Causes of Sufferings of Samsara: Disturbing Emotions and Karmic Impulses

This is divided into four sections:

1. Recognizing the disturbing emotions and attitudes
2. The order of their development
3. The causes of the disturbing emotions and attitudes
4. The drawbacks of disturbing emotions and attitudes.

This is divided into two sections:

1. The six root disturbing emotions and attitudes
2. The auxiliary disturbing emotions.

The Six Root Disturbing Emotions and Attitudes

The six root disturbing emotions and attitudes (rtsa-nyon, Skt. mūlakleśa, root afflictions) are:

1. Longing desire
2. Anger
3. Pride
4. Unawareness
5. Indecisive wavering
6. Disturbing attitudes with a view.

Longing Desire 

Longing desire (’dod-chags, Skt. rāga, attachment) is regarding something impure and tainted as being worthwhile and attractive. It is typified by the attitude, “If it’s my lover’s cup, it’s clean; if it’s the cleaning lady’s, it is dirty.” There is a Tibetan saying, “My mother’s cup is clean because she wiped it often with her apron.” This shows that due to attachment, we are blind to faults.

To be attached to something imperfect, however, is a complete delusion of the mind. Whatever worldly object or quality our minds may find alluring and desirable is completely arbitrary and relative. If even a dog or a pig finds its mate bewitching, what is so special about ours? 

Aryadeva has said in Four Hundred Verse Treatise (bZhi-brgya-pa, Skt. Catuḥśataka), I.4:

Anyone can find anyone else attractive and become infatuated with them and rejoice (in their beauty). But as this is common even among dogs and such (with respect to their mates), O dull-witted one, why are you so attached (to yours)?

To help decrease longing desire for other people, view all males and females older than you as your father and mother, those of the same age as brothers and sisters, and the ones younger than you as sons and daughters. In this way, by regarding everyone as related to us, we will also be able to have love and compassion for all.

When we see beautiful bodies of young people, to lessen desire we can try imagining what they would look like if not covered with skin, what is going on inside.

Sakya Pandita has said in A Precious Treasury of Elegant Sayings (Legs-bshad rin-po-che’i gter), 93:

No matter how much you wash charcoal, you cannot make it white.

Or another more earthy example would be, “No matter how much you wash a turd, you can’t make it clean.”

If we are attached to our own bodies, we can be reborn as a worm or insect inside our own corpse [as cited by Pabongka in “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand” (rNam-grol lag-bcangs), 328.a3–5]. Once, a girl was so attached to her own beauty, she was always looking at it in a mirror. When she died, she was reborn as a snake going back and forth through holes in her old body’s skull.

At one time, when the Buddha was giving a discourse, a princess was attending who was so preoccupied with the beauty of her jewelry, she heard nothing of what the Buddha said.

We are attached to our body and think it is so clean, but as Padampa Sanggye (Pha-dam-pa sangs-rgyas) has said:

What use is there in putting ornaments on a bag of excrement?

Our bodies have a nice layer of skin over 36 dirty substances. If the skin broke apart, there would be no way to become attached. Of course it is good to wash. To be naturally clean and beautiful is pleasing to others’ minds. However, pretentiously to adorn ourselves with perfume and cosmetics is ridiculous. 

The impurity of our bodies can be seen by the fact that they change delicious tea into urine and food into feces. A momo (Tibetan dumpling) on the table is clean, but if we put it in our mouths, chew on it a few times and put it back on the table, who would consider it still clean?

In some cultures, it is considered attractive to be slim and unbecoming to be fat. In others, however, being obviously well-fed is considered a sign of prosperity, whereas being thin indicates common poverty. However, no matter what culture we are in, the shape of our bodies has no power to liberate us from suffering. Whether we are fashionably slim or plumb, all limited beings in samsara are subject to sickness, old age and death. 

Anger

Anger is the attitude of being completely intolerant when aimed at an object and, and with this brutish state of mind, wishing to harm that object, such as when seeing something unpleasant, like an enemy. This is the strongest disturbing emotion for destroying positive karmic force and causing lower rebirth. Its opponent is patience. 

Anger (khong-khro, Skt. krodha) is the generation of violence or agitation with respect to any object of the senses or mind, animate or inanimate. Sometimes this mental state is directed specifically at another human being; the term “hostility” (zhe-sdang, Skt. dveṣa), one of the three poisonous emotions, when used technically, refers to this more specific form of this root disturbing emotion. Sometimes, however, our anger is directed at an animal, an insect or even an inanimate object. If we catch our finger in a door, we may become so angry that we punch the door, thereby injuring our hands even more. If our stove refuses to function, we may kick it in frustration and annoyance, thereby insuring that it will never work again. When we look back at our anger, it is like a drama for our entertainment. 

If we have anger, even if we eat momo three times a day and change brocade clothes five times a day, it won’t make us happy. Just as no fish live in turbulent whirlpools, no one will stay close to someone with anger.

Pride and Arrogance

With pride and arrogance (nga-rgyal, Skt. māna), we feel that we are not the same as others, but better than everyone around us. Pride makes us snobbish and conceited. We are unwilling to yield to others or show them respect. Because of pride we cannot admit our own faults or shortcomings. Instead, we always pick flaws in others and cannot tolerate anyone else’s success or good fortune. Because of our wish to be unique, we affect manners and wear clothing different from the norm. As a result, no one feels comfortable in our presence, and we become more and more estranged from personal contact with others. As our loneliness and wish for attention increase, our arrogant affections become more ostentatious, and the distance between ourselves and others grows wider. 

Proudly feeling that we know everything ourselves, we are unwilling to learn anything from anyone else, and therefore we remain naive. Arrogantly convinced of the infallibility of our own opinions and personal interpretations, we never consult or listen to others, and we are often proved wrong. Just as miserliness is the obstacle for becoming wealthy in our future lives, pride and arrogance are the obstacles for gaining knowledge.

