Discovering Yourself: A Teaching on Karma & Mindstream
Dec 29, 2012
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Sometimes dharma talks may touch something sensitive or deep within us, but do not be stuck on the superficial meanings and changes required, but think deeper. Dharma is not something to fear or to judge yourself by but for inner contemplations. To help you to have knowledge to be honest with yourself. To find who you really are and who your potential can be. Dharma is hope. Dharma is light. Dharma is the way of wisdom. Dharma is peace. Dharma is for those who wish peace and need a way to find it. Dharma is for all those who thirst for more in life than just the mundane daily actions. Dharma is for finding a way of life that can change your life for the better. Dharma can never harm nor bring damage. Never. Dharma was intended by Buddha to benefit. And it will benefit if you try.
When you listen to dharma, think it over a period of time and if it makes sense apply it. Only by applying will you see a difference in your mind, thinking and reactions. No one is perfect at our current state but perfection is not impossible as shown by the Buddha. Perfection of the mind is a real tangible state that can be achieved and should be achieved. Do listen to my talk from my heart and or the transcript. Share with those you think it might benefit. I wish you the best from the depths of my heart.
Tsem Rinpoche
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/DiscoveringYourself.mp4
Transcript: Discovering Yourself – A Teaching on Karma & Mindstream
I’m going to talk about karma but I’m going to talk about it in a very simplistic manner. For those who have heard, it is a…refresher course. For those of you who have not heard it, please listen carefully.
You have three pathways you can go. One is a negative pathway. One is a positive pathway. One is a neutral and/or negative pathway. Okay? So this is you. What determines these three pathways? Because these are…what are these? These are dormant karma. What is a dormant karma? A dormant karma is like a seed that’s in the ground that doesn’t sprout until it rains. So it can remain dormant for 10 years; some seeds can remain dormant for 100 years. Some things can remain dormant for one year, two years but dormancy means something that stays…it doesn’t open till something triggers it to open. Karma is similar. Karma is very similar.
So what happens is, you have your thought. Your thought is…thakpa…kaseyrewada…your thought is continuous. There’s no break. So this is you. When you come here every single day of your life, you can actually think, “Go the wrong way that day”, you can go the right way or you can go the neutral way. This is you. What determines this is motivation.
That’s you. Negative karma. Good karma. Neutral. The defining factor for you to choose this daily, or to trigger this open daily is your motivation. Your motivation arises from study, not necessarily study as in school or university. Study as in knowledge and understanding or wisdom. It can be school, because some schoolteachers give us a lot of wisdom. Knowledge. Knowledge will translate into practice. Practice will translate into habituation. Habituation is translating into wisdom, why? When we do something enough times, it becomes automatic no matter how hard it is in the beginning. So anything that we have done in this life, that is easy for us now, it’s due to habituation. So hence it equals to wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what to do or automatically doing the right thing. That can only arise from habituation. Habituation can only arise from practicing. Practice can only arise if you know how to practice. Knowledge…and that must arise from study. For example listening to a Dharma teacher, reading books or meditating, contemplating or watching seniors who are practiced. So when we have this, we go to this, this goes to this, this goes to this… this will automatically affect our motivation. This is you. If you, that day, think on a negative level, then a negative karma will open. When the negative karma opens, it will come from hiding, denial, animal-like behaviour. What’s animal-like behaviour? Eat, sleep, eat, sleep; don’t care about anything else. Animal-like behaviour. Selfishness – you have no concern about the person near you or next to you, or in front of you, no concern – it’s only about yourself.
Laziness. Laziness is the unwillingness to apply change. Laziness. Unwilling to change and blame. Not taking responsibility for your problems but blaming someone else. Always blaming other people. So when you abide or reside or live in the state of mind that is always hiding from your faults, pointing out other people’s faults but hiding your faults – always, by a nice smile, by a pretty face, by Botox, whatever – you’re always hiding yourself, denial – not admitting what you are to yourself – animal-like behaviour, selfishness, laziness, unwilling to change and blame… when you wake up with that type of thinking, what happens is, that day, the negative karma is activated. So on that day, you will live within negative actions, negative results, and the collection of more negative karma.
So the good thing about this is, once you get here, you can change it. It can either lead to here or it can lead to here. You can change it. Everyday, once you open that negative karma, you’re not stuck there. You’re not stuck. It’s not like, “Oh that day, I am stuck.” What happens is, you can do pujas. You can follow the advice of your elders, your teacher, or a scripture or a friend whose been giving you good advice. You can apply effort. You can apply practice that day. You can apply regret. You can apply purification. You can apply guru devotion or, even better, mending your samaya. If you do these actions, then this action, instead of becoming black leading to this, it will lead to this.
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If you, mid-way, you change over due to this – pujas, following advice, effort, practice, regret, purification, guru devotion, mending samaya – then instead of your negative karma following through, which leads to what? It leads to regret, death, bitterness, sickness, unhappiness, lost chances. What’s lost chances? When your wife leaves you. When your children grow up, they become monsters, they don’t listen to you. Or when you’ve been using your mother and father, and your mother and father is dead. No more. That’s your lost chances. No more chances to repair with them anymore. You regret for the rest of your life. All you can do is go to their gravestone, offer flowers and incense, and regret. That’s all you can do.
Alright, now, it will lead to what? It will lead to regret, death, bitterness, sickness, unhappiness, lost chances. Why does it lead to that? Negative karma always leads to negative results. So if you’re always harming your body, if you’re always harming your body and harming other people with your body, it will lead to extreme sickness, oh yes. Example? If you’re always drinking, always smoking, you’re always taking intoxicants or doing drugs or you’re beating people up or you’re using your body for negative actions, then it will lead to sickness. Who put you there? You put yourself there. It will lead to this.
But, if mid-way through, you decide to change, then your positive dormant karma will open up. And that will lead to a good destination, fulfilment of your temporary goals, happiness, openness, clarity – it will lead to this temporarily. So if half-way through your negative karma, you apply this advice, you will receive this result. And this result can lead to positive states of rebirth, to continue one’s benefit to others and to always have good lives – you will always be able to benefit others. You will always take a good rebirth and your rebirth will be very conducive to you and your spiritual practice and your happiness, automatically. It will lead to this. Then, also it can lead to, if you do tantric practice, Kechara Paradise. Kechara Paradise is the name of our centre but Kechara is named after Vajrayogini’s paradise. Like in the Chinese, we believe in the Western Paradise of Amitabha. Similarly, it is a tantric abode of the yidam Vajrayogini. It can lead there.
Once you take rebirth here or you take rebirth here, you don’t stop. Either, if you rebirth here, you continue your spiritual journey by practicing, listening to the Dharma. Or from here, you take rebirth again to benefit others. When you take rebirth here, in positive states of rebirth, you can continue in taking good rebirth again, leading to control, liberation and nirvana. What’s the difference? Control means to be able to control your lives, wherever you go. One life after another, with no fear whatsoever. Second, liberation. Complete Buddhahood. Cessation of all sorts of suffering, cessation of the self-grasping ‘I’. Then, and/or it can lead to nirvana. Nirvana is what? It’s a state of not enlightenment, it is a state of mind you don’t suffer anymore. No more. No more sufferings. Okay?
So this kind of action can lead to this. As I said, if you can see the whole chart, it’s much easier to relate. This way, quite difficult.
Second type. This is the black karma. Now we’re talking about white karma. White karma comes from good motivation, that arises from wisdom, habituation, practice, learning and study. If you jump from one centre to another centre to another centre, from one lama to another lama to another lama, to one lineage to another lineage to another lineage – in the Tibetan tradition, we consider that very bad. Why? You may think you’re ecumenical, you may think that you’re non-biased but actually you mix…it become rojak, not here, not there, no benefits at all.
