Review
We are going through the lam-rim, the graded stages of the path. These are the different levels of motivation that we develop as we further ourselves along the path to enlightenment. The initial motivation is to obtain a better rebirth, specifically a precious human rebirth, so that we can continue along the path in future lives. The intermediate level of motivation is to gain liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth – samsara – so that we can get rid of all our disturbing emotions, and unawareness, and karma, and so on. The third, most advanced level motivation is to achieve the enlightened state of a Buddha so we can best help everybody else out of all their sufferings and these samsaric rebirth cycles.
We started with the precious human rebirth, appreciating what we have. We have a temporary freedom, or respite, from the worst states in which we would not be able to do any practice, to learn anything or to advance spiritually. Our lives are enriched with many, many opportunities that allow us to study and practice: the teachings are available, there are teachers, there are people supporting them, and so on. So, we really have to take advantage of that.
Not to take advantage of such a rebirth would be completely foolish because death will come for sure, and we can never tell when. And in terms of future lives, the only thing that will be of any help when we die is if we have taken some preventive measures – that we have built up the positive habits of the Dharma teachings. That is the only thing that can help us to avoid getting a worse rebirth and losing the type of opportunities that we have now.
We then considered what might happen to us after this life if we haven’t taken any measures to prevent a downfall. We saw what it would be like to be born as a trapped being, a so-called hell-being, in the joyless realms; as a clutching ghost, never able to satisfy its hunger or thirst, always living in paranoia and so on; or as an animal, always being hunted and eaten by other animals, abused by humans, and so on. How awful that would be. We certainly wouldn’t want to experience that. We develop a type of fear of that. But it is not an unhealthy type of fear – feeling helpless and hopeless. Instead, it is a healthy sense of wanting to avoid experiencing that.
Combined with that dread is seeing that there is a way out. So, there is some hope. We see that there is a way to avoid those types of rebirths, which is to put a positive direction in our lives, what’s known as refuge. Putting that direction in our lives ultimately means working on ourselves to achieve the deepest meaning of the Dharma, which is to achieve the state of mind in which all the disturbing emotions, confusion and karma have been stopped forever and all the realizations, all the good qualities, have been achieved in full. This is something that can only exist on a mental continuum. The Buddhas are those who have achieved these in full, and the Sangha are those highly realized beings who have achieved these in part. If we can put that direction in our lives, we can certainly avoid experiencing gross suffering in the future.
We saw that the first step of going in that direction is to avoid destructive behavior, since destructive behavior is what leads to the grossest type of suffering such as the worst states of rebirth. But even with a human rebirth, we can experience a lot of gross suffering, pain, and unhappiness, and so on.
That brought us to the topic of karma, which we looked at in quite a lot of detail. There’s no need to repeat all the details, but we have seen that this whole issue of karma, having to do with the impulses that lead us to act in a certain way, to speak in a certain way and to think in a certain way, is something that we really have to pay attention to. In the beginning, we at least need to exercise self-control not to act on the destructive impulses because we realize that there will be negative consequences of acting on them. These consequences are not some kinds of punishment from some external source; instead, they are what follow in an almost mechanical way according to the laws of cause and effect.
The practical application of this is, of course, to be more mindful in our daily lives of what we’re doing, what we’re thinking and how we’re speaking and to be able to slow down the process so that we don’t just instantly say or do whatever comes to our minds to say or do. In other words, we need to be able to discriminate what would be helpful and what would be harmful. Of course, a lot of questions come up regarding the heaviness of the various types of destructive actions that we do. Can we minimize them? We haven’t rid ourselves of the disturbing emotions yet, so how do we minimize the destructive actions that we do? This is really the issue here.
The Certainty and Uncertainty of the Ripening of Karmic Potentials
We are now up to the sections concerning the certainty of karma. We have already discussed whether the karmic potentials and tendencies built up by our destructive actions and left on our mental continuums are certain to ripen at all. We also saw that we can avoid having to experience the negative karmic consequences by doing purification practices. We can purify our mental continuums of these tendencies and potentials by getting rid of the factors that cause them to be activated, one of the main factors being clinging or, literally, “thirsting” – strongly wanting not to be parted from happiness, wanting to be parted from unhappiness, or wanting the neutral state devoid of happiness or unhappiness not to decline. The other main factor is, literally, “an obtainer attitude,” meaning an attitude that will obtain for us another samsaric rebirth. This is usually translated as “grasping,” primarily grasping for a solid “me” – “I want to be happy,” “I don’t want to be unhappy,” and so on. If we are very strongly driven by this thirsting and obtainer attitude, we are going to activate the karmic tendencies and potentials at the time of death so that a throwing karmic impulse arises, what’s known as “throwing karma.” That’s what propels us into another rebirth and determines the life form that we take, whether as a human, a dog and so on. We are also going to activate the karmic tendencies and potentials for completing karma, for a completing karmic impulse, which determines the type of circumstances that we’ll face in that rebirth state – whether we’ll be in a wealthy, comfortable situation or a miserable one, like being homeless and encountering a lot of disease, violence and so on.
