is also the fourth noble truth. First truth is the truth of suffering, second is the truth of the origination of suffering, third is the truth of the cessation of suffering, of freedom from suffering, and fourth is the truth of the path. The way the Buddha said at the time, apparently, was the path that leads to the cessation of suffering. But nowadays I find it important to emphasize that the path which leads to the cessation of suffering is the cessation of suffering, but they're not two different things. Also I mentioned this morning that these four noble truths are the topic of highest wisdom in the Buddhist

[01:14]

teaching, and that when one understands these four noble truths, one has the same understanding as a Buddha, and experiences the same personal liberation that the Buddha experienced. But the Buddha Shakyamuni was not just someone who had highest wisdom, the Buddha also had great compassion. In early ways of understanding Buddhism, the disciples of the Buddha wanted to have the same understanding as Buddha, so they studied the four noble truths. And those who understood the four noble truths realized personal liberation from suffering, just like

[02:21]

the Buddha did. But then later in the history of Buddhism, the idea came up of actually following a path that would not just lead to personal liberation, but that would realize Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. And in order to realize Buddhahood, there has to be a combination of this highest wisdom of understanding the four noble truths, coupled with great compassion. And I just want to emphasize that this week we'll be talking about the Eightfold Path. The emphasis of the Eightfold Path culminates in wisdom, which roots up basic delusion and sets the practitioner free. But you should understand that in our practice of Zen, that kind of wisdom has to be coupled with great compassion in order to realize

[03:28]

the Bodhisattva ideal of Buddhahood, the goal of Buddhahood, for the welfare of all. I'll say more about this, but there is a difference between being personally ethical and not harming others, which is part of the Eightfold Path. You cannot realize penetrating insight if you don't conduct yourself in such a way as to not harm beings. So ethics is definitely part of wisdom. You have to have ethics as the root of the foundation of wisdom. But ethical conduct is not the same as great compassion. Now, ethical conduct

[04:37]

can be expanded infinitely to become great compassion, but you can be very careful of what you do, and you can be very careful that you don't hurt anybody or yourself, and watch carefully all the things you do. But that's not the same as being willing to give your life for the welfare of all living beings, and not just the welfare, but the actual enlightenment of all living beings. Not the same. And once again, you could have sufficient ethical training and discipline of yourself to realize insight for yourself, but that level of ethical concern is not the same scope as the scope of compassion of the Great Sattva. But I don't think this week we're going to be able to bring up that whole big-scale, great compassion side of things, because we're going to emphasize the Eightfold Path, but I just want you to keep

[05:39]

that in mind, this huge compassionate trip that goes alongside this wisdom trip. Okay? All right, so the Eightfold Path is, well, you know, it's called, in Pali it's called the Eightfold Path, and in each one, before each one, they say Sama, like the first one is Sama Drishti, excuse me, Sama Drishti, and in Sanskrit it's called Samyak Drishti. And that word Sama, or Samyak, now most of the time you see it, it's translated as Right. Okay? So Drishti means view or understanding, so most of the time you see it now it's translated as Right View, and so on. But also, I may say Right, but Samyak can also be translated

[06:41]

just as well as Complete or Comprehensive. So sometimes I may say Right, sometimes I may say Complete, sometimes I may say Comprehensive. So it's not Right, like kind of the opposite of Wrong. It's not the opposite of Wrong. It completely understands the whole range of Right and Wrong. It's a very big view. It's not so much the Right View as opposed to the Wrong View, but it's an understanding of how Right and Wrong work. It's an understanding range of phenomena, how they happen. So the first one is Complete View. The second one is Complete Thinking, or Comprehensive Thinking. The third one is Right Speech, or Comprehensive Speech. Fourth is Comprehensive Action, is Comprehensive Livelihood. Sixth is Comprehensive

[07:53]

Effort. Five is Comprehensive Effort. Six is Comprehensive Mindfulness. Seven is Comprehensive Mindfulness. Eight is Comprehensive Concentration. Seven is Comprehensive Mindfulness. Six is Comprehensive Effort. Five is Comprehensive Livelihood. Four is Comprehensive Action. Three is Comprehensive Speech. Two is Comprehensive Thinking. One is Comprehensive View. So those are the eight. And you probably see the wheel, the Buddhist wheel, one of the symbols, like

[08:55]

the symbol for Christianity is a cross, right? Judaism is often the Star of David, and Buddhism and Buddhism make a circle usually. And then they usually have eight spokes. Does that make eight? Yeah. That's fortunate. And so there's, what is it called? There's Right View, Thinking, Speech, and so on, right? Concentration. So, after you get into the practice of the Eightfold Path,