See people who stick to one lama, one centre, one lineage, one practice, when they reach this level of knowledge, then a practitioner of another lineage, when you bring them together, they’re equal. Their knowledge is equal. Their wisdom is equal. Their approach, they differ or be different because of their lineage. Example? Maybe in this lineage they focus on Green Tara. In this lineage, they focus on White Tara. In this lineage, they focus on Yellow Tara. In this lineage, they focus on Red Tara. But when you achieve Tara, you are Tara. So when you come into one room, it doesn’t matter where you came from but you have arrived. There is no Gelugpa, Nyingma, Sakya or Kagyu Buddha. From the Buddha’s side, they’re nameless. It is from our side, we put names. It is from our side, we put projections. It is from our side, we put them into boxes. But from their side, there is no lineage, free of lineage. Having said that, if we follow a lineage, a teacher, a method all the way, you’ll be very successful. It will not become mixed up.
When you become mixed up, it’s not the side of the lineage or the teacher, it’s the side of your mind jumping. All the time jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping. So the fault comes from yourself. Therefore with white karma, how do you open it everyday? When you wake up, or you start your day with effort, enthusiasm, your sadhana, you do your Protector practice to alleviate your problems – Setrap – kindness, truth, Dharma work. Protector practice in our centre is very unique. It’s very very unique is because I follow the Gaden tradition of Lord Setrap. And our centre has a very powerful reputation – I have heard from others, it’s not me telling them, they have told me – I have heard from them that our centre, when you go to Setrap pujas and you do it, your wishes become fulfilled. That our centre, other people have said, fulfils people’s wishes very quickly or quicker than normal. So when I heard that comment, immediately I thought about Setrap. That’s not me making it up.
You see, I already knew that. That’s why Gaden Monastery takes Lord Setrap as its Protector. All the high lamas for 600 years cannot be wrong. Cannot be wrong. So therefore everyday you do your Protector practices which is excellent. Short one. Why? Protector practice eliminates your outer obstacles given by others and your karma, and inner obstacles such as difficulties, doubts, anger, selfishness. Okay? And in our society, in our society here, I don’t know about others, there’s very strong cases of black magic. Very strong cases of magic and black magic. Do you know how magic can be done to you? Let me explain simply. Because you harmed someone. Because you’ve harmed someone with your body, or speech or your mind, you’ve collected the negative karma. So when they do black magic to you, it can affect you because of your karma. Why? You can do all the black magic you want to the Dalai Lama, he will still be having his breakfast and watching BBC, nothing happens. How come when fat Tsem Rinpoche is having breakfast and someone sends black magic, I go into an epileptic fit? How come? So the magic is the same. The magic can affect you if your negative karma is very strong. So if you try to say, “Oh I’m acting this way, oh I’m doing this, oh I’m doing that because of the magic,” if you say that and you want to blame the magic, for normal people who don’t know anything, they say, “Oh yah yah, could be.” But for people who know, they’ll say, “No, it’s your fault.” Why’s that? You must’ve done something for someone to do magic to you.
And then if you’ve done something for them to do magic to you, you’ve gotten the negative karma. So if the negative karma is very strong, that when someone sends magic, on the basis of your negative karma the magic can come to you. Does everybody understand? Example? You cannot send magic to great meditators, forest monks in Thailand. You cannot send magic, you cannot harm them, they don’t have the karma to be harmed. They didn’t harm you so if you send magic to them, you cannot harm them. Why? There’s no karma to be harmed. Everything comes from karma. Every single thing comes from karma. Therefore if you don’t have the karma, how? So if you run around telling people, “Oh I act like that, I talk like that, I do like this, I do like that, forgive me ah, it’s not me, it’s magic ah?” If you’re with retarded people, they say, “Yes yes, it’s magic, not your fault.” But if you’re with smart people or you’ve graduated from the TKL Institute of Alternative Arts then no one’s going to believe you, because you have a certificate of wisdom.
Yes. So don’t run around blaming black magic for your problems. Never run around blaming black magic for your problems, why? If I go and punch Kheng San, if I go and punch him, slap him, kick him, break his glasses and then kick him one more time, then he comes back with ten brothers and beat me up and I walk in like this, I cannot say it’s his fault. I’ll say…they say, “What happened?”…”Oh it’s his fault, Kheng San beat me up” but if we look deeper, it’s because I beat him up.
So therefore if you run around saying, “Oh my business not successful because I got magic what…my business failed for the twentieth time because I got magic what, give me more money”…aiyoh! You know how many times I’ve heard that from people? When I hear them, I think to myself, “Can I not have my monk vows for 10 minutes so I can beat them?” Oh no, I still beat people with my monk vows, okay never mind. Yah. They tell me… I’ve been listening to this for 20 years. Or they say, “You know what? Tsem Rinpoche does magic. He sends magic to people.” I was thinking, “I do?! How come I don’t make any money from it?” You see, I studied with over 15 great masters and I’m from Gaden Monastery. I’ve never learned magic even once. There’s no word to learn magic in our tradition, no word. So if some people say…even if I know magic, the only way it can affect you is not if I’m powerful, it’s if your karma is weak. It’s like that. You think about it.
So if you want to run around blaming your failure on black magic, you want more money because black magic failed you, or you are selfish or you are erratic or you’re silly or you got a big mouth, and you’re a loser and you want to blame magic, you can do that if nobody knows what you’re talking about but that’s even short term. After a while, they just send you to a big bomoh. It still cannot solve? Bye bye.
What’s my point? My point is simple. You lost, you can get magic because you harmed people. Because you have harmed people, you can get magic. So you don’t blame others for your failure. Why? Because magic is just a part of the whole story.
So hence if you do your Dharma Protector practice well, you can block all magic and protect yourself from all magic. How? Number 1, appreciate your mother and father. Don’t use them. Number 2, appreciate your friends. Don’t use them. Number 3, talk well, use your speech to benefit others. Number 4, use your body to benefit others. Then if you do any Dharma Protector practice such as Palden Lhamo, Mahakala, Kalarupa, Vaisravana, Setrap, any of these, it will have more effect. Why? They are called Dharma Protectors, not ego protectors. If they’re ego protectors, the more bad things you do, the more they help you. Since they’re Dharma Protectors, if you do bad things, you got bad motive, you got bad action and you have bad intent, they cannot help you no matter how many pujas you do. You can sit in the monastery, hit the drum and chant to them for 10 years “please help me get more money so I can use people. Please help me get more money so I can get girls. Please help me get more things so I can take advantage of people” – you can hit the drum all you want, nothing will happen. Nothing. Nothing at all will happen. Why? They’re Dharma Protectors, they’re there to protect you to do good things, not bad things. Alright?
So if you go to Setrap’s puja every week, good for you. The monks do Setrap puja every single day in the monastery. Good for you but do it all the way. Don’t do one part and don’t do the other part. For example, if you know how to drive but your eyes are closed, you’re going to have an accident. Simple. If your eyes are open, you know how to drive, it’s raining hard, you don’t put the windshield wipers, you’re going to have an accident. So you don’t do two…one out of three, two out of three and then don’t get results. You have to do three out of three. Similarly, effort means you don’t give up. You don’t just give up and say, “Oh I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I give up” and then forget, ignore everybody. Why? If you give up, you don’t apply effort, your karma turns to this. Simple. When your karma turns to this, if you’re having one car accident per month, you might have two, you might have three or you might have one big one, your legs are crushed. You don’t know. Your karma will come back.
Hence do your sadhana. If you’re doing the sadhana of Lama Tsongkhapa everyday, you’re perfect unless your Guru has advised something else. Kindness. Remembering the kindness of others and showing kindness to other people. If you don’t know how to show kindness to other people, if you don’t know how to do kindness, do one of the Dharma works. We have 12 departments now. We have 12 departments in Kechara House that are growing and growing and growing. You can join one of the departments, volunteer in one of the departments or do one of the departments. Why? Because the departments are set up to suit one of your needs. That you can manifest your spirituality through a type of work. So join one of the departments.
White karma will lead to arriving at your destination. That could be fulfilling your business aspirations. Fulfilling your family aspirations. Fulfilling your temporary aspirations. It will be fulfilled. Then that will lead to more rebirths in good, positive situations. That will again lead to either control, liberation or nirvana. That is the path set out by your good karma.