Pride and arrogance come in six varieties:

• With the exaggerated arrogance (lhag-pa’i nga-rgyal, Skt. adhi-māna) we feel, for instance, that we are wealthier, more intelligent, more attractive or from a better family than anyone else. 
• Outrageous arrogance (nga-rgyal-las kyang nga-rgyal, Skt. mānāti-māna) is pretending that we are better than someone else with whom we know we do not compare. 
• With egotistic pride (nga’o snyam-pa’i nga-rgyal, Skt. asmi-māna) we feel we are the only one who can do some specific thing correctly, such as a student’s feeling that only they can answer a particular question or an overbearing mother-in-law’s feeling that only she can properly prepare a meal.
• False or anticipatory arrogance (mngon-pa’i nga-rgyal, Skt. abhi-māna) is feeling that we have attained and know everything when actually we do not. Mistaking a formless, blank-minded meditation for liberation is an example of this type of pride. 
• With modest arrogance (cung-zad snyam-pa’i nga-rgyal, Skt. ūna-māna) we feel we are at least in some ways better than others. 
• Distorted arrogance (log-pa’i nga-rgyal, Skt. mithyā-māna) is what we feel about non-virtuous attainments. A butcher’s feeling that they are the best slaughterer of animals, a thief’s that they are the best thief and a drunkard’s that they can out-drink anyone are all examples of perverted pride.

Pride and conceit pollute everything and are a great obstacle. There is a story about a disciple in India who could fly. When he saw his guru giving teachings below, he felt proud that he could fly and his guru could not. Immediately he fell to earth.

When Milarepa’s disciple Rechungpa returned from India, he felt proud that he was more scholarly and learned than Milarepa. He and Milarepa were traveling in a barren land, and it started to hail. All of a sudden, Milarepa disappeared and Rechungpa heard his voice coming from a yak horn on the ground. He looked in, and there was Milarepa sitting inside the tip. He said to Rechungpa, “Come on inside. You went to India and are more scholarly than me, so I’ve left the large end of the horn for you,” but when Rechungpa tried, he couldn’t even fit his head in. In this way, he lost his pride. That horn is held in Lhasa’s Central Temple.

Pride can be in even the silliest things, our drinking mug, trousers, voice – not only in intellectual abilities. In Tibet, one man from the countryside decked himself in smart new clothes and went to town. He paraded up and down for people to see him, but everyone was indifferent and no one paid him any attention. When he went home, he said, “Lhasa is a terrible place. No one even bothered to take notice of me.” This was his only impression of the town, and he didn’t even see any of the holy sites.

Unawareness

Unawareness (ma-rig-pa, Skt. avidyā, ignorance) refers specially to lack of awareness of voidness and thus is unawareness of the way in which all things actually exist. It can be of either two types, that which is bewildered about its object, not seeing it clearly because of obscuration, and that which apprehends it fallaciously (bslu-ba, Skt. visaṃ-vādakā). This root disturbing emotion is to be differentiated from closed-mindedness (gti-mug, Skt. moha), one of the three poisonous emotions, which is the foolish attitude of stubbornly closing ourselves off from learning something new and potentially threatening.

Being unaware of the way in which all things actually exist, we feel insecure. In our confusion we grasp out in search of a means for satisfying our desperately felt need for security.

Grasping for an impossible “soul” (bdag-’dzin, Skt. ātma-grāha) is the common psychological mechanism by which we try to alleviate such insecurity. We grasp to establish and maintain a personal ego-identity, believing that it and all things included in it have independent reality and existence separate from everything imagined to be “alien” and “foreign” to it. This leaves us to the further unawareness of believing that we can actually achieve a lasting sense of security if we indulge and gratify our ego and if we protect and defend its identity, sanctity and individuality from all outside forces.

Grasping tightly onto an ego-identity and feeling insecure, we may become critical and offensive toward others. Likewise, we may feel paranoid and defensive if we think our identity is threatened. Adopting an attitude of smug self-satisfaction, we may build “walls” around our “self.” We become closed-minded about learning anything that we fear might undermine our precarious sense of ego-security. Because of this stubborn naivety, then, we remain unaware of the way in which things actually exist. Thus, naivety is a behavioral syndrome arising from lack of awareness and perpetuating it.

Discriminating awareness of identitylessness, or the lack of an impossible “soul,” is the realization that there is no such thing as a personal, individual ego-identity existing all by itself, separate and unique, independent of our interactions with others and with our environment. It is this realization of the lack of an impossible “soul,” part of the full realization of voidness, that destroys the unawareness of grasping for an impossible “soul.”

Indecisive Wavering

Indecisive wavering (the-tshom, Skt. vicikitsā, doubt) likewise arises from grasping for a true personal self-identity. Totally preoccupied with and worrying about what “I” should do, what would fit best with my identity, our chronic indecision creates a great deal of problems and unhappiness for ourselves and the others around us to whom we subject our self-doubts.

According to Asanga’s Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa kun-las btus-pa, Skt. Abhidharmasamuccaya), indecisive wavering is entertaining two minds about what is true – in other words, wavering between accepting or rejecting what is true. “What is true” refers to such facts as the four noble truths and behavioral cause and effect. Moreover, the wavering may tend more to the side of what is true (don-’gyur-gyi the-tshom), more to the side of what is false (don mi-’gyur-gyi the-tshom) or be evenly divided between the two (cha mnyam-pa’i the-tshom). Indecisive wavering functions as a basis for not engaging with what is constructive.

Asanga pointed out that the main cause of problems here is disturbing, deluded indecisive wavering (the-tshom nyon-mongs-can, Skt. vicikitsā-kleśa). It refers to the wavering that tends more toward an incorrect decision about what is true. It is the troublemaker because, if the wavering tends toward what is correct or is evenly divided, it could lead to engaging in what is constructive.

