Karma

Review  In our discussion about the issue of free will or choice versus predetermination or determinism, we saw that there are many, many factors that are involved and many pieces of the Buddhist teachings that we have to put together in order to understand what’s going on...

Review of the Revealing Forms of Physical and Verbal Karma We’ve seen that one aspect of the karmic impulses for physical and verbal actions is their revealing form. In the case of a karmic impulse for an action of the body, according to Vasubandhu, the revealing form is the...

Refutation of a Pratimoksha Vowed Restraint as a Nonrevealing Form That Follows from a Revealing Form In response to the Vaibhashika objection that if the existence of nonrevealing forms were negated, the consequence would be that pratimoksha vowed restraints would not exist,...

The Relation between Objects of the Three Times We have seen that there is no common-locus of a “result, which is not yet happening,” a “result, which is presently happening,” and “a result, which is no longer happening.” Moreover, although a continuum can be validly imputed...

Understanding Rebirth in Life Forms Other Than Human or Animal A topic that is often skipped over is that of the sufferings of the three lower realms, or the “three worse realms” as I prefer to call them. The Tibetan term is actually the “three bad realms,” but “bad” seems a...

Review of Previous Sessions  We have been discussing the issue of time from a Buddhist and a relativistic point of view in current Western science. We’ve seen that, from a Buddhist point of view, time is a measurement of the change that occurs during the interval on a...

The Mechanism of Karmic Causes Giving Rise to Karmic Results If we properly understand that there is no such thing as self-established existence (rang-bzhin-gyis grub-pa, inherent existence), we understand conventional existence established in terms of dependent arising. But...

Six Types of Causes Our discussion has brought up several questions and topics. We can add more pieces of the puzzle by looking into these topics so that we have a larger picture of what’s involved with karma. One of these topics is the topic of the different types of causes,...

As we have seen, sound in general, including a revealing form of speech, is a non-appropriated (ma-zin-pa, Skt. anupātta) form of physical phenomena. Not being a part of the body, sound cannot be the physical support for a consciousness and its accompanying mental factors. But...

Brief Review Definition of Karma We have been discussing karma or, more fully karmic impulses, as a compulsiveness that is associated with our ways of acting, speaking and thinking. The karmic impulse for an action of the mind is the compelling urge that drives our thinking...