Review
We have been going through the graded stages for developing our motivation on our spiritual journey to reach the three spiritual goals, each one of which is built on the next: getting one of the better rebirths so that we can continue on the spiritual path, getting liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth all together, and reaching the enlightened state of a Buddha.
Initial Scope
We have gone through the initial scope motivation, first speaking about the precious human rebirths that we have. We recognize how incredibly fortunate we are to be free of all the major obstacles that can be, both at a personal and a social level, and able to engage in any sort of spiritual practice, specifically Buddhist practice. However, these are just temporary respites, so we really must not take this opportunity for granted, thinking that we are going to have it all the time. The incredible opportunities that we have to study and practice are very, very rare. We looked at the causes for them, and that gave us even more of an appreciation for the rarity of them.
That led us to look at death and impermanence. Death will come for sure to all of us – no exceptions. It’s completely uncertain when that will happen and what the circumstances will be. We can’t predict. Nothing is going to be of any help at the time of death other than the preventive measures of the Dharma that we have taken to avoid worse rebirths. If we have built up some positive force, we can die with much greater peace of mind.
We saw what could happen if we haven’t taken these preventive measures, which is that we could fall to one of the worst rebirth states. We looked at all the suffering and horror that would be involved in being reborn in one of the so-called hell realms, these joyless realms, where we would be trapped for an believable amount of time, or being reborn as a clutching ghost, always being frustrated, never able to get anything or enjoy anything, and having paranoid visions of various things chasing us and so on. How horrible, too, it would be reborn as some sort of animal that’s always hunted and eaten alive by larger animals or whatever. Wow. We really want to avoid that.
We develop a very healthy sense of fear of that. It’s a healthy fear in that it is not based on feeling helpless or hopeless. Instead, it’s based on an understanding that there is a way to avoid that. We really want to be afraid of having one of these worst rebirths because that pushes us toward what will help us to avoid it.
What will help us to avoid that is called “refuge,” which is going in a safe direction, namely, putting the safe direction in our lives of working to become like Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They can be models for us, they can inspire us, they can teach us and so on. But at the deepest level, this safe direction refers to the true stopping of all the causes for suffering and the true states of mind, or paths, that bring that stopping, or cessation, about and that result from that stopping. These exist in full on the mental continuums of the Buddhas and in part on the mental continuums of the Arya Sangha. That’s what we are aiming for, what gives us direction. This is what we are working to achieve and what is possible to achieve in terms of Buddha-nature and so on. However, that’s not going to happen without putting in a lot of hard work.
The first thing that we have to do to go in that direction is to avoid the main cause for worse rebirths, which is destructive behavior. Avoiding destructive behavior led us to the discussion of karma – how karma works and all of that. That concluded our discussion of the initial scope teachings.
Intermediate Scope
The intermediate scope deals with what happens next. Now what, if we get one of these better rebirth states? Still, there are going to be a lot of problems, a lot of suffering. We looked at the sufferings that are particular to the gods, the demi-gods, and humans, as well as the general sufferings of any sort of samsaric rebirth.
Looking at the first noble truth – true suffering – led us to the second noble truth, which is the true cause of suffering. We saw that on one level, the causes of suffering – referring primarily to what’s known as the suffering of suffering – are our destructive behaviors. But on a deeper level, the causes of all the sufferings of samsara are the disturbing emotions and attitudes. We looked at the primary ones, the so-called root disturbing emotions, as well as the secondary, or derivative, ones, and then at the causes for them to arise, the order in which they arise, and their disadvantages. That’s as far as we have gotten.
What all of this is leading to is, of course, developing renunciation of samsara. We really want to get out. We are determined to be free. In order to develop this determination and to know what to do in order to get out of samsaric rebirth, we need to understand on an even deeper level how samsara works. We have looked at the suffering of suffering. We have also looked at the suffering of change, which is our usual type of happiness or pleasure that doesn’t last and doesn’t satisfy; we never know what is coming next. Plus, it turns into unhappiness – for instance, when we are in the heat too long, we get too hot and want to get into the cold; then, when we get into the cold, we get too cold and want to get back into the heat, etc. This is really quite boring and unsatisfactory.
So, we want to look at the deeper level, which is the all-pervasive suffering. The all-pervasive suffering is our uncontrollably recurring rebirth, the basis for experiencing happiness and unhappiness. The ripening of unhappiness, as we saw in our discussion of karma, comes from destructive behavior, and the ripening of happiness comes from constructive behavior – it’s one of the things that ripens from it. So, we have the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and all the other problems, the all-pervasive problems, that go with rebirth.
What’s coming now in the lam-rim goes even deeper in terms of how rebirth actually works. This all-pervasive suffering has to do with the whole mechanism of rebirth, which is what the discussion of the 12 links of dependent arising is all about. But the section that comes now is a more general discussion of how death, bardo and rebirth take place in terms of karma. I don’t know if we will get through all of it in this session, as there is a lot of information. But all of it is background material for the 12 links, so it puts them into some sort of perspective. We are going to be talking about karma, karma that’s brought on by the disturbing emotions and then activated by the disturbing emotions to bring about rebirth.
