Donald, what's the title of this class? The Teachings of Karma. The Teachings of Karma, and does it say a colon, a course in Zen meditation after that? Yes. Okay. Okay, thank you. And then it says, With Reb Anderson. So... A course in Zen meditation, I thought I might say a little bit about meditation and Zen meditation. Because this is supposed to be a course in Zen meditation. I may eventually say something about with Reb Anderson, too. And then also the teachings of karma. They're all related. Someone said to me recently when I was in Sweden, what's meditation?

[01:12]

And I said, that question is meditation. Or I could also say it's a kind of meditation. What's meditation is a kind of meditation. Also, for example, what's thinking is a kind of meditation. And what's karma is a kind of meditation. And what am I is a kind of meditation. To say what meditation is, like meditation's what I just said, you know, I just said, what's meditation? That question is meditation. That statement is not meditation.

[02:16]

That statement is me talking. That statement is basically verbal karma. That statement or the basis of speaking that way is thinking, me thinking. and me telling you, me thinking, oh, that question, what is meditation, that's meditation. That's my thinking, but that's meditation. My thinking is thinking. Thinking is not meditation. But contemplating and wondering about thinking is meditation. And then also I thought I might say something about Zen. So I had this image of Zen is kind of like a lineage and also within the lineage that's called Zen there's many lineages.

[03:24]

So you could imagine many small streams running together into a big river. So many, you can imagine many small streams of Zen meditation running into a big river of Zen meditation. Or you could picture the big river of Zen meditation coming towards the sea like the Nile and then breaking into an estuary like the Nile does breaking into many small streams, going back into the ocean. So either many streams coming into the river called Zen, or the river called Zen breaking into small streams and back into the ocean, up into the sky, back into the river. And then you can also say that Zen is like one of the streams running into the huge river of the Buddha Dharma.

[04:28]

which includes Zen, all the different lineages of Zen, all the different lineages of all the different other kinds of Buddhadharma, running into the huge river of the Buddhadharma, or running back through many streams back into the ocean of Buddhadharma. Enlightened teaching. So I just, since this is called a course in Zen meditation in a sense, It's a particular lineage even within Zen, and Zen is a particular group of lineages within the huge number of lineages of the Buddhadharma. So in a sense this is a lineage coming to me, to you. This is a particular, a very particular little stream, very small little stream. which is coming from lots of past streams of Zen and other forms of Buddha Dharma, to me, to you.

[05:36]

And I also pictured that when one stream goes into the big river, you know, if you go to one part of the river, this one little part of the river says, you know, this is one little stream in the big river. So you hear this one little voice, One little message, one little expression of the huge causal process that's trying to convey the truth to the world. And I call it small, but small is also nice because you can get close to it. It's hard to get close to the huge river. You can swim around in it, but you sort of have to Maybe wait till it breaks out into a little river or find it before it goes into the big river so you can actually get in there and really like experience almost the fullness of one little stream. So I don't want this to be sectarian, but rather for you to understand that it's quite small, what we'll be doing here.

[06:50]

It's always that way. And if we understand that, we don't have to say, this is the tradition of the Buddha Dharma. It's just one little lineage. And all the lineages, at least this lineage, is about getting over this lineage. And this lineage is saying that really what all the lineages are about, all the lineages of all practice and all the lineages of all people, of all beings. Each being has a lineage too. You are a lineage. Each of you is a lineage, part of a huge ocean of lineages. And your lineage, according to this lineage, is really heading toward getting over your lineage and becoming free of the karmic patterns, the causal patterns which make you today, yesterday and tomorrow. Now, going back to this thing about meditation, what I said about asking what is meditation is a kind of meditation.

[08:09]

There's another kind of meditation, which is not so much about asking questions. It's more about settling into what you're experiencing right now. In a sense, you could have two kinds of meditation which work together. One is settling into what's happening, eventually settling in completely in what's happening so completely that nothing's being said. It's a kind of non-discursive silence. with what's happening. That's one kind of meditation. The other would be, in the midst of what's happening, ask the question, what's happening, or how is this coming to be?

[09:14]

So in this class, you know, studying karma is kind of like, it's more like the what's karma kind of meditation. What's karma? How does it work? What's the correct understanding of it? What's the good of studying karma? Is karma a problem? What? You know, these kinds of questions are part of studying karma. But there's another part of the practice which we actually emphasize at the beginning of the class where we're sitting quietly. But I hope you understand that the sitting quietly at the beginning of the class sets a... it is a opportunity but also even an opportunity and a symbol of the type of meditation which is a settling type. It's kind of a warm-up to the teaching.

[10:22]

It's a warm-up to the study and learning of the teaching. So you could say, yeah, but the meditation has two, you could say it has two parts. Like one part is settle yourself on yourself. The next part is get over yourself. That's a simple presentation of the practice. Settle the self on the self, get over the self. A little bit more complicated way is to say settle yourself on yourself, study yourself, get over yourself. And the more complicated way is to say settle yourself on yourself, learn about yourself, forget yourself, get over yourself, and then you'll be enlightened by everything that happens.

[11:35]

Okay? Settle the self in the self, learn the self, get over the self, and be enlightened by everything, by every experience, by whatever comes. So that's a four-part story of the path of enlightenment. Again, Settle your karma on your karma. Learn your karma. Get over your karma and be enlightened by everything. In order to be enlightened by everything, we have to get over our karma.

