Karma

The karmic impulses of the body, speech and mind can be further divided into seven types.  Nagarjuna’s Presentation Nagarjuna states in Root Verses on the Middle Way, Called Discriminating Awareness (dBu-ma rtsa-ba’i tshig-le’ur byas-pa shes-rab ces bya-ba, Skt....

Karma: Neither Deterministic nor Predetermined We’ve been discussing karma, and we saw that there are various systems with which karma is explained. However, what we are speaking about when we talk about karma is our compulsive behavior, what brings on our compulsive behavior,...

Brief Historical Background of Non-Gelug and Tsongkhapa’s Systems Now we’re ready to look at Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna’s presentation of karma as asserted by Tsongkhapa. This is in accord with Tsongkhapa’s special way of explaining the Prasangika system of Madhyamaka. Someone...

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...

Why Haven’t We Already Built Up Enough Positive Force to Develop Bodhichitta? We’ve seen that in order to strive for bodhichitta for the first time, we need to have heard about enlightenment and understand it a little bit and have confident belief that it exists...

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...

Inciting and Incited Karmic Impulses  In A Discussion for the Establishment of Karma (Las-grub-pa’i rab-tu byed-pa, Skt. Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa) (Derge Tengyur vol. 136, 144B), Vasubandhu states: Suppose you ask, “Well then, has the Bhagavan (Buddha, the Vanquishing Master...

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...

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...