Analysis of the Gelug Prasangika Assertions about Karma

Other languages

Further Background Material

Range of the Analysis

Since the issue of free will versus determinism hinges on the understanding of “ not-yet-happenings,” let us focus our analysis, for the moment, primarily on them.

Moreover, let us limit our discussion to the Gelug Prasangika assertion of “not-yet-happenings” as nonstatic implicative negation phenomena. Unlike Gelug Chittamatra and Yogachara-Svatantrika, Gelug Prasangika accepts the existence of external phenomena. Thus, “not-yet-happenings” can be specified in terms of internally or externally occurring sequences of cause and effect. Internally occurring sequences refer to sequences of moments occurring on someone’s mental continuum.

  • Internally occurring sequences may be sequences of karmic experience, such as of acting destructively as a karmic cause and experiencing suffering as a karmic result.
  • They may also be sequences of episodes of the arising of mental factors, such as anger or patience, as a result of causal tendencies for them.
  • Or they may be cognitive sequences, such as when seeing a leaf fall from a tree to the ground.

Externally occurring sequences include a leaf changing position as it falls from a tree to the ground and unfired clay becoming a clay pot.

Let us first speak of sequences of someone’s experiencing of karmic cause and effect, such as the causal action of hitting, with anger, someone with an object and experiencing, as its karmic result, being hit on the head with a clay pot by someone and then wanting to hit the person back who hit us.

Karmic Impulses and Karmic Tendencies

Karma is a complex topic that entails many variables. Karma (las) is a tainted impulse on the mental continuum of someone either committing a constructive, destructive or unspecified mental, physical, or verbal action or causing someone else to commit a physical or verbal act.

  • Karma is tainted (zag-bcas, “contaminated”) in the sense that the habits for grasping for truly established existence on the mental continuum of the person that is its agent give rise to an appearance of truly established existence.

According to Gelug Prasangika:

  • The karmic impulse that brings on an action of the body, speech or mind is the mental factor of a compelling urge (sems-pa). It draws the consciousness, together with all the other accompanying mental factors, to an object and engages it in a physical, verbal or mental action regarding the object in accord with the mental factor of intention (‘dun-pa).
  • The compelled karmic impulse of an action of the body is the revealing form (rnam-par rig-byed-kyi gzugs) of the motion or movements of the body as a method implemented for causing the action of the body to occur and the nonrevealing form (rnam-par rig-byed ma-yin-pa’i gzugs) contemporaneous with and subsequent to the physical action.
  • The compelled karmic impulse of an action of the speech is the revealing form of the utterances of speech as a method implemented for causing the action of the speech to occur and the nonrevealing form contemporaneous with and subsequent to the verbal action.

Unlike physical sequences of cause and effect, such as kicking a ball and the ball moves as its immediate result, the connection between a karmic impulse as a cause and a “ripening” as its result is not an immediate sequential one. The intermediary stages entail “karmic aftermath,” consisting of several factors. Let us limit the presentation of karmic aftermath to discussion of only karmic legacies (sa-bon, Skt. bija, “karmic seed”) and simplify the explanation by not differentiating karmic tendencies from karmic forces (also translated as karmic potentials)

  • “Karmic legacies” is a general term that includes (1) karmic tendencies (sa-bon), which are always ethically unspecified (lung ma-bstan), and (2) both constructive karmic forces (bsod-nams, Skt. punya; merit) and destructive karmic forces (sdig-pa, Skt. papa, “sin”), when these two have taken on the essential nature of a karmic tendency (sa-bon-gyi ngo-bor gyur-ba).
  • A karmic legacy is a noncongruent affecting variable imputed on a mental continuum.

[See: Types of Karmic Aftermath: Usage of Technical Terms]

Since the main emphasis in the following sections is “not-yet-happenings,” and since the term karmic legacy connotes a relation with the past and karmic tendency a relation with the future, then for ease of expression and understanding, on this occasion we shall call karmic legacies “karmic tendencies.”

The Ripenings of Tendencies

Karmic tendencies from karmic impulses ripen into such things as:

  • The primary consciousness (rnam-shes) involved when experiencing a result that corresponds to its cause in our behavior or our experience, such as the body consciousness of the physical sensation of being hit on the head with a clay pot by someone
  • The mental factor of liking (dga'-ba) to hit people or animals, similar to what we have done before, and intending (meaning wishing) to do a similar action again, such as hitting the person back who hit us on the head with a clay pot
  • The eye consciousness of seeing the person who hit us while liking hitting others and wishing to hit them back
  • The feeling of happiness or unhappiness that accompanies the primary consciousnesses in each of the above cases
  • Our human body and its physical elements, but only in the context of their serving as the physical basis for the above-mentioned primary consciousnesses and mental factors
  • The body sensors of our human body, but only in the context of their serving as the dominating condition (bdag-rkyen) of the body cognition of the physical sensation of being hit on the head.

