Karma

Brief Review  In the first session, we introduced the topic of Karma: Who’s to Blame? We saw that the approach we need to follow is an analytic one in which we examine each of the three components: karma, self and blame. If we want to get a harmonious picture of how these...

Review We are continuing our discussion of what karma actually means. We discussed the presentation the Indian master Asanga made within the context of the Chittamatra system of tenets. If we translate Chittamatra literally, it means “mind-only.” We saw that, in this system,...

Review This morning we spoke about the four noble truths in general, and then we presented what Kalachakra adds to this. The main thing that we were emphasizing was a little bit more extensive explanation of the true causes of samsara. And we went through the explanation of...

The First Law of Karma There are certain general aspects of karma called “the four laws of karma.” If we ask why these laws work the way they do, it is just the way it is. It is like asking why does everybody want to be happy and not to suffer? It is just the way it is. We...

The Relation between Reinforced and Enacted Karmic Impulses and Inciting and Incited Karmic Impulses  One of the main sources about karma from the Abhidharma Basket is Revealing Karma (Las gdags-pa, Skt. Karmaprajñapti) by Buddha’s disciple Maudgalyayana. In it,...

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...

Both the Madhyamaka and the Vaibhashika presentations of karma derive from The Extensive Great Commentarial Treatise on Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa bye-brag bshad-pa chen-mo, Skt. Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣā), compiled at the Fourth Buddhist Council from the Mahayana...

Review True Sufferings We began our discussion with how the cognition of voidness liberates us from uncontrollably recurring rebirth, samsara. To understand that, we need to understand what actually the true sufferings are that we want to become liberated from. Why is it that...

Review In the discussion of the mental factor of an urge, in which we have borrowed and adapted to the Vaibhashika view the distinction between a performer and exertional impulse that Sautrantika draws, we have seen that urges that affect and drive a consciousness and its...

General Introduction and Review The various Tibetan traditions coming from the Buddha – Kadam, Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma – all follow a presentation of ways to train our attitudes that comes from a common source: Shantideva’s Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior. Shantideva’s...