[12:45]

Or we're saying that if we can get over our karma, if we can become free of our karma, then we'll be able to hear the Dharma each moment. But in order to get over our karma, we have to learn it. And in order to learn it, the learning is facilitated if we settle into the experience or activity moment by moment. So, for example, when you're sitting, in a sense, there's the activity of sitting, of a person sitting. So you settle into the person sitting so completely that there's just a person sitting. No wandering thoughts. A non-wandering thoughts, silent person sitting. Settling the self in the self.

[13:49]

So that's the beginning of class, but we don't emphasize that so much in this class studying karma. We could have a class just on settling the self in the self. That would be a class in what's called settling the self in the self. That would be a class in developing concentration and tranquility. and pliancy of body and mind because the fruit of practicing nondiscursive silence in some posture, whatever posture you want to choose, but sitting is often used, the fruit of sitting in nondiscursive silence is physical and mental pliancy and buoyancy and brightness and concentration and flexibility. So we could have a class just on that. And we have had classes here just on that. Then, based on that, we study our activity.

[14:54]

And activity and self, action and self, are almost synonymous. Okay, so again, so here in this thing we have... Settle the self in the self, and then to learn the Buddha way is to learn the self. And to learn the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. Observe and settle your karma on your karma. Observe your activity, your mental activity, your physical posture activity, and your vocal activity. These are the three kinds of activity. Observe and settle into them. Then, now, you're ready to learn the Buddha way, which is to learn your karma.

[16:01]

And to learn your karma comes by exhaustively studying the karma. so exhaustedly studying that you actually get over it, forget it. And then again, once again, I say you're able to be enlightened by hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting, thinking. Then whatever arises in your experience can be awakening. So I'll stop there and ask if you have any questions so far. Yes? Lynn? When you say study your karma, can you get over it? Can you explain how you get over it? Yes, by studying, by learning it. That's how you get over it. You don't get over it by what? You don't really get over it by trying to get over it. You get over it by studying, not being over it.

[17:07]

So you've got plenty of not being over it, right? Learn that. Learn how you're not over your karma. And if you exhaustively study how you're not over your karma, you will come to the place at the end of not being over your karma is exactly where you're over your karma. Is that because if you just keep watching your mistakes, those people... Watching your mistakes? You start, and you let go of it because it's so dumb? You let go of it because it's so dumb? Well, not really. I mean, it's so dumb as part of your karma that you'd be studying and learning that you think what you're doing is dumb. So you'd study that too. No, you get over it not because it's so dumb, because not all karma is really that dumb or smart. You get over it because you understand it as something that really you can get over.

[18:12]

You understand it and you can get over it because of its nature. And its nature is in a sense that anything you don't understand, like karma, becomes an obstacle and whatever you understand becomes a door. And karma also is part of the teaching about how we don't understand and how we don't want to understand. But understanding how we don't want to understand helps us get over not wanting to and opens the door to being willing to learn and study. Yes? Do you understand that actions, karma, and self are all limitations? Action, or action, karma is the translation of karma into English. A common translation of karma into English is action. So that's not a synonym, that's a translation.

[19:15]

Okay? But I'm just saying that self is almost a synonym for action. Because most of our actions... now that most of us have a nice self available, most of our actions are about self-promotion, self-protection, self-enhancement, self-cherishing, self-clinging. They're about how we can control things so that we don't, you know, have any self-problems. But if we do any actions without that, are those still conflict? Or just the ones that have to do with our small self-conflict? The actions which are not about control and so on, they're not so synonymous with self. They're more about getting over the self. And that type of karma becomes more and more available as we understand the karma which is about controlling. It's all called karma, right?

[20:16]

Well, it's You could call it karma, even this final karma, even this special kind of karma, which is about the activity of studying karma, is a kind of karma, it's a kind of activity. And when we first start studying, we will study somewhat from our habits and our self-concern. But as the study gets deeper, the study itself... has the possibility of being not so habitual and leading to more and more thorough study of what is habitual. So in a way, a big kind of dramatic comparison would be those kinds of actions which are about controlling and controlling things. our true study of those are gradually let go of by approaching our tendencies to control connected to promoting the well-being of an isolated, independent person.

[21:33]

The tendencies to control, to promote and maintain an illusory person a person that doesn't exist. Those kinds of karma, when studied, are more and more experimentally, at least, let go of in a new kind of karma, which is to promote the welfare of an existent person and existent persons who are not independent. Karma which will help, action which will help all beings wake up to how there are no independent beings. And not just all beings, but help all things engage in the activity of enlightenment. So shifting from a karma which is based on ignoring the interdependent nature of a person

[22:41]

Shifting from a kind of karma which ignores that, which is believing that there's an independent person, and then what kind of actions can promote and take care of an independent person? What kind of actions would help this person that doesn't exist be happy? Shifting to a kind of activity which helps all things engage in awakening. But that can still be called, in a sense, karma. Karma which helps us get over karma and karma which has gone beyond karma. In a sense, we can still say it's karma. So that's the big shift from the karma which most of us are involved in most of the time to this possible new way of activity which promotes awakening to how we're all actually engaged in Buddha activity right now. we are already doing that with everything right now.

[23:45]

So here's a teaching of karma. Should we start with a teaching of karma? Ready? Teaching of karma which comes with the Buddha's teaching of what's called right view. He says right view, part of right view is that action has consequence. Now I said that, but maybe I first of all should have said again, what is action? And action, the Buddha's main definition of action, not a translation of action, but the main definition of action is, in Sanskrit, cetana.