Identifying the Karma That We Accumulate
But first, what we have – and here, I am following exactly what is in Lam-rim chen-mo (A Grand Presentation of the Graded Stages) by Tsongkhapa – is identifying the karma that we build up. Remember, karma doesn’t ripen from karma. So, when we talk about karma that ripens, we’re talking about karmic potentials, positive and negative, and karmic tendencies. What would usually arise from those potentials and tendencies is the thought to do, say or think something that we like to do, say or think. Then comes the karmic aspect, the new karma.
Karmic Impulses
There’s a difference between what’s called an inciting karmic impulse and an incited karmic impulse. But first, I should explain what a karmic impulse is. I am using the term “karmic impulse” for “karma” (Tib. las) because what in the world does “karma” mean? Basically, we are talking about an impulse. According to various definitions, it could mean an impulse of energy, an impulse of movement, an impulse of a mental type of thing and so on. According to Asanga’s presentation, karma is exclusively a mental impulse, the mental factor of an urging. He says:
- What is an urging? It is something (i.e., a mental factor) that affects the mind – a karmic impulse of the mind. It is what performs the role of propelling the mind in something constructive, destructive or unspecified.
This is the translation of what we find in the text. Let’s go over that. The mental factor of an urging is one of the five ever-present mental factors. These mental factors come together in a cluster. They take one particular object in common, deal with the same mental hologram, and occur at the same time. We have an object of mind, which could be a constructive, destructive or unspecified object. And within any moment of experience, there is a mental factor of an urging drawing us to cognitively engage with that object. Here, we are talking about the urging that draws us into the mental action of thinking about doing something with or to the object. So, what’s happening is that something is drawing us, urging us, into thinking about committing an action of body of speech with or to that object and then making a decision to do it or not. That’s the mental karma. That’s the inciting karmic impulse. Is that clear?
Participant: So, the object can be a thought?
Dr. Berzin: This word “thought” is a very difficult word. When we talk about a mental action, we’re talking about a stream of thought, the action of thinking something, deliberating doing something. That stream of thought, that thinking, is not the same as a disturbing emotion, though a disturbing emotion could accompany it. We could be thinking, “I am going to go to the refrigerator to get something to eat,” or “I am going to help somebody,” or “I am going to hurt somebody.” So, there can be different sorts of emotions that accompany it. But it is the urging that draws us to engage with the object in our thinking. We could be thinking just in our heads, or we could be thinking while we are looking at something, hearing something or talking to somebody.
Participant: The object could be either a mental object or something in the outside world.
Dr. Berzin: They don’t specify that in the text, but I would think that it could be either a mental object or an object in the world. But we haven’t actually done or said anything at this point. We’re just thinking. From a Western point of view, we tend to think of thinking as a mental verbal process. I don’t think it has to be that. From the Tibetan point of view, the Buddhist point of view, thought can be in images. So, thought can be non-verbal. However, for the karmic impulse for the thinking to be an inciting one, the thinking has to entail some form of planning, some form of deliberation, and then coming to a decision to do or say what we’ve decided.
Participant: The urging is almost like a magnet. There is an attraction.
Dr. Berzin: Exactly.
Participant: Or it could also be the opposite end of the magnet: it can repulse the object. The thought can be to avert it.
Dr. Berzin: Now you are confusing two things. What is like a magnet is the urging that gets us into thinking about something. Attachment or desire, wanting to get something, or aversion, wanting to avoid or get rid of something, are different mental factors. The urging is just what gets us to initiate that thought and to continue thinking it. It’s what drives the mental action. That’s the actual karma.
[Participant comment]
Dr. Berzin: Thinking, “I want to go to the refrigerator to get something to eat”… The urging is what pushes us into thinking that, because the feeling came up, “I’d like to eat something.”
Now, there could be greed accompanying the urging. There could be attachment – “I want to get some chocolate pudding” – because we really like that, and we overestimate. Remember, attachment is based on overestimating the good qualities of something, making it into a real, solid type of thing. So, then we have to have it.
This is what I was explaining. There is a cluster of many mental factors that network together. They are all focused on the same object at the same time. They are dealing with the same mental hologram through which we focus on that thing. And they have the same slant, which means that they work harmoniously with each other.
Participant: What causes karmic urgings to arise?
Dr. Berzin: It is the previous karmic potentials and tendencies that we’ve built up on our mind-streams. For example, we can have a tendency to eat something, to stuff our face with chocolate or whatever, whenever we get bored or are in a bad mood. So, it could be from previous habits and so on. Remember, we had the causes of the disturbing emotions, one of which was being accustomed to having that type of disturbing emotion. Likewise, there are things that cause karma to ripen. That’s very complicated.