Disturbing Attitudes with a View

The first five root disturbing emotions and attitudes are called the five without a view (lta-min lnga). These manifest themselves in psychological and emotional problems causing us great suffering and unhappiness through the anxiety of insecurity. The disturbing, deluded views (lta-ba nyon-mongs-can, Skt. drṣṭi-kleśa) are the mistaken conceptual bases for these psychological and emotional problems.

With distorted views of truly established existence, we make up things and rules for ourselves and make ourselves and others miserable and uncomfortable. For example, when we have made up a self-image of how we should be, then we worry about what others think of us and how to defend and maintain that image. Suppose someone comes late to class and, because of being so egocentric, blushes, experiences everyone staring, feels ashamed and so on. All of that comes from feeling that the self is so important. The person wouldn’t feel so bad if they didn’t have such strong attachment to ego. They would see they were being inconsiderate to the teacher and just come in as quietly and humbly as possible. Therefore, if we try to be natural, we will have more freedom. 

To be natural does not mean to follow our disturbing emotions blindly. It means not to put on airs, trying to live up to a permanent mental self-image. If we follow the personality we have, we won’t be uneasy, we will be relaxed. We can’t hope to be completely perfect now. Although we have many disturbing emotions and attitudes, we try to accept ourselves at the level we are at and be relaxed and comfortable with ourselves and with our disturbing emotions, while still working toward perfection. Thus, what makes us wander in samsara and be miserable is our wrong concept of self. We see ourselves having independent, permanent identities, but slowly we will realize there is no such thing, and this realization will release us from our self-imposed bondage so that we will be free.

There are five such deluded views (lta-ba lnga, Skt. pañca-drṣṭi):

• A deluded view toward a transitory network (’jig-tshogs-la lta-ba, ’jig-lta, Skt. satkāya-dṛṣṭi)
• An extreme view (mthar-’dzin-pa’i lta-ba, mthar-lta, Skt. antagraha-dṛṣṭi)
• Holding a deluded view as supreme (lta-ba mchog-tu ’dzin-pa, lta-ba mchog-’dzin, Skt. dṛṣṭi-parāmarṡa)
• A view of holding deluded ethical self-discipline or conduct as supreme (tshul-khrims-dang brtul-zhugs mchog-’dzin, Skt. ṡīla-vrataparāmarṡa-dṛṣṭi)
• A distorted view (log-lta, Skt. mithyā-dṛṣṭi, wrong view).

Deluded View toward a Transitory Network

The first deluded view is our mistaken view of who it is we think we are. We wrongly equate ourselves with what we believe to be our concrete ego-identity. We feel that those parts of our bodies, mind, personality and so forth with which we identify actually belong to, are an enduring part of, or are equal to the “real me.” Everything else we believe to be different from us. Thus, we regard all things as truly existing in terms of “me” and “mine.”

In fact, however, what we are identifying ourselves with is nothing but a network of the aggregate factors of experience (phung-po, Skt. skandha, aggregates), which are constantly changing or transitory. Not one of these aggregates remains the same for more than an instant. Therefore, under the influence of this first deluded view, we try to gain a concrete and lasting sense of security by identifying with impermanent things incapable of giving us such security.

Regarding that which changes as being our concrete ego-identity is the fundamental cause of our wandering in samsara. Because of this mistaken view of the way in which we actually exist, we fall under the influence of the eight transitory things in life. Thus, we feel happy when we are praised, unhappy when insulted or maligned and so forth. This is because we falsely identify the object of this praise or insult with a solid “self” of ego-identity assumed to exist truly independently. Thus, it is simply because we are trying desperately to maintain a sense of security for our supposedly concrete “self” that we are forced to undergo an emotional upheaval each time we feel our ego-identity to be threatened.

If, for instance, we are a person who often acts compulsively under the influence of hostility, losing our temper and easily becoming angry, we might make this behavioral syndrome the basis of what we assume to be our concrete ego-identity. Under the influence of this first deluded view, therefore, we would think, “I am a quick-tempered person. This is the way I really am.”

Extreme View

The second deluded view is the state of mind in which we adopt either of two extreme points of view regarding our supposedly concrete ego-identity. Feeling ourselves to be a certain type, we insist that this is the way we will always be or, repressing this feeling, deny completely that this is the way we are or will ever be.

Consider the above example in which we regarded ourselves as being quick-tempered. Under the influence of the first deluded view, we would feel that ultimately, deep inside, this is the way we really are. Under the influence of the second, we would view this idea we have of our self in one of two extreme manners. On the one hand, not taking into account changes in time, place, company and activity, we would stubbornly and closed-mindedly insist that nothing could ever alter or affect the way we basically are and that being quick-tempered is the way we will always be. Or, on the other hand, we might violently insist that we do not have a quick temper, never admitting to ourselves that we often do become angry, and then spend most of our leisure hours attending fights. With this disturbing attitude, then, afraid of even considering the possibility that we can change the way we are, we go to an extreme – either repressing or denying what we assume to be our concrete identity, or clinging to it as something permanent.

Holding a Deluded View as Supreme

The third deluded view entails believing that if we follow the consequences of holding the mistaken views of the previous two disturbing attitudes, we will then be on a correct and supreme path leading to liberation from suffering. In the above example, as a person who often acts under the influence of hostility, we might believe (1) that this is the way we really are and (2) that there is nothing that will ever change us. In this case, an example of the third deluded view would be to believe that if we vented all our anger and expressed all our aggression and hostility, this would actually solve all our emotional problems and liberate us from all our suffering, insecurity and unhappiness. Having such a deeply felt belief, we then commit repeated acts of violence against society, hoping to derive a sense of security by identifying ourselves with a revolutionary or anarchistic cause.