[25:11]

And cetana means basically the intention of the mind. So in every moment the mind has a certain intention. A quite deluded and misunderstanding consciousness or mind has an intention. An awakened mind also has an intention. So you could say that there's an activity or action of an awakened mind and that there's an intention or activity of a very unawakened mind and then there's intentions of all the minds between the most mistaken and the most awakened.

[26:16]

There's many kinds of states of consciousness which we studied last spring, different types of cognition here. So there's a range of cognitions. Each cognition has an activity, an active side, an intention. And that intention is the definition of karma. So in an unenlightened mind, there's an understanding there that the person who is aware has an independent existence from, for example, some other persons or all other persons. That view, that understanding is the fundamental mistaken consciousness, wrong consciousness.

[27:18]

And that consciousness has an intention. Or all those consciousnesses, every time we or somebody else has a consciousness which imagines and believes that the person there who's aware of whatever, that that person exists independently of other persons. That's a basic mistaken consciousness and that has an intention. which is the activity or the karma of that moment. Basically, every moment has an activity. Every moment of conscious life has an action, has an activity, has an intention. The intention is the activity. An awakened consciousness, a fully awakened consciousness, understands that the person who is aware here is nothing independent from other persons as a matter of fact is not even anything in addition to other persons it is an awareness that this person is nothing but all beings all beings create this person that understanding then also has an activity and that would be the activity of an awakened consciousness

[28:45]

Now, the unenlightened act, and then there's more or less, there's a loosening of that most ignorant mind, that most deluded mind. There's a loosening of that process leading up to the most awakened. So that, for example, most of you who are listening to me know about and have heard about this belief in inherent existence of independent existence. You've heard about it. You probably had a whiff of it at least Sometimes you maybe actually were heavily into it, but you've also heard that it's deluded and mistaken, and you're actually considering, well, maybe it is. Maybe when I think I'm independent of other people, maybe I am wrong. I still think that way, but I can also see that maybe I'm wrong. And then you can get to the point where you think, I'm quite sure I'm wrong. And you can get to the point where you know you're wrong.

[29:49]

You don't just believe or think you're wrong. You just flat out know it. And then you actually know. Not only that you're not independent, but that you're interdependent. And you go from hearing about that and think maybe it's so, to believing that it's so, to finally knowing that that's the way it is. And also that your knowing becomes... That's the way it is. Your knowing becomes the same as things being that way. And then that consciousness has an intention, and the lesser consciousnesses or the less awake consciousnesses, especially the basic one, have intentions too. And sometimes the basic one has wholesome intentions. It can have a wholesome intention, like it's possible to believe that you're separate from other people and still somehow miraculously want to do something kind to them. You know, somebody who you have basically no relationship to because you believe you're independent, you still want to benefit them.

[31:01]

Somehow a little enlightenment sneaks in there that you care about people that you feel separate from, that you feel independent from. So there's a little, you know, now some people feel separate from other people and they don't want to be kind to them. That's the way, that would make sense. Since you're independent from everybody, who cares about them? And besides that, why should I care about them? My caring will have no effect on them because they're independent. And if I did anything kind, it wouldn't have any effect on them because they're independent or I'm independent. So there's no way to connect. So forget about kindness. But some people don't even talk that way, but they act just like that. They act like somebody else is not their closest friend. You ever seen anybody act like that? Like this person's... This person. This person is not... Well, I shouldn't say not. Closest friend. Because it's not. This person is not a close friend. And when you're ignorant, you think somebody's not a close friend.

[32:07]

Or... When you think somebody's not a close friend at that moment, somebody's ignorant. The one who thinks that's ignorant. Or that, not so much the one that thinks that, but the thinking that is ignorant. And then the kind of intentions you have when you think somebody's not your close friend, those are the kinds of karma, the kind of action that go with thinking that some person is not my close friend. And those can be relatively harmless and extremely harmful. But they're basically off. And they all have consequence. If you have awakened consciousness and you see everybody, awakened people see everybody as their close friend. They don't think anybody is their best friend, actually, except for the people who have best friend buttons.

[33:09]

They could be kind of like a daily lottery where you pass out best friend mugs to people. Today, you're my best friend. Today, Bernard's my best friend. But, you know, it's just a joke. The awakened person doesn't have a best friend. The awakened person has infinite close friends. And so the intention there goes with that way of seeing people. And then, of course, the intention is you always just want the best for them. And if you give them anything less than the best, that hurts you. So you want to give them the best. But also you're willing, if they don't think what you gave them is the best, because they're your close friend, you're willing to experience that you feel uncomfortable that they don't think you gave them the best and that they feel unhappy about that. You don't say, well, yeah, I tried to give you my best and you didn't like it, but I don't care.

[34:15]

No, because the person is close to you, you do care. You do care that they didn't like your best gift that you could give at the moment. You care. So you open yourself to the problem of caring for people because that's the way you see it. You can't get away from it because you're wise. And then your intentions, the activity, the intentions of your mind are basically, the basic intention is you would like everybody to understand that they're close friends with everybody. You're not so concerned with them realizing they're close friends with you, but more you want them to have the wisdom to see they're close friends with everyone because if they would do that, then you would, then you, the happiness you want with them would be realized because they would get over the karma that has been accumulated during the process of evolution coming from not understanding very well.