The discussion of the 12 links is talking exactly about that – namely, what activates karma. There, it’s talking about what activates karma at the time of death and throws us into another rebirth. Now, in one of the Theravada presentations of the 12 links – I haven’t seen it in the Mahayana context, but it undoubtedly exists somewhere – they talk about how these 12 links function moment to moment. It deals with how karma is activated in general. There, it gets into the specific disturbing emotions that activate karma. That’s what all these are leading up to. It’s quite a complicated discussion.
There is habit, and there is an external object. It could be like with what causes the disturbing emotions to arise. For example, everybody else is going out to have a meal, and even though we don’t quite feel like going out to eat, we think, “What the heck. Everybody else is doing it, so I’m going to do it too.”
Participant: What if you are just merely hungry? Is there any karma involved in that?
Dr. Berzin: Merely being hungry is an example of the all-pervasive type of suffering – that we are born with the type of body that needs to be fed, needs to go to sleep, needs to wear clothing to keep warm in the cold weather. So, we have a basis for a recurring problem, which is how to feed ourselves. An animal might have to go out hunting in the jungle or fish in the ocean because it has the type of body that has to be fed. That’s really a drag, if you think about it.
If we are born as a carnivorous animal and we can’t just live on grass or anything like that, what are we going to do? The karma is part of that rebirth package; the urging is constantly going to come up. We are hungry, and we want to eat. So, the thought comes up to hunt prey. It’s the inciting karmic impulse that gets us into thinking that, in whatever way animals think. Then, the incited karmic impulse (which we’ll get to in a moment) comes up that gets us into the action of hunting. And there are three phases of the action: the preliminary phase of hunting the thing, then actually killing it, and then, afterwards, eating it. It’s really quite awful how it works.
I think it’s quite important to appreciate this all-pervasive problem. That’s the whole key to what makes Buddhism unique. Everybody talks about the suffering of suffering – everybody wants to get out of pain and unhappiness – and lots of religions talk about overcoming worldly pleasures and attaining some higher type of happiness. But it’s the all-pervasive suffering of samsara, our uncontrollably recurring rebirth with which we continue to experience the first two types of suffering, that Buddhism specifically deals with. With the 12 links, we learn what the weakest points are so that we can actually put an end to this whole cycle. This is the point. Now we are just getting a general overview of what type of karma we are dealing with.
So, we have inciting karmic impulses, which are the urgings that bring on and drive the mental actions that entail thinking about and deciding to commit a physical or verbal action, and we have incited karmic impulses, which are the urgings that bring on and drive the physical and verbal actions that we had decided to commit. There are two opinions, two main presentations, concerning the karmic impulses that bring on physical and verbal actions. One is what we have in the Sautrantika, Chittamatra and Yogachara-Svatantrika tenet systems. There, the karmic impulse is, as is the case with mental actions, the mental factor of an urging. In the Vaibhashika, Sautrantika-Svatantrika and Prasangika tenet systems, the urging is a form of physical phenomenon. There are two types: a revealing form and the nonrevealing form.
Revealing & Nonrevealing Forms
When the action is one of body, the revealing form according to Vasubandhu is the shape of the body when performing that action. That’s very difficult to understand, I must say. The literal word that is used in Tibetan is “shape.” According to Nagarjuna, it is the motion of the body. It’s revealing because it reveals the motivation behind it. If the action is verbal, the revealing form is the sound of one’s voice, the sound of the words while speaking according to Vasubandhu. Nagarjuna describes it as the utterances of the sound of syllables. That clearly is not the action of speaking. And this too, the sound of one’s voice, reveals the motivation. That’s what these karmic impulses are. They’re like impulses of energy. That’s why I like this word “impulse.”
The nonrevealing form is like a subtle vibration that arises with the revealing form at the beginning of the action and continues with the mental continuum after the action has ended, after the revealing form is no longer present. So, the revealing form ends when we finish doing something or when we finish talking, whereas the nonrevealing form continues. It’s like a very subtle vibration that goes on. And it will continue until we make a firm decision to stop committing that type of action. In the case of destructive actions, it could be deciding, “I am no longer going to kill,” or “I regret what I did.” In the case of constructive actions, it could be deciding, “I am no longer going to help people,” or whatever. At that point, the nonrevealing form ends. However, as long as we have the intention to continue that type of behavior, it continues.
The only example that makes any sense to me is that of an alcoholic. Alcoholics have a certain vibe to them, don’t they? If we are very sensitive, we can sort of feel that somebody is an alcoholic, a heavy smoker or something like that. But when they give that up and go to Alcoholics Anonymous or something like that, the vibe is not the same. You are shaking your head no (speaking to a participant). Do you have experience? I don’t.
Participant: I have lots of experience with that one. People in Alcoholics Anonymous usually transfer their addiction to sugar. They take sugar so that they don’t crave alcohol. So, the addictive personality is still there, even though the addiction has changed.
Dr. Berzin: Right, the addictive personality is still there, but I think that the vibe is different.
Participant: Absolutely.