In another example, we might be a person who acts under the strong influence of longing desire for money and physical comfort. Thus, we might identify ourselves as an affluent member of the modern industrial world, believing (1) this is the way we really are and (2) this is the way we will always be – we cannot live differently; we require certain comforts. The third deluded view might then appear as the belief that if we could amass enough wealth and possessions, this would actually solve all our worries and offer ultimate protection to ourselves and to those members of our family with whom we also identified.

As a final example, we might be a person who suffers from intense longing desire for the mental and physical pleasures of sexual contact or mind-altering drugs. We might then identify ourselves as a Casanova or as a connoisseur of psychedelics. We feel that (1) this is the way we really are and (2) we will never change – why should we? An example of the third deluded view would then be to believe that if we could only achieve “the perfect orgasm” or “the perfect high,” we would achieve a true stopping of all suffering and unhappiness.

View of Holding Deluded Ethical Self-Discipline or Conduct as Supreme

The fourth deluded view is a distortion of ethical self-discipline. Examples of incorrect self-discipline are standing on one foot, sleeping on a bed of nails and other types of self-mortification and fantastical ascetic practices. Incorrect vowed conduct would be like the case of someone who had the limited-range advanced awareness to see that in his previous life he had been a dog. Since in this one he had been reborn a man, he assumed that if he continued to act like a dog, he would again be reborn as a man. He therefore took a vow to crawl about on all fours and bark. Such improper and incorrect vowed conduct does not lead to liberation from suffering.

A Distorted View

This last deluded view is one of the three destructive actions of the mind. To hold distorted views is to believe that which is always true and is always the case is never true and is never the case. Such distorted views would be, for instance, to deny the law of cause and effect, to believe that there is no such thing as liberation from suffering or that the Three Rare and Supreme Gems do not have the power to offer protection and so forth.

When we read about other wrong views and corrections of it, if we think, “I don’t think like this, so why teach it?” this just shows our strong self-cherishing attitude and our self-preoccupation. Buddha taught for everyone.

The Auxiliary Disturbing Emotions

The auxiliary disturbing emotions are not found listed in any of the standard lam-rim texts. There are, however, 84,000 of them mentioned in the Prajnaparamita literature, of which the 84,000 aggregate dharmas are the opponents. The list is abbreviated to ninety-eight in Vasubandhu’s Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa’i mdzod, Skt. Abhidharmakośa), II.24 ff. The list of auxiliary disturbing emotions is further abbreviated to twenty in the Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge by Asanga.

The twenty auxiliary disturbing emotions (nye-ba’i nyon-mongs, Skt. upa-kleśa, secondary afflictions) are:

• Aggressiveness
• Resentment
• Annoyance
• Ruthlessness
• Jealousy
• Concealment of shortcomings
• Pretentiousness
• No care for how our actions reflect on others
• Inconsideration
• Concealment of having acted improperly
• Miserliness
• Haughty disapproval
• Disrespect
• Laziness
• Recklessness
• Forgetfulness
• Inattentiveness
• Foggy-mindedness
• Flightiness of mind
• Mental wandering.

As for jealousy, if we despise someone, it implies we are jealous of them. If we really thought that they had no good qualities at all, we would ignore them. But if we put that person down for their bad qualities, it shows we are so jealous and concerned over their good qualities that we have to put them down. For example, if someone knows Tibetan well, we criticize out of jealousy that they can’t spell well. Like Devadatta, who was so jealous of Buddha, he could have written a thousand volumes on Buddha’s bad qualities even though Buddha had none. Thus, if we can’t stand someone, we must focus on their good qualities and praise them.

Gyaltsab Je has said:

Even if we can’t respect someone else, it is best not to talk of their mistakes. They may be an enlightened being in disguise.

Buddha has said:

I and others like me who are fully enlightened can judge others, but those who are unenlightened shouldn’t judge one another, since they only project their own disturbing emotions and attitudes on each other.

Once, Geshe Potowa asked Dromtonpa what the dividing line is between what is and is not Dharma practice. Dromtonpa replied:

If something acts as an opponent to your disturbing emotions and attitudes, it is a Dharma practice, but if it does not, it is not a Dharma practice.

Thus, anything that helps subdue our disturbing emotions and attitudes is Dharma.

We don’t need to give in to the disturbing emotions and let them get the best of us. This would be as pathetic and weak as an adult giving in to the will of a child. If, however, we have acted under the influence of a disturbing emotion, it is good to confess and regret, but don’t feel too badly and get depressed. Just to be able to feel that what we have been doing is incorrect is a great improvement. We have automatically arising disturbing emotions (nyon-mongs lhan-skyes, Skt. sahajakleśa) strongly imprinted from countless past lives, so it will take a lot to overcome them. Just remain alert. 

Geshe Ben Gungyal (’Ban Gung-rgyal, ’Phen rKun-rgal) has said:

Whenever disturbing emotions arise in my mind I’m alert. It’s only when they leave that I can relax.

In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (rNam-grol lag-bcangs), 153.a6–b1, Pabongka has related a story how at one time Ben Gungyal was in an assembly of monks, and yoghurt was being served from the other end of the hall. A strong desire arose in him and, worrying if there would be enough for him, he thought strongly about eating his portion. But then, realizing his self-cherishing and so on, when the server came to him, he turned his bowl upside down, put a stone on top, and said, “I’ve already had my curd.”

Ben Gungyal’s usual practice was to tally up his day’s worth of constructive and destructive actions. This is much better than counting our wealth each night. Whenever he did something constructive, he would put a white stone on the pile, when something destructive, a black stone. At the end of the day, he would count up. If there were more white than black stones, he would shake his right hand with his left and congratulate himself, “You’ve done very well. Your guru and mothers will be proud of you. Let’s see if you can do even better tomorrow.” If, however, there were more black than white stones, he would grab his left hand with his right and scold himself, “You really are awful. I’m going to tell everyone how horrible you are. You’ve come in contact with the teachings and are deceiving your gurus by being hypocritical. Tomorrow I’ll punish you.”

