge and she cries so much, even though she leads a very comfortable life without lack of food or possessions. Because of her husband’s infidelity, she may even commit suicide. This is all done for attachment. She is so afraid of giving up attachment. She might be very rich, with expensive clothes and a beautiful house, but still be consumed by jealousy. She plots to harm the other woman, directly or indirectly, wishing some danger would befall her rival, even wishing for her death. Men also experience these things. Men fight with others over their wives, disregarding their own life. They are very brave! All of this, again, is only for the sake of attachment. It’s no surprise that the mind follows attachment so easily.

KARMA IS EXPANDABLE

[WFGS pp. 135–36]

Negative and positive karma are both expandable. In the same way that one rice seed can bring so many results, so many more seeds, so can the results of positive and negative karma expand. Positive karmic results can be experienced in many other future lives as can negative karmic suffering results. This is why it’s vital to understand karma. We must understand how one action created in a short time can bring results over such a long time.

The evolution of one universe, from beginning to end, from empty space to empty space, takes one great eon. One great eon has four parts. The first part is the eon of evolution, when the universe and the beings come into existence. The universe includes this southern world we live in, the other worlds and Mt. Meru. The second part is the eon of existence. The third part is the eon of degeneration or decay. And the fourth part is the eon of emptiness.

Each of these eons consists of twenty eons that are not short, but very long, and eighty of these make one great eon.

The human life starts off with an incredibly long lifespan, getting longer and longer until it reaches eighty thousand years. Then humans stop evolving. After that, their lifespan gets shorter and shorter, down to ten years, and then it gets longer again, to eighty thousand years, and then down to ten once more. One small eon is the time it takes to degenerate from eighty thousand years to ten years. In one of the eighty eons, there are twenty such ups and downs. At the present time our lifespan is less than one hundred years and we are degenerating toward ten. This is all based on karmic evolution. Thinking about this will lead to greater understanding of positive and negative karma.

One created karma can bring either one result or many. And many karmas can bring one result or many. One karma can bring its result in one life or in many. Many karmas collected in many lives can bring one result. For example, when we feel hot and crave being cool, if we become habituated to craving cold, this becomes our normal mindset and can result in a rebirth in the cold hells.

EXAMPLES OF KARMA EXPANDING

How does one tiny karma bring many results? Once, somebody made an offering to the Buddha with devotion and from this small karma they received many future lives rich in enjoyments and possessions, as well as attaining realizations and nirvana. To somebody who was cynical that this could happen from such a small cause, the Buddha asked what the cause of a huge banyan tree was. When the man replied that it was a small seed, the Buddha countered that using his logic this was impossible. The man then said that it was possible because it was his experience that this was so, and the Buddha then said that the vast result of the karma of that small offering was also the Buddha’s experience.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained something similar to a brahmin—that if with devotional mind a person offers food for just one day to the Buddha, that karma can cause them to be wealthy for many future lives and to be reborn in the upper realms, even though the cause only happened for one day. When the brahmin doubted this, the Buddha asked if he had seen a big result in nature coming from a small cause. The brahmin gave the example of a crop of wheat that can grow from one seed, and the Buddha showed that, with karma, one cause brings many results in the same way.

The result of negative karma also expands. In the time of one buddha, a king built a monastery that had all the necessities inside and offered it to the Sangha. His son, through true renunciation, became celibate and lived there; but despite the monastery being full of things, this king had such great envy that he couldn’t give any of these possessions to any other living beings. His karma caused him to suffer in the hell realm for thirty-one eons. After that, he was born as a naga called Temetong. Whatever touched this naga’s body burned it, and the flames that came from it caused it so much suffering.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha told these stories about karma to instruct living beings, to make them careful in creating karma.

In another buddha’s time, a girl once slept with some bhikshus on the steps of a monastery. The karma created by this caused her to be reborn in the lower realms for many eons. She suffered in the hell realm for all of the eons, but her karmic debt was not completed by the end of that universe and this caused her to be reborn in the hell realm of another universe. After that she was reborn as a blind naga with a rotten body oozing with pus and insects eating it. This also lasted for a long time.