Dr. Berzin: That’s what I am talking about – the vibe. That’s the closest analogy to these nonrevealing forms that I can think of.
Participant: Is it like a karmic tendency?
Dr. Berzin: It’s different from a karmic tendency, and it’s different from a karmic potential. Here we have three things: a karmic impulse, a karmic potential, whether it’s positive or negative, and a karmic tendency, which is an ethically neutral thing. Karmic tendencies and potentials will, unless we purify them, continue on the mental continuum until they finish ripening, whereas a nonrevealing form finishes when we decide we’re not going to continue that type of action anymore. So, it doesn’t have to ripen. It can ripen, but it will be finished even before it is finished ripening without having to purify it, for example. This has to do with technical things concerning the different types of causes and effects, what can result from what, and so on. Anyway, that’s one theory.
Participant: Just to recapture tonight: The revealing form accompanies the actual act – for example, getting drunk one day.
Dr. Berzin: It would be the shape of the body as it drinks.
Participant: And then the nonrevealing would continue?
Dr. Berzin: The nonrevealing would start at the same time as the action…
Participant: And might continue over years?
Dr. Berzin: Over years.
Participant: When I finally decide to stop drinking forever, the karmic ripening might be…
Dr. Berzin: The karmic potential and tendency that would ripen in being born with an unclear mind because of always having been drunk would continue way into the future until it finished ripening or until we have purified it, gotten rid of it.
Participant: Can I give an example? I am watching television, and I am not hungry. I am completely satisfied. But then there are all these commercials of people eating and enjoying themselves. Suddenly, I think, “I should have food too. It looks so good.” I am attracted through my sense of sight, one of the five aggregates. But then I say, “No, that’s Madison Avenue trying to sell me something. I am not really hungry. I am not going to the refrigerator, and I am not going to eat.” So, my understanding of the nonrevealing form is that the moment I recognize that tendency and say “no” to the tendency, I am not going to buy into the advertising…
Dr. Berzin: Feeling like eating something just because a food commercial comes on is a clear example of one of the causes for disturbing emotions to arise, which is the influence of external forces. You feel like eating, but whether you actually think to go to the refrigerator or not is a further step. But in the case that you bring up, instead of committing the destructive action of acting on the basis of attachment, which is artificially induced here, you commit a constructive action. The constructive action is to refrain from doing something destructive or unhealthy when you feel like doing it. That’s a constructive action.
When the body performs that constructive action, it has a shape to it. That shape is very interesting. What is the shape of the body when it refrains from going to the refrigerator? You are just sitting there, basically. It’s a little bit hard to define what the shape of that is, but it would have a shape. Then, there would be a nonrevealing form, which would be the vibe of somebody who is strong, who thinks for herself, and who is not easily swayed by advertising. As long as you had the determination to be like that, you would continue to have that nonrevealing form as part of a subtle thing that goes along with your mental continuum. But at some point, some sort of personal disaster could come up, and you could say, “The hell with it. I am just going to eat whatever comes to my head to eat.” Then, the constructive nonrevealing form would be gone.
According to the Sautrantika, Chittamatra and Yogachara-Svatantrika explanation, the karmic impulse for the physical or verbal action is actually also the urging that keeps us engaged in the physical or verbal action. So, similar to the mental one that keeps us engaged in the mental action of thinking, this one keeps us engaged in the physical or verbal action. So, there are two views of it.
That was the section called “identifying the karma that builds up.” This is what is going to then bring about the nonrevealing forms. It will definitely build up positive or negative potentials, or force, sometimes translated as “merit” and “sin,” and also these karmic tendencies.
There is another term called “karmic habit,” but that’s different. A karmic habit is something that ripens all the time – for example, the habit of our minds making appearances of truly established existence. That is happening all the time, in every moment. Karmic tendencies and karmic potentials only ripen some of the time. Tendencies for the disturbing emotions also only ripen some of the time. It’s not that we are angry every single moment of our existence. It’s only sometimes that we get angry or that we feel like stealing or being kind to somebody.
How We Accumulate Karma
How do we accumulate karma? What type of karma do we accumulate for rebirth? It’s a fairly technical discussion that Tsongkhapa presents. Then, all the other lam-rims follow suit. We accumulate three kinds of karma.
- Demeritorious karma for unhappiness and worst rebirths come from the destructive karmic impulses.
I am translating word for word what Tsongkhapa says. So, having a destructive karmic urging, or impulse, to engage in some sort of destructive behavior is demeritorious. It’s going to bring about unhappiness or rebirth in one of the worst rebirth states.
- Meritorious is the constructive karma gathered by a mind on the plane of desirable sensory objects, the desire realm.
So, doing positive things, so-called virtuous things, is done with a mind that is on this plane of sensory objects of desire, the so-called desire realm. That’s the realm of humans and the desire realm gods.
- Unwavering karma comes from tainted constructive impulses gathered by a mind on the plane of ethereal forms, the plane of formless beings.