[35:23]

Okay? So I wanted to also, in case I don't come back for the second class, I wanted to say that that's what karma is and karma has consequence. And one more thing is I wanted to say tonight that karma does not mean destiny. My grandson's visiting me now. Someone else is taking care of him tonight, but he's visiting me and he's on a He's on a Pink Panther kind of like binge. You know Pink Panther? It's a movie. Peter Sellers' movie. So he watched a Pink Panther movie in Los Angeles and then he came up here and then he wanted to rent some more Pink Panther movies. So he got shot in the dark and Pink Panther strikes back, I think.

[36:33]

And... He really thinks Peter Sellers is funny. He's six, but there are certain parts of Peter Sellers, especially when people get knocked into moats and ponds. The slapstick part, he gets it very nicely and enjoys laughing. Today, he was watching, repeating, going over the movie several times. So anyway, Peter Sellers in this movie, today I saw, he says, he's talking to someone, he says, he says, that's my destiny. And the person goes, huh? He says, no, he says, that's my karma. And the person goes, huh? He says, you translate as destiny. That's not correct. Karma is not destiny. However, You can see how there are people... When the teaching of karma was transmitted to England, you know, where Peter Sellers lived, it was transmitted by various lineages.

[37:47]

And in some lineages, karma is taught as destiny. And we can go into detail about this later, maybe. But in some traditions they teach when you do something, then you will go someplace as a result of doing that thing. That action will be your destiny. But the Buddha Dharma is different. And so I wanted to read you a text which is making a point that the Buddha didn't make very many times. He said many times, right view is karmic activity. Karmic activity. Action has consequences. He said that many times. It's very important. And he also said, you know, action does not perish even after hundreds of millions of cosmic eras when complex conditions and favorable times come to bear these actions ripen for the author he said that over and over but one time he said something a little bit different but not contradictory just put a different way this is called the name of this text is called

[39:13]

I think it's Sivaka, S-I-V-A-K-A. And on one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagraha in the bamboo grove. in the squirrel sanctuary. Then a wanderer, whose name was Sivaka, approached the Blessed One, exchanged greetings with him. When they had conducted their greetings and convivial talk and cordial talk, Sivaka sat down to one side and said to the Blessed One, Master Gautama, there are some ascetics and Brahmins who hold such a doctrine and such a view as this.

[40:30]

Whatever a person experiences, whether it be pleasant or painful or neither pleasant nor painful, all that is caused by what he has done in the past. So whatever you experience, whatever you feel, and we have feelings every moment, every moment we feel pain, pleasure, or neither. So some people teach, at the time of the Buddha, some people were teaching, whatever feelings you have, moment by moment, those feelings are due to what was done in the past, past karma. What does Master Gautama say about this? And so then here's the Buddha's answer or response. Some feelings, Sivaka, arise here originating from bile disorders.

[41:41]

That some feelings arise here originating from bile disorders, one can know for oneself, and that is considered to be true by the world. Now, when those ascetics and Brahmins hold such a doctrine and view as this, whatever a person experiences, whether pleasant, unpleasant, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. All this is caused by what has been done in the past. They overshoot what one knows by oneself, and they overshoot what is considered to be true in the world. Therefore, I say, this is wrong on the part of those ascetics and Brahmins. Okay? So the Buddha said... Some feelings, like unpleasant feelings, but maybe pleasant and maybe neither, but some feelings arise from what?

[42:55]

They arise from bile disorders. What's the matter, Jerry? Bile disorders? Disorders in the bile, like, you know, like a gallbladder attack. My teacher, actually, I saw my teacher, Suzuki Roshi, have a bile disorder. Right in the middle of Zazen one time, he keeled over with a bile disorder. And he didn't tell us at the time, but when he went to the hospital and it was malignant. But he was in great pain because of bile disorder, because of... And he was spitting up very, very bitter stuff, you know, bile. He had a malignancy in his gallbladder. It wasn't a ball of stone. It was a bile disorder. So those feelings arose because of a bile disorder.

[43:57]

And then the Buddha says, this is something you can experience for yourself. And also something which, what is it? Which is held to be true in the world. So, you know, I didn't know his gallbladder and he didn't either, but he did have this bitter taste. And when he went to the hospital, the doctor says, he got a gallbladder problem. They removed his gallbladder and then they did a biopsy on it. He didn't tell us about the biopsy results. So we just thought he had a a gallbladder that wasn't functioning anymore. Gallbladders are like filters, you know. And if you eat a lot of grease over many years, they get full. When they get full, you have a bile disorder. And so you have public pain. So this is something you can experience for yourself. So with bile disorders, if you say whatever you experience comes from past karma, past action, you can't experience that for yourself. And it's also not held to be true in the world.

[45:04]

So then he goes through seven more cases, you know, six more cases, okay? The cases are phlegm disorders. You know, have you ever experienced a phlegm disorder? Like the flu? The cold? Sinus infection? It's a phlegm disorder. And you have feelings from this phlegm disorder, which you can experience for yourself, which are held to be true in the world. And then the next one is wind disorders. That's another third one. These are factors which contribute to some experience of pain, pleasant, or needed. Then next comes... imbalance of the previous three. So without the flam, the bile, and the wind being out of order, each one, they can be out of balance.