Lastly, neutral karma. Neutral karma is not negative, not positive but can be become negative. Example, giving money to the poor can be positive, negative and neutral. If you give because you don’t care, or you give this way: you’re walking down the street, 10 dollars fall out, you’re too lazy to pick up, someone take it, “okay take it loh, whatever” – neutral. All neutral. The person got the money, the poor person got the money, you didn’t stop it. Neutral. But you didn’t have intent. Okay? You see their suffering, you see their problems and you want to give some relief, you offer 10 dollars. Good karma. Your friends are watching you or in KSK, you go there to give food to other people, maybe there is a pretty girl you want. Maybe there is a pretty boy you want. And for some of you, a pretty uncle, I’ve heard it all. And maybe there’s a pretty uncle that you want…pretty aunty ah? Nooo, let’s not go too far, no. Okay maybe there’s a pretty girl you want, there’s a pretty boy you want, a pretty aunty you want so you want to show them how holy you are. You want to show them how good you are. You want to show them how pure you are. You want to show them how generous you are so while the pretty girl is here, and the pretty boy is here and the pretty uncle is standing there, you give 10 dollars. And when you give the 10 dollars, the guy is taking the money…(addressing Tat Ming) here, you don’t let go, hold it. He’s taking the…don’t let go, he’s taking the money…don’t let go lah! Oh! Grab it! And you’re like, (wide grin on face), it’s taking you a long time to give. He’s trying to grab and you don’t let go, why? Somebody’s taking a photo of you so you want to look good. Then it’s bad karma. Imagine some people do charity work, imagine some people go to a Dharma centre, imagine some people go for meditation classes to get pretty girls and pretty boys. Imagine there are some people like that. Do you know the type of karma they collect? They become an animal in their future life. For not one life, many lifetimes. Many. Oh yes there are people like that. “I think I’ll go…I think I’ll go to KH because that centre only have retirees. KH got pretty people, nice people, pretty girls, pretty boys, the lama’s very good-looking. Yes let’s go there!”
When I said that I’m good-looking, why did the little monkeys laugh so loud, ah? Okay never mind. Even monkeys can laugh. Come to Manjushri Kids Class…hahaha (imitates caning someone) Okay now, neutral karma or can become black karma, based on what? Karma can become good, neutral or positive based on what? Patsy?
Correct. (imitates Patsy mumbling) Mmmmmmm…louder! Don’t be afraid, you’ve been in Dharma for 20 years, come on, louder! Motivation yes, motivation. Did you see Patsy? “Based on what?” She’s like “Mmmmmmm-motivation”…”Yah!” then she’s like, “Phew!” Hahaha
Okay from neutral it goes to what? It results in regret, in death, in bitterness, sickness, unhappiness, loss of chances. Again, same as this. This one will lead to what? Scroll down. Continuous states of unpleasant rebirths, unpleasant experiences, not meeting the Dharma, practising or…not meeting the Dharma, practices or teachings, having wrong view, negative view, habituations. Up.
Hence human, god, demi-god, hell, spirit, animal – these two karmas revolve. The negative karma, the neutral karma results in this. This one results in samsara. So these two lines – you don’t see the black line, you see these two lines, the blue and the red – representing negative karma, neutral karma that can turn to negative, and it goes round and round and round. Non-stop.
You are here. Not the guy next to you. Not the guy in front of you. You…are here. Whether it is negative karma, good karma, positive karma, neutral karma opening up that day, this is your day huh? Depends on your motivation. Your good motivation depends on study and knowledge, practice, habituation, wisdom. Wisdom leads to good motivation. Good motivation and wisdom leads to good karma so that day when you wake up, the karma that you have dormant will be triggered by your motivation. Okay? The karma that’s triggered that day will be by your motivation.
Now. The black karma can trigger that day, you can have an accident, you can break up, you can do drugs again, you can run away, you can fail in business, you can go and make someone unhappy, you can have an argument, you can fall, you can be sick – the negative karma will open that day. Or white karma opens that day. Or neutral karma. That day, any karma can open. Do you know why? Because we have had…according to Lord Buddha, we have had countless previous lives, thousands and thousands and tens of thousands. When you translate directly, trang ka mey ba, no count. Countless. In fact the word is ‘countless’ because there’s so many. Example, how many stars are there in the sky? You can’t count already, it’s beyond count. Beyond count. So you’ve had countless rebirths. Since you’ve had countless rebirths of going round, you will have different types of positive, negative and neutral karmas and these karmas open up every single day, according to how you have your motivation that day.
So hence if you’ve been always thinking how to cheat people, use people, how to criticise people, say negative things to people because that’s what you’ve been practising, when you wake up, you will think like that immediately so you will open up your negative karma. Your negative karma makes you do more negative things.
Okay? Listen carefully. Negative karma opening that day doesn’t necessarily mean that very day, something bad happens to you. Negative karma means that that day, you will continue doing negative karma until it builds up to something much, much bigger. Example, if you were to lose business, if you have a sponsor, you have a mother and father, or you have somebody…a business partner, that no matter how much you try, if you fail, they help you, while you work very hard while they are around, then if you fail they can still help you. But if you fail when they’re not around anymore – maybe they’re dead – then you just stay a failure. A failure.
So to fail is the same karma. To fail is the same situation but when you fail, timing, also makes a difference in how much problems we create for ourselves. So hence, if that day we engage in negative action and negative karma, that day if we engage in negative karma, maybe that very day there is no obvious negative result. But it builds up. It builds up so it can come to you in a big fat surprise. Big fat surprise. So not experiencing anything that day should not give you courage to do negative things that day. And doing positive things that day should not discourage you not to continue doing your positive actions. Why?
Because that day, you may not be experiencing a direct positive result but it can lead to something of a big bang. A big bang, positive result. So therefore don’t judge things by that day and don’t become discouraged, or give up, or don’t want to do – don’t do that. Why? The results can only come to you, no matter what you think. Whether you believe in a god, whether you believe in a Buddha, whether you’re Hindu, whether you’re Christian, you’re Sikh or you’re Jewish or you’re Buddhist, it doesn’t matter. But one thing is for sure in this world, in this universe, is that whatever you do, eventually it will come back to you. You can call that karma, you can call that a deity controlling you, you can call that God – you can call that whatever you want, it doesn’t really matter. One day, those things will come back to you no matter how comfortable you are. That coming back to you can be loneliness, it can be bitterness, it can be no friends, loss in business, old age, sickness or accidents – it will come back. No way to avoid.
So hence, the chart will be given to all of you, you take it back and study. You take it back and take a good look at it. You came here today…you came here today to learn something, to understand something. You came here for that. So this is what I’m doing for you. I’m explaining to you in very simplistic terms, simplistic terms, the workings of karma and how they are activated. Very simplistic terms. It’s much more complicated than that but it is not necessary for all of you.
So I thought I would share that with you because today is the holy of holy days, for us Buddhists, Lama Tsongkhapa’s Day, the holy of holiest. And I, in fact, wish very much in the future that when we have built TKL, we will have yearly huge Lama Tsongkhapa festivals for everybody to come and celebrate. To celebrate their mother, to celebrate their father, to celebrate themselves, to celebrate their successes, to celebrate to world peace, to celebrate towards spirituality, not necessarily Buddhism. Not necessarily.
Tsem Rinpoche
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Thank you Rinpoche for this profound teachings explaining on karma . By understanding, we can make a change, anything can happen today because tomorrow is not promised. Karma is unforgiving and always gets payback. I do believe in karma that what we’re doing or putting out is going to come back at some point . Nothings happen by chance,
By fate , we creates our own fate by our actions. Set a good motivation to learn, practice Dharma , benefiting others more than ourselves , living a meaningful life with no regrets.
A good teachings thanks again with folded hands.
It was great explanation and perfect teaching of Tsem Rinpoche. I’m very glad to learn and understand something closer about dharma practice and how do karma are activated.
Thank you for the sharing this meaningful article .
We need to be extremely careful in our life, All the things that we do or done for the purpose of this life are eventually connect to everyone and to the well being of others. As a human body, we can do something meaningful and to make sure that we do our dharma practice now, while we are full of life, healthy, and able to practice.