We don’t actually have to be in this rebirth state, that of the desire realm, to have a mind. One can have a mind that is, for example, in the form realm, in a state of mental stability, a dhyana state, as it’s called. These are states of deep absorption and concentration, some with subtle forms, some without. The karma that is built up from that type of meditation is mixed with grasping for true existence, etc., so it’s tainted. That’s called “unwavering.” The difference is that the meritorious and demeritorious karma can be affected when we are in the bardo through other people’s prayers and stuff like that. It can be changed so that some other karmic things could take over and worsen or improve our situation. The unwavering ones, the ones from these deep absorptions, can’t be changed in the bardo. So, it’s called unwavering; it’s not going to waver from bringing about the rebirth state that will ripen from it.
Participant: Is the unwavering unskillful?
Dr. Berzin: “Unwavering” is the translation of the term.
Participant: I am just wondering because it says it can’t be changed in the bardo.
Dr. Berzin: The way they describe it is that if we have the karma to be reborn as a god in the first dhyana, that karma can’t be shifted to be a god in the second dhyana. The actual state that the karma is going to ripen into is our next rebirth, and that state can’t be changed in the bardo.
Participant: So, the unwavering will always lead to…
Dr. Berzin: It will always lead to one of those rebirths in the form or formless realms. The other ones can be affected.
Now, it’s very interesting. Tsongkhapa, who is obviously quoting from various sources, says that if our aim or primary focus is to get the sensory pleasures of this life, we build up demeritorious karma. Demeritorious karma, remember, ripens in unhappiness and the worst rebirth states. That’s an interesting statement because he then says that if our aim is to get the sensory pleasures of future lives, we build up meritorious karma. As I said, I find this very interesting.
To prepare for class, I read through these sections in Lam-rim chen-mo and remembered these points. Normally, we think that demeritorious karma is from destructive behavior. But what type of pleasure we are attracted to, what type of happiness – this is like the difference between what’s Dharma and what’s not Dharma. If we only aim for things in this lifetime, we will have unhappiness. Aiming for better future lives – so, having happiness in future lives, having pleasurable sense-objects – what does that mean? It means that we are thinking about being in pleasant situations with friends, seeing nice things, hearing nice things, having good food, and so on. Aiming for that is a meritorious type of thing. It will lead to a better rebirth.
This really underlies the fact that just being involved in the ordinary pleasures of this lifetime is going to be a major problem. Think about that. Does it make any sense that if we are thinking about future lives, that would lead to happiness? How could that work on a practical level? Let’s think about it for a moment and then reply.
[meditation]
Why Is It Meritorious to Aim for Sensory Pleasures in Future Lives but Not in This Life?
Participant: I am thinking about a mandala palace and that, in a future life, I will be able to climb to the fourth floor of it.
Dr. Berzin: Why? Would that bring you happiness?
Participant: Because it’s a beautiful environment and it is populated with deities.
Dr. Berzin: It’s a beautiful environment and so on. But what if we wanted it right now? What if we wanted to be in some beautiful place in this lifetime?
Participant: That would be this lifetime and attachment to this lifetime.
Dr. Berzin: This is the point. What’s the difference between attachment to pleasure in this lifetime and attachment to pleasure in future lifetimes?
Participant: It would seem that it’s the quality of that attachment, whether the attachment is to the gross physical forms in this life or to our projected spiritual attainment in future lives.
Dr. Berzin: You’re saying that there is a difference between having attachment to some worldly things in this life and having attachment to a spiritual goal in a future life. We are not talking necessarily about a spiritual goal in a future life; we are just talking about happiness in future lives.
Participant: So, you mean that just aiming to have security, shelter and enough food in this lifetime might be demeritorious? Exactly the same issues – that aiming for those things in a future lifetime might be meritorious?
Dr. Berzin: That is what we are trying to analyze: why.
Participant: I don’t see any difference.
Dr. Berzin: You don’t see any difference. Do you see a difference? I see a difference.
Participant 2: I was thinking that when you decide to meet a friend, to see a movie, etc., there is a difference between just thinking about the happiness of seeing your friend or seeing this film and thinking about your habits – for instance, thinking about whether it’s a healthy habit or not.
Dr. Berzin: But what does it have to do with future lives?
[Participant comment]
Dr. Berzin: Let me summarize. You’re saying that just working for immediate gratification – going out with a friend, having a nice meal, seeing a nice movie – is very temporary, whereas thinking about the long-term, thinking to build up positive habits and so on, will give us some confidence that we are taking measures for the future. Something like that.
This is what I would think. What do you think?
Participant: If we’re aiming for something in this life, we’re doing it for “me,” whereas if we’re aiming for something in a future life, we’re not.
Dr. Berzin: But if we’re aiming for something in the future, isn’t that for “me?” “I want to experience this in my future lives.” We would have a different name and a different body, but usually, we still grasp at that as being “me.” Don’t we?
Participant: There is no “me” in the future.
Dr. Berzin: Does that mean that there is a “me” now?
Participant: Maybe, if I’m thinking from an egoistic point of view.