[46:17]

And that can cause various kinds of feelings or be conditions for various kinds of feelings. Next comes climate, climate change. like going from winter to spring or fall to winter or summer to fall. These climate changes, as you may have noticed, are conditions for certain kinds of experiences. Spring fever, allergies, freezing, etc. Overheating, heat prostration. These are feelings that you have due to climate change. The next one is assault. People can be cruel to you, but also they can be kind to you. But anyway, people attacking you, people affecting you, this also leads to experience of pain, pleasure, and neutral.

[47:18]

And last on the list is karmic result. Eight factors listed by the Buddha. The last one is karmic result. But almost nobody says, whatever you experience is due to disorder of the phlegm. If they would say that, you cannot experience that, that whatever happens is due to disorder of phlegm. You can't experience that. And also it's not held to be true in the world. Now, if it were not held to be true in the world, but you could experience for yourself, you might not be wrong. So Buddhism allows that the world disagrees with you, but you have a direct experience. But in this case, you can't have a direct experience and the world doesn't agree with you, that everything comes from disorder of bile, phlegm, change of season or whatever.

[48:25]

But people think And people teach at the time of the Buddha that whatever you experience is due to past karma. Yes? When he said past karma, did he mean the effect of past lives, or did he mean habit, the habits you formed in childhood? He's living... So the one point of right view is Action has consequence. Another point of right view is there is rebirth. It doesn't say that everybody will be reborn or even that everybody is a rebirth, but that there is rebirth. That's the second point. So it's in the context of rebirth that he's teaching this. But also what you did yesterday can have a consequence today even, not to mention in a few weeks. But the consequences also can be... He also teaches karmic causation or karmic consequence in three lifetimes.

[49:28]

So when we say in the past, it could be yesterday when you were a child, one life ago or innumerable lives ago, and the effects of what you do now can be this life, soon, or quite a bit later. Did you ever hand raise, Mark? So as a result of either war or American lifestyle or social conditions related to power, it could, besides personal and genetic, that could be reported in Calcutta or Guatemala or something like that. Like to read in this way, accepting certain things. incarnate in another place. You know what I mean? I do, yeah. The energetic, the social system and our attitude toward war, if there were a popular majority.

[50:35]

Your attitude towards war, for example. Yeah, I was just thinking of the personal, genetic, and social in terms of energetic. influence, then not so much what happens to me, but it's just a curiosity. I'm not checking it out. I'm not sure what your question is. I did hear that you said that in some relationship to your attitude would affect your future birth. You said something like that? That part I would... By living here in this environment. Living here in this environment. And the karma in this environment. Both the environment you live in And the thoughts or intentions you have are both factors in the experiences you will have later.

[51:48]

So the environment you live in has something to do with right now, your bile disorders, change of season, your relationship with people, like aggressive or peaceful relationships, all those things are factors which contribute to your feelings and your intention or the action of your consciousness is also a factor. Now, most of the emphasis is on action in the teaching, not so much on the phlegm and the change of season. There's something about the action part that's being recommended to focus on, to study the action. But not to say, however, that the action, which is getting all this attention, the karma, which is getting all this attention, is the thing that makes us what we feel, how we experience the world.

[53:01]

However, it is one of the things that contributes to it. And it's the one that gets, that's the pivot point in the study. And it's the one, again, that causes, when not understood, it's the one that causes tremendous suffering. Not understanding the working of your gallbladder is not as critical as not understanding your own intentions. Not as pivotal. It would be good to understand your gallbladder, but you might not have any gallbladder problems or know anybody who does have gallbladder problems. But still it would be good information for you to understand the gallbladder and how it works. But you might never have any gallbladder problems or any gallbladder disorders in your whole life. But if karma, if you don't understand karma, you will have big problems and you will be a big problem.

[54:02]

However, that doesn't say that karma is the only thing that makes what happens happen. So people shift the importance of karma into the karma is your destiny. And that it's a fatalistic teaching. It's not. It's a teaching which is saying, here is a place to look to find tremendous potential opportunity for liberation. We're putting more emphasis on studying the karma as a way to become free, then we are putting emphasis on studying climate conditions. But climate conditions also produce our experience on a par with the karma. Yes. Tell me your name. Jo. Jo. Jo? Jo. Joan. Jo. I have a question. A couple of nights ago, I was at Poles in the pit overnight, and I came out, and I left my keys in the door of my car, and someone had hit the door.

[55:08]

It's not a great game, but someone had taken them out, written me a nice note, and left them on the windshield. But at the same time that night when it happened, there's someone had not noticed the keys wrapped up in a nice note on my windshield and broke in my window. Amazing. But also in the back seat was a leather jacket that I bought that I feel terrible jokingly about. I was glad to get rid of it, so the thief also stole the leather jacket. And most interesting is in the CD player, which was stolen, was a CD of your talk that you gave about a month ago about action and... Stole that CD? So we'll be looking for him at Green Gulch this weekend.

[56:12]

He might be in this class. Or I should say she. The guy said that he had taken a harness or something that makes the radio, the CD player, play. So he found all that couple... for not me. So I thought... I do have a question. I thought it was perfect timing. You have a question too? My question was, when that all happened, you know, after about 10 minutes, like, oh, you know, and I was just so glad that my car wasn't gone. I thought it was so sweet to post and believe the note. And, yeah, I was annoyed that the window was broken, but I wasn't especially upset. I was so relieved the jacket was gone and all of that stuff. But so I was wondering, does my kind of, a lot of appreciation for the irony of the situation affect his karma is really my question.

