Lam Rim, 16 March 1991

Begin with adjusting our motivation, cultivating the awakening heart. We have found this precious human life which has tremendous potential to be extremely beneficial because by means of this precious human life we can practice the Dharma. Considering the preciousness of our human life, its potential and its great benefit, we have to begin to appreciate this very fact. Understanding the great potential of our present human life and appreciating that fact, then we are going to make use of it, help to actualize our potential to gain the benefit of such a type of human life and thereby make our life meaningful. If we don’t appreciate the great potential of the human life, if we don’t understand the immense benefits which can be derived out of it, then we will not seek to make use of it, of the opportunity, and thereby our life will become will be wasted.

Not wishing to waste our life, wishing to make it meaningful. What are we to do? How can we realize its potential? In order to do that, we have to fulfill its ultimate purpose, its ultimate meaning, and that is the complete elimination of all suffering and the finding of an ultimate type of happiness. In seeking to realize that ultimate potential of the human life, we have to understand that such a purpose cannot be realized simply through material means, but only through the practice of a spiritual power.

If we carry on our practice of Dharma, the spiritual path, then we’re going to realize a great benefit, that we’re going to achieve a great result. We’re going to experience great blessings out of our practice. And the most meaningful way that we can begin to practice the spiritual path is through development of love and compassion. That is to say, holding others more dear than ourselves and developing the attitude which wishes to lead them, all sentient beings, out of their suffering and to bring them great happiness. And this is the awakening heart.

So the motivating force of our practice becomes those of love and compassion. And seeking to actualize the aspiration of freeing sentient beings from suffering, to bring them happiness, we realize that we ourselves, as individuals, must remove all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. That is to say, in order to achieve this, the goal of this aspiration, each of us must achieve Buddhahood. And in order to achieve Buddhahood, we must train our minds. We must practice the various paths.

In order to do that, we must understand what are the paths. In order to do that, we must listen to the various teachings. So, if developing such a healthy attitude as a motivating force for listening to the present teaching. Just five minutes of listening with such a motivation creates skillful actions equal to space. It’s extremely powerful and extremely beneficial as a motivating force.

So try for the next three minutes to cultivate such an attitude to listen to the present teaching. Cultivate this attitude for the next three minutes. Quoting from a verse by Tsongkhapa. Previously we talked about the training of having gone for refuge, the advices and the commitments which going for refuge entails. And in order to actually put those into practice, well, they must be practiced in the context of the conviction in karma, that is the actions, and the results.

In the context of karma and the results, what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. But before we can actually practice well in the context of actions and the results, we must gain a conviction in the notion of actions and the results. In order to gain this conviction, we must as a preliminary reflect upon all of the aspects of karma and the results. And out of that reflecting upon these, we will gain a conviction. So we will never gain conviction unless we actually contemplate these subjects.

Out of contemplating the subject matter, we will gain a conviction and out of this conviction, our practice will go well. In order for our practice of Dharma to go well, we must engage in the cultivation of various areas of concern, practice, and we must abandon other types of activities. That is say we must practice in accordance with what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. And this method of adoption and rejection must be done correctly and must be done enthusiastically. This will never happen unless we have conviction in what we are doing.

We must be able to wholeheartedly think, If I do this, then this won’t happen. If I don’t do this, then this will not happen. If we don’t have this conviction, then our activities will probably be not correct and they will never have any great force about them. And going on from that, if our activities in which we’re engaging in are either not correct and or are not particularly forceful, then no great result is going to arise out of that method of conduct, that method of practice. If we went on to question, well, how do I develop such conviction?

What is the method to develop conviction specifically with respect to karma and results? Initially in coming to gaining a conviction with respect to karma and the results, and implementing this in our practice, we can make use of examples. That by examining various types of examples, what types of activities bring about what types of results, then we can begin to considering these, examining them, we can begin to see that certain types of activities will bring certain types of results. Certain types of positive activities will bring certain types of results. Gaining an understanding of the types of results which arise from specific types of activities, we will see, we will become enthusiastic about, well I’d like to achieve that particular result.