It corresponds with some of the eighteen close-bonding practices that Geshe Chekawa (dGe-bshes ’Chad-kha-ba) lists in his Seven Point Mind Training (Blo-sbyong don-bdun-ma). The fourth of them is, “Transform my intentions, but remain normal (in my behavior),” and the seventh is, “Cleanse myself first of whichever disturbing emotion is my greatest.”

The best opponent for our closed-mindedness is prostration and lighting butter lamps. Against others’ closed-mindedness there is little we can do. It is not helpful to push Dharma on others. If the Buddha had the full power to liberate others, he would have. But his ability to help others depends on others’ karma. Therefore, if others are closed-minded, it is best to leave them alone. Best is to put Dharma into practice and show by our example to closed-minded people. “Actions speak louder than words.”

If, for example, our parents are closed-minded, and we have always disobeyed and argued with them, then after we have studied the Dharma, when we go to visit them, do just as they say. Show more love and, by demonstrating a complete change of our actions of body, speech and mind, we will bowl them over, and they will be attracted to know what has caused this positive change in us. We must realize that their beliefs and habits have no independent existence. Our misery and resentment come from thinking about their habits and getting annoyed, therefore the fault is all in our reaction. Habits themselves are void, therefore what difference does it make. Try to demonstrate tolerance. And if all fails, remember it is not your fault. Don’t feel guilty – it is karma of others. To balance our parents’ kindness, it is not necessary to live at home. Just develop bodhichitta and become enlightened.

All disturbing emotions and attitudes, both the root and the auxiliary ones, as well as all psychological and emotional problems, arise from grasping for an impossible “soul,” the grasping for security for a supposedly concrete ego-identity.

Chandrakirti has said in Engaging in the Middle Way (dBu-ma-la ’jug-pa, Skt. Madhyamakāvatāra), VI.76:

All defiled states without exception derive from a deluded view toward a transitory network. This is seen by a (valid) mind.

This is divided into six sections:

• (A) The reliance for emerging
• (B) The object (that stimulates them to arise)
• (C) Detrimental influences
• (D) Verbal stimulus
• (E) Habit
• (F) (Incorrect) consideration.

[A] The reliance for the emerging (rten, Skt. āśraya) of the disturbing emotions and attitudes is also referred to as a seed or tendency (sa-bon, Skt. bīja, seed) for them. This is the dormant stage of our disturbing emotions in between episodes when they are manifest. When we were born, our mental continuum contained theses seeds. They derived from our actions in previous lives to think, speak and act in the deluded manner of a specific disturbing emotion or attitude. In this lifetime, when the proper circumstances and stimuli appear, also as a result of actions of previous lives, our disturbing emotions manifest from these seeds, and our behavior alters accordingly if we lack the mindfulness and alertness to apply appropriate opponents.

In the past, for example, acting under the influence of hostility or longing desire, we may have committed many destructive actions, such as killing or stealing. Now, as a human being, we may have been reborn with a very irritable or clinging temperament. Such tendencies would have been noticeable straight from birth, affecting even the way we cried and nursed. Whenever the proper circumstances and stimuli have appeared in our lives, the tendencies of our disturbing emotions and attitudes have given rise to these disturbing emotions, and we have again acted in the same destructive manner as we had in previous lifetimes.

[B] “The object” (dmigs-pa, Skt. ālambana) refers to an external object at which a disturbing emotion or attitude becomes aimed and with which we may confuse an imagined appearance (snang-ba, Skt. āloka). For instance, we may see a frowning person. If we project and superimpose upon them an imagined picture of someone who disapproves of us, threatening our security and ego-identity, this person may stimulate the disturbing emotion of hostility to arise. Although they may be oblivious of us and their expression due to their own suffering, they may nevertheless cause us much anxiety and paranoia through such a mechanism. Another example may be a beautiful-looking person who stimulates our longing desire.

[C] As a result of our previous destructive actions, we may have been born possessing the tendencies for certain disturbing emotions and attitudes. If, for example, they were of anger, then coming into contact with the detrimental influence (’du-’dzi, Skt. saṃsarga) of hoodlum friends having the same type of karmic tendencies could cause us to become angry and act destructively. If we were born with the tendencies of mental wandering and the laziness of wasting our time on frivolous activity, then coming into contact with the detrimental influences of continual exposure to mass media, social gatherings and so forth may be another cause for the arising of disturbing emotions and attitudes.

Two people lived in Penpo (’Phan-po), one a drunkard and one a teetotaler. They parted, and the drunkard went north to Radreng, the center of the Kadampa geshes. He met many spiritual masters there and gave up drink. The teetotaler went south to Lhasa and met many drinkers there. He picked up their habit and became an alcoholic. When they met again in Penpo, their positions were thus reversed. This shows the importance of the company we keep, since we pick up their habits. However, we must discriminate the habits we copy. If someone with a twitch or a tick in the eye is always bathing their eyelids, and if, thinking this is fashionable, we imitate it, this is ridiculous. Once there was a teacher who stuttered, and his student used to ape him in debates and later this habit stayed with him. Thus, we should emulate only the important religious actions of our teachers, like the way they hold ritual implements, give teachings and so forth. This was often stressed by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, who modeled himself after Pabongka Rinpoche.

[D] The telling of war stories, the holding of commemorative ceremonies for massacres and martyrdoms and mass media coverage of war news and violence may be the verbal stimuli (bshad-pa, Skt. bhāṣya) for hostility to arise. Other types of idle gossip, such as telling off-color stories and jokes, and the morbid fixation on sex in commercial advertising, may be the stimuli for the disturbing emotion of longing desire to arise. The false teachings of a misleading guru may cause us to hold distorted views and increase our unawareness.