[57:13]

So I could have, you know, felt big and angry and have a lot of bad energy toward this person, but now I'm thinking, oh, God, I really hope he'll see me. And, yeah, it's So that's my question. What determines the karma? And I have no idea if it's a bowel disorder or not. Or if the person, we don't know if the person who got your keys and put them on the dashboard, if that person had a bowel disorder. No, no, no. But they might have because they had so much pain, you know, from their gallbladder disorder that they were just sort of like really like looking for some way to bring some happiness to someone else, you know. But back to, I think, one of the points you raised is does your attitude towards this event affect the karma of the person who took the CD?

[58:14]

Yes. Yes, it does. It does. And also, if you had a not-so-enlightened response to this whole thing, that would also have an effect on him. So your karma is your karma, and my karma is my karma. Your intention is your intention. My intention is my intention. That's our karma. That's our karma. Buddha also says that that matures at the site of attachment. It matures, if there's some attachment in my karma, the maturing happens where there's attachment. If there's no attachment, the maturing doesn't happen at the point of attachment because there isn't one. But in either case, still, the two types of karma, one of someone who has attachment while they're intending someone and someone who doesn't, the two types of karma both affect the rest of the world.

[59:22]

And Mark's question and your question are both addressing something which I'm not bringing up tonight, but I think we could do it within these classes, is that the physical world is the result of the karma of all beings from all time, not just all human beings, but all living beings, karma, makes the physical world we live in. The physical world is called the container world. There's two worlds spoken of. The container world, which is called the pajama loka. Well, it sounds like pajama loka, but it's really bajama loka. It means... Locas world in pajama means container the container world means is the yoga room Berkeley California planet Earth the Sun the moon the stars That's the pajama logra the physical world and that's created by the Karma It's a karmic effect physical world is a karmic effect of all living beings for all time and then there's the Satva loka and

[60:29]

And that's the world of beings. Each being has their own consciousness, but the consciousness of all beings affects the consciousness of all beings. And the intention of every consciousness affects all the other consciousnesses and affects them, gives them birth. The consciousness that I have right now is supported by all the wholesome and unwholesome, enlightened and unenlightened consciousnesses, and all the intentions of all those consciousnesses create this consciousness. I do not make my own intention by myself. To think that I do is called a mistaken consciousness. That's the same as saying I'm independent. But whether I have A mistaken consciousness or awakened consciousness, in both cases I have intention, and in both cases there's consequence, and in both cases I'm responsible, but so are you.

[61:32]

So you are responsible for these people who interacted with your car, these two people, you're responsible for them, they're responsible for you, and you're responsible for thinking these nice thoughts about this guy. You're responsible for that, but so is he. And he is responding to your good thoughts about him. It has an effect on him. If you think bad things for someone, if you want them to not study the teachings of karma and not wake up, that has some effect on them. Now, if they're awake, it doesn't really hurt them. It doesn't hurt them. What hurts them is that you're suffering by not wanting them to be happy. That hurts them because they want you to get over that. That hurts them. But you're disliking them. It's like my grandson hating me. It doesn't really hurt me that he hates me. It hurts me that he doesn't feel good hating me. So that's why when people steal things from you, it's really good if you wish them well.

[62:45]

Because that will, basically, that will have a good effect on them. Directly or indirect? Well, directly. But it's hard to see how it, you know, directly doesn't mean directly right at this moment. It just means it's direct, but again, it's not destiny. But is it directing that it sets something in motion in the world that's going to affect them and many other beings? It affects them and many other beings, yes, right. However, the way it affects you in some ways, you might say, is more direct, because it directly affects very clearly your own your own karmic evolution, your own intention evolution. How it affects them is a little bit more complicated because it depends on how it interacts with whatever else they're up to. You know, if they're up to this, in this direction, what you did, you know, if they're turning, you know, right, and you, we have this wonderful stuff falling on us.

[63:51]

What is it? Like it's like, It's like cotton or something. Anyway, how it all works with other people is much more complex. Not to say it isn't complex with ourselves, but it is direct. It's just direct in a very complex field. I mean, it's a direct transmission into a complexity. Which you can all call indirect. You could also call it indirect, yeah. So I think this is really, this is very important scripture to say, the Buddha said, we do not say that everything that happens to us, everything we experience, in particular the feelings we have, feelings are very important because feelings are the way

[64:53]

Karma matures. Feelings are the way karma matures. Feelings are the maturing of karma. But even though they're the maturing of karma, it's not just due to karma. It's the way karma matures. Whereas gallbladder disorders don't mature. We don't talk about gallbladder disorders maturing. We don't talk about spring maturing exactly. Yes? What's your name? Charlie. Charlie? I've heard people say, well, everything's due to your karma. Yeah, right. And so I struggled with that and tried to understand how could they mean this for real. And one thing I sort of was working with for a while is that, well, they must mean that because I went out in the cold without a coat, I caught a cold, and that's why I got so much blood filling, that it's like, because of that irresponsible action, If that was my car, I would get a cold.

