The Levels of Motivation
It is essential to build up the various habits as a person of initial, intermediate and advanced levels of motivation. For the initial level there are the various meditations and practices focused on precious human rebirth with all its opportunities for respites and improvements. Similarly, we contemplate death and impermanence, and the worst states of rebirth that we can fall to. These methods lead to taking a safe and sound direction in life, or taking refuge.
Karma
The main point if we are going to take a positive direction in life is to train and live in accordance with the laws of behavior and their results, karma. In terms of karma, there are constructive and destructive or virtuous and non-virtuous behaviors. The result of constructive behavior is happiness and the result of destructive actions is suffering and problems. This is something that is certain. There are ten constructive actions and ten destructive actions numerated in the teachings, and results follow from these various types of actions.
If we use the example of the destructive action of taking a life, then we will understand how to apply it to all of the various other ones. There are four different types of results which follow from taking a life of any creature.
Basis, Intention and Three Poisonous Attitudes
To begin, how does the action become complete? First of all, it requires a basis. The basis for taking the life would be the actual creature, for instance an insect. Next, there is the intention, or thought involved, and that has two parts. There is the motivation, and there is the recognition. There are three types of motivating thoughts. These are the three poisonous attitudes of longing desire, hostility and closed-minded ignorance.
For instance, if we were killing an animal, the motivating thought might be longing desire to eat the animal’s flesh. We might be extremely angry, or hostile, and we want to kill it because we want to get rid of it. We might also be under the influence of closed-minded ignorance, where we kill a lot of animals to make some sort of blood sacrifice. The act of taking a life could arise out of any of these three poisonous attitudes.
The intention is the motivational side, and in terms of recognition, it must be unmistaken. For instance, if we set out to kill a sheep and by accident we kill a goat, it is not the same complete action. We must not be mistaken and recognize exactly what we are doing; we must kill something not by accident but on purpose with the correct recognition for the destructive action to be complete.
The action involved can be any kind of action that deprives something of its life. The worst would involve torture, like playing around with a small insect rolling it between our fingers and crushing it with great vengeance. Even though it might be a tiny insect, the way that we kill it might bring about an extremely heavy result. The final aspect for the action to be complete is that the creature that we kill must die before we do.
Ripening Results
The results that follow are known as ripening results. For example, what ripens from killing another creature in such a tortuous manner is that our rebirth will be in one of the worst states, a wandering rebirth as a hell creature, hungry ghost or an animal.
There are actually two types of results that correspond to their cause, one in terms of our experience and the other in terms of our instinctive behavior. The result that corresponds to its cause in terms of our experience would be that, even if we were born as a human being, our life would be very short and filled with a great deal of sickness. Having deprived a creature of its life, our lifespan becomes very short and corresponds to the cause of shortening a life. The result that corresponds to its cause in terms of our instinctive behavior is that even from early childhood we will delight in torturing and killing creatures. We will be very sadistic and continue to reenact the types of things that we did in the past.
Comprehensive Result
The type of result called a comprehensive result is what affects an entire community into which we are reborn. For instance, having deprived creatures of their lives, in general the life-supporting circumstances in the place that we are born would be very weak. The nutritional value of the food would be very low and the medicines very weak. That is a comprehensive result.
There are four types of these comprehensive results, and there are similar results for all the other types of destructive actions. In general, conditions include epidemics, poor land with rocks and thorns, droughts and floods, or unseasonable rain – such as when rain isn’t needed, there is a lot and none when the crops need the rain for growth. All of these would be comprehensive results and correspond to the experience of all the various people involved in acting destructively in previous lifetimes.
When we see all the disadvantages and drawbacks of acting destructively, such as the drawbacks of killing, then to promise never to kill again is extremely powerful. To accept a vow of restraint in terms of our behavior is a strong constructive action. If we compare the vow never to kill again to merely refraining from killing on a particular occasion, then the vow is much stronger. Even while we are asleep, it builds up positive potential, as we have vowed never to do that again.
An Example of the Disadvantages of Killing
At the time of the Buddha Shakyamuni there was a highly realized being Katyayana who, among all the Buddha’s disciples, was the one who was best at taming people from the uncivilized regions. Each of the Buddha’s most famous disciples had certain specialties. Maudgalyana was best able to have all the powers for emanation and Shariputra in wisdom. Katyayana was the best in taming people from the uncivilized border regions.
One day Katyayana met with a slaughterer who explained, “I can’t really refrain completely from slaughtering animals; I still have to do that during the day. But I can promise never to slaughter animals at night.” He vowed never to slaughter animals at night. Later, he was reborn as a person who lived in a house, and from sunset to next morning everything was peaceful and beautiful, with plentiful food and drink. However, during the day, from sunrise until the sunset at night, all the animals attacked, gored, kicked and bit him. It was a living hell.