We also saw that we can temporarily clear the slate, in a sense, of these negative tendencies and so on so that they don’t ripen to give rise to their results. This we can do by applying the four opponent forces and doing purification practices like Vajrasattva. We talked about how doing them can give us a breathing space but that doesn’t guarantee that we’re not going to build up more negative karmic potentials.
Remember, before applying the four opponent forces, we first apply the preliminary step of openly admitting that our destructive behavior was mistaken. Then the four opponent forces are (1) regretting that we acted that way; (2) promising to try, at least, not to do it again; (3) reaffirming the direction we’re taking in life (refuge) and our bodhichitta, aim to reach enlightenment to benefit everyone; (4) applying some counteracting force, such as Vajrasattva meditation.
By applying these preventive measures, even not perfectly – which is the case for most of us – we can still cause the strength of the ripening of the karmic potentials and the certainty of their ripening to become less and less so that the strength and the certainty of their ripening approach zero. What that means is that the lifetime in which the karmic potentials would ripen could be billions of lifetimes in the future and that the forms those results would take would be much, much less severe. So that’s pretty good, if we can’t get rid of them completely.
That concluded our discussion of whether the karmic potentials and tendencies have certainty of ripening at all.
Karma Whose Ripening We Are Certain to Begin to Experience within a Specific Time Frame
This brings us to the topic of karmic impulses, the karmic potentials and tendencies of which are certain to begin ripening in a specific lifetime – this lifetime, the immediately following one, or any lifetime after that – and those that have no certainty about the lifetime in which they would begin to ripen. It is important to specify “begin to ripen” since the results that ripen from our karmic aftermath may ripen in several lifetimes. We will continue to experience these karmic results until the karmic potentials and tendencies for them are exhausted.
Certainly, if we are going to act in a destructive way, it would be better to act in ways in which the potentials that are built up have no certainty as to when they will begin to ripen so that we have a greater amount of time in which to purify ourselves and to prevent them from ripening at all. That’s the point of this whole discussion. I wanted to emphasize that before we went any further; otherwise, our discussion about karmic impulses could end up sounding like a legalistic discussion of fine points.
It is important, I think, to go into this topic in detail because what we will be dealing with are, for instance, karmic impulses for actions that we commit in dreams and that we’re forced to commit but don’t want to do, like being forced by an army commander to execute somebody. What is the certainty of the karmic aftermath of these types of karmic impulses beginning to ripen in a specific lifetime? For the sake of simplicity, though, let’s continue our discussion in terms of these actions, rather than the karmic impulses, the mental urges, that bring these actions on, and let’s look at Asanga’s presentation.
Karma That Begins to Ripen in This Lifetime – The Eight Types of Behavior
What are the types of behavior whose results we are certain to begin experiencing in this lifetime? We find a list of eight given by Asanga in his text The Subject Matter of the Many Levels of Mind, which is another name for his Yogacharabhumi (Levels of Mind for Integrated Behavior). It’s one of Asanga’s many texts. In it, he gives a list of eight types of behavior, four destructive and four constructive, the karmic consequences of which we are certain to begin experiencing in this lifetime. When it comes to constructive behaviors, however, we can, of course, mess things up by not dedicating the positive force, etc. We have to dedicate these things. As for the destructive behaviors, we’ll learn later the ways in which we can weaken the force of their karmic aftermath so that what ripens from them will be less severe.
The first of these is:
[1] Destructive actions brought on by thoughts of strong regard for our body, possessions, or our compulsive existence in general.
What would that mean? I think it’s important not just to have a list but also to think about what these things actually mean. So, what does it mean to commit a destructive act “brought on by thoughts of strong regard” – in other words, being really, really concerned about and attached to our bodies, our possessions, or just our very existence. Could you give an example of what that could that be referring to?
Participant: Killing someone in self-defense could be such an action.
Dr. Berzin: Perhaps. But in this case, it would have to be based on something more than just an instinctive response. There would have to be a really strong clinging to one’s life. The type of example I’m thinking of is that because we’re so attached to our lives and possessions, we’re paranoid that every person of color is going to harm or rob us, so we shoot a person of color who comes into our yard.