As the universe is destroyed, our sun increases into seven suns, getting hotter and hotter until everything burns up. The golden hills melt, the oceans dry up, iron mountains burn, the earth disintegrates and eventually the sun itself disappears. When this time comes, the minds of beings who are suffering in the hell realm and who still have karma left to experience are reborn in the hell realm of another universe, where they continue to suffer until their time is up. Other beings who have expanded their karmic result can be reborn as humans, gods and so forth. The place of the hell realm is not definite but in many places; it can be on this earth.

There are even occasional hells where beings can be human in the daytime and suffer greatly at night. Once, a person was asked by a noble being to keep precepts. He agreed to do so only in the daytime but not at night. The result of this was that he took a rebirth in which in the daytime he lived in a very attractive place, with five women, enjoying himself very much, but at night they became dogs that devoured all parts of his body without control, barking and eating his heart. At sunrise he would become the human enjoying himself again; at dusk, he was eaten with much suffering. This kind of rebirth is a type of hell rebirth but not quite so bad and it occurred because the person didn’t follow the precepts at night, only during the day.

We have a perfect human rebirth now, but it’s extremely difficult to attain again. After this universe ends, the minds of the beings who inhabit it take form in another universe. Universes can’t be exactly the same but there are many of them.

Once the Sangha of a particular place deposited a jewel with the manager of that place. When they asked for it back, the manager refused, claiming it was his and asked them if they would like to eat kaka. Due to this, he was reborn in the worst suffering for ninety-one eons. Each time during those eons that there was a different founder of the teachings on earth, he was born as a snake in a place near a very dirty lake where people threw their kaka and rubbish. He experienced much suffering. Six of those buddhas used this snake as an example of karma for their followers. After the snake rebirth, he returned to the hell realm until the next buddha came into the world. Altogether, there will be one thousand buddhas; Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is the fourth, and all of them have prophesied about the karma of this being who was once the manager.

There are many other stories that are told about karma expanding, especially about bad rebirths due to verbal or physical negative actions toward holy objects, such as monks and temples. The rebirth often suits the action. For example, if you call someone a dog you yourself may be born as a dog. Positive actions, such as offering to holy beings, may even be rewarded the same way, especially if the offerings are from a beggar or a poor person who has little.

In a previous time, in Benares,¹ one person tried to stop his mother from giving charity. He locked her up in a house and at mealtimes made her eat dirt for six days, after which she died. He wasn’t the least upset. Sometime later, an arhat came to beg from this man, and the man took the food from inside the arhat’s bowl and trampled on it. Due to these karmas, he was reborn in the lowest hell realm. After many eons he was reborn as a very ugly son to an Indian family. At birth, his mother’s milk dried up and whenever they found a wet nurse, her milk dried up too. When he grew up, he always had trouble finding food. After some time, he became a monk, begging food. He asked a particular Sangha member if he could sweep their monastery and they fed him. The first day they were all invited to a benefactor’s house but there was a quarrel there and he missed out. The next day they were again invited, but his food was forgotten and so again he missed out. The next day Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciple, Ananda, forgot food for him. The next day he tried very hard to get some food, but it was taken by a dog. The next day Maudgalyayana brought him food, but it was taken by a Garuda and dropped in the ocean. The next day an arhat brought him food and left the bowl at the door, but it was absorbed into the earth. So the arhat, who had great psychic powers and could see the past, present and future, went under the earth with his power and tried to get the bowl that had been absorbed. But when he returned, the man’s mouth was closed by karma. That made up the six days without food. Then, he ate dirt mixed with water and died. In this process, all those three karmic actions were repaid. We must remember to never stop someone from giving charity or creating other good karma. This creates very bad karma for us.

In a previous time, a member of the Sangha called another monk jumping into a stream a monkey because he was so quick, and because of that, the name caller was reborn as a monkey. Another monk criticized someone else’s voice, saying their chanting sounded like a dog barking. Because of that, he was reborn as a dog. Just calling people names or telling them they are blind and so forth, can bring a similar result.

You don’t even need anger to create great negative karma that will result in experiencing a suffering result. In a previous time, a king made an offering of five hundred dancing ladies who played music to bodhisattvas. A girl criticized this to others who were talking about Dharma. The result was that for ninety thousand rebirths she was reborn in the hell realm and for five hundred lifetimes she was reborn as a barbarian and heretic, because of her judgment of the action of offering. For six lives, she was born blind and without a tongue. In the hell realm, some beings are born as walls or pillars—the hell being is not of definite form, it can be any shape according to the living being’s karma. Such a rebirth can arise as a result of actions such as spitting in a holy place or dirtying it.