A member of the ordained community was making a journey, and his ship was wrecked. He escaped to the shoreline and came to the house, where this person lived. He saw the situation where everything was lovely in the evening but during the day animals would constantly attack.
When later this monk asked the Buddha about what he had witnessed, the Buddha explained how in the previous rebirth this person was a slaughterer who had vowed to stop slaughtering at night but continued to slaughter animals during the day.
If we see all the disadvantages of taking the lives of various creatures and we engage in the constructive action of vowing never to do so again, to restrain ourselves from killing, the ripening result of such a constructive action is that we could be reborn as a human in a better state of rebirth. The type of body that we will take will be one that has a long life and will be very strong and healthy. That would be an example of the result that corresponds to its cause in terms of experience.
The result that corresponds to its cause in terms of instinctive behavior would be that, even from early childhood, we would be repulsed by killing, never wanting to kill and in fact never wanting to eat meat. We would be instinctively drawn towards vegetarianism. The comprehensive result is that we will be born in an area where the food is nutritional and plentiful and the medicines would be very strong and effective.
Therefore, if we wish to be happy, we have to accumulate the various causes for bringing this about. Be a constructive and positive person and act constructively. If we wish never to have problems, suffering and unhappiness, we have to avoid acting destructively and negatively. This is something which is very crucial, because whenever we have various problems in this life, it is not due simply to things that we have done in this life alone. They are also the result of various destructive, negative things that we have done in past lifetimes. The same is true in terms of whatever happiness we have now.
Laws of Karma
The Law of Certainty and Examples
This is a fact, certainly, in terms of the laws of cause and effect. Happiness results from constructive actions and unhappiness from destructive ones. We should shape our behavior accordingly. If we have not committed a certain action, then for sure we will not reap the results of that action. Furthermore, if we have committed a certain action, then it is just a matter of time before we experience the results of that action. The potential will not be wasted, it will ripen.
There are many examples to illustrate the various points about the certainty factor of behavior and results, or cause and effect. If we have committed an action, we will meet with its result, and if we have not committed an action, then we will not. One example is from a time long ago when people were building a great relic monument, a stupa. There was a worker involved in the construction that was always complaining, saying, “Why do we have to build this monument so huge?” He complained for the entire time. When the monument was finished, however, he changed his mind, because he saw how beautiful it was. He rejoiced in what had been accomplished and he used his salary to buy a golden bell that was then placed on top of the relic monument.
Later, at the time of the Buddha Shakyamuni, a monk was born with a beautiful voice. He was actually called The Beautiful-Voiced One. Not only would people stop to listen whenever he chanted, but even animals would gather around. However, his body was tiny and deformed, like someone exploited at a freak show or circus.
A great official of the land came to the monastery and heard the voice of this monk and wanted to meet him. The Buddha explained that it was much better to just sit there and listen from afar to his voice. However, the official insisted, so the Buddha took him, and the official was quite shocked and flabbergasted. He asked how this person was born so terribly small and deformed but with such a beautiful voice. The Buddha explained that in a previous life this person was a worker who always complained and that he called the relic monument a monstrosity. Therefore, he was reborn as one. However, in that previous life he had also repented and offered a golden bell. Therefore, he was born with a beautiful voice. We can see that, if we act well, we get good results, and if we act rotten, we get rotten results.
Another example a long time ago involves a queen who went with some of her attendants to picnic in the mountains. Near where they were picnicking, there was a bush with a nest of pheasants in it. The queen and attendants set fire to the bush and burnt the nest. They all participated, except for one maid who had gone off to fetch water.
In a later life, this queen and all her attendants were reborn together and became monks. They all achieved the state of liberation and became arhats with various powers such as miraculous emanations, being able to fly through the air, and making various elements appear such as fire and water and so forth. The one maid who left to fetch water was reborn with them, but didn’t achieve the state of a liberated being with powers. However, what happened next was that the place where they were all living caught fire and they were all burnt to death.
Even though the reincarnations of the queen and her attendants had these miraculous powers to fly and so forth, they were not able to use them. They all burned to death in the blaze as a result of the past action of burning the pheasant nest, except for the reincarnation of the one maid. Even though she did not have the power to fly, as the others had, she managed to escape out of a drainage hole. This was because she did not participate in the action of burning the pheasant nest. She did not have the potential to meet with the result, namely dying by burning in the fire.
From these examples we can see the certainty factor of cause and effect, of behavior meeting with its result. By thinking about this we should make a strong decision to have great confidence and belief in the laws of karma, and also to make a strong decision to align our behavior accordingly.
It is very important to understand in terms of the certainty factor, that if we have committed a positive action, it will not be in vain. We will meet with its results. Basically, if we haven’t committed a certain type of action, we will not meet with the result. These are very important points.