Participant: Yesterday, I was at a crossing in the road. There was a lady crossing the street, and there was a biker behind me. To me, it seemed that they didn’t know each other. But this lady was so out of her mind. For some reason, she felt so offended by this biker that she took her food from Burger King and threw it at him. She was shouting at him and throwing the hamburger and French fries at him, right in the middle of the crossing! It was quite the scene.
Dr. Berzin: Yeah, I think that would be a good example if the lady was offended by the biker because she was strongly attached to something belonging to her, like her right of way. We’re talking about “strong regard.” That’s the term in the text.
Any other examples come to mind?
Participant: People who run amok.
Dr. Berzin: So, basically, people who are a bit out of their minds. Well, we would have to analyze why they were out of their minds. But, yeah, when people become hysterical and so on, they can act in all sorts of horrible, destructive ways. That could be based on “I’m really so super attached to ‘me’” and “I’m right” and so on.” But here, it’s not talking about having strong regard for the “me”; it’s talking about having strong regard for our bodies – like, “You touched me! You came too close!” So, then we punch the person in the mouth.
Participant: Or when someone is looking at your boyfriend or girlfriend and you think you are in the right to offend the person.
Dr. Berzin: Oh, this is a good example. What about somebody having an extramarital affair with your sister? You get so offended because you think your sister is your possession. So, then, out of honor, you have to go out and kill this person. I think that’s an even stronger example than somebody just looking at your partner and then getting jealous and yelling at them.
Participant: Also, whenever there is something to share, you think you need more than the others. You think you have more rights.
Dr. Berzin: I think that the action has to be more destructive than not wanting to share, like pushing the other person away or knocking them down in order to get the best seat because you think of it as your possession. Or it could be that you’re in a stampede, and because you have such strong regard for your life, you knock the other people down so that they get trampled on and killed.
Participant: Like it happened here in Germany.
Dr. Berzin: Like it happened here at the Love Parade a few weeks ago. It could even be a stampede to get into a teaching of a great lama. Sometimes the Tibetans do that. They stampede in and knock people over in order to get a good seat.
On the other hand, there are constructive behaviors. The next one is:
[2] Constructive behavior brought on by thoughts of strong disregard for our body, possessions, and compulsive existence.
Participant: Like donating a kidney.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Or it could be running into a burning building in order to save somebody or jumping into a river in order to save somebody who’s drowning, regardless of whether or not it will damage you, damage your body. Also, going into a war zone, like Doctors Without Borders, or aid workers who go into war zones like in Afghanistan or Iraq to help with the reconstruction.
What about possessions? “I will give whatever money it takes in order to pay for the operation of my child, even if it makes me go broke.” That’s disregard for one’s possessions in order to do something constructive – strong disregard.
Participant: Or even if you are really poor, you donate to someone who has lost all their things because of some natural disaster.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Perhaps a more common example is that, in these disasters, people who have lost a lot but who still have a home will take in the people who have lost everything. They share the little food and little shelter that they have with others, even though there might not even be enough for their own family. This, I think, happens more commonly.
The next one:
[3] Destructive actions brought on by strong ill will toward any sentient being – any limited being. We’re not talking about Buddhas.
“Ill will” means wishing others harm or wishing them to suffer – “I wish that you would die,” or “I wish that you would break a leg” – so, wanting something awful to happen to the person. You really, really hate somebody, and you think about all the terrible things that should happen to this person, and then you do something terrible to them.
This is a helpful list because it indicates what the destructive behaviors are that we really want to avoid and what the positive ones are that we really might want to do.
The opposite of actions motivated by ill will, the fourth one, is:
[4] Constructive actions brought on by strong benevolence and compassion toward any sentient being.
This means having really strong compassion and really wanting to help others. Obviously, it’s better to actually be doing something to help others, rather than just sitting and thinking about it and wishing to be helpful. Nevertheless, when we undertake something, whatever it might be, even if it doesn’t seem obviously helpful to others, it is important to have this motivation.
For some of us, it’s quite obvious that what we’re doing could be of help to others. For instance, you’re doing medical research. You’re doing computer programming to help hospitals keep their data. (I’m pointing out students in the classroom here.) You’re doing work in the justice department for laws that will protect people. You’re driving a taxi, which helps take people to their destination. That’s helpful. The thought to be helpful to them. You’re doing social work, helping kids who are in trouble. You’re a psychologist helping people with problems. You’re a yoga teacher helping people to be healthier and so on. In any case, the point is that you do these types of things with a very strong wish to be really helpful to others – “I want what I’m doing to be helpful and to alleviate the problems and difficulties that people have.” This is what builds up positive karmic potentials that can ripen in happiness and in things going well or better in this lifetime.
The next one, number five:
[5] Destructive actions brought on by strong belligerence toward the Triple Gem – Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha – or our spiritual teachers, or parents.