[65:55]

So, I mean, that could be an explanation or sort of some counter to support that view that everything is caused by an action in the past. Right. That could be. However, the world doesn't agree with your interpretation. Some people say that, but the whole world's not going to agree with that. Somebody else will say it was viral. Somebody else will say your immune system was down. There's lots of different... The world, the people in the world will not all agree with your scenario. That's a perfectly reasonable scenario. However... the world doesn't agree with it, and you do not have, you do not know that for yourself, that you got it for that reason, because sometimes you go out, and you, with the same situation, and you don't get a cold. So anyway, you're not, you're not, you're just saying that could be, that kind of event could lead someone to have the position of everything's due to your karma.

[67:09]

Yeah, that's how someone explained it to me. Yeah. But I'm saying in that view existed at time of Buddha that everything you experience is doing your past karma, past action. Okay? That teaching was in certain religious people, professional religious people, professional Brahmin priests, and professional yogi. These aren't part-time yogi. They didn't. And ascetic wasn't like somebody who was ascetic for a weekend workshop in those days. This is like professional ascetic, somebody who does not have a house to go back to after the retreat's over. They don't have a car. They don't have a family. They are definitely in that occupation. And then there's professional, task-determined Brahmins who are full-time priests, and they don't They don't go out and farm. Even if they're not getting donations for doing their priestcraft, they can't go and farm. So the professional priests and yogis, these people were teaching at the time of Buddha just what those people tell you.

[68:17]

I'm saying that that teaching has been transmitted all over the world. It was existing 2,500 years ago. I'm just saying that the Buddha taught contrary to that. However, that teaching still lives in Berkeley, San Francisco, New York, and London. Peter Sellers has that teaching. Or had it. And my grandson's hearing it. Okay? So there's that teaching. And some people say that's what Buddhism teaches. And I'm saying, no. Here it is. Buddha said, no. If you have a cold, that's not due to your past karma only. Some people don't have blend disorders. They go out, you know, and they don't get a cold. So could you say that this other teaching... I didn't think they were saying it was solely due to your past karma.

[69:22]

I was thinking they were saying it can be explained in terms of your past karma. Yeah, that's different. Yeah, that's different. That you can look at it in terms of is different than, like you said here, all that is caused by what has been done in the past. But I think it is true. Everything that happens you can look at in terms of your past karma. When you look at it, do not look at it from the perspective of the past karma made this happen by itself. That's one way not to look at it. It's good to learn how to look at it in terms of karma without thinking of karma as linear. Karma is more circular. Does karma make anything happen? I'm sorry. Does karma... Nothing, nothing makes anything happen by itself.

[70:26]

And nothing is made by itself. Everything's made by other things. Everything that exists is what we call other-powered or other-dependent. Nothing depends on itself. Everything depends on other things. And one of the things you depend on, which is other than you, in a way, is your past karma. But karma itself doesn't make itself happen. Karma depends on other things. It also, if it exists, depends on other things. Like it depends on, fundamentally and most importantly, you know, in terms of meditation, it depends on I said, when I say most importantly, I mean most importantly in terms of looking at it, in studying it, learning about it. Most importantly, karma depends on what? Intention. Intention?

[71:29]

Close, but that is what karma is. Cognition. Awareness. Because karma is the intention of a cognition. So cognition is not the only thing that makes karma happen. But in terms of looking at it, we see that it is the intention of the cognition. So in terms of understanding it, we're particularly focusing on mind and that karma is fundamentally a mental factor. It's a factor of cognition. And it is the intention, the intentional quality, all cognitions have intention. Again, unenlightened cognitions have a certain type of intention. Supremely awakened cognitions have another kind of intention. They all have intentions. One wants all beings to be happy. The other wants just some to be happy and has all kinds of greed, hate, and delusion.

[72:36]

The other has no greed, hate, and delusion but is totally focused on those who do have greed, hate, and delusion and wants them to be free. so but still cognition is not the only condition for not the only condition for what huh it's not the only condition for intention or what or feelings but in particular it's cognition is not the only condition for karma however It is a necessary condition for karma. There is no karma without cognition. There's no karma without awareness. There's no karma without awareness. Karma comes with awareness. Awareness comes with karma. So it's really important in terms of like studying karma to study where it lives. It lives in cognition. But it's not the only condition for intention. What are the other conditions for an intention?

[73:38]

I didn't tell you. So if anybody got the answer, they'd have heard it in some other class. Yes? What? I'm asking a question now. Could we deal with my question before we get to yours? What? The question is, I made a statement that you don't have karma without cognition and you don't have cognition without karma. In other words, you don't have intention without cognition. And you don't have cognition without intention. All cognitions have intentions, and all intentions are intentions of a cognition. Okay? But still, cognition is not the only condition. It's a necessary condition, but it's not the only condition for intention. What are the other conditions for intention? Alaya. Huh? Alaya. Alaya? Yeah, but that's a cognition. Alaya is a cognition. Harvey. What? Yeah, a body.

[74:42]

A body. A body. A sensitive body. Is also a condition. And what else is necessary? Bernard? Alaya. Okay, we got alaya. Alaya is a cognition. Okay? Alaya is cognition. What? What? Mind, cognition. Mind, cognition. Something impinging on the body. What's that? What? Feelings are mental factors in the cognition. So the cognition has all kinds of stuff going on. One of them is feelings. So feelings also determine, are also a condition for cognition. The feelings shape the intention. When you have a cognition of, let's say, a medium enlightened person, and there's a feeling there, that feeling has something to do with the intention. So feelings are also a condition for karma. So cognition has feelings in it.