Our birth is based on our karma, for good deed it will extremely fortunate, but the bad karma attaining a human life again wont’s be easy. Attain a human life is extremely fortunate, and since we have this good fortune, we need to use it for the purpose of helping ourselves and others and don’t leave this life empty-handed. Stay positive to see a difference in our mind, no one is perfect at our current state but perfection is not impossible as shown by the Buddha.
Very clear explanation on karma. I do not know, understand much about karma and mind stream and how it works till I learn and practice Dharma. For beginners it’s a good to know and I still have plenty to learn. Everything we do in this life has a profound impact on our future. Whatever we do good and bad actions will come back to us at some point. If we treat those around us kindly, we sow the seeds for having many loving and caring people in our life. As such, our thoughts, words, and actions continuously create karma in every minute of our existence. A good article to remind me how important it is to be a part of creating a better world not only for myself but for others as well. Karma exist what goes around does come around.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this powerful teachings.
Woah. I shall proceed to share my honest thoughts. Also, thank you Pastor Shin, for sharing this. Anyone who reads this, please feel free to correct me/add new observations.
Firstly, This is the kind of class I always wanted to attend but never could. Not because I enjoyed it, but because how important it is for everyone, especially children to be made aware of this.The two main things I got out of this were namely – the vitality of INTENT, and the courage to overcome the nastiest facets of your own personality. It’s sort of like ripping you a new one all the time, but then again, you have to AND sincerely want to or the mold ( of samsara) will continue to cover you.
For some reason a scene from one of my fave authors – C.S Lewis’s book – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia) comes to mind. In that scene, the rude and bratty and downright unpleasant Eustace is transformed into a dragon (seen as negative-beastly) due to a curse. Instead of being mean and hating, him, (like he had been to them), his cousins Edmund and Lucy (who were more enlightened) treated him with compassion and understanding – which lead to a marked change in his attitude, ultimately helping him ‘understand’ his past mistakes and develop compassion. In the end, after observing his humility, Aslan (guru) then proceeds to rip of the skin of the beast off of him, uncovering the boy hidden deep beneath, safe and secure.
A Lama, or any great spiritual teacher is so very vital. They have to ability to correct delusions, illusions and deliver a sharp AND timely reality check. The thing is, in the life outside of the sangha, the lack of knowledge is the greatest obstacle. Many people are lead astray so very easily in the name of fake gurus, and other so-called experts. Lack of knowledge then leads to more oppression, suppression, repression, delusion and ultimately hatred and intentional ignorance.
I have to admit, I personally felt a bit shaken, since I have not exactly been a ‘saintly’ person where my own problematic side concerned, and those arose out of anger/ ignorance and negativity. But, the point is to change and desire positive change, right? So if you try to sugarcoat/blame it on what the circumstances were you won’t be able to chance at all as you are deluding yourself again.
Karma arises from intent, and that I fully believe in.
I mean, of course there are lives, but if you become aware (even if a little) – then you should not waste time. I myself wasted so much time, did wrong things and yes even if I deeply regret those things, it won’t change the past. The only way to make reparations is to change the present and sow positive seeds for the future. Upon watching this and another teaching of his Eminence, I found that aside from mantras, visualizing healing your parents, your friends and even your enemies helps even more. Visualizing taking their problems, and negativity, and sincerely wanting to carry it for them. I mean, if you have bad stuff happen to you , that means it was, ultimately your fault. So, only you can fix it.
Needless to say the intent was pure.(LOL)
Cos, you can do this the hard way…or the REAL hard way. In the end, we are, after all responsible for our own salvation.
Sorry for the long commentary. I am one of ‘must review’ people. Please feel free to add on!
Thankyou Your Eminence for this brain and soul nutrition! I shall try my best to spread and practice this.
Such a profound teaching on Karma. Simple to understand and easy to follow. Great to know and understand about karma. We are no longer the puppet of our karma. It is no longer what the old people used to say, “it’s all fated, u can’t run away nor change but accept.” Or “this this GOD’s will..”
Many years ago, I nearly became the victim of karma. I was very very fortunate to meet my Guru, Tsem Rinpoche. He gave me dharma and His dharma protector Dorje Shugden. I slowly understand what’s life. Knowledge is power and love is strength. I walked away from depression and revenge. Rinpoche made me believe I can change and be better if I wanted to. I don’t have to stuck at that point helplessly and bitter by myself. I can choose to be the light.
By getting older and stepping nearer to death, still working hard to change some of my bad habits. When facing some disturb situation, still not easy to control my emotion and react stupidly. Oops! But never give up myself. If my Guru have confidence in me why do I giving up myself? Illogical. Failure and obstacles is the classroom of life. Without them how can we improve to become perfect? Be truth to yourself if not it’s hard to change.
Waking up in the morning being happy and thinking positively, making sure we are on the right track, making our day filled with love and care to others, doing the right thing and etc, at the end of the day we going to sleep happily. Wake up with dharma and go to sleep with dharma. How beautiful and peaceful. If not why are we here?
Thanks Rinpoche for this teaching explained on karma.
We can change our karma, if not why Buddha teaches Buddhism. By understanding this, I see hope in samsara that things not staying stagnant, but we can make a change by setting the motivation right.
Every action comes from motivation, good motivation leads to good actions leads to good effects. It really depends on what seeds we plant. We must understand Dharma well to set good motivations that eventually benefit ourselves and others for now and future life.
Thank you.
This is a very good teaching on karma by Rinpoche which explained in a simplistic way. Many might misunderstood karma as fate, and as it’s something not going to change, you are born like this and you will definitely end up like this. In fact karma is not something carved in the stone as explained by Rinpoche. Even you started your day with not so good motivation but you still can change the path and not ending up with doing all bad things, accumulating more negative karma. There are ways to change it, to mend it and turn everything around.
With study, comes knowledge, applying the knowledge and making it into good habituation and we are translating them into wisdom – as explained by Rinpoche. With the knowledge of karma, and methods to turn things around, we know how to adjust our motivation, and manage to choose the right path, keep ourselves away from collecting more bad karma and creating more sufferings for ourselves.
Thank you very much Rinpoche teaching about Karma. Many of people believe in Karma but don’t really understand how it works and Rinpoche teaching gives us a good start.
The point that really caught my attention is that we are able to change karma at any moment, even by setting our positive motivation and thought right at the beginning for the day is important. I use to think that we are stuck with karma that I have done and cannot be changed.
Thank you very much Rinpoche for sharing this important article and video.
This is such an important teaching on karma and how motivations play the main role of
establishing which karma will be activated or created. I would say the only karma we should be gaining is the good as even the neutral will develop into black karma due to complacency and the force of our self serving tendencies/habituations. It is good to learn that no matter what negative karma had been activated, we are able to change the course with the many avenues available to us, ie. pujas, putting the effort into practicing on advices received or purification methods, etc. In knowing about karma, we are able to understand better and with good practice able to control the course of our lives. The ultimate concern at our present times is to gain the good rebirth to continue our practice in perfect conditions. Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor David for this teaching which quite clearly explains the 3 paths of karma that affects our lives every second of the day. One thing to note is that we should all stick to one Guru, one centre as we are able to focus on perfecting our practices rather than spend the time to relearn the ways of new Gurus or centres. Nothing can be gained without letting go of our ego and I don’t think a true Guru who cares would allow us to dwell within the comforts of our ego. So the real decision is to treat our Guru as Buddha, the Great Teacher to be trusted fully or to enjoy giving in to our ego and take advantage of our Guru’s love to fail ourselves.
Easily we start our day fast as we need to rush to work or somewhere. But, it is important to make our day meaningful to take the time and set a motivation to be of benefit to others.
With study, practice and habituation, wisdom will arise and to change our focus from selfish actions as well as negative thinking to higher thinking, motivation and focussing out for others.
As Pastor Henry said yesterday in our discussion, awareness in day to day things will help us with this a lot.
Thank you very much for this very helpful teaching.
Everyday in our life, the moment we open our eyes in the morning, we are the one who make the decision on whether we want to create negative, positive or negative karma, this is such a powerful teaching where Rinpoche explains very clearly that what type of karma leads to where.