What actions could harm the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? What could those be? Well, it doesn’t have to be harming the apparent Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. There aren’t so many Buddhas walking around. But it could be, for instance, making it difficult for people to practice by shutting down Dharma centers, outlawing them, or making it impossible for people to buy books on religion, Buddhism specifically. It could be destroying Buddha images, as was done in Afghanistan, burning Dharma books and these sorts of things.
Participant: Does it have to be really strong?
Dr. Berzin: I think so. The text says, literally, a “large share,” so I guess that means really strong. Obviously, our motivation could be weak, but then the karmic potentials wouldn’t necessarily ripen in this lifetime. For things to ripen in this lifetime, the motivation has to be really strong, either positive or negative, and very, very conscious.
You were thinking of a weaker example? What was your example?
Participant: You don’t like the style of the teacher so much, so you share this with people who like this teacher and cause them separate from the teacher.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Because you don’t particularly like that teacher, you could spread false rumors about them in order to damage their reputation and cause people to stop going to them. You could cause a scandal. This has actually happened.
What about actions motivated by extremely strong thoughts to harm our parents? People have that.
Participant: Well, inheritance might be a trigger for that. Some people even try to kill their parents.
Dr. Berzin: Right. There are those who are very greedy to inherit the riches of their parents. They not only wish very strongly that their parents would die, they actually bring their deaths about so that they can inherit sooner. But even just the thoughts, “I hate my father. I hate my mother. The way they treated me as a child was awful, and I hate them. I wish they would die,” are very destructive. Even if there might be some justification or rationalization for being very angry with them – let’s say, somebody has been sexually abused by a parent – having these very, very strong thoughts of “may harm come to them,” is very heavy. That, too, could ripen in a lot of problems in this lifetime.
Participant: On this point, I’ve read in psychology about how children who were, say, abused when they were young might go to a therapist 20 or 30 years later. And the therapists, what they do sometimes is to try to go back in time with the client in order that the client experiences everything. Then all of these feelings come up. Of course, a lot of hatred comes up as well. I think that the therapists even try to enhance this feeling and say, “It’s okay to feel this because you’ve repressed it for 20 years. Now it’s coming up, and that’s very good. Let it out.” They don’t say kill your father or anything like that. They just want the client to notice that this feeling comes up.
Dr. Berzin: Well, yes, that is an approach in some kinds of therapy – to have the client express that feeling and, in a sense, acknowledge it. I think what the therapist needs to do is to acknowledge that the other person has the right to feel terrible. However, that doesn’t mean they have the right to actually engage in some violent act against the parent. You’re a psychologist, what would you say?
Participant: Sometimes the client just vents his feelings, but that’s not enough. Then the feelings are not integrated. Normally, you try to help the person see that this is one stage and that it’s not the whole picture.
Dr. Berzin: So, what you try to do is to get the person to integrate that hurt and what happened to them into the larger picture of their whole life and not to obsessively focus on this one thing.
Concerning negative things ripening in this lifetime, the example that I’m thinking of is someone that I know of who was abused as a child. She harbored great hatred and never let go of the fact that she was abused. She basically became self-destructive. She weighs over 400 pounds. She’s constantly going bankrupt and forcing her parents to finance her – which has meant that her parents have had to continue working after they’ve retired – and bringing so much misery to herself and her family with the excuse that “Poor me, I was abused as a child.” I think this is an example of how one can bring a tremendous number of problems to oneself, not because of being abused – that’s one thing – but because of holding on to this strong hatred and not letting go, even after twenty or thirty years have passed.
Participant: Still, I think acknowledging that hatred requires letting yourself feel it.
Dr. Berzin: Right. But that doesn’t mean you act on it. And it also doesn’t mean that you have to go over it again and again in your mind as part of your daily routine. It could act as a catharsis, maybe. But a catharsis needs to be limited, doesn’t it?
Participant: Catharsis doesn’t happen by thinking about the pain.
Dr. Berzin: Right. Catharsis has to do with actually feeling the pain. But the thoughts involved would be thoughts of hatred and so on toward the parents. Malice means strong ill will, thinking, “May horrible things happen to them.”
So, that was actions motivated by very strong thoughts to harm the Triple Gem, our gurus, or our parents. The other one, the opposite of that is:
[6] Constructive actions brought on by strong thoughts of respectful belief and firm conviction in the good qualities of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, gurus, parents, other teachers, and so on.
Can you think of any examples of actions brought on by strong respectful belief and firm conviction in the good qualities of the teachers. I’m thinking of things that people do out of strong respect for His Holiness the Dalai Lama or for their own spiritual teachers. They really devote a tremendous amount of their time and energy doing very constructive projects for them that will be helpful to a lot of people. I’m acquainted with many people who undertake unbelievable projects out of respect for these great spiritual masters, who themselves engage in similar types of things.