Dr. Berzin: Right. But we could be thinking from an egoistic point of view in terms of future lives as well: “I want to continue having the best circumstances, to be rich, to be with all my friends,” and so on.
Participant: I cannot understand. You don’t imagine a “me” in the future, and you are kind of not attached to the result. It’s more like you act….
Dr. Berzin: It’s more abstract to think about the “me” in a future life, whereas in this lifetime, that “me” is quite concrete and specific because we know what we look like, what our names are and so on.
Participant: When you do something for this life, you apply measures that are different than those you’d apply when you’re doing something for the next.
Dr. Berzin: Remember, we are talking about doing things for this lifetime, having attachment to pleasure in this lifetime, bringing about unhappiness, and doing things for future lives bringing about happiness. This is what we want to analyze.
We are doing things for the happiness of this lifetime, for sense pleasures. This is the suffering of change. We are attached to these sense pleasures, but we are never going to get satisfaction out of them because of the suffering of change. Whatever we try to enjoy in this lifetime is going to end. It’s going to turn into unhappiness. It’s going to be unsatisfactory, etc. So, if we’re constantly searching for sensory pleasures in this lifetime, we are always going to be frustrated; we are never going to have enough. Basically, we are unhappy.
On the other hand, if we say, “OK, I am not so focused on this lifetime; I’m more focused on future lifetimes,” then we’ll be happier because we won’t be striving to get more and more money or to get more this or that. This is my way of making sense out of this. Does that make any sense? We are more satisfied in a sense.
Participant: Maybe.
Dr. Berzin: If we’re thinking, “Well, I am taking measures to be happy in future lives, to have nice circumstances and stuff like that, then I won’t have any expectations in this lifetime.” So, we are more content.
Participant: If I want to have good housing now and I spend all my money to buy such a house, my fortune is gone. On the other hand, if I want to have a shelter in a future life, I would give the people shelter and, in that way, accumulate merit.
Dr. Berzin: That’s a very good point. If we want to have a nice home and nice things now, we basically use up all of our positive potential by just thinking in terms of “me.” If we want to have better things in future lives, then we would want to create the karmic causes for that, which would be being generous and helping others. That will bring about happiness. That’s a very good answer.
That’s why I think it is so important to analyze. Why in the world does it say that, in the text? What are they talking about?
Participant: It sounds to me like an endgame – that I am going to do something meritorious because it’s going to bring me benefit in the future. That’s not too different from playing the stock market, really. It’s like I expect to do this so that I get that result. So, it’s “me,” and it’s got an expectation involved. I thought we were trying to get to the level of involvement where generosity is coming from a place where we are generous just to be generous, not because we think that we are going to accumulate merit in our bank account, in our merit account.
Dr. Berzin: There is a mistake in your thinking. You said, “Aren’t we actually trying to get out of all of this?” No. The topic here is what propels samsara. It’s what propels samsaric rebirth, not what will get us out of samsaric rebirth. What keeps us in samsaric rebirth is exactly this build-up of merit so that the “me, me, me” can get pleasure in the future. This is exactly what they are talking about. We will get worldly pleasure in the future, but that’s still samsara. It’s still horrible. All of this is talking about how samsara works. If we have this attitude of “I am going to be nice to people so that I’ll get something back…” well, our being nice to people will give us worldly happiness in future lives, but that happiness is going to end. However, in this lifetime, we will feel better if we are nice to people rather than if we are constantly, selfishly trying to gratify our own needs but never being satisfied. That’s what it is talking about.
Then it says, “If you turn from sensory pleasure and aim for the blissful experience with absorbed concentration, you get unwavering karma for levels one to three of the dhyanas. If you turn from that and aim for a feeling equanimity from absorbed concentration, you get unwavering karma for the fourth dhyana or the fourth formless realm.” It’s just talking about the different types of karma that will land us in the different types of samsaric rebirth.
The Circumstances for Dying
The next topic is about the circumstances for dying. This is interesting. The first circumstance is:
- When your lifespan thrown by previous karma is exhausted
At the time of death, there is a certain throwing karma that is activated, and part of that karmic package is a lifespan, which of course can be affected by various things. It doesn’t finish ripening until we die. So, of course, we can do various positive things to enhance it, such as long-life pujas, etc. But if we do nothing, it will eventually exhaust. That is one circumstance for dying.
The second one:
- When your positive potential is exhausted – for example, dying deprived of the necessities of life
What in the world does that mean? That means that we are not only born with a certain lifespan but that we are also born with a certain amount of positive potential and negative potential. Karmic potentials ripen into having access to the various necessities of life, like getting enough food, getting enough medicine when we are sick, and so on. However, the store of positive potential that we would have to get these necessities of life could be exhausted for this lifetime even if the karma for our lifespan has not been exhausted. But by doing positive things, building up more positive potential, we could live longer; we could live out our whole lifespan. However, if we don’t do that and that karmic potential to get these various necessities is exhausted – say, there is a famine in our land or something like that – we could starve to death. That would be another circumstance for dying. There could be an earthquake or whatever, but that would be another thing. That would also probably fall into that category of a natural disaster.