Read through this article again make me more aware how our karma operate and creating more negative karma to lead us more suffering in future. The karma chat rinpoche had showed is fantastic way to reading through daily for reminding us our practice and keep our motivation correct. Is important to understand well and keep in daily practice since we are creating negative action from our body, speech and mind.
Be mindful and notice what is going on when negative karma manisfest and how we react toward by not creating more negative karma. Consitant keep up practice to gain wisdom to see through it and cut down the negstive karma chain. Thank you for Rinpoche is powerful teaching and until now it help me a lot when i experience my own negative manifest and keep reminding myself to bulp up and not falling to the negative habitualation which create more negative karma.
这篇文章你可以随时随地反复阅读，如何掌控你的命运及命运改变是当你能把篇文章中所说实践这生活中。反复阅读让你更能熟悉深刻记住去溶入生命里。有如文章一开始说到“有时佛法讲座可能会触及一些敏感或内心深处我们，但不要停留在肤浅的含义和要求的变化，但要想得更深，佛法不是一种恐惧或判断自己, 而是内在的沉思”。
在这个教学中说到“我所做的一切都归结于选择。我生命中的每一个时刻都是一种选择“，所以请不要抱怨，今天的你是你过去的选择，所谓” 生命的掌控“就是如止。我非常喜欢仁波切这个教学，让自己很有正能量.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing Dharma teaching.
All this while, my thoughts is that knowledge is power. From knowledge I will gain wisdom. After watching Rinpoche’s video, found out it was more than that. Having knowledge is good but not practicing and cultivate into habits, I won’t get anything. What I think for self improvement is to have imprint good motivation in our mind, be persistent in our practice and cultivate it as habit that may help us transform our mind. When our mind transform, we will regain consciousness and awareness. When there awareness in our mind, we could subdue our laziness, selfishness.
I’m truly grateful I could have a chance to learn, understand Dharma, a little merit or faith to know Kecharian friends, brothers, sisters and lastly H. E Tsem Rinpoche in this life. ?
Rinpoche worded and drafted the Karma chart so nicely. It is easy to understand but it is hard to follow through in reality. Having said that it should not mean we cannot follow and make it as an excuse we can’t do it due to our own heavy karma because we make the choices everyday and imagine we collect negative karma everyday and compound on it everyday or even worse every situation of the day? It will be unthinkable.
The key here is knowledge and it has to come with practicing all the time what we already learnt so that it becomes an eventual habituation that will form what we know as wisdom. Without practising it will mean this whole teaching will just be some medicine that is readily available to the sick person but he just won’t take it in.
Everyone can do the same thing, but if everyone hold different motivation of doing the thing, then there will be different consequences. The motivation is the pillar of our doings, whether we’re going to do it all the way and consistently until success / give up easily when obstacles appear. Hence, it is essential for all of us to set a motivation before doing anything.
Is easy to understand about A Teaching on Karma & Mindstream, Thank You Rinpoche for simplified to the topic. The motivation of doing Dharma works is very important, and to received a Dharma teachings from Guru, we must apply it to actions and practice it daily.
If anyone wanted to know more details about Karma, i highly recommended another article to read : https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-wheel-of-sharp-weapons.html
It is so rewarding to re visit this article and have the teaching refreshed in my mind and to put into practice to improve myself instead of just reading, discussing, commenting and then say I have the knowledge. Like Rinpoche says, knowledge has to translate into practices which in turn become experiences, habits and eventually become wisdom. Else everything is just a theory.
Thank you Rinpoche for an important teaching.
Before, I wasted so much time doing negative habituations with my body, speech and mind that it makes me cringe every time I think of it now. But I believe its never too late. I would rather go through what I did and learn now than wasting my whole life creating more negative habituations and more negative karma. Its definitely my own doing that led me to where I was. Sadly I never had the wisdom to think of it. But the moment I came across Rinpoche’s teachings, I knew straight away He is the one who can help me! Rinpoche’s teachings helped me a lot when I first got to know about it and I am thankful I had that little karma/merits to meet Him in this life. My views and my thoughts changed for the better and I know it is due to the kindness and love of my Guru, who gave some much time and effort to teach us Dharma.
I used to hear from people saying anything negative happened to them is because of their negative karma. Some will just do nothing and stuck there and just blame it to their negative karma as if like it got nothing to do with them. With Rinpoche clear explanation if give a guide of what we can do and in fact is what we should do to make a positive change in our life.
Buddhism make a logic point that what happened to us now is due to our doing from previous time but since we believe this point mean what we are doing now will effect or future and this logic give us a great explanation that we can change our future by doing something good/beneficial now.
Rinpoche also mentioned about protector practice that can help us to eliminate our inner and outer obstacle to support us to do work that beneficial to others. This protector practice is very important for us at this time to protect us from doing good things.
Effort play an important role for us to make a change to learn, practice, create positive habituation and eventually we are automatically doing the right thing naturally.
Thank you Rinpoche for this powerful teaching.
It is not possible for me to join Pastor Henry and team for tonight’s Dharma study in KFR as I have agreed to be in KH Gompa to find ways to reconnect with KH members to initiate larger participation in our weekly pujas. Knowing how important it is for us to always refresh and relearn on the cause and effects of karma in our life, I was going to make efforts to participate in the Dharma sharing as much as I can.
Setting such a motivation, I took time to read this article and participate off line.
My negative karma of laziness could have been triggered to open for today. But decided against my negative karma to open, I now participate in sharing my thoughts.
As always, Rinpoche is correct and motivation correctly set can avert negative karma controlling us.
How our karma is to be on a daily basis is by choice. I hope to set good motivation daily so that I can live with enhancing positive karma and suppressing my negative karma so that in this life I can be at peace and have my space and people in it be happy and peaceful.
Karma is powerful when we study and make efforts to do right, then our karma can be purified. Practice into a good habituation is the key.
Thank you Rinpoche for the teaching on Karma. Through this teaching, I know the types of karma. There are negative karma, good karma and neutral karma. And they are all arise from our motivation. And, now I know how motivation can become habitual. Actually our mind plays the very important role in all the actions we do. Our whole body is controlled by our mind. That’s why like Rinpoche always emphasize, mind transformation is very important, especially in our spiritual path. Now I know more about our mindstream, motivation, and our karma. In every second, we should try hard to control our monkey mind. In a split second, a slightly wrong thinking or wrong motivation, it will lead us to our negative karma. Thank you again Rinpoche. With folded palms _/\_
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for your sharing.
The teaching make me understand that karma is the action from our body, speech and mind. What kind of karma created will depend on our motivation. A pure and good motivation to benefits other will accumulate good karma.
Anything that happening on us, is due to our own karma, not because of what others do. If we do not have the karma to be harmed, no one can harm us. Therefore, we need to avoid accumulation of negative karma which lead to more suffering and pain.
For us not to have negative karma, there are many things we can do to overcome it. The karma chart is like a technical guide to us on how the system work, it clearly spell out the methods how to achieve what we want.
Dear Tsem Rinpoche,
You have given a very interesting thought-provoking talk on today’s topic which you have delivered in a very straight forward and comprehensive manner.At least I can more or less differentiate between the positive, negative and neutral karmas.
Thank you HE Pinpoche and we look forward to more of this teaching.
Dear Rinpoche,
Last Sunday there was a discussion session based on Rinpoche’s teaching of Mind and Lama Tsongkapa in KISG. It was enlightening on the aspect of mind, karma and how we can overcome all of life’s samsara. While listening to Rinpoche talking l realised that there is still a a lot to learn and life is so short. So l was glad to be there. With Rinpoche’s blessings today, another Sunday we have another session on Karma and Your Mindstream. So this is another teaching that teaches us how not to create more bad karma. It also teaches us the way out of our sufferings.
Wai Meng and team is very patient in guiding us beginners through Rinoche’s mind and karma talk. Clearing doubts and to understand more.
Thank you Rinpochefor your blessings, compassion and may Rinpoche live long to give us more dharma teachings. ???