Can you think of other examples? They don’t have to be within Buddhism.
Participant: Nursing one’s sick or old parents, for example.
Dr. Berzin: Right. I can think of friends who have devoted unbelievable amounts of their time to take care of their parents in their homes – those with Alzheimer’s Disease, for example – rather than put them in a nursing home. This type of thing is quite extraordinary.
Or in terms of Christianity, I visited the Mother Theresa facility for extremely mentally and physically disabled children in Nairobi, in Kenya. And my goodness! The devotion with which these African nuns took care of these children was extraordinary. I had never seen such deformities in my life. The nuns had such love, kindness and patience, which came from their respect for their teachings, Christianity. So, I don’t think that these things have to be in the realm of Buddhism.
Participant: They’re amazing, these nuns from Mother Theresa. They work with a smile on their faces for ten hours a day or something like that. It’s really incredible.
Dr. Berzin: The nuns from Mother Theresa are unbelievable!
Then, the next one is:
[7] Destructive actions brought on by strong thoughts of ingratitude and with which we go against or try to hurt those who have helped us the most, such as our parents and gurus.
So, we’re really ungrateful toward those who have helped us the most, and then we go against them. Our parents, for example, raised us. They’ve helped us, though maybe not in the most ideal ways. But somebody took care of us; otherwise, we wouldn’t have survived infancy. They’ve been kind, and we don’t appreciate their kindness at all. We just act in very negative ways toward them, being ungrateful.
There are a lot of people who take the kindness of their parents very much for granted. There are teenagers and young adults who still live with their parents and who treat their mothers as their servants. Their mothers cook for them, wash their clothes, etc., and they just yell at them and give them a really hard time. They don’t help around the house or do anything. They’re totally ungrateful and unappreciative.
Then, the last one:
[8] Extremely strong actions brought on by strong thoughts of gratitude and wishing to repay those who have helped us the most.
“You’ve done so much for me that I’d really like to help you in some way,” whatever way that might be, whether physically, emotionally, financially, or whatever. We want to show our gratitude, our appreciation. Mind you, those who have been kind to us don’t necessarily expect something in return, not even a thank you. And here we’re not talking about just thanking them but actually doing something really helpful for them. We’re talking about doing extremely strong actions such as taking care of our parents or teachers when they’re really sick and old.
I’m thinking of my own teacher, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, who had diabetes. In the end, he became blind and really needed a lot of help. One of his students, a Swiss guy who was a monk, basically moved into his room and took care of him day and night until he died.
These are the types of actions – so, very strong positive or negative actions – that we are certain to begin experiencing the results of in this lifetime.
Karma That Begins to Ripen in the Immediately Following Lifetime – The Five Heinous Crimes
What about actions that we are certain to begin experiencing the results of in the immediately following lifetime? Can you think of what that’s referring to? That’s referring to the so-called five heinous crimes. If we’ve committed these very negative actions, as it says in the teachings, then immediately after we have died and have gone through bardo, we’re going to be reborn in the worst hell in the lowest realm, the so-called Avichi Hell.
This is the list of five of:
- Murdering your mother
- Murdering your father
- Murdering an arhat (somebody who has attained liberation)
- Causing a schism with harmful intents to the Buddhist monastic community
- With the intention of murder, drawing blood from a Buddha.
Causing a schism is not just starting a different order, starting a different Dharma center, or anything like that. It means harboring really strong negative attitudes toward the Buddha, engaging in physical or verbal actions that are harmful to the Buddhist monastic institution, and really trying to get people away from that institution and into an organization or tradition that you yourself have created. That’s what creating a schism in the sangha means.
As for drawing blood from a Buddha, we’re not talking about taking a blood sample for a medical examination. We’re talking about trying to kill a Buddha.
The karmic potentials and tendencies built up from these five actions are said to be certain to ripen in the immediately following lifetime.
Karma That Begins to Ripen in Any Other Lifetime
Then there is everything else. That gets us into the discussion about the uncertainty of the time when the karmic potentials and tendencies would begin to ripen – whether they would begin ripening in this lifetime, the next lifetime, or in a following lifetime. However, they’re going to begin to ripen at some point. This gets a little bit complicated. And this is where we get into what I think is an interesting discussion. But, again, I think we need to go a little bit slowly, otherwise it’s just lists. For this, let’s look at Vasubandhu’s presentation.
Vasubandhu says that the karmic impulses involved in the following actions have certainty of the time frame when we would begin to experience their results. They are certain to begin ripening in this lifetime, the next lifetime, or a future lifetime. Again, let’s list these in terms of the actions, rather than the karmic impulses that bring them on.