In the hell realm, we can also be born as a tree, a leaf, a road or a broom. This kind of karma can be created by using the possessions of the Sangha, such as trees and so forth, for our own use, without permission or without a Dharma reason. Any negative karma created with the possessions of the Sangha is extremely difficult to purify.

In the time of a previous buddha, a lower caste child who was devoted to the buddha threw a handful of beans to him. Only four of them dropped into his bowl, and one dropped on his head. The result of this was that the child became a universal king, extremely rich, with full control of the four great worlds and the realms of the desire realm gods. All this arose from the bean that dropped on the enlightened being’s head. A member of the Sangha offered a coin to another buddha and vowed never to kill—as a result, in many future lives he lived a long time, feeling no danger, with few distractions.

Rejoicing can also create negative karma, such as rejoicing over someone’s death. Some Tibetans, for example, rejoiced over the death of Chinese soldiers. Thirty-two people once stole and killed an ox and an old woman rejoiced. After a long time, in the time of a buddha, that ox became a king, and the mother was reborn as a woman with thirty-two sons. The king killed all thirty-two sons.

Rejoicing can also create great positive karma, if we rejoice over positive deeds.

The only war is against ignorance. With the Dharma, we can’t harm any other sentient being. Rather, the Dharma is a method to bring perfect peace to ourselves and to others. The Buddha’s sole wish is for all sentient beings to overcome all ignorance right now. If we hurt even the tiniest insect, it hurts all enlightened beings, just as harming the child hurts the parents. The best offering to the enlightened beings is to help sentient beings, for their holy minds are strongly bound by limitless compassion.

When Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was crossing the Ganges at Varanasi, five hundred hungry ghosts nearby asked him for water, which he satisfied them with. They developed such strong faith that they were reborn in the god realm, where they saw him again and received teachings and attained enlightenment. When someone asked Guru Shakyamuni Buddha about this story, he explained that in a previous buddha’s time, they had been ordained with the five precepts, and once some fully ordained monks had taken some of their food. They had remarked that those monks begged like hungry ghosts, and the result was rebirth as hungry ghosts for five lifetimes, until they met Guru Shakyamuni Buddha.

There was a very poor place in India which the Buddha once passed through, being seen by five hundred dirty, ragged farmers who were plowing wheat with a thousand cows. The farmers and cows felt strong devotion for the power of his holy body and received teachings. As a result, they were reborn in the god realm where they met him again and fully realized emptiness. (It’s possible to see a buddha and receive teachings in the god realm but extremely difficult—just as seeing the stars in the daytime is difficult due to brightness of the sun.) The explanation of this story is that the five hundred farmers had been monks in the time of a past buddha but had been so lazy that they were reborn as poor, suffering farmers. The thousand cows had once been monks too but had no respect for the secondary precepts and so were reborn as cows.

Ignorance creates the wrong view that leads to the eight worldly dharmas and to hatred and anger. Many negative minds arise from greed for possessions and comfort, which leads to anger, destroying ourselves and others. The negative karma thus created causes rebirth in the suffering realms by way of the four results: the ripening or maturation result, the possessed or environmental result, experiencing the result similar to the cause, and creating the result similar to the cause. This only makes ignorance stronger, which causes anger to return in future lives and so on. A moment’s anger brings eons of suffering. The growth of ignorance takes us further from the cause of perfect peace and from the realization of emptiness. Until we stop to purify our ignorance, we go in the opposite direction.

Examples are good, since we can remember them when we are about to create negative karma. They will make us afraid of doing so and thus give us protection from creating suffering by following the negative mind.

WE CANNOT MEET THE RESULT UNLESS WE HAVE CREATED THE CAUSE

[WFGS p. 136]

We can’t experience any pleasure unless we have created some previous good karma. Without planting the seed, we can’t grow grain, no matter how strongly we wish to enjoy it, no matter how much we expect it, and it’s the same with karma. This applies to both positive and negative karma and their results, happiness and suffering.

