Karma

The Basis for Valid Cognition of “Not-Yet-Happenings” As we have seen, one facet of a “karmic tendency for a result” is the karmic tendency’s “temporarily not-giving-rise to its result, so long as all the contributing circumstances for giving rise to it are incomplete.” That...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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,...

(1) Closer Analogies The Kalachakra Tantra has many unique features not shared in common with the other anuttarayoga Buddha-figure systems. The upward and downward analogies of general anuttarayoga still pertain to its practice, except that Kalachakra does not entail practice...

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...

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...

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...