[E] Because of habit (goms-pa, Skt. abhyāsa), we continue to think, speak and act out of our disturbing emotions and attitudes, believing that to do so is normal for us. Some people even derive a distorted sense of security from habitually acting out their disturbing emotions and attitudes.

Our habits of the past should never be excuse not to improve in the future. The past is finished, and it is therefore no excuse not to break habits. One bad thing we do is judging other people, and if we do judge them, it is based on their past and not on their present. It shows we have no confidence in Dharma. For example, if a person is good now and we say, “Oh, he was bad in the past,” it shows we don’t believe anyone can improve because of Dharma. It implies that Buddhas are bad since they may have been bad in the past, and we couldn’t respect Milarepa. Whatever we have done in the past, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Our future is in our own hands. Our reputation of the past will only remain alive in minds of ignorant people. Therefore, if we have to judge people, we should judge them on what they do now.

To have positive thoughts is as hard as rolling a stone uphill, while disturbing emotions come easily like rolling downhill. When we try to think positively, it feels like having a jug over our heads, but when disturbing emotions arise, we are alert and awake as a hawk. This shows where we are at and what we have accustomed ourselves to in the past. Therefore, we need to work hard and not waste time, especially not sleep too much – only one third of the night. It is best to have some sleep before midnight and then get up at four, not eight. Also, we should not sleep in the afternoon. It builds up a bad habit, and then we cannot do without it.

[F] Consideration here refers to paying attention to an object and taking it to mind in a certain way (yid-la byed-pa, Skt. manasikāra). Examples of incorrect consideration (tshul-min yid-byed) are regarding a suffering situation to be happiness, or something dirty or impure to be clean, also regarding something transitory to be permanent and unchanging, or something lacking a true identity to have one. 

Togme Zangpo (rGyal-sras Thogs-med bzang-po) has said in Thirty-seven Bodhisattva Practices (rGyal-sras lad-len so-bdun-ma), 2:

A bodhisattva’s practice is to leave our homelands, where attachment to the side of friends tosses us like water; anger toward the side of enemies burns us like fire; and naivety so that we forget what’s to be adopted and abandoned cloaks us in darkness.

All our suffering comes from our minds not being subdued. If we go on a picnic and have a delicious meal prepared, but get angry and upset with someone, we don’t enjoy the outing. We have a terrible time, and the delicacies are all tasteless. If we see a desirable object and cannot buy it, it causes prolonged suffering since we become obsessed with the object and develop longing for it. If we are jealous of someone, even if we go to a drama, our mind dwells on them and we can’t enjoy it.

Maitreya has said in A Filigree for the Mahayana Sutras (mDo-sde rgyan, Skt. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra), XVII.25–6:

The disturbing emotions and attitudes harm us as well as other limited beings. They destroy our ethical self-discipline. They cause (our virtues) to decrease and hamper our livelihood. They cause us to be disparaged by the teacher, Buddha, as well as to lose the protection (of the guardians of Dharma). They cause us to be drawn into many arguments, to have a bad reputation and to take rebirth in one of the states of no leisure (for Dharma study). They cause us to lose (the knowledge) we have already gained and not to gain (the knowledge) we do not yet possess. They cause us great mental suffering in all these ways.

Shantideva has said in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (sPyod-’jug, Skt. Bodhicaryāvatāra), IV.30–31:

Even if all the gods and anti-gods were to rise up against me as enemies, they couldn’t drag and feed me into the fires (of a joyless realm) of unrelenting pain.

But those strong mighty enemies, my disturbing emotions, can, in a moment, hurl me into them, which, when met, will cause not even the ashes of the King of Mountains to remain.

We should never put trust in our disturbing emotions or worldly pursuits. If a cat says to the mice in her territory, “Don’t be afraid of me because now I’ve taken a vow not to eat mice,” at first they might trust her. But when each day one of them was missing, they have second thoughts about the cat’s intentions.

This is divided into two sections: 

1. Urging karmic impulses (sems-pa’i las, Skt. cetanā-karma)
2. Urged karmic impulses (bsam-pa’i las, Skt. cetayitvā-karma)

The disturbing emotions and attitudes motivate these two types of karmic impulses in the sense that they cause them to arise and then accompany them. These two, along with the karmic actions that they drive, are karmic forces, either positive or negative. 

[1] Urging karmic impulses are the mental factor of an urging (sems-pa, Skt. cetanā) that prods the mind consciousness and accompanying mental factors to commit one of the three actions of the mind. These actions are to think over committing an action of the body or speech and decide to commit it. They are called “built-up karmic impulses” (bsags-pa’i las). 

[2] Urged karmic impulses are brought on by the actions of the mind driven by urging karmic impulses. They are the karmic impulses for the actions of the body or speech decided upon. According to Vaibhashika, Sautrantika-Svatantrika and Prasangika, these karmic impulses are the movements of the body or the utterances of the speech as the method implemented to cause the actions to take place. According to Sautrantika, Chittamatra and Yogachara-Svatantrika, they are the urgings that prod the body consciousness to cause the body or speech to perform the actions. In both cases, they are called “enacted karmic impulses” (byas-pa’i las). Because they strengthen the karmic force, they are not only built-up karmic impulses themselves, but also reinforced and enacted karmic impulses.

Tainted karmic impulses (zag-bcas-kyi las) are urging and urged karmic impulses, whether destructive or constructive, that are accompanied by the unawareness of grasping for an impossible “soul.” Tainted karmic impulses that are both reinforced and enacted give rise, when activated at the time of death, to throwing karmic impulses (’phen-byed-kyi las) that propel the mind consciousness into its next rebirth (samsara). Untainted karmic impulses are those of action committed with non-conceptual cognition of voidness.