But neither can we expect a potato seed to bring corn or an orange tree to grow bananas. The result has to arise from a similar cause. Karma that is created with ignorance can’t be expected to bring the result of happiness. For example, if we commit one of the ten nonvirtues, such as sacrificing a cow in order to bring about a good result, a happy result is impossible because the original action creates suffering. If we understand this basic fact about karma, we won’t make a mistake. Sacrificing animals to a god is an ignorant action, the action of somebody who is ignorant of karma and believes that the god will be pleased by the sacrifice, which is the complete opposite to what happens. If sacrificing living beings pleased the gods, we would have to conclude that the gods were selfish, without compassion and without any care for the happiness of living beings. That is a very ignorant mind.

Most people have no idea of the Christian God. Some might even think he will be pleased by sacrifice. Some people think that worldly evil spirits are gods and do things to placate them. These misconceptions of what a god or God is leads to great suffering. Such a being could never be pleased by this action. The nature of God, or the holy mind, is something that is complete loving kindness and compassion, wishing happiness for all sentient beings and wishing them to be free from suffering.

Ignorant of karma, foolish people expect rebirth in heaven and a long, happy and successful life in return for their sacrifice. They think that if they don’t make a sacrifice, their god will punish them. Some only sacrifice because other families do it or because it’s a family custom. If the family doesn’t do it, they will get a bad reputation. This only causes their ignorance of karma to increase, even though they might believe that their motivation is a good one.

THE RESULT OF THE KARMA CREATED IS NEVER LOST

[WFGS p. 136]

The result of the karma created is never lost. Because we don’t know which past karmic results we have already experienced, knowing we must experience the results of karmic imprints still on our mindstream, we need to do a lot of purification as well as not creating any new negative karma. An eon is a very long time and karma is beginningless.

We are so fortunate to be able to practice the Dharma at this time. During the eons of emptiness, evolution and degeneration as well as most of the eon of existence, there are no teachings.

In the eon of existence, the teachings only begin when the lifespan has decreased from eighty thousand years to one thousand, and as life gets shorter there are fewer teachings. At Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s time, the human lifespan was about one hundred, which is when the founder of the Dharma manifests on this earth. The great yogis and lamas recognize the present people who practice the Dharma as very fortunate to be alive and receiving the teachings at this point in time because their mind is now ready. When humans live for eighty thousand years, their minds are not ready for teachings due to the fact that they have no experience of suffering. As the lifespan gets shorter, their minds become ready. Therefore, because the teachings are so rare, only existing in this brief period, we must cherish them.

Incorrectly believing that the negative karmas we create can bring happiness is our worst enemy. Such ignorant belief is worse than any possible external enemy. We are now human due to past karmas created over billions of eons. Because the suffering result that happens when negative karmic imprints ripen doesn’t occur straight away, we tend to think it doesn’t matter. Such a view is very limited, deeply ignorant of how karma works and of the teachings of enlightened beings. We think, “The result comes in a future life which maybe exists, but maybe it doesn’t, so it doesn’t matter.” This is very ignorant.

In China, the astrological method of determining the past and future developed from Manjushri, the buddha of wisdom. But proper karmic teaching tells us that we have experienced all lives and actions, all samsaric experiences, that they are beginningless. Because the astrological teachings only refer to this rebirth and to immediate past and future lives, they are very limited. It’s better to have confidence in teachings on karma because they show us how to stop the cycle of rebirth, which is the best practice.

The main thing that we should remember is to stop creating negative actions. To do that, we must recognize what the negative mind is. Then, we can recognize its very opposite: the positive mind and positive actions. From beginningless lives until now, the whole problem has been our failure to recognize the negative mind. Recognizing this, we can put an end to our suffering. When we recognize the ignorance in our minds, we can more easily recognize the ignorant view, and, transforming our mind into a virtuous one, it becomes much easier to overcome external problems. Perfect peace depends on internal change. Trying to only change exterior problems only creates more problems and the need to work to overcome them will never end. When we are ignorant, the teachings themselves, created to dispel ignorance, become an enemy. Such an ignorant mind is taking the best care of ignorance.

THE FOUR OPPONENT POWERS

[WFGS pp. 137–38]

The four opponent powers are the four factors needed to make our purification perfect. The first of the four opponent powers is the power of the object, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The second is the power of regret, feeling strong regret for having done a negative action. The third is the power of resolve, determining not to do that negative action again in this lifetime. (We can’t make promises for future lifetimes.) And the fourth is the power of the remedy, which is any virtuous action that counters the negative mind that created that negative action. That includes doing retreats, prostrations, building stupas and statues, reciting mantras, especially the Vajrasattva mantra, reciting purification prayers, reading books, doing pujas and making offerings to the Sangha.