The Increase Factor
The increase factor or law states that from a small action a great result follows. We should never invalidate any constructive action as being too trivial, and we should always try to do it. As when we plant one small seed of corn, we get a tremendous number of ears of corn on the plant, the same is true in terms of destructive actions. Just one drop of poison will have disastrous results. If we come across a monk and if we say that their voice is like that of a dog, then the result is that we will have to be reborn as a dog five hundred times.
We can see this from the example of the great king Ashoka, long ago in India. He was so wealthy that he had the ability to have ten million relic monuments erected in a day. In a former life, as a little boy playing in the sand, when the Buddha passed by, he’d felt such great faith that he took up a handful of sand and offered it. As a result of this sincere and unpretentious offering he was born as the great king Ashoka with fabulous wealth.
It is very important to consider well all these points about behavior and their results, to think about them and then to adapt our behavior appropriately. These are things which we can learn about, for instance, by reading the Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish. I’m taking time out from the current discourse to explain important things like this, because it is crucial that we get these points.
It is like taking time out from the television program for a commercial that tries to sell us things. Likewise, I am taking time out here to point out these important points to help everyone develop the desire to go out and sample their behavior. Isn’t that a good analogy? So now, we return to the program.
It is very important to keep all these points in mind. This is what is involved in terms of taking a positive, safe and sound direction in life, taking refuge.
Impermanent as Permanent
No matter what type of uncontrollably recurring situation in samsara we may be reborn in, whether as a king, queen, god, or whatever, samsara involves nothing but problems and sufferings. It is not a true type of lasting happiness. The usual mistaken approach is to look at situations wrought with problems and somehow regard them as states of happiness. Likewise, there is a misperception of impermanent and changing situations, for which we make plans as if they were static and not going to change. We make preparations, as if we are going to stay around for 100 more years; whereas, in fact, all of us could very easily go tomorrow. This is a clear indication of grasping at changing situations as if they were static and going to last forever.
Dirty as Clean
We also grasp at dirty things as if they were clean. For instance, if we think about the inside of our bodies, they are filled with all sorts of dirty and repulsive excrement and substances. Yet we spend so much time with cleaning, cosmetics and clothing. It is merely grasping at something dirty as if it were something clean.
Look at the nature of this body. For example, there is delicious food on the table, and it is prepared in the most exotic and appealing way. Take it and put it in any person’s mouth and chew it a couple times, spit it out and then put it back on the table to serve it for dinner. It would make anyone throw up. If we think about it this way, it is something we can understand and relate to.
Grasping at the “I”
Likewise, things do not have any true identity, and yet we grasp at things as if they each had a true identity of their own. We grasp at an identity of the “I.” Look around and investigate. What is the “I”? Sometimes people identify the “I” with their body, and for others it is their mind. If we were only our body, then we could not take rebirth, because this body ends at the time of death. The whole process of rebirth would not make any sense. However, we do take rebirth and the body does not; therefore, the “I” is not the body.
As for the mind, since the mind doesn’t walk around and eat food but we do, it doesn’t make any sense to say that “I am my mind.” If we were to then say that we were both our body and mind, that doesn’t make sense either. In that case we would be two different things and that becomes completely schizophrenic. If we were the collection of our body and mind, that also wouldn’t work.
What am “I” actually? “I” am merely what the word refers to. However, there is a basis for labeling an “I.” This basis is something different from just what the word “I” refers to. If what the word refers to is exactly the same as the basis for labeling, a lot of illogical conclusions would follow. Therefore, we cannot say that merely the collection of the body and the mind are the “I.” Merely the collection of the body and the mind are the basis for labeling an “I” and the “I” is what the word “I” refers to. It is on the basis of the collection of the body and mind taken together that we then label “I” on that basis.
The Five Aggregates
We look at all the aggregate factors of our experience, the five aggregates, and then we grasp at there being an “I” within them. There is no such thing as an “I” existing on the side of the aggregates themselves. Grasping at an “I” within the aggregate factors of our experience, when in fact there is none, is the cause for acting very impulsively, or in other words, for karma. It is also the cause of all sorts of different disturbing attitudes. As a result of acting impulsively and having disturbing attitudes, all problems are created. In fact, that is where all of our problems come from. The existence of an “I” on the side of the aggregates when in fact there is none, such an existent “I” is a thing to be refuted. It is the very thing which does not exist at all. For instance, when we walk into a room, when it is dark, and we see a striped rope on the floor, we might mistake it for a snake.
In reaction to that misconception we become very frightened. Reaction to what we imagine is a snake, when in fact from the side of the rope there is no snake, is the misconception that causes us to be so frightened and startled. The analogy is quite close here, because just as there is no snake from the side of the rope, then there is no “I” from the side of the aggregate factors of experience.