[1] Destructive actions motivated by a strong disturbing emotion or attitude.
That could be directed at anybody. So, our actions are motivated by strong anger, strong attachment or desire, or strong naivety – for instance, being so stubborn and closed that nobody can tell us anything and being naive about cause and effect. The karmic aftermath of such actions will have a certainty as to when it will begin to ripen. Specifically which of the three times it will begin to ripen in depends on other factors such as the motivation and the type of action committed.
Then the opposite of that is:
[2] Constructive ones motivated by strong, clear-headed belief in fact.
This refers to belief in the fact that happiness comes from constructive behavior, belief in the fact of the kindness of others, appreciating their kindness, and so on, which clears the head of disturbing emotions.
Then the next one is:
[3] Constructive or destructive actions, whether or not they’re strongly motivated by disturbing emotions or clear-headed belief, or committed repeatedly, that are directed at the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, arhats, or those deeply absorbed either in meditation on love or in meditation states that are very deeply absorbed and very subtle.
So, the karmic aftermath from a constructive or a destructive action toward the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, arhats or those in deep meditation – whether or not the action is strongly motivated or done repeatedly doesn’t matter – will have certainty as to when it will begin to ripen. Which lifetime specifically, again, depends on the motivation and the type of action.
Then,
[4] Constructive or destructive karmic actions committed repeatedly.
Doing something over and over again – for instance, going hunting every weekend or going fishing every day – builds up karmic potentials and tendencies that are certain to begin to ripen in a specific lifetime. Which lifetime depends on whether we’re motivated by strong disturbing emotions, such as extreme attachment – “I really like to fish,” or “I really enjoy hunting.” Such actions could also be motivated by strong naivety – “Animals are just there for us to hunt and fish. They don’t really count,” or “Chickens are to be kept in chicken prisons,” these chicken farms that are really like a hell for the chickens. These types of actions that are done repeatedly have certainty.
This is very important. If we act destructively, we really should try to get out of a habit of repeating that destructive behavior. On the other hand, constructive habits are good to repeat – like meditating every day – especially when done with a positive motivation.
Then the last one is:
[5] Taking the lives of our parents, regardless of our motivation.
It’s quite clear in the teachings, actually, that euthanasia is not really a positive thing to do. From one point of view, we could say that it’s done out of compassion to help the parents – putting them out of their suffering of a painful terminal disease. On the other hand, it’s a little bit naive as well. That doesn’t mean that we just let them suffer. We could, of course, help them with pain medication and so on and try to make them more comfortable. But, here, it’s quite clear that euthanasia is still the taking of a life and is, therefore, destructive, especially if it’s the life of one of our parents. In fact, murdering one of our parents is one of the five heinous crimes that has certainty of beginning to ripen in the immediately following lifetime.
All other constructive or destructive karmic actions have no certainty concerning the time frame when we will begin experiencing their results, although we will definitely experience them at some time.
Karma Not Certain to Ripen within a Specific Time Frame
Now, what about uncertainty? This is where it gets complex.
As I’ve mentioned before, Asanga has two main presentations concerning the certainty or uncertainty with which the karmic potentials and tendencies from various karmic impulses are certain to ripen in a specific lifetime. Actually, Asanga discusses this topic in four of his texts and each has a different presentation, but let’s just discuss three of them. That’s more than enough. One presentation, the simpler one, is in his abhidharma text, Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge (Abhidharmasamuccaya). His other, more complex one derives from his Subject Matter of the Many Levels of Mind, which is another name for his Yogacarabhumi (Levels of Mind for Integrated Behavior). There, Asanga gives much more detail about karma and other topics. So, these are important texts. They’re not so often taught to Western audiences.
Reinforced and Non-Reinforced Karmic Impulses, Enacted and Non-Enacted Karmic Impulses
There are two variables, which I mentioned in our last meeting, that are very important for determining certainty and that are not that easy to understand. The two variables are:
- Reinforced karmic impulses (bsags-pa’i las) and non-reinforced karmic impulses (ma-bsags-pa’i las)
- Enacted karmic impulses (byas-pa’i las) and non-enacted karmic impulses (ma-byas-pa’i las).
So, what does that mean?
In Asanga’s abhidharma text, he explains:
- A reinforced karmic impulse is defined as one whose karmic potential has been intensified.
- An enacted karmic impulse is defined as one that has caused the proper execution of an action.
“Proper execution” means that a method has been implemented to cause the action to occur, and implicit is that the action has reached its intended finale. So, an enacted karmic impulse is one for any physical or verbal action that is actually committed, whether it was deliberated for a long time or deliberated at all.