Dear Glian,
Thank you for your comment and letting us know about activities in Kechara Ipoh Study Group. I rejoice that Wai Meng and the team are doing a great job sharing Rinpoche’s teachings with everyone there.
I’ve known Wai Meng for many years, and he was the one who introduced me to H.E. Tsem Rinpoche 10 years ago. He is very patient and genuinely wants people to benefit from the Dharma, so he is always enthusiastic to share Rinpoche’s teachings with others.
Attached here is the karma chart to share with you. All the best in your Dharma learning.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for giving us a clear view of teaching on karma and mindstream. Based on my understanding from this teaching, there is no way we can ignore the effects of our actions, thought and speech. Each action, each thought and each speech will lead us to a positive end result or a negative condition after we have departed from this life. We are not in control of our own past karma but we can start now to begin with a good motivation each time we wake up early in the morning, engage more in positive and Dharma activities to collect merits and purify our bad karma, and continue to share of what we have learnt in Dharma so that our loved ones too can learn on this beneficial teachings and able to gain good rebirth in their next lifetime, gain attainments and liberation from samsara or achieve enlightenment and Buddhahood which can help more sentient beings.
Thank you Rinpoche and may Rinpoche lives long and stay in good health to turn the wheel of Dharma.
With folded hands,
kin hoe
Dear Kin Hoe,
Nice to see you here. Thank you for doing a good job in Kechara Ipoh Study Group.
Rinpoche has kindly create this simple karma chart, and explained the workings of karma and how they are activated in a very simple way for all of us to understand. How fortunate we are that these teachings are now available online for everyone to watch again and again 🙂
Here are 2 videos related to karma that you may be interested to watch:
1. Karma & its Relations to Vows (1 of 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISEEpZrg4Ls
2. Karma & its Relations to Vows (2 of 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NJkuR3pk6Q
Thank you Pastor Shin Tan for your kind reply and sharing for more Dharma teachings about karma with us. We are grateful and fortunate to be able to access into Rinpoche’s blog and learn many teachings in a very convenient way through the articles and videos in Rinpoche’s blog.
Thank you very much to rinpoche for the clear explaination about karma.
Thanks for sharing this powerful teaching, Rinpoche. Much appreciated and certainly looking forward to learning many more.
My gratitude for sharing so generously. Thanks again.
Thank you Rinpoche, for making a karma chart for all of us. It is a simple way for us to understand, what happens if have a positive, negative or neutral thought at the start of that day, and what it can lead to, it is not the end of the world if we have a negative thought, there are actions we can, do so we do not achieve negative results.
Thank you Wai Meng for sharing Rinpoche’s teachings with many, especially the Kechara Ipoh Study Group (KISG). I rejoice that you are always sharing the Dharma with many patiently and with much enthusiasm, just like how you would take much time out to share with me when I was new in Kechara. Please keep up the good work 🙂
This is a very good short teaching video from Tsem Rinpoche about Karma. Many of us don’t really know how karma works, and this video gives us the beginners a head start.
To me, what is important points about this teaching video is that we are able to change the karma at any moment. Many of us blame karma and say “we are stuck”, but the fact is that we have the power change. Actually, if karma cannot be changed, then why do we even bother to practice?
Another thing I like about this video is how Rinpoche explains how we develop our motivation: Through study/knowledge, we will do our practice, and with enough practice, it will turn into habituation. It then develop into wisdom and that will determine our motivation.
You can also download this “Karma Chart” here: http://www.kechara.com/archive/upload/editor/image/house/articles/KarmaChartEnglish.pdf
This teaching reminded me again of the simplicity of the solution i.e. to take charge. When faced with situations where are taken to be difficult and uncomfortable, it is so easy for me to lose sight of the fact that the power is actually in my hand to get out of whatever projected “dilemmas” at hand. It also reminded me that is it not a “safer” option to not take actions when in doubt of what to do as it is still perpetuating the negativity and thus still harming myself. As everything is a choice, in every situation there is a way to move forward and as “bad” or as “insurmountable” the situation appears to be, it can either be my personal “hell” driving me to spiral down or it can be a chance for me to put efforts to turn it around. Both instances already respectively take up my attention as well as energy and demand effort (regardless of whether effort is expanded consciously or as product of knee jerk reaction) but yield extremely opposite effect. Thus, it would be more logical to opt for changing my “difficult” circumstances by changing my thoughts to focus on the good and positive ones instead of wallowing in the negativity and the sense of helplessness and sink lower.
Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching and the timely reminder that it really is just up to us whether we want to choose the right path or not.
When things are just so good, it is not really a good sign, as one is hurtling towards the exhaustion of one’s good karma. Most people find suffering, humbling, some find it an annoyance, but suffering is a useful tool. It wakes us up from our stupor of complacency and see where we are and whether our current know how can get us out of this unpleasant situation.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for this refresher course on Karma. I remembered the first time I heard Rinpoche teach on Karma, it was during a Liaison meeting and it was so clear and empowering that a group of us copied Rinpoche’s diagram on the white board and produced the chart.
Understanding Karma is the most important essence of Buddhism and from there it is practice of dealing with our numerous kinds of Karma that will lead us to liberation and control over our life in a virtuous manner.
Can never be tired of Rinpoche’s teaching on Karma. Thank you Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the article with us once again. By watching Rinpohce’s video again, I compare myself at that time and today, Have my everyday motivation been changed. Karma starts when our mind starts functioning. That means no beginning no end. It is more on our mind instead of an action. Knowledge from a pure lineage practice and Guru like H.E Tsem Rinpoche is very important. The correct teachings will lead us to the correct path. This teaching gave me a direct antidote man years back. From wake up and go to sleep with a motivation of making money to wake up to go to sleep with a motivation of learning and doing more Dharma. My life has been living meaningfully, peacefully, happily and less drama. So Knowing is not enough, we need to do it. We need to put Rinpoche’s teaching into our mind to process and then proceed. Do it even though you don’t understand fully now but along the way when we learn more and pray more it will become part of us because when we do that we are gaining merits and merits can purify karma. We will improve until one day we can have a mind of Bodhichitta hence merits just over flow.
Thankyou Tsem Rinpoche & your Team 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the topic of Karma and how it is works in a simplicity for us to understand. With numberless of rebirth and rebirth in this samsara, we have collected numberless of negative karma with hoping for purifications or hoping it will not be ripen although it will come one day. With such, we should have good motivations on daily basis to create positive results and able to benefit others and with this and in other way around, able to purify the negative karma.
I really marvel at Tsem Rinpoche for using a simplistic way to describe the workings of karma for laypersons like me. Easy to understand. He also mixes it with humour. Surface readings may look easy and simple but when you digest and contemplate then deeper meanings will surface. This is WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE.
The other day, one of many, I awoke feeling like Ya there was a not so great karmic seed ‘a ripening right before my eyes and I remembered this profound teaching and ‘how to create positive actions,’ of course with Dharma Activity and during the day of meditation/contemplation i saw and felt the results ~ somehow it became very transparent and visible how that activity averted more accumulations and helped very much. Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching, Much Love and Care and Appreciation,
Oya
There are 3 paths; i.e. negative, positive or neutral, that we can choose from at every moment. The choice we make depends on our motivations. And our motivation depends on wisdom, habituation, practice, knowledge. Once we make a decision and take action, it will trigger our dormant karma that brings about what lies dormant for many years.
With this understanding, we must realize that we should make an EFFORT to practice good (e.g. dharma work, guru devotion), so that it becomes positive habituation; from positive habituation we gain WISDOM to deal with any situation and make the correct choice towards positive path.
Effort and Wisdom are part of the 6 Paramitas. Hence it is important for us to practice all the 6 Paramitas so that we will not unwittedly choose the negative path and open up negative karma.
Thank You Rinpoche for the profound teaching.
I came into dharma (Kechara) wanting to find answers to so-called mishaps in my life. And I found the answer right in this teaching. Everything that happened, is happening, and will happen to me is the doing of me and me alone. There is no need to find answers on someone else, or on the circumstances, opportunities, political parties, skin color, etc. It is me, my selfish ego and self-cherishing mind through countless rebirth of good and bad habituation / actions, that have led me to where I am today. The me today is the aggregation of all the good and bad that I had done. Therefore, Karma does not mean that we had done all bad and nothing good. It is not a reason for us to beat ourselves up and sink deeper and lower.