And if I act in that same way as these examples, then I can achieve that. If I don’t act in that same way, then I will not achieve that. So in terms of what we would like to achieve in the future as a result, through the consideration of examples, then we can begin to carry on, we will gain enthusiasm to carry on a correct, forceful type of practice. So, looking through examples of various activities and what type of results they bring is the way we can begin to gain a conviction with respect to karma and activities and the results. If we look to the secular world and suppose that we are thinking of taking up a particular occupation, then we would begin to examine, well, you know, what can I hope to gain out of this occupation?

What can I achieve if I do enter in this? And so we would look to others who are actually involved in the same types of work that we’re considering and question them. What do you get out of it? What kind of results have you achieved? What can I hope to And through this process of questioning and gaining reasons, considering the reasons, clearing away all doubts, then you say, well this is what I’d like to achieve and I can do that if I take up this occupation?

It sounds good. And one gains conviction that this is the way to go about what you want to get out of life. And so you will begin the work, you’ll enter into it with a wholehearted attitude and you’ll enter it with a correct attitude and forceful or enthusiastic attitude by having gone through this questioning process. Even in worldly concerns, a skillful person examines what they expect and what they’re going to get out of any type of activity in which they’re about to get engaged into before they begin. A foolish person does all that after they’ve started.

So this type of person is skillful. But and there are some who just assume that this particular activity or work is going to bring them some kind of profit, something they hope for. And they don’t bother to examine it before. And they go ahead and start work. And then they begin to actually examine, they begin to question, and they begin to see that they had false expectations, that this isn’t really what they wanted and it’s not going to achieve the results that they had expected.

And these types, that is to say, types of individuals who begin to involve themselves jump into work before they’ve examined what it entails and the result they can hope to achieve by it, we call foolish. We must gain a conviction in whatever work we’re about to engage in. It’s going to bring about types of results that we expect, that our expectations will be fulfilled, that things will go well for us. If we have this conviction, if we enter hesitantly with great doubts about what it is we’re doing, then we will not be enthusiastic about our work. And this applies not only to the secular world, but also to our spiritual practice, that we must gain a conviction in the effectiveness of what we are doing, and that it will achieve the hope for results.

And this is done through a systematic investigation analysis before we begin to practice. Therefore, out of this we will practice quickly and enthusiastically. So in order to gain a conviction in karma and the result, we have to examine it. And the Buddha set forth a four point method of the fundamental way in which we can begin to examine actions and the results. So there are four distinct modes of actions which we’re going to look at.

The first of these is that the results of actions are infallible. The results of actions are infallible. The second is actions are highly augmentative. Actions are highly augmentative, that is they’re increasing. The third is the results of uncommitted actions are not experienced.

The results of uncommitted actions are not experienced. And the fourth is, actions committed are not dissipated. Actions committed are not dissipated. That is to say, wasted, dissipated. The first is the results of actions are infallible.

The second is, actions are highly augmentative. Augmentative means increasing. Third is, results of uncommitted actions are not experienced. And the fourth is actions committed are not dissipated, that is by dissipated, wasted, lost. With respect to the first of these four modes of karma, That the result of actions are infallible.

So this is whatever actions are created, a concordant result will definitely arise, a concordant result, a result in keeping with the action. That is, we commit various types of activities, work. karma means work action. We commit various types of actions. We are the agent.

The person is the agent of those actions. What is being done is the activity, the karma. If it is a positive type of action, it will definitely have a positive result. If it is a negative action, it will have a concordant negative result. If it is neither positive nor negative type of action, it will have a neutral result.

Therefore, the quality of the result accords with the healthiness or unhealthiness of the action. There is a correspondence between the quality of the cause and the quality of the result. And here by causes, are referring to the various types of activities or actions that we create. This is karma. That whatever the action may be, there will be a corresponding type of result.

That the action is positive, we will have a positive result. If it’s negative, that we will have a negative result. This is an infallible relationship. There’s always a similarity between the quality of the cause and the quality of the result. This relationship is infallible.