A karmic impulse whose potential has been intensified is one for any physical or verbal action that has been deliberated for a long time. “Deliberate,” here, means to think something over for a long time and to plan to do it. Also, here, the deliberation would necessarily entail coming to a decision to commit the action that’s been thought over.
So, the question is, if we deliberate something for a long time but we don’t do it, have the karmic potentials been intensified, or strengthened? Gyaltsab Je explains that, yes, they have been because thinking over the action for a long time beforehand strengthens the karmic potential that is built up. This needs further explaining.
The mental action of thinking to commit a physical or verbal action and deciding to do it builds up a potential for a karmic impulse for a physical or verbal action to arise. When the mental action entails thinking the action over for a long time before deciding to commit it, the potential that is built up is intensified, or strengthened. If that strengthened potential is then actualized – in other words, it gives rise to a karmic impulse for an action of body or speech – the karmic impulse for the physical or verbal action is a reinforced one. We can see, then, that the karmic potential that is strengthened is a potential for a karmic impulse, a reinforced karmic impulse, to arise; it is not the same as the reinforced karmic impulse itself. So, even if a karmic impulse for the physical or verbal action that we had thought about doesn’t arise and we don’t commit the action, the potential for such a karmic impulse to arise has nonetheless been built up.
Review of Inciting and Incited Karmic Impulses
Perhaps a review of inciting and incited karmic impulses can also make the discussion a bit clearer. Remember, we have been using these terms in the Sautrantika sense, which is less complicated than the Chittamatra one of Asanga.
- An inciting karmic impulse (sems-pa’i las, Skt. cetanakarma) is a mental urge that brings on and drives a mental action that is directed at the body or speech and that entails thinking about and deciding to commit a physical or verbal action.
- An incited karmic impulse (bsam-pa’i las, Skt. cetaniyakarma) is a mental urge that brings on and drives the karmic action of the body or speech that we had decided to commit.
Gyaltsab Je, in his commentary on Asanga’s Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge, explains that an inciting karmic impulse is the karmic impulse for an action of mind that subsequently brings on an incited karmic impulse for a physical action and, presumably, also a verbal action. So, an incited karmic impulse is what draws the body or speech into action; it’s not the physical or verbal action itself. So, we have to make a difference here between the karmic impulse for a physical action and the physical action itself.
A mental action could be thinking thoughts of malice: “Oh, I really hate this person!” But that’s not the same as deliberating and planning to do something about it. That’s just the mental action of thinking negative thoughts. But then actually deliberating whether or not to hurt the person – which may or may not be by means of a specific action – and deciding to do it brings on an incited impulse that engages the body or speech in the actual physical or verbal action. It is the urge or impulse that brings us into the action. But even if we don’t actually do it, we’ve still built up the potential for an incited karmic impulse to arise.
Does that make any sense? You have a big questioning expression on your face.
Participant: Yes, a question mark on my face. I thought the action itself was the incited karmic impulse.
Dr. Berzin: There are two presentations of karma. There’s what we find in Asanga, where karma is always a mental factor (sems-byung), the mental factor of an urge. Then there are the Madhyamaka and Vaibhashika presentations in which the karmic impulses for actions of body and speech are physical impulses; they’re forms of physical phenomena. But even in that case, the karmic impulse is not the action: it’s the physical impulse that, according to Madhyamaka, for instance, is the motion of the body or the emitting of the sounds of words as the method implemented for causing the action to occur. Vaibhashika says it is the shape of the body or just the sound of the words.
Participant: If I think about saying something nasty or something nice to somebody and I go through the situation, simulate it in my mind and decide to say it – that would build up a potential for a reinforced karmic impulse. But the karmic impulse for that deliberation wouldn’t be the reinforced karmic impulse for actually saying it, would it?
Dr. Berzin: Right. Because of the deliberation, a strengthened karmic potential is built up to bring about a reinforced karmic impulse for the verbal action, but the action hasn’t actually been committed. So, an incited karmic impulse, which would be a reinforced karmic impulse, hasn’t arisen or been enacted.
Let’s think about this since we haven’t had any period to think about or analyze it. As I said, there’s a difference between just thinking negative thoughts in general about somebody – for example, covetously thinking, “Oh, I wish I had what this other person had,” and so on – and actually deliberating and deciding to do something to get it, whether or not it is something specific. Remember, the definition here of an incited karmic impulse for a physical or verbal action is the urge that actually brings us into a specific action; it’s not the action itself.
So, there’s the urge that leads us to think over and decide to commit a specific physical or verbal action. That’s the inciting karmic impulse for that mental action. Then the incited karmic impulse is what actually brings us into the specific physical or verbal action. In both cases, the karmic impulse is a mental factor.