[75:45]

Cognition is a condition for karma. And the feelings of that cognition are a condition for karma. And also, as John said, the body is a condition for karma because the body is a condition for cognition. You don't have cognition floating. Cognition is connected to bodies. And then he also said something impinging on or touching the sensitive body. What's that? The environment, the world. The world is a big factor in having an intention. So karma depends on the entire world, particularly it depends on the part of the world that's now stimulating the body, and the way that the world stimulates the body is the cognition. Now, the way the world is stimulating the body is not the entire world stimulating the body, but the entire world

[76:53]

creates the stimulation of the body and also it's not the whole body it's a particular part of the body that can be as sensitive to a particular part of the world but the whole world creates the stimulation and the whole world creates the body and the whole world creates the consciousness and in order to understand that we need to understand the limited realm of cognition which does not necessarily understand that the whole world's making it But this is a story about how it actually happened. And the intentions evolve along with the understanding of cognition. As you understand cognition, you understand intention. As you understand intention, you understand cognition. Understanding cognition more, the cognition develops. Understanding intention more, the cognition develops. So the cognition develops along with understanding of karma and cognition. Not understanding cognition makes it hard to understand karma.

[77:59]

Not understanding karma makes it hard to understand cognition. So studying karma, learning about karma, becomes a condition, not the only one, for the positive evolution of cognition, which brings along, which lifts the intentions up with it. So as the cognition develops, the intentions develop. As the intentions develop positively, the cognition develops. So... And the world develops too. You bring the whole world along with you. Just like the whole world's responsible for our lousy state of consciousness, the world is also responsible for us hearing about studying our consciousness. And the world supports the study of our consciousness. And when we study our consciousness, our consciousness evolves towards enlightenment and the whole world gets dragged along with it. this is, you know, and the whole world gets remade with our consciousness and other consciousnesses that are developing in positive way.

[79:03]

And it also gets pulled down by consciousnesses that are not, which are stagnating and not learning about themselves. And reinforcing intentions which are living in unawakened cognition. So the key is Number one, if we can, to settle down so we can be calm enough and flexible enough to study this mind and its activity. OK? Yes? Can things that don't have consciousness or cognition in the normal way we use that term, like, for example, a hurricane or a tsunami, don't they create karma? Do they create karma? No, they're the result of karma. And other things. But they set many things in motion themselves as well, don't they? Do they set things in motion?

[80:05]

They contribute to other things. They don't really set things in motion themselves, but they contribute. So this recent tsunami contributes to us right here, right now. Yes. And the people who were killed by this recent tsunami, their death affects us. Their suffering affects us. But their suffering doesn't do anything by itself. But it contributes. Everything contributes. And we contribute too. So everything's involved in this contributing to everything. So non-conscious events contribute to conscious beings. And the conscious beings contribute to the non-conscious events. So the non-conscious world which we share is the result of our intentions. And it specifies us.

[81:12]

It affects us, and then our consciousness arises in relationship to the non-conscious. Our sensitive body interacts with the non-conscious physical world, giving rise to our consciousness. And our consciousness then re-specifies, and it causes the evolution of the non-conscious world. But the non-conscious world, although it's not conscious, it's animate. It's animated. It's not exactly a lie, but it's animated because it's in this very intense dance with our bodies. And also it's affected by our minds and our words about it. What we say about the world affects the world. And the world causes us to have ways of talking about it. So it's very... And the study of karma is to help us open up to the inexhaustible mutuality of our bodies and other bodies and all of our bodies with the world in which our bodies live and how our consciousness arises from that and our intentions arise from that, but how studying this has a salutary effect on the whole process and it wakes the whole process up.

[82:33]

It doesn't just wake the living beings up, it wakes the mountains and the water up. It reprograms the physical world. The consciousness does. And the physical world gives rise to our consciousness. And sometimes the physical world could give rise to problem consciousnesses. depending on how it's programmed, which is problems with bile, wind, phlegm, disorders, change of season, all that stuff, are the physical world affecting our bodies in ways that are troublesome sometimes, or pleasant. Yes? So, our usual sort of intuition about intention, are that they happen on equality, nobody calls them, they call their actions. and we know that they're caused by things like our mental state. Could I adjust your terminology? You're saying that intentions cause our actions.

[83:33]

Intentions are our action. They certainly end up having consequences out there in the world. Exactly. Intentions have consequences in the world and also intentions have consequences for the being who has the intentions. We also have the sort of conflicting intuitions, one of which is that those intentions are the result of our other mental states, our cognitions, other things that happen in the world. But then we have this feeling that our intentions, the sort of intuition that we have for free will, which is that our intentions are something that we can control, that we can understand, that we can change, that we can modify in a particularly vivid, immediate way. And what I'm asking is if the understanding that you have when you're talking about karma is that that set of intuition is a mistake, or is that the same set of intuition that let you say, well, by thinking about what your intentions are, you have a kind of liberation and a kind of freedom of that that you wouldn't have for... If the tape recorder worked, what your question was recorded.

[84:43]

And it was a very good question, just in case you can't remember it. You can listen to it on tape. But if you can remember it without consulting the tape, then you could ask it again towards the beginning of the next class. But your question is too big since the class is now over. But very good question. Again, if you can remember it, ask it again. If you can't, it's on tape. It's totally relevant. Okay? But it's past 9.15 and we're supposed to stop at 9.15. Is it 9.15? Yeah. So there's people, the class is over. That's it. But the question hopefully will live on. Okay? Thank you very much.

[85:30]

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