Likewise, we have a misconception that there is an “I” that exists just from the side of the aggregate factors of our experience alone, coming out from its side, as if it were like a snake existing on the side of the rope. This is the misconception. The object that is conceptualized by such a mind, or in other words the “I” existing on the side of the aggregates, is something that is a total fantasy. It doesn’t exist at all. Yet, it is a result of that misconception, the grasping for a true identity or a true “I,” that creates all of our problems.
When we think about all of this, we could become quite startled and frightened, thinking that “I” do not exist at all. However, we are not saying that. We are just refuting this false notion of an “I.” The fact is that the “I” is merely what the word “I” refers to on the basis of all the aggregate factors of our experience. We have all these aggregate factors; for example, we are eating and walking around and so forth. The word “I” refers to some sort of “I” on the basis of all these aggregate factors. This is something that is for sure. It is not that there is no “I” at all.
To gain the discriminating awareness with which we realize that there is no such thing as a true identity of the “I” acts as a direct opponent towards the misconception when we grasp at the identity of an “I.” When we understand that there is no such thing as this type of “I,” we eliminate or cut out the root of all our problems. In this way we are able to gain a total state of liberation.
In order to gain wisdom, or the discriminating awareness with which we understand that there is no such thing as a true identity, first we need to have single-minded concentration. Prior to this, we train in moral discipline, or self-control. In other words, we train ourselves to refrain completely from committing the ten destructive types of actions. On the basis of that morality and self-discipline we practice to gain single-minded concentration. On the basis of that we can gain the discriminating awareness that there is no such thing as a true identity of anything. It is with that understanding and realization that we will be able to eliminate all of our disturbing attitudes and problems.
Therefore, no one should feel despondent or that we can never get out of our uncontrollably recurring problems or samsara. It is possible to gain this discriminating awareness of reality and thereby get rid of all our uncontrollably recurring problems. It is something that definitely can be done. We need to examine how, with unawareness, we grasp at things that are constantly changing as if they were static and permanent. We grasp at things that are dirty as if they were clean. We grasp at things that are full of problems and suffering as if they were states of happiness. We grasp at things without true identities as if they did have true identities from their own sides.
Advanced Level of Motivation
Because of this grasping and not seeing the four facts, which are seen as true by highly realized beings, we experience all sorts of suffering. This is something that is not limited to just us. Absolutely everybody else is in the same boat. Everyone misconceives reality and due to this confusion, every one of us has a great deal of problems and suffering. It is because of this that everyone should develop the wish to work to help everybody. This is the advanced level of motivation.
Think in terms of how we would not want to be reborn in the worst states of rebirth. Because of this, we develop the strong intention to give up acting in any of the ten destructive ways and always act in accordance with the ten constructive or virtuous actions. These are preventative measures to avoid being born in one of the lower states. However, just to be secure and satisfied with that is not enough. We need to progress to see that whatever rebirth we take has uncontrollably recurring problems involved and we don’t want that at all.
Therefore, we need to gain the discriminating awareness of reality with which we understand voidness, or the total absence of all fantasized ways of existing, and in this way be free from all uncontrollably recurring problems. However, just to do that for ourselves is not enough. We have to go on and see how everyone else is in the same predicament and develop very strong compassion for everyone. We need to wish to help everyone out of their problems and suffering. Therefore, dedicate our hearts purely to others and to being able to achieve enlightenment in order to actually benefit everyone. In other words, we must develop a dedicated heart of bodhichitta. This is the actual progression of the actual practices.
The Buddha Shakyamuni was first born in a royal family. He completely renounced the wealth and splendors of his royal princely life. He worked very hard to achieve the state where he became the peerless teacher, the spiritual master of everyone: of all the listeners, the shravakas; the self-realized beings, the pratyekabuddhas; and the dedicated beings, or bodhisattvas. He became someone worthy of praise of all the gods and so forth and became the one to indicate the preventive measures of the Dharma for everyone.
Today, we have been discussing things which are very practical in terms of spiritual practices. We should not think that these spiritual measures and practices are very lofty and distant. We also should not put a big distance between our own life and these spiritual matters, but should put them together into a whole. We should not indulge ourselves in terms of becoming discouraged about not gaining instant realizations. It is very difficult to gain realizations quickly. It is something which involves a long, steady practice, with patience and perseverance. The various insights and realizations that people gain are generally the result of a great deal of effort and work put in during past lifetimes to even be able to have such realizations. It is therefore important to put in a steady effort now, in this lifetime. Realizations don’t just come from nothing.
If we consider how in circuses they are able to teach lions, tigers, bears and elephants to do various types of tricks, then we should not get discouraged. As human beings we have the capacity to learn more than they do. We can, in fact, gain realizations and insights. What we need to cultivate is a great deal of enthusiasm for these positive things and to think in terms of a long, steady and continuous practice.