Regret is the most important of the four. The stronger the regret, the greater the purification. Because the other powers depend on how strongly we regret the action, it makes the power of the remedy and the power of the resolve stronger.

We do purification practices to avoid the suffering result, to eliminate it before it ripens. During meditation, we should remember all the negativities we have committed and confess them. Then we should build up positive karma through pure Dharma practice, which is the other means of building merit. When our purification is strong, by experiencing some small suffering or illness in this lifetime, we can avoid many lifetimes of terrible suffering in the lower realms.

We have created so many negative karmas in beginningless past lives, and yet we now enjoy the result of the one that brought this life. We could have been born anywhere, as anything. How does this work? The heavier a karma or the more frequently it’s committed, the more likely it is to ripen, so the karma that brought this rebirth must have been heavier than the others. Or, if it was the same weight, it must have been closer to ripening. Or, if that was the same, it must have been more habitual. Or, even if all these different factors were equal, this karma must have been committed first.

As long as we are ignorant of karma, we are ignorant of the suffering of samsara. To stop suffering, we must know its cause. The understanding of karma is a most profound subject, and gaining this understanding depends on meditation. We must discover its evolution within our own experience. But we must be fully confident about what karma is before we can live in the practice of creating positive karma and avoiding negative karma. We create our own suffering—negative karma—and will keep doing so until we develop full confidence coming from a deep understanding. Before we can transform our mind, we need explanations, which come from the teachings of the enlightened one. We should check up on the explanations, understanding them, believing them and living with them. Failure to recognize karma doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

KARMIC RESULT

The results of karma differ for various reasons. A thought, such as greed, for example, arises and we may suppress it as a result of our conscience or fear of reprisal, or we may act it out. This can occur with or without the knowledge of karma. In all cases, the karmic result will vary. There are also different results that arise from small actions done with different motivations. For instance, if we tell a lie with a pure motivation, such as to really help someone, and without expecting something in return, it’s a positive action. It’s not positive if we do it to help ourselves, for example, if we expect a reward.

We can create great negative karma in our life, but if we then learn about the Dharma and practice it very purely, we will be able to purify that karma. In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says,

[7:14] Relying upon the boat of a human (body),
Free yourself from the great river of pain!
As it is hard to find this boat again,
This is no time for sleep, you fool.

We are in a very deep, wide ocean of suffering and the boat that we depend on to cross over is our present human rebirth. In the same way that a boat is needed to cross a vast ocean, by depending on the boat of the human rebirth, we can escape from suffering. But just having this human rebirth alone is not enough to cross over the suffering because most human beings die without having created the causes of happiness and then are reborn in the three lower realms as a result of the negative karma they have created.

Therefore, we not only need this boat of a human rebirth, we also need to correctly observe our karma, creating only positive karma and never creating negative karma. What causes the suffering in the three lower realms is only the inability to correctly follow karma. We have also created far more negative karma than positive over our countless lifetimes, so after death we are much more likely to take a lower rebirth, unless we create much more good karma and purify our past bad karma before its result is experienced. Because this perfect human rebirth is just found this once, we must act now to transform ourselves. This is why Shantideva says it is no time to sleep.

The only way to cross over the vast ocean of suffering is to observe our karma as best we can. We need faith in and a deep understanding of karma. In order to develop this, we need fear. When I say fear, I don’t mean the ignorant fear that even insects and animals have, the fear of death, that causes them to take great care of their lives, to always work to avoid being killed. That fear is insufficient to practice the Dharma. Most of us are afraid anyway; that’s why we work to support ourselves and plan for the future and so forth.

The fear that we need in order to practice the Dharma correctly is the useful fear that we will die without having created any positive karma, and because of that we will be reborn in the lower realms. Unless we have created the merits to be reborn in the upper realms, there will be no chance to practice Dharma in the next life. This useful fear of dying is the fear that we won’t be able to make any preparation for enlightenment before we have purified our negativities.

Such fear is very useful because it keeps us away from the negative minds of greed, hatred and ignorance. The more we genuinely fear an unfortunate rebirth, the easier it is to overcome our attachment. This fear makes our Dharma practice pure and sincere. With such strong fear, we have the determination to use anything for the Dharma, including what we would normally consider worldly enjoyments such as food, clothing or sleep.