It’s in the very nature of the object. It’s not something that we are superimposing upon this, but it objectively exists as to the very nature of the quality of the actions. Just as in the case of, we say water. Water always, it is in the very nature of water that it flows downward. Water does not flow upward.

It is in the very nature of fire that it burns upward. Fire does not burn downward. That is its very nature. By way of its very nature it has these qualities likewise. Actions by their very nature have these qualities such that there is a correspondence between a cause and its result.

In dependence upon positive causes, positive results arise. In dependence upon negative causes, negative results arise by their very nature. So the This is in the very nature of phenomena, that there is always a correspondence between causes and the results, that there is a similarity of type and their qualities. That if we look to external objects, if we plant a variety of a seed which is of a hot nature, then there will arise a plant which is of a hot nature. If the variety of the seed is of a sweet, then there will rise a plant which is sweet.

If the variety of the seed is sour, then there will rise a plant out of that which is of a sour nature. If we plant a variety of a hot seed, we don’t get a sweet plant. Or if we plant a sour seed, we don’t get a hot plant. These types of results which are dissimilar in type to their cause do not arise. There’s this definite infallibility between causes and results.

If we plant a rice seed, we get a rice plant. If we plant a wheat seed, we get a wheat plant. If we plant a fruit seed, we get a fruit plant. This is an unerring, infallible correspondence between the result and its cause. This is in the very nature of these phenomena.

There is this infallible relationship between causes and the results. When we plant a wheat seed, a wheat plant arises. When we plant a rice seed, a rice plant arises. Why does this relationship exist? The only answer that we can give is that it is their very nature of these phenomena.

There’s no other reason that we can state on why this type of relationship in fact exists. And if we look at the inner phenomena, by that we mean the nature of the relation between causes and results of inner phenomena in terms of our skillful actions and unskillful actions. Causal, skillful action about a happiness. Causal unskillful action brings about a resultant suffering. This is in the very nature of the relationship between the action as cause and the result.

That is just as in the case of external phenomena, sweet comes from sweet, sour comes from sour. If we question why, it is because it is in the very nature of these phenomena that they have this type of relationship. According to a verse by Śāntideva, he discusses the fact that it is our very nature that we do not want to suffer. And it is in the very nature that the experience of suffering has as its cause unskillful action. These are objective and exist as the very nature of these And if we don’t consider suffering, and the fact that we do not want to suffer, we will never go on to question, well, in dependence upon what do I experience suffering.

Considering our suffering, we will question, why am I suffering? We will look into it and see that it is a result and it has a cause. That cause corresponds to the quality of the result. And that cause is an unskillful action. If we make this examination, then it will rise in our mind that since I don’t want to suffer, that’s my very nature.

And the very nature of the experience of suffering as a result is that it comes about through the causal unskillful action, then I have to cease creating unskillful actions if I want to cease suffering. And this will act as a motivating force for us to begin to cease unskillful actions. If we don’t make this analysis, then we’re never going to develop the determination to cease unskillful actions. The very first teaching that the Buddha gave in Varanasi was the teaching on true sufferings. He talked about suffering.

And he did this because we have to If we want to cease our suffering, which in fact we all do, then we must cease creating the causes of suffering. And if we cease creating the causes of suffering, then we will cease our suffering. Our reality is that we don’t want to suffer, that we want somehow to cease our suffering. That if simply wanting to cease our suffering is not enough. If I say, Oh, I don’t want to suffer.

This is not going to get rid of your suffering. That we have to, in order to cease suffering, we have to consider what methods we have to implement to cease our suffering. And that necessarily entails that we understand what are the causes. Why am I suffering? And the reason is the creation of unskillful actions.

From where does our suffering arise? We must examine and we will see that it rises from unskillful actions. If we cease the causes of our unskillful actions, then we will cease our suffering. If we don’t cease these causes, then we’re never going to cease suffering. We have to consider our suffering.