There are three types of throwing karma we can build up:

1. Non-meritorious karma (bsod-nams ma-yin-pa’i las, Skt. apuṇya-karma)
2. Meritorious karma (bsod-nams-kyi las, Skt. puṇya-karma)
3. Immovable karma (mi-g.yo-ba’i las, Skt. aniñjya-karma).

[1] Non-meritorious karma is the negative karmic force built up by destructive actions, which are motivated by the disturbing emotions and attitudes. As a result of non-meritorious karma, we are reborn into one of the three worse rebirth states.

[2] Meritorious karma is the positive karmic force built up by constructive actions motivated by our interest in attaining the pleasures of a more fortunate rebirth for ourselves. As a result of meritorious karma, we are reborn as either a human being or a divine being on the plane of sensory desires.

[3] Immovable karma is the positive karmic force built up by the constructive actions of being absorbed in the experience of the inner pleasures of absorbed concentration without having an understanding of voidness. Our interest in such a state of meditative absorption may be motivated by feelings of disgust for the external pleasures of the plane of sensory desires. As a result of building up immovable karma with this type of motivation, we are reborn as a divine being of the plane of ethereal forms absorbed into one of the first three classes of mental stability.

Our interest in attaining such a state of meditative absorption may also be motivated by our wish to attain a feeling of tranquility, having become disgusted with even the feelings of inner pleasure to be had from such absorbed concentration. If such a constructive action lacks the understanding of voidness, we build up the immovable karma to be reborn either as a divine being of the plane of ethereal forms absorbed into the fourth class of mental stability or as a divine being of the plane of formless beings.

Vasubandhu has said in the Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge, IV.46:

(Non-meritorious karma is the cause for a rebirth in one of the three unfortunate states.) Meritorious karma is the cause for a pleasant rebirth (as a human being or as a divine being) on the plane of sensory desires. Immovable karma is the cause for a rebirth (as a divine being) in the two upper realms. No matter where (you are to be reborn), your karma will ripen and will not move (from its course).

According to the explanation tradition of the Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge, once we have collected the appropriate non-meritorious karma and have passed into the appropriate bardo or in-between rebirth state before entering one of the three worse rebirth states, nothing can change this karmic course. 

According to more accurate schools or theories, as represented by the Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge, however, this karmic course can be altered once our consciousness has entered the bardo by prayers and offerings made by our family and friends. If they are made by someone not of our family or not karmically connected with us, they will have no effect. For this reason, Atisha’s disciple Dromtonpa, when founding the first Kadam monastery at Radreng, had all the monks share their wealth and formally become one family. He did so that their prayers offered for a dead member of their community would be effective.

This is divided into three sections:

1. The way death occurs
2. The way the bardo is reached after death
3. The way the connection is made by means of this to our next rebirth.

[1] The Way Death Occurs

We die when our lifespan has come to an end, when our network of positive karmic force for remaining alive has been depleted, and when the pitiable suffering of the moment of death arrives.

When we die, we activate our throwing karma, which leads us into our future rebirth state. This state in turn depends on which of the three specific types of karma – non-meritorious, meritorious or immovable – we have predominantly built up.

Two types of longing desire experienced at the time of death activate our throwing karma. They are craving (sred-pa, Skt. tṛṣṇā) not to be parted from happiness or to be parted from unhappiness and an obtainer (len-pa, Skt. upādāna), grasping for “me” who craves this.

A highly realized yogi, who practices death-juncture meditation while holding his consciousness in his heart prior to its departure from his body, experiences neither of these two types of longing desire at the moment of death. Thus, the do not activate any throwing karmic force, and therefore instead of being uncontrollably propelled into a future rebirth state by the forces of karma and the disturbing emotions, they are able to direct their next rebirth. With this ability to control the process of rebirth, an accomplished practitioner may be reborn as a reincarnate lama (sprul-sku, Skt. nirmāṇakāya, tulku). As such, they are honoring their bodhisattva vow to continue working to liberate all limited beings from their sufferings in samsara. By voluntarily taking repeated rebirths as a guru, they further the constructive conduct of the speech of a Buddha by teaching the Dharma at the time of the five degenerations.

There are approximately a thousand lines of such tulkus whose incarnations are located throughout the geographically and religiously defined central Buddhist region. They are trained by the disciples and followers of their predecessors and addressed by the title “Rinpoche” (rin-po-che). His Holiness the Dalai Lama is considered the foremost of tulkus, and approximately two hundred of them were able to escape Tibet with him in 1959. Tulkus continue to be born, discovered, educated and to teach in such countries as India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.

For ordinary beings who take rebirth uncontrollably through the forces of karma and disturbing emotions, their future rebirth state is determined by a balancing of the positive and negative karmic forces built up from their previously committed destructive and constructive actions. If the positive and negative karmic force is equal in heaviness and balance each other, then the effect of throwing karma is determined by the type of karmic force they most frequently built up.

For example, we may have built up a certain amount of negative karmic force early in our life from having once shot a deer while hunting. Afterwards, regretting this action, we may have made daily offering of the seven-limb prayer while sincerely invoking the four opponent forces. If the positive karmic force of these constructive actions exactly counterbalances the negative karmic force of our destructive ones, then the positive karmic force will take precedent in determining the rebirth state into which our throwing karma will propel us. This is because we have built it up with great frequency, while our negative karmic force was built up by only one action.

It may happen that a determination of the precedence of throwing karma cannot be made on the criterion of frequency. This would be the case, for example, if having shot a deer, we were to perform puja offering ceremonies only sporadically for a short time. Then the type of karma produced earlier in our lifetime would take precedence in determining our future rebirth state. In other words, seeds planted first will be the first to bear fruit.