In fact, it is giving us the truth and showing us that there is hope. We can change our mishaps and turn things around. The correct motivation is extremely important in the deeds we do, as Rinpoche had pointed out many times; we should try our best to develop the altruistic motivation and not corrupt our good action / charity work with selfish motivations.
Thank you very much, Rinpoche for this clear and concise explanation of Karma. I am so fortunate to have came across this potent dharma teaching by Rinpoche, that slapped me out of samsaric delusion and to know that I am accountable for myself. And it pushed me to find the antitode, which is also available in Rinpoche’s teachings as well. Thank you so so much, Rinpoche.
Humbly and with folded palms,
Stella
感谢Rinpoche 的教诲与不间断的提醒。
如果我们没有接触佛法，我想我们每天都是活在恐惧之下。因为，我们每天都担心这个，忧心那个。其实，我们也不知道明天的“我”是否还能在这个世界继续活着。
我们要感恩，因为在这一生可以有机缘的接触佛法与得到Rinpoche 的开示。也因为我们的动机与好的发心，让我们的佛法知识慢慢的增长。也在无形中，培养了慈悲心，感受到其他众生的存在与痛苦。我们也可从中所学到的东西分享给他人。
由于个人业力的因素，让我们有时真无能为力的去“扭转乾坤”。但起码可以安抚他们的心情或是成为他们的聆听者。
依止上师的教诲、忏悔以及勇于改变、放下自我、我执，其实反而会让我们得到更多，更平静。
# 偶一获得如此暇妙身，知其极为难得且义大，
昼夜六时恒思取心要，持续无间生起祈加持。#
# 身命动摇犹如水中沫，速疾怀灭死亡当忆念，
命终之后如影随於形，黑白业果随逐於其后。#
就如《善功德之本》所提到的，我们是逃不过业力的纠缠。不要再等了，尽我们能力做好一切，累计更多功德来好抵销我们之前所造下的恶业。
Everyone wants happiness and nobody wants pain. When one person does not practice how to control his/her mind as well as the practice of loving kindness, patience, loving kindness and compassion, many people and other living beings will suffer due to the selfishness of thoughts and actions.
When we truly practice Dharma and control our mind, the harm received by all other sentient beings becomes less. We are responsible for every sentient being’s happiness and to reduce their suffering. We should help others to understand refuge and karma, the fundamentals of Buddhism and etc so that they are protected to take rebirth in the lower realms.
Dear Rinpoche,
I’m very appreciate in this teaching. Without this explanation I always think that karma only creates & accumulate from many previous life. Actually karma creates every single day & just the matter of fact that what kind of motivation we apply on it. Pretty scary for those who do not understand the karma. Human are born to be good I believe, it just that what you have learn along your growth path…thank you Rinpoche!
I often hear people mentioned about Karma and the way Rinpoche explained it sounded so easy to comprehend as well. But,when I read the Lamrim, it really scares me off…most of the times it makes me think twice about things that I am about to do/act. Besides that, one person’s karma may affect others as well. By the way, sometimes there are certain things such as laziness are very much habituated in my life.Hopefully, I can kick off bad habits and create good karma, so that I may benefit those who knows /close to me in this life.
Great teachings and is of great help to all sentient beings.
will love to read more about the teachings of Rinpoche.
It is very interesting to hear the Rimpoche’s teaching.
I love it and I need it like one who need sun when It is cold
You know how I remember this teaching? That it was one of the last teachings Rinpoche ever gave in the old Kechara House 1, and how mindblowing it was.
The overall message I received from this teaching is that everything I do comes down to choice. Every moment in my life is a choice, and another chance for me to dig myself out of samsara – I either choose to go down the negative path, the neutral path or the positive path. And neutral isn’t REALLY neutral because I can still create the causes for a negative rebirth by doing nothing at all (so in fact it is really just negative karma wearing different clothes)…
Anyway, mostly I like this teaching because of how much choice is emphasised. It is consistent to what Rinpoche has always taught, that just because we break our vows today, does not mean we have to keep breaking them tomorrow. Likewise, just because I messed up in this moment, doesn’t mean I cannot immediately put down my ego, correct myself, admit my mistake, change and move on. Why do I have to suffer the sins of my one-second-ago self?
Thank you Rinpoche giving so wonderful Dharma Teaching about Karma, i”ll keep remind myself. I believed “Karma” , whatever we do or we think now that we are create a “cause” and will get “effect” in future.
This inspiring me that i need set a good motivation before talking or doing something~ ” Hence human, god, demi-god, hell, spirit, animal – these two karmas revolve. The negative karma, the neutral karma results in this. This one results in samsara. So these two lines – you don’t see the black line, you see these two lines, the blue and the red – representing negative karma, neutral karma that can turn to negative, and it goes round and round and round. Non-stop. “
Our mind is like a cloudy sky, in essence clear and pure, but overcast by the clouds of delusions, such as hatred, greed and ignorance which form the thickest clouds. Though it is said that they are not an intrinsic part of the mind, and can be removed completely from our mind if we apply the appropiate purification methods in accordance with our Guru’s directives. Thank you, Rinpoche for your deep and profound teachings on Karma and Dharma, the “future”of which literally lies in our hands to decide what path we wish to choose to live our life!
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for this teaching. I hope I can apply the reasoning in my mind and can face all situations that I encountered in a more neutral state of mind.
Valentina
I think I will need to listen to this teaching over and over again. In fact, even the introduction itself is already a very powerful teaching.
I just can’t help but repeatedly read the first paragraph over and over again.
“Sometimes dharma talks may touch something sensitive or deep within us, but do not be stuck on the superficial meanings and changes required, but think deeper. Dharma is not something to fear or to judge yourself by but for inner contemplations. ”
I think the first sentence above is what Dharma attracts most people at their very first time. Human beings, although from different background, are actually very similar in what make them happy or sad or angry…It is all operated base on Eight Worldy Dharma except those attained masters. So, the Dharma which talks about ultimate truth will definitely touch one’s heart as long as this person is willing listen with an open heart.
Then when they start to learn more and practice, most people will start to feel fear and judging oneself or another using the Dharma. I do not think this is totally wrong, but if we keep on living our lives out of fear and using dharma as a judging criteria, then we are defeating the purpose of Dharma. We are not doing any help in spreading the Dharma, but pushing people away from the Dharma.
The ultimate purpose of Dharma is to benefit. How can we benefit people by spreading fear and being judgemental, even though we may not intentionally doing it? And by doing it “unintentionally” means that this is how our perception is. It shows that we are not contemplating enough.
“Dharma is not something to fear or to judge yourself by but for inner contemplations.”
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this with us. There is so much more in this article for us to learn from.
Thank you for the Dharma talk, very good to listen to on New Years Day. Wishing you and all of your students a very successful 2013.
Karma is an interesting topic, spent time to read about it again and again. Thank You Rinpoche for the teaching, very clear teaching. 🙂
Best Regards : Erickksiow
Thanks Rinpoche for the teaching, u make us more understand on Karma & Mindstream…
Many of us get to know more Cause and Effect, Karma and ect after join in Kechara. So it is on our hand how to do for our future, we always have choice…
If we do good onto others, good will come back to us. This is so true for we were always told that when we were children. In Buddhist dharma, this philosophy goes deeper. It allows us to contemplate on terms like how to “plant seeds” that can become fruits one day.
We have a choice to plant a good seed from the beginning to get great fruits. Another beauty is even if we haven’t planted any good seeds previously, it does not mean we cannot start now. There is still hope for us to change that decision. We are the ones to make the decision to either take the neutral, negative or finally, the positive path. If only we realize this and recognize it earlier before its too late.
Without knowing much about Dharma, karma is a fatalistic word. After having come to understand about Dharma, it is a relieve to know that Karma can be changed.