The next one:
- From failure to avoid danger
Basically, we just act foolishly. They give a long list of examples. There’s overeating. Well, a lot of people die early because of becoming morbidly obese; they fail to avoid that danger. There’s eating something indigestible, something that makes us very sick. There’s also not taking the proper medicine when we are sick. A lot of people don’t like going to a doctor, or they don’t like to take medicine; they don’t believe in it and so on. That could be a cause for death. Another one is “failing to understand the difference between accustomed and unaccustomed actions,” actions that we are used to and actions that we are not used to. We fail to understand the difference between them. You tell me: What does that mean?
Participant: Let’s say I don’t plan properly for my retirement. I don’t put away any savings, so I wind up homeless when I am 80 years old.
Dr. Berzin: I don’t think it would fall into that category. It would certainly be a failure to avoid danger, but I think it would be in a sub-category of that.
[Participant comment]
Dr. Berzin: We are used to driving a small motorbike, then we think, “Well, I can drive, so now I am going to drive a 16-wheeler truck,” which we have no idea how to do. We haven’t differentiated between what we are accustomed to and not accustomed to. Or we haven’t really taken proper training in skiing, and we just go out and ski. We think, “Well, anybody can do that,” and then we slam into a tree or something like that.
Then, of course, various accidents can happen, again, for some sort of karmic reason or because of natural disasters and things like that, though natural disasters are probably another category… natural disasters in the sense of, for example that somebody tell us that a hurricane is coming and that we should evacuate, but we don’t.
Participant: That’s just stupid.
Dr. Berzin: A lot in this category, like overeating, eating things that are going to make us sick, and so on, is just being stupid. It’s usually based on unawareness. Remember, we have this disturbing emotion: we just don’t know about or refuse to accept cause and effect.
Participant: So, we deny that there is such a thing.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, we repudiate it. We think, “There is no danger if I stay here,” even though we are warned that a hurricane is coming or that the river is going to flood the city or something like that. These sorts of things are circumstances for dying.
The Mind at the Time of Death
Then, we have the mind at the time of death. All of this is talking about what is going to go on at the time of death.
Having Cultivated a Constructive State of Mind
- Those with primarily constructive minds while alive, whether they are mindful by remembering on their own or being reminded by someone else, turn their minds toward a constructive object, such as confident belief in the Three Jewels, their gurus, or bodhichitta, and stay with their minds applied to these thoughts so long as they still have rough distinguishing.
How’s that for a long Tibetan sentence?
What they are saying is that, if we are accustomed to having constructive, positive states of mind, then if, as we are dying, we remember – whether by ourselves or somebody else reminds us – some sort of constructive thought like bodhichitta or something else that we have faith in, like the Three Jewels or our gurus, our minds will stay applied to that object of thought as long as we still have a gross level of distinguishing, in other words, as long as we are still “with it,” to use the colloquial expression. We will get to a point where we no longer have that level of distinguishing – we’ll just have a very subtle level of it. At that point, not much is going on. That’s very important – what is going on in our minds at the time of death. And we will see that it’s very important in terms of the mechanism of rebirth.
Having Cultivated Constructive & Destructive States of Mind Unequally
- For those who have cultivated constructive and destructive states of mind unequally when they die, they remember, either on their own or are reminded by someone else, whatever they have primarily become accustomed to – this becomes extremely powerful. Their minds will then become fixed on that, and they will forget everything else.
So, sometimes we were constructive, sometimes destructive, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Sometimes we had thoughts of loving concerns, sometimes of anger, greed, selfishness, etc. Whatever comes up at the time of death will be what is the strongest. It could be that it comes up just on our own or that someone somehow reminds us of that. To the extent that our love is there, it could bring on being really attached or something like that. Our minds will then become fixed on that and won’t shift to anything else. We will forget everything else. That will be the state of mind as we die.
Having Cultivated Constructive & Destructive States of Mind Equally
- For those who are equally accustomed to both constructive and destructive, they will remember whichever they recall first, and they won’t turn away from that.
This is a very crucial point: What are we most accustomed to? This is why I like this example – when something bad happens, what is the first thought that comes to our minds? For a lot of us, it’s “Oh, shit.” Is that the state of mind that we want to die in? We are driving, and we see a big truck coming toward us on the wrong side of the road and… “oh, shit.” Then – “bam” – we are dead. Think about that. Although it may be very difficult, I think it is very helpful. I am guilty of “oh, shit” as well, but try to get out of the habit that when anything happens that we don’t like, our first response is “oh, shit” or “oh, shoot” or something like that. The substitute does not make it any better. We can examine for ourselves.