On the other hand, if there was no method whereby we could eliminate our suffering, then it would just be a hassle to think about our suffering. There would be no use to it. But in fact, there is a method whereby we can eliminate our suffering and that is the practice of Dharma. Therefore, it makes great sense to consider the nature of our suffering. Does it arise from?

Because through the practice of Dharma we can achieve the latter two noble truths, the true cessation and the true paths leading to that cessation. So through the consideration of our suffering, we will, as a result, begin to cease the various unskillful actions which are the causes of that suffering. Then on the other hand, how do we develop the attitude of practicing skillful actions? And Śāntideva goes on to say that we must consider the nature of our happiness, understanding the fact that we want to be happy and that the causes of happiness are the very skillful actions. That happiness is a result of causal skillful actions.

We all want to be happy. We want these wonderful results. And therefore, out of this will develop a mind which determines to strive, that wishes for it. Because it wishes for happiness, it will strive to create the causes of happiness, that is to say, the skillful actions which bring it. We all wish for happiness, and it’s necessary to reflect upon how our happiness arises, that happiness is a result, and more specifically, it is a result of skillful actions.

Every happiness that we can hope to experience whatsoever arises in dependence upon some type of skillful actions, the fact of our human life, the fact that we have food, clothing, a beautiful body. The skillful actions which are their cause. Giving the conviction in this, we will naturally begin to strive to create those causes because we want resultant happinesses. Even in the world, in secular areas, people will go to a great deal of difficulty if they believe that it’s going to bring them some kind of beneficial result that they wish. That people, if they think there’s going to be some profit, people are willing to go through a lot of hardship.

For example, working in factories, business, farmers. They’re all doing this because they think there’s going to be some profit at the end of their activity. Out of this conviction that they’re going to gain some profit out of it, some benefit, they’re willing to undergo the difficulties in creating the causes to achieve that end. They will make great effort if they have conviction that something good is going to come out of it. If we consider the great benefits from a particular activity, we will naturally be inclined to put a lot of effort into achieving that end.

We will be enthusiastic and our efforts will be continual as we keep in mind what we’re hoping to achieve. On the other hand, if we don’t consider what the results that we’re trying to achieve, the benefits, whatever they might be, then we’re not going to, not, we may start, we may not even start, but even if we were to start, our activity will not be stable, it will not be continuous, it will not be enthusiastic, and a great deal of time and energy will be dissipated, not be made use of because we haven’t really considered what it is we’re trying to achieve. The great achievements of the various realized beings such as the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, and the hearers came about through their practices of the spiritual paths. All of their happiness, that they experienced a happiness which is completely divorced from any type of suffering. How did they achieve this?

It depends upon various types of skillful actions. And that we too can achieve this very same end if we engage in the very same types of skillful actions that they created. That we should consider this in order to gain a conviction that we can achieve these same ends that these beings did by creating the same types of skillful actions which these various states are a result of. On the other hand, the various states of beings such as hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, these all came about in dependence upon unskillful actions, negative types of causes, destructive causes. And we can achieve these same ends if we emulate the way in which these beings acted in creating unskillful actions.

So we can create the type of future that we want for ourselves. By creating negative actions, we will definitely experience negative types of results of these lower types of beings. If on the other hand we create positive actions, then we will definitely create the experience of these highly realized beings. In Australia, if we look on the road, the season changes, the leaves begin to fall, and they’re scattered along the robes. And the leaves are blown hither and yon by the wind.

Some are blown this way, some are blown this way, some are trapped in crevices only to be blown again by another wind coming. Is that right? So, these leaves have no control over their destiny. They are blown hither and yon by the force of the wind. They are completely under control of the wind.

Sentient beings are just like these leaves. They have no control. They are blown about by the whims of karma and afflictive emotions. Sometimes here and sometimes there, the wind blows for a moment and you end up in one place. Then another gust of wind comes along and you end up in another place.