Activated throwing karma begins to take effect at the time of our gross dying mind (’chi-sems rags-pa) immediately before the energy-gaseous component of our bodies dissolves into our consciousness. It is at this time that our completing karma can be affected. This is the karma that completes the specific circumstances of our future rebirth state. Therefore, if at the time of the gross dying mind we are overcome with such thoughts as fear, anger or attachment, this will have a negative effect on our completing karma. However, if at this crucial moment we remember our gurus, the Three Rare and Supreme Gems, various mantras and visualizations of meditational deities and so forth, the presence of such constructive thoughts on the forefront of our gross dying minds will have a very positive effect on our completing karma. This is why dying persons are shown pictures of Buddha, highly realized lamas and meditational deities and have scriptures, mantras and prayers read to them.

By the time of our subtle dying mind (’chi-sems phra-mo), when we enter a state of unconsciousness as the energy-gaseous component of our bodies is in the process of dissolving into our consciousness, nothing more can be done to affect our completing karma. All channels of communication with our consciousness are closed until its subtlest level together with our subtle life-sustaining energy leaves our bodies to enter the bardo. Then, according to the Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge tradition, our completing karma can again be affected by prayers and offerings made by those people who have previously established the appropriate karmic relationship to us.

[2] The Way the Bardo Is Reached After Death

According to the analogy of a balanced scale, as soon as our subtlest mind, together with our subtlest life-sustaining energy, has left our bodies and the death process has ended, the scale immediately tips, and we enter the in-between rebirth or bardo state. The form we have there is the same as the one we will take in our next rebirth. We will retain it until we die at the end of our next rebirth.

As a being between rebirths, we have all our normal bodily senses, plus the extrasensory awareness (mngon-shes, Skt. abhijñā, advanced awareness) to see clairvoyantly our friends and relatives and to remember our previous life. We also possess the extraphysical powers (rdzu-’phrul, Skt. ṛddhi) to enter without hindrance any place except a religious pilgrimage site, a temple or the womb of any female other than our future mother.

The different colors of the beings between rebirths are as follows. Those who will be reborn in one of the joyless realms, and who always do so with a human form, are black like charcoal, hungry ghosts a blue like water, animals gray like smoke, while human beings, would-be divine and divine beings of the plane of sensory desires are yellow like gold, and the divine beings of the plane of ethereal forms are white.

Beings who are born as a divine being on the plane of formless beings do not have to pass through the bardo as they enter the plane of formless beings directly after death. Those who fall from the plane of formless beings, however, must all pass through this state.

Beings who have committed many destructive actions during their previous lifetime see what appears to be black darkness while in the bardo. Those who have committed many constructive actions, however, see what appears to be light the color of white wool or of a moonlit night. It is important to remember that all the visions seen here are produced by and projected from our previous karma. They have no true independent reality of their own, for they all have voidness as their true nature.

The bardo is said to last seven days. If, however, during this time we do not meet the circumstances of our next rebirth by the force of our throwing karma, then we must die a small death (’chi-chung), changing our bardo body for another one of the same color and form. Such a death is similar to that of the limited beings of the reviving joyless realm, who kill each other with weapons 500 times each joyless-realm day. Each time they die, they suffer a small death only to be revived with a changed body of the same form. In the bardo we experience such a small death at the end of every seven-day period for a maximum of seven times, so that forty-nine days may pass until we are reborn again.

[3] The Way the Connection Is Made by Means of This to Our Next Rebirth

There are four manners of taking birth (skye-gnas bzhi, Skt. catvāro yonayah), namely: 

• From a womb (mngal-nas skye-ba, Skt. jarāyu-ja)
• From an egg (sgo-nga-las skye-ba, Skt. aṇḍaja-ja)
• From heat and moisture (drod-gsher-las skye-ba, Skt. saṃsveda-ja)
• By miraculous emanation (brdzus-te skye-ba, Skt. upapāduka, birth by transformation). 

If we are to be reborn from a womb, our consciousness in the bardo eventually becomes aware of the joining semen and blood (khu-khrag, Skt. rasa-rakta, sexual fluids) of our future parents. It then rushes toward them with mixed attraction and repulsion. If our consciousness is to be reborn as a male, we feel attracted to our mother and repelled by our father; if as a female, however, these feelings are reversed.

[See also: “A Sun to Shine Rays of Light of Positive Goodness” (Byang-chub bde-lam-gyi khrid-dmigs skyong-tshul shin-tu gsal-bar bkod-pa dge-legs ’od-snang ’gyed-pa’i nyin-byed, Zhwa-dmar lam-rim) by Zhamar, elaborating upon the autocommentary to Vasubandhu’s “Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge,” III.15.]

When our consciousness approaches and sees only the sexual organs of our mother and father, we faint with angry disappointment. According to the Guhyasamaja Tantra tradition, we then enter our father’s mouth, pass through his sexual organ in semen and on into our mother’s womb to join with her egg. According to other explanations, our consciousness is said to enter either into our father through the top of his head or directly into our mother’s womb. In this way we make connection with our next rebirth.

[For more details about bardo and rebirth, see: Vasubandhu, “A Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge,” III.15ff]

The standard texts of the Gelug tradition do not use the terminology of the six-fold classification of bardo states found in those of the Nyingma tradition, such as Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo (Bar-do thos-grol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead). This classification is as follows:

• The bardo of death (’chi-kha’i bar-do), corresponding to the period when death occurs, described above in “the way death occurs”
• The actual bardo (chos-nyid bar-do), corresponding to the period described above in “the way the bardo is reached after death”
• The bardo of rebirth (srid-pa’i bar-do), corresponding to the period when the connection is made with the next rebirth, described above in “the way the connection is made by means of this to our next rebirth”
• The bardo of the womb (skye-gnas-kyi bar-do)
• The bardo of dreams (rmi-lam-gyi bar-do)
• The bardo of mental stability (bsam-gtan-gyi bar-do).