The above phenomena do not all ripen from the same karmic tendency. Feelings of happiness and the bodies of the better rebirth states ripen from constructive actions in general, while feelings of unhappiness and the bodies of the worse rebirth states ripen from destructive actions in general. The other phenomena mentioned in the above example ripen from the specific destructive action of us hitting someone else on the head with something.

[See: Causes, Conditions and Results]

Karmic tendencies are not the only type of tendencies on our mental continuum. There are:

  • Tendencies from the mental factors that have accompanied previous moments of cognition
  • Tendencies involved with memory – namely, tendencies to think something similar to what we have previously experienced or to carry out an action, such as signing our names, in a manner similar to how we have done it before.

The first of these two is relevant here – tendencies for mental factors. Such tendencies may be for:

  • Destructive mental factors, such as anger
  • Constructive mental factors, such as patience
  • Ethically unspecified mental factors, such as concentration.

Let us speak here just of the first of these three. A tendency for a disturbing emotion, such as anger, would give rise to the disturbing emotion of anger that accompanies the primary consciousness ripening from a karmic tendency. In our above example, this would be the anger we have while experiencing the physical sensation of pain from having been hit on the head with the clay pot by someone and while wanting to hit the person back who hit us.

Karmic tendencies and tendencies from mental factors do not ripen, however, into the forms of physical phenomena (gzugs) that are the objects of our cognition, but which are not conjoined with our mental continuums, such as the clay pot itself.

  • External objects, such as a clay pot, cast an impression of themselves on a consciousness
  • The impression is a mental aspect (rnam-pa) that resembles the external object. It arises in the cognition somewhat like a mental hologram representing that external object.

[See: Objects of Cognition: Gelug Presentation]

The clay pot itself arises as a result of numerous causes and conditions, such as the unfired clay, the firing oven, the heat of the firing oven, the potter’s wheel, the potter, and so on. The relation between our karma and the clay pot is established merely in the context of our cognition of the physical sensation or sight of the pot.

  • Karmic causes on the mental continuum of the person who hit us on the head with the pot ripened into that person’s wanting to hit us, and that led to his or her action of hitting us with the pot
  • Karmic causes on our mental continuum ripened into our cognizing the physical sensation of the pot hitting us on our head. They did not ripen into that other person’s wanting to hit us or into his or her action of hitting us.

Moreover, even though our body that is hit on the head with the clay pot by someone has ripened from a karmic tendency, our body did not pop out as a material object from a karmic tendency on our mental continuums. Our bodies have many other causes, such as the sperm and egg of our parents and our mother’s womb.

Points to Analyze

During the temporal interval between a presently-happening karmic impulse, a presently-happening karmic action, a presently-happening karmic tendency, and a presently-happening karmic result all occurring on an individual mental continuum, there is also imputable on that mental continuum, after the occurrence of the presently-happening karmic action and before the occurrence of the presently-happening karmic result," the “not-yet-happening of the result.” But, in our example:

  • Is the “not-yet-happening of the result” the “not-yet-happening” of the body consciousness of the physical sensation and pain of being hit on the head with a clay pot by someone?
  • Is it the “not-yet-happening” of the unhappy feeling that will accompany that body consciousness?
  • Is it the “not-yet-happening” of the anger that will accompany that body consciousness?
  • Is it the “not-yet-happening” of the clay pot that will hit us?
  • Is it the “not-yet-happening” of our body at the moment that it will be hit by the clay pot?
  • Is it the “not-yet-happening” of the person who has not yet hit us with the clay pot, but will hit us, or the “not-yet-happening” of his or her body, or the “not-yet-happening” of his or her act of hitting us with the clay pot?
  • Or is it the entire “not-yet-happening” event of being hit on the head with a clay pot by someone, imputed as a “whole” on all these parts?

Moreover, what is the presently-happening status of:

  • That body consciousness that has not yet happened
  • That unhappy feeling that has not yet happened
  • That anger that has not yet happened
  • That clay pot at the moment it is about to hit us, when presently it has not yet hit us
  • Our body at the moment it is about to be hit, when presently it has not yet been hit, and so on?

To answer these questions, we need to differentiate further subtle points concerning what exactly is a “not-yet-happening of something” and how we would cognize one.

Top