Just as in the example of the two nephews of Ananda, with such strong fear, we can’t become lazy or sleepy. We have so much energy for meditation or any positive action, wanting to continue despite any difficulty. We have no problems keeping our vows purely until death. We see worldly problems such as hunger and so forth as unimportant, as trivial matters. Unless we have this useful fear, we will have great difficulty even keeping our vows. We see the prohibitions that come with the vows as suffering.

People who take vows often feel deprived of what they think are the good things in life. They miss smoking, they feel hungry, they feel tired. This is because they are still influenced by the eight worldly dharmas. Even if they try to practice the Dharma, they can’t continue. They feel the vows are torture; they lose interest in studying. In short, they get bored with the Dharma.

This is like the Tibetans under the Chinese who complained that they couldn’t even get butter tea and there was sand in the tsampa. Some Sherpa monks from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery said that they had to work incredibly hard as laborers and only got dirty tsampa, so there was very little food to fill their stomachs. They had so much suffering.

On the other hand, when we have a good understanding of karma and a fear of death, we will have no problems observing our karma, keeping our vows purely and doing whatever we can to create merit. Unheedful of the comforts of the worldly life, we work to attain realizations.

There is a big difference between somebody who understands karma and somebody who doesn’t. It can make a big change in a person. Even if somebody was very cruel and negative earlier in life, if they then gained some understanding of karma and death, they could completely transform from the way they were before, becoming holy, a bodhisattva. The person they were before and the one they are now have completely different personalities, actions and lives. Therefore, the main purpose of this human life is to be careful in the creation of karma and to have faith and understanding in it.

The tantric path is the short path to enlightenment. It’s very powerful. The person who correctly follows the practices of the Hinayana and the Mahayana can definitely attain enlightenment after sixteen lifetimes without tantric meditation. The short path of tantra, however, makes enlightenment possible within one lifetime.

There are many mental disciplines practiced by bodhisattvas to control the delusions in order to attain enlightenment. Ordination, for example, is an act of discipline. Just shaving the hair and wearing robes doesn’t mean the mind is subdued. There are many holy beings who have subdued their minds without robes or shaved heads. Not involved in creating negative karma, they keep their minds pure.

The bodhisattva’s attitude is to always be unattached to the actions of body, speech and mind, to worldly possessions, and to always work for the happiness of sentient beings. This never depends on external changes, painting the body or wearing rosaries and so forth, but on subduing the mind. Unless the mind is subdued, no matter how they appear, it’s difficult for a person to really be a bodhisattva.

Which is more important, the comfort of this life or the future life? Is trying to receive peace in this lifetime through meditation positive or negative? It’s not negative because although the desire is to receive peace in this lifetime, it’s attained through meditation, by following the path, and the purpose of the path is not for this life. We have to be very clear about this. Are we aspiring to the happiness of this life or of future lives? If we study Buddhism but underlying everything we do is the wish for worldly happiness, that is not Dharma. We simply can’t attain the path to enlightenment without renouncing the eight worldly dharmas. If we run after that kind of happiness, we will never get it.

If, however, we desire peace in this lifetime and try to attain it by following the path, because that involves renouncing the eight worldly dharmas, that is not negative because it will lead to higher realizations. This peace can be developed into perfect everlasting peace. This desire to experience peace in this lifetime is always very useful. The other desire, which does not renounce the attachment and the comfort of this life, is negative; it’s not attained through the path but through samsaric actions, through temporal methods, and its motivation is attachment to worldly comforts. Because of that, it’s tainted, it has no beginning and no end and it can’t last. The result is trivial, with nothing to do with bringing peace in future lives. Because of that, it only brings suffering. Therefore, there is no reason to do it again.

The action of trying to attain peace through meditating on samsara and suffering is meaningful because the purpose of this action is to fight the negative mind. Because of that, it has the power to bring everlasting happiness. This meditation causes us to renounce attachment and actions that arise from the negative mind of ignorance. The method is perfect because it has an end. The more we practice in this way, the purer our actions become and the closer we get to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the most perfect everlasting happiness. Whereas desire is generally seen as a negative mind, the desire to destroy ignorance is positive.