Participant: Wouldn’t, normally, the incited karmic impulse arise immediately before the action takes place?
Dr. Berzin: No, the incited karmic impulse is the mental factor of an urge, or urging, that drives the body or speech in implementing a method to cause the action to occur. It is simultaneous with the implementation of this method. What occurs before the incited impulse arises is the reaching of the decision to enact this method, which is the finale reached by the mental action driven by the inciting karmic impulse. There may be an interval, however, between when the incited karmic impulse arises and when that finale is reached.
However, we could, for example, decide to murder somebody – so, we’ve not only thought negatively about this person, we’ve also deliberated killing them and decided to do it – and we walk to the place where we think that they are. But when we get there, they’re not there, so we don’t actually kill the person. This is an example that they give.
Remember, the action has three phases. There’s the preliminary action, the actual action, and then the finale of the action.
Participant: But the walking there would have been brought on by an incited karmic impulse, no?
Dr. Berzin: Well, the walking there? This is similar to the example of hunting that we had used. First, there is stalking the animal, then actually shooting it, and finally, either eating the meat or giving it to somebody else. So, I think that the preliminary action here of walking would have been brought on by an incited karmic impulse. But because we didn’t actually kill the person – no method was implemented to cause that action to occur – the karmic impulse for the action of killing would, I believe, not be considered “properly executed,” in other words, not enacted.
Participant: Besides all these things, to me it sounds quite reasonable that thinking over and planning, or deciding to do it is really the heavy part of the karma. So, all the things that go on in your mind before you even do something actually count.
Dr. Berzin: Right. This is the point: they count.
Participant: That’s a good point.
Dr. Berzin: They count karmically in that they affect what we will experience – the unhappiness or whatever that we’ll experience as a result.
[meditation]
Questions
OK. Have you considered constructive behavior in terms of this, not just destructive?
Participant: Two days ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop. There was a woman there, someone I didn’t know, who was wearing a beautiful ring. I was thinking about speaking to her to tell her how beautiful it was. Some minutes later, she began talking to me. I had the feeling that she was just little bit quicker than I was, so I said something like, “My thought was touching you, and you did the action.” So, I was thinking in a positive way, and she was acting in a positive way.
Dr. Berzin: Right. So, you thought about speaking to her and deliberated whether or not to do it. But before you could actually say anything, the other lady started the conversation. That could perhaps be an example of a constructive karmic impulse that built up a strengthened karmic potential. Whether or not your thoughts actually caused her to speak to you is another question. That was probably not the case.
Deliberated versus Spontaneous Actions
But this is interesting. Does this mean that it is better to deliberate doing something positive than to do it spontaneously?
Participant: Seems like it.
Participant: Deliberating and planning to do something good can require more perseverance and so on than doing something good just because you happen to feel like doing it in that moment.
Dr. Berzin: Right. If we do something spontaneously, like help somebody who falls down in the street, we don’t actually deliberate doing that beforehand, do we? But what you’re saying is that to deliberate doing something, really thinking it out and reaching the decision to do it, has a better chance of succeeding and is a stronger action than doing something constructive on the spur of the moment.
Participant: It’s not really committing ourselves.
Dr. Berzin: Right. When we deliberate doing positive things, we are, in a sense, being more serious about it. We are, as you say, committing ourselves.
In any case, here, we’re just talking about the certainty of when the karmic potentials and tendencies would ripen. That’s the only variable we’re talking about here. And the point here is that if we deliberate committing an action before we do it, the karmic potentials are going to have more certainty of ripening at a certain time. If we do it just randomly or spontaneously, the potentials might not ripen for a very long time. Think about that. This is an interesting point.
[meditation]
That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s not good to be spontaneous and to spontaneously help someone who has fallen in the street.
Participant: I was thinking about constructive spontaneous actions. I think they require some sort of deliberating beforehand. For example, in meditation, one thinks, “I would like to do this and that. I will help here and there.” So, then, when a situation comes up to act in a constructive way, one spontaneously does so because one has thought about and deliberated doing it beforehand. Anyway, what does spontaneous mean? Being spontaneous doesn’t mean doing something just by chance.
Dr. Berzin: Well, that’s true. If we’ve meditated a lot on helping others, then, when a situation arises, we might spontaneously help them. So, in a sense we’ve planned it; we’ve deliberated in general, rather than deliberated specific acts. On the other hand, we could deliberate in general to help others, but then, when an actual situation arises, we freeze and don’t do anything. That also can happen. We become frightened.
But does it happen that we are spontaneously nice to people and want to help them? I think there are people who are spontaneously nice to others and want to be helpful, either because of their upbringing or because they are instinctively like that. There are some people like that. My mother was like that, for example. She was incredible.