Participant: That’s a nasty one.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, isn’t it? If what we are most accustomed to is something negative, that’s what will come up, unless we have really trained ourselves with positive thoughts. It’s interesting. There are some people that when something bad happens, instead of saying, “Oh, shit,” say, “Jesus Christ.” I don’t know if you say that in German, but people say that in English and in some other languages. Tibetans say dkon-mchog gsum, which means “Three Jewels of Refuge.”
Participant: No!
Dr. Berzin: Yes, they do. But when we say “Jesus Christ” or “Three Jewels,” are we thinking of something positive and virtuous, or is it just “oh, shit” mentality but with different words?
Participant: Can you answer that?
Dr. Berzin: No, I can’t. I think there is the actual sound of the words, and then there is the state of mind that is behind it. I think what is more interesting is not the exact words because we can say “oh, shit” in any language. It’s the state of mind. It’s not actually referring to the substance, is it?
Participant: I guess the state of mind is the same.
Dr. Berzin: What is that state of mind?
Participant: The “oh, shit” mind.
Dr. Berzin: Can you be a little bit more descriptive of what that state of mind is?
Participant: It’s the second time that we’ve talked about that, and I’ve thought about it. I think that there are two steps and that you can try to stop at the first one. The first one is the “Oh,” like a perplexity. You are surprised. I think that’s OK.
Dr. Berzin: The “Oh” is neutral.
Participant: Without “shit.”
Dr. Berzin: It could be, “Oh, dear.”
Participant: Just, “Oh.”
Participant 2: The state of mind behind “shit” is getting angry, trying to….
Dr. Berzin: It’s getting angry because what do we want to with shit? We want to get it away.
Participant 2: Yes.
Participant 3: It depends. Usually, it’s negative. It could be fear, or it could be anger. It’s usually one of those.
Dr. Berzin: I think it is a combination of fear and anger. Basically, we really don’t want something to happen.
Participant 3: It’s probably, in most cases, not the ideal response. It’s to see what actually you can do at that moment.
Dr. Berzin: Right, there is still equanimity – not getting excited. We’re thinking, “OK, here is what’s coming up next. Now I have to deal with it.”
Participant 3: With “oh, shit,” somehow, there is psychological release. In a way, you are throwing something out. It’s reactive. Through the cursing, you actually are trying to squash your pain.
Dr. Berzin: We are trying to relieve our pain with the swearing, which is useless, but it’s based on thinking a strong “me, me, me”: “I don’t want this to happen.”
Participant: Yes, exactly,
Dr. Berzin: Not only do we not want this to happen, but we don’t want to deal with it, even if it is happening.
Participant 3: Exactly. It’s a lame way of dealing with it.
Participant: It’s repulsion. OK, I am going to try another tack. It’s also very organic. At the moment of death, it’s absolutely characteristic – textbook normal – to urinate and defecate.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, sure. That’s in Tibetan texts as well.
Participant: It’s an organic response.
Dr. Berzin: To shout, “oh, shit,” when something bad happens?
Participant: That’s what is going on if you are soiling your pants, I would say.
Dr. Berzin: We don’t soil our pants when we delete something by mistake on our computer and get angry and shout, “Oh, shit.”
Participant: But the original example is the moment of death.
Dr. Berzin: No, what we talking about is not the original example. What we are talking about is what we have accustomed ourselves to and what will automatically come up at the time of death.
Participant: OK, I’ll try another tack. There is this doctor in India who works with lepers. Leprosy is a disease of not having a neurological response, particularly in the hands. So, he trained his children to respond with gratitude when they would hit themselves with a hammer – to have gratitude for their nervous system. I think the point that you are coming to is training ourselves in such a way that when something comes up, we have gratitude for a neurological response to the here and now of what’s happening in front of us.
Dr. Berzin: The point here is also that this is an opportunity for us to practice patience. Think of all the people who have similar types of problems – the computer crashing or whatever. First, we have to get equanimity and not be angry that we’re dying: “Oh, shit. It’s over.” At least have equanimity to start with and then try to get into a positive state of mind. Therefore, it’s good to train to get into a positive state of mind when things happen that we don’t want to have happen, instead of going with our accustomed response of “oh, shit.”
Participant: When I had my accident with my motorbike, at the moment when I was flying in the air, I thought something like “oh, shit.” It can be so sudden. And I was angry at the stupid driver of the car.
Dr. Berzin: I fell in India and cracked my ribs in the monsoon – everything was very slippery. My first thought was also, “oh, shit. I don’t want to go on this trip of being injured and everything that follows from that.”
Participant: If I had died when I fell on the ground, I would have taken all that with me.
Dr. Berzin: Right. That’s exactly the point. If we have died with “oh, shit” and having been really angry at the driver that caused us to swerve, that would have been what activated our throwing karma.
Participant: Currently, I am trying to catch myself when I get angry or am being judgmental and then to say a short Vajrasattva mantra. And that’s really very often.
Dr. Berzin: Very good. That’s the whole point.
That brings us to the end of this session. We will continue a little more about death, and then get into the description, according to sutra, of what happens with the bardo and rebirth. Then we’ll get into the 12 links.