And we’re blown hither and yon by the winds of our karma and afflictive emotions. Temporarily, we have all been gathered here in Australia by the force of our karma. So we’re all blown temporarily here and there. The Tibetans were blown out of their country, and the Chinese were blown into it, and the same will happen to America and Russia. And so the winds of karma have brought us all together here in Australia temporarily, but then they will again blow, and some will be blown to America, some will be blown back to Tibet, some will be blown to China.

So, general, there are two types of winds of karma. There are those which will blow you to happy migrations and those which will blow you to bad migrations. These positive and negative winds of karma are tremendously powerful winds. These winds of karma are infallible in where they direct one to. That out of skillful actions, only happiness can arise.

There cannot be even the slightest suffering arising from a skillful action. On the other hand, from unskillful actions, only suffering arises. There cannot be even the slightest happiness arising out of unskillful actions. This is the infallibility of karma in their results. So, what to say of powerful types of negative and positive types of actions to practice in accordance with this.

But even insignificant, we should begin to, if we gain conviction in this, begin to abandon even insignificant negative actions because we don’t even want insignificant sufferings. And practicing even minor types of positive actions because we want even every little scrap of happiness. So this first mode of karma or actions is that there is an infallible relationship between actions and results. From negative actions, is infallibly suffering will arise and from skillful actions, happiness only can arise. The second mode of karma was that actions are highly augmentative.

This was to be understood that from even minor types of skillful actions can bring about a great result. The same holds true of unskillful actions. Even insignificant unskillful actions can bring about a great result. That is, there’s an expanding or augmentative quality about actions. An analogy would be that of a seed of a tree.

The seed of a tree is extremely small. Having planted that seed of the tree out of this can come tremendous results in terms of a huge tree with a very large trunk, the branches, the leaves. And every year, this tree can give up thousands of fruit. This from a single insignificant seed, a tremendous result can arise. So to illustrate this, there’s a story.

To illustrate this fact of the expanding quality of actions, there’s a story that there was a large stupa, and around the stupa there was a dried out cow patty. An insect took rebirth in this cow patty. And one day, some rain came along, and the cow patty floated on top of the water and circumambulated the stupa. Out of that skillful action of circumambulating the stupa, this individual achieved liberation. Another instance was there was a pig who lived near the stupa and he used to eat the garbage walking around the stupa.

And out of that circumambulation of the stupa, he achieved the result of a celestial being and finally liberation. And then, on the other hand, there’s a story which illustrates the other half of this: there was a monk who was walking along carrying water, there was a stream and he jumped very adeptly, gracefully over the stream. Just then one monk remarked, You’re as graceful as a monkey, leaping the way you leap. And out of merely saying these words, this monk took rebirth five hundred times as a monkey.

There was one monk who had a very bad chanting voice. And he was chanting and one of the monks said, You know, you sound like the howling of a dog. Out of saying that, the person who said this took rebirth about five hundred times as a dog. So another instance where one Chinese master was criticizing others because they said that they get angry just like snakes. Snakes are noted for their angry quality.

And he said, You you people are just like snakes, the way you get so angry all the time. And out of this, even before he died, while he was still alive, his arms and legs started to wither away. And his head opened up and a snake began to grow out of the top of his skull. And so he became took on the appearance of the snake in that life, but not only that, in future lives, was reborn as a snake. So, there’s numberless accounts of this sort.

These aren’t just made up stories, these are actual accounts that have taken place. So in analyzing these, we can begin to gain a conviction in the augmentative or increasing quality of actions, that from insignificant skillful actions will come highly augmentative positive results, and from minor unskillful actions will arise highly augmented negative results. If we think along these lines, then as a result of this method of analysis, we will develop the we will come to a definite determination that I will practice even insignificant types of skillful actions and I will abandon even the most minor of unskillful actions. Using these, reflecting upon these two first modes of actions as a method, we can cultivate the final determination whereby whatever type of even insignificant happiness that we wish for, we will understand that it arose from a positive cause and we will make the determination to create that cause.