The desire for the worldly comfort of this life is negative, mostly causing us to be reborn in the three lower realms. When we desire another samsaric rebirth with samsaric enjoyments or another human rebirth for its enjoyments, although it’s considered Dharma because it’s beyond this life, it’s still negative because it causes us to be reborn in samsara and keeps us there. Positive desire is the desire for freedom from samsara, the wish to be free from greed, hatred and ignorance. But because the desire to be free from samsara still has some taint of self-cherishing, it can still be seen as negative when we compare it to the selfless desire to attain enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings.

All of this has to do with the amount of positive karma we create. Any action that is done for our future life that is not ignorant of karma is a Dharma action. If an action is done for the worldly comfort of the future life, it’s the lowest kind of Dharma action. Any action done for the worldly comfort of this life is not the Dharma.

When we die with full confidence and faith in karma, we will have a very different rebirth from somebody who doesn’t have this confidence and faith. For them, the next rebirth will probably be in the lower realms, especially if they have broken any vows they have taken.

Because we ourselves don’t have the ability to see how karma works, the examples shown by the Buddha are extremely useful to help us understand. It’s vital to follow the laws of karma, particularly at times like these when there are so many international, social, political and racial conflicts, and problems also between teachers, all spurred by animosity and greed. Following karma is the only way for everybody to have peace, to keep from creating negativities. Peace is impossible without this. Why is there so much trouble on earth? Countries keep changing political parties, but no matter what they try it never suits everyone. The changes are to prevent suffering but never succeed because the method is not perfect. Therefore, problems arise and get bigger. Again, the situation changes, and again it fails. So many leaders come and go, groups form and dissolve and so on.

At the beginning humans didn’t need a king, leader or guru because the negative mind was very subdued, not violent as it is now. The present problems were not there: crops grew easily, bodies produced their own light, there was no need for work, and enjoyments and happiness were much greater. People didn’t collect things or make arrangements for the future. Miserliness was unknown, although the seeds were there.

Slowly, however, the negative mind became stronger, growing more and more violent, and so the behavior deteriorated—jealousy, stronger desire and miserliness arose. As it degenerated, more and more problems came, so a king was needed to look after the people. Having social structure doesn’t mean things are better; it means they’re getting worse.

The fundamental method to have peace is to follow karma; no other method can possibly work. For everybody on earth to have peace depends on every person on earth following karma, not just some people practicing Dharma and giving peace and enlightenment to others through their mental control. This would be like expecting a few people to work hard and fill their stomachs in order to become the cause for millions of others to be free from hunger without having to get food. It’s the same thing if a few people only practiced the Dharma; they can’t give their peace to those who don’t practice the method. Perfect peace is mental control. Their minds are completely separate from the other millions of minds and have different karmic propensities. This doesn’t mean that we can’t influence others, but we must all work to subdue our minds; such control can’t be divided and shared like a loaf of bread. That’s impossible.

If two people had the same mind, it should be exactly the same. If one was hungry, the other would be hungry; if one was happy, the other would be happy. Their physical appearance should also be completely the same, because to have the same mind means having exactly the same karmic imprints. To think mental experiences can be shared like bread is a big mistake. The mind can’t be shared. If that were possible, we would all have attained enlightenment by now. Since there are infinite numbers of enlightened beings with unbearable compassion for us, they wouldn’t leave even one sentient being suffering for even a split second.

If there were no karma, there would be no such thing as different lives, or things like uncontrolled rebirth and death, or sickness and old age. It wouldn’t be possible for all these things to exist, for beings to have to lead such lives without choice.

Also, without karma, coming here from the West and taking a meditation course like this one wouldn’t be possible. Everything would be self-existent. There would only be two possibilities if there was no karma. Either everything is self-existent or everything is nonexistent. Actually, if this line of reasoning is followed everything becomes nonexistent—no enlightened beings and no sentient beings, no enlightened mind and no ignorant mind—because the enlightened mind comes from purifying the ignorant mind. The enlightened mind is not eternal, it didn’t always exist, but it’s permanent once achieved. If the enlightened mind was eternal there would be no such person as Gautama Buddha, beginningless suffering could not be ended, and omniscience would be impossible. There wouldn’t be any mind or any existence, because every existence is a result, depending on the cause, which means there is karma and there is dependent arising. The mental effort of following karma is necessary. Without it, no other method works.

Talk is old; realizations are new. 

---

Notes

¹ The city now called Varanasi, in northern India. [Return to text]