I have been told that the concept of Karma in Lamrim is more than just cause and effect . Without knowing a lot about on this topic, I feel that simply to know that what goes around comes around is sufficient to remind us to refrain from doing bad and do as much as possible good deeds. It is a matter of time as to when the seeds will sprout.
Furthermore, it is also so important to know that motivation is what makes the difference.
I enjoy reading this dharma learning very much. Thank you Rinpoche for your teaching and the one did this transcript.
I remember once, Rinpoche asked one of his students if he believed in karma. That student said immediately that he did – of course! As a Buddhist, isn’t this what we are taught that we must believe?
Rinpoche said to him, “If you did truly believe in karma, you would take ordination immediately. You would no longer be unhappy.”
This isn’t about turning everyone into monks or nuns, but about the fact that if we really did truly understand karma, we would make very different (vastly more beneficial) choices in our lives that would lead purely to the cessation of creating more negativities and to accumulating more virtue and benefit for others. That exchange between Rinpoche and this student really struck me because of the inherent aspect of CHOICE that is in every of our spiritual journeys – we choose whether we succeed or fail, we choose whether we remain happy or unhappy, we choose what happens in the very next instant of our lives. I remember now also that one of the largest teachings Rinpoche has always consistently given is in the importance of taking responsibility throughout our lives. This isn’t meant to become a burden but can actually become a very liberating truth – we are responsible for whatever situation we are in right now (whether it’s good or bad) but that can also mean that we are fully in control of the amazing, incredible, positive, happy things that can come about in the very next minute. We create and we determine just how happy each of our creations are.
The other thing about this teaching which I find extremely empowering is the fact that the very same action – no matter how mundane – can become something totally destructive, or something hugely beneficial, depending on our intentions behind the actions. So potentially, we can turn every moment of our day into something beneficial, first for ourselves and then to all the people around us. Our focus becomes more defined and we are able to change every situation into one of light and future benefit for others. So again, it is about the choices we make and the responsibility we take for our actions to create something positive for ourselves.
Really, no excuses now not to be a happy person!?
Rinpoche has also given another very profound teaching on “black” and “white” karma. This teaching was based around a very clearly drawn “map” of our lives which shows how we consciously make these choices at every moment of our lives, to either continue opening up the “black” negative karmas or to change the course of our lives to more “white” positive directions. The chart is available in KH and an explanation available here on this video (an explanation of the chart by David Lai): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-lPmIzbswE
Karma do exist and it is a very powerful word but at the same time, many people miss used this word. i believed in karma while i was very young as my mom always told me about giving in to others and let them win as karma will come one day and the people will realized what causes they have done.
Thank you Rinpoche for the wonderful teaching about Karma.
We must always create good cause and motivation in Dharma to clear our obstacle.
Karma can be scary if we are ignorant. But when you understand how Karma works and accept it exists as cause and effect, you will live a life with integrity and care. This alone will make your life simpler and filled with care in itself. Knowing that bad actions will cause bad consequences and that karma has no discrimination will make us think before we go hurt another person with our speech and actions.
The best part of this teaching is knowing that even when we sit around and do nothing we can be creating negative karma…interesting huh… why? we are wasting precious human life, our human life to benefit others…
Thank you for sharing this teaching. I find it very empowering because it tells me that the choice is always in my hands. What i treasure about Rinpoche’s teachings is that it is straightforward, simple to understand and immediately applicable. We literally can change the way we make choices this very moment.
With the help of our Dharma Protector Lord Setrap, a practice which Rinpoche kindly brought from the illustrious Gaden Shartse Monastery, we are able to remove our obstacles to our Dharma practice and realisations on how to make the right decisions with the right motivations in order to achieve the right goals.
People often flippantly refer to karma as something fixed, like destiny, and it becomes an excuse for any thing negative which happens to us. What we should realise about karma is that instead of just explaining the result which we experience, we should create new causes so that we can create new results and effects.
Thank you for this timely reminder that our future is literally in our hands. It’s just up to us whether we want to choose the right path or not.
In this Dharma talk, Rinpoche shows that karma is not fixed. We are makers of our own destiny. The Buddha says that man creates everything. All our griefs, perils and misfortunes are of our own creation. We are the results of our good or bad actions from the past and since we ourselves brought them into being, we also have the power to overcome bad effects and cultivate good values, thus creating good karma. It is a matter of training one’s mind to be virtuous and avoid harmful behaviour, ultimately building up a huge store of merits to support spiritual practice. Rinpoche’s teaching makes it easy to understand how karma works. It is a roadmap that leads to spiritual development.
The word karma is now becoming a trend, it is very commonly heard and used this days, but how much do we really understand it is another thing. Cause and effect, you give what you get, the choice is all yours is basically “karma”.
Positive or negative results is what you get from the thoughts and actions we create. It is definitely not because a “God” put you here to suffer and is unfair. This is what I like about Buddhism. It actually gives explains to you how to solve your problems, how you yourself can change the situation around and it starts wil your thoughts and then actions.
Thank you Rinpoche for this very detailed explanation on karma, it is simple to understand yet very profound. It is empowering one with knowledge to counter our negative habits and if we truly believe and apply, it is as simple as A, B, C, we are all masters of our own destiny, we create our heaven or hell.
All of us go to Dharma centres because at the very base level we want to experience a better life, we want to improve things that are not going so well in our lives and we want our aspirations and wishes to be fulfilled. With this teaching we are being given the formula for success in our spiritual and secular lives here and it starts with something which is really within our means to manage.
At this stage we don’t need any deep scriptural knowledge to be aware of our own intentions and motivations and it is here that we must keep applying ourselves to always check and determine our thoughts instead of letting circumstances decide for us and we react instead. If we can keep doing this and make this our most basic practice the results will take care of themselves.
So often we find ourselves in situations where we dislike and we feel sucked into and stuck to it. And the more we try to wriggle our way out the more we are in it and that is because we have done everything but dislodge our mind from that particular negative state of thought that keeps generating the forces to keep us there, deep within our problems. It is a relief to learn that we can change our circumstances by changing our thoughts to good, positive, well-meaning and kind ones to open up our positive karma that is just lying in wait.
This post is based on a teaching that Rinpoche gave on Tsongkapa Day. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this reintroduction of your teaching on Karma and the Mindstream.
We have a choice of treading the white path of positive karma to peace, happiness, good rebirths to continue benefiting others as well as ascending to Kechara Paradise or the black path of negative karma that leads to pain, bitterness,regret, sickness and continuous rebirths in the Lower Realms of suffering and of not meeting the Dharma.
What determines whether the Path is the white one of positive karma or the black one of negative karma is our motivation. Good and pure motivations come from having studied the Dharma and obtained knowledge, which translates into positive habituations and wisdom that guide us in making the choice of the white path as opposed to the black path.
The heartening thought about Karma is that we can change our Karma. Even if we happen to have started down the Black Path of negative Karma, halfway through, we can change its course to a positive path(white) , via practices like Guru Devotion, regret and purification and mending our broken samaya with our Guru.
Dharma Protector practices, like that of Lord Setrap, also help us to clear our obstacles and to purify negative karma and collect merits.This, in turn,translates into joyous effort and enthusiasm as we direct ourselves towards the white path of positive karma.
The black path is characterized by hiding and denial and always blaming others, as well as by selfishness and laziness and unwillingness to change.
Hence, we must work towards being in control of our mind and our karma.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this teaching and it makes a good refresher for me. It is amazing how Rinpoche skillfully distills the Dharma from the Lamrim into an easy step-by-step guide towards spiritual transformation. And it all boils down to 3 different paths that we can take.
All that we know about spiritual transformation is embodied in this easy guide towards finding spiritual fulfillment, happiness and greater self-esteem. The thing is, we make a choice every moment when choose one of these 3 paths by our thoughts, action and speech. The idea of spiritual practice is to keep choosing the positive path and the harder it is, its a sign that we are taking the right path. Sometimes when we are fortunate, we have our Guru to show us the way. If we don’t, we have common sense and conscience that is tempered by the reading of the Lamrim and so forth or even the advice of spiritual friends, family and ordinary friends who were kind enough to tell us.