On the other hand, we will not simply overlook even minor negative causes because understanding the augmentative quality, we will begin to abandon even those minor unskillful actions. So, considering the augmentative quality of skillful actions in terms of these accounts where the causes for liberation were created out of simply circumambulating a stupa, then since we want these ends, then we will make this determination to create even these most minor of skillful actions. On the other hand, these accounts where out of even insignificant unskillful actions, significant results such as taking rebirth as a dog or a monkey were experienced, then we will begin to abandon even the most insignificant types of unskillful actions because we don’t want to experience these various results. So we’ve covered two of these modes of actions, and there are four altogether. If you have some questions.

This human birth is something special. You mean over the course of lives? Of lives, yeah. Is it all going somewhere or is it simply cyclic, just going up and down? Yeah, it simply, yeah.

What do you mean? You mean, it’s a negative feedback loop? It just keeps going back in on itself? I mean Or is it going in some direction, but it can’t.

Is it heading towards a direction? Like there’s the line of we’re very fortunate to have been born into this human life and we are here and we can see that there’s something to be achieved and yet through So we have a vast pool of actions, the latencies of actions that we’ve created previously, the seeds of those actions, both positive and negative. The results which we experience in the course of this life aren’t just coming from the various actions that we created in this life. And likewise, what we experience in future life will not be coming just from what we create during the course of this life. But we have both positive and negative latencies.

But even if we look at, remember I quoted from Śāntideva in which he said, Look at the course of your actions during over one day’s period. What is the quality of your actions? Is it predominantly negative or predominantly positive? It’s probably, that is to say, are most of your actions done out of the force of afflictive emotions? And probably they are.

And therefore we are continually creating negative actions. And if we create the negative actions for it to be born in a bad migration, then we will be born in a bad migration. This is the nature of having a result which will arise from creating the causes. So, when we have a human life and with its potential, we continually act out of our afflictive emotions creating negative actions which will experience a negative result in the future. When we look around, if we see a beautiful object, attachment arises.

If we see an unattractive object, aversion arises. If we smell something, if it’s attractive, we develop attachment. If it’s unattractive, we develop aversion. If we hear some pleasant sound, we develop attachment. If it’s unpleasant, we develop aversion.

If we eat food and it has a delicious flavor, we develop attachment. If it’s not delicious, we develop aversion for it. When we put on clothing, if it’s stylish and nice, smooth to touch, we develop attachment. If it’s not, we develop aversion. We’re continually throughout the course of our day oscillating between attachment and aversion with respect to the objects of the sense consciousnesses.

And any action created out of attachment and aversion is creating negative karma therefore, we are continually involved in creation of negative karma which will have a negative result. In creating negative actions, it’s not necessary that we go for the big ones. To create negative actions doesn’t mean we have to kill people, we have to steal things. Any action which is done out of even these minor forceful qualities of attachment and aversion is creating negative action. If putting on a monk’s robes got rid of your afflictive emotions, then you’d be quite right.

They would only create positive actions. But that’s not the case. That even though one puts on a monk’s it helps to prevent creation of verbal and physical negative actions. But still, the afflictive emotions are still present. Putting on monk’s robes doesn’t remove the afflictive emotions from the mind.

That this takes some time and some work aside from becoming a monk. So even though a person is a monk, because the afflictive emotions are still present, there’s still potential for creating negative actions. So if becoming a monk could rid you of your afflictive emotions, then almost everyone in Thailand by now would be foe destroyers. So we’re going to be discussing this, that there are different factors which determine the power of the karma, the action being created. Not just the activity itself.

The power of the activity is dependent upon, for example, the motivation, the power of the motivation, the power of the activity itself, and the object to which it is created toward. So in the creation of karma, even depending upon these three factors of the activity, the motivation, the object, that even a small action can have great results, depending upon these three factors. So we’re going to discuss these. So many different variables which determine the power of the action in terms of, for example, the intention, the activity itself, and the object toward which the action is created would be variables which would determine the forcefulness of the consequence of that action. So sometimes it would be a combination of all of these, sometimes it’s one of these factors, so we’ll discuss that later.