[10:10]

a ways, I don't know exactly how far, but at a certain point, when you get into practicing these, this path, you have a feeling, you get more of a feeling like when you're practicing one, you're practicing others. You become more and more sense that you practice all eight simultaneously. But they're not exactly a sequence, but they're components of wisdom. They're components of the path. And, put it the other way, maybe as you practice more, you realize that when you're not practicing one of them, you're not practicing the other ones. But at first, before you realize that's true, you might be able to feel like you're practicing one, even though you're not practicing the other ones, which is kind of nice. For beginners, right?

[11:13]

So this is the order. The first one is called Right View, and the last one is called Concentration. That's the order they're presented. But, in a sense, it's not the usual order of practice. The usual order of practice is... Let me take that back in a sense. Before I say that, I have to say that these eight can be broken up into three groups. And the first group, in terms of practice, in terms of practical application, the first group would be Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. That group. Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. Those are the components of the path which are concerned with ethical discipline. Okay? They're concerned with what you do with your body.

[12:21]

And your voice. No, discipline. Ethical discipline. These three. Okay? And the next group is Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. And these three have to do with not so much your action, but the quality of your consciousness. They're concerned with developing the kind of presence, the kind of mental culture, such that the understanding of what's happening could arise.

[13:29]

In other words, they're the basis of wisdom, these three practices. And in the last two, Right View and Right Thinking, or Right Thought or Right Intention, those are talking about the actual wisdom that does the job of setting us free from our delusion. And so there's a little bit of a confusion here that might be experienced because you start with the wisdom, you start with View and Intention at the beginning of the study of the Eightfold Path, even though, in another sense, wisdom is based on the practice of the later elements. Okay? But the reason that that's done is because, at the beginning of studying the Eightfold Path,

[14:37]

before you even start studying Right Speech and practicing Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, you need kind of a Right View, sort of a preliminary orientation to the Course. So the first kind of Right View is kind of like a view where you understand the curriculum of the Path, and then as you go through from there and practice ethical discipline and concentration, and you come to Right View again, but this time Right View becomes pure wisdom rather than kind of an overview and rationale for the whole program. So the first time through, Right View partly convinces you and orients you to... convinces you that it's necessary and practical to do this practice, and also shows you the root. So it helps motivate, inspire, and orient

[15:42]

when you first look at it. So today I'll start looking at Right View, but it'll be the Right View of this preliminary type, which is necessary to enthusiastically practice Right Speech and so on. Then later, by the end of the week maybe, we can look at Right View as it is in terms of actually becoming intimate with what's happening and developing the understanding which is liberation. So again, the first Right View is about the world and how the world of bondage works, and respecting the rules of the world. The last Right View is about seeing the freedom from the world. So that's kind of an overview of the situation,

[16:50]

and that overview, which I just gave you, is a little bit of Right View. So that's kind of the Right View type of preliminary Right View that I've been doing since that tape recorder started. Yes? Can you speak up a little bit? Yeah. Turn around there. When I turn around this way, I have to speak louder? Yeah. When I turn over this way, I have to speak louder? If I talk like this, can you hear me over there? Very... I'm closer to these people. And they're near the creek. Oh, you're near the creek. Oh, yeah. Okay. So any questions so far? Yes? Can you maybe say more about how ethical conduct can drive freedom? Well, ethical conduct, if you're not paying attention to your behavior, then when you try to meditate, blue jades will come and peck on your head,

[18:03]

because you forgot to close the door to the meditation hall. Or you made a fly in your ears, because you forgot to close the door to the meditation hall. Also, if you've just eaten too much, you'll have problems during your meditation. If you've just been cruel to someone, your mind will be disturbed. If you've just done various things too much, for example, done various things to excess, inappropriately much, or inappropriately little. If you eat too little, that's kind of actually not right action. And then if you don't eat too little, you're too weak. The Buddha actually did that. He ate so little, although he ate so little, his meditation wasn't quite right. So then he started eating a little bit more, and he had enough energy to see what was right there.

[19:10]

He was totally dedicated, but he kind of overdid the not eating thing. So then he thought that actually wasn't right action. So then he ate a little bit more, and he hit the right spot, and he had enough energy to see. So what you eat, what you smoke, what you breathe, what you think, and the things you do affect your state of mind. Then once your state of mind is affected by those things, if your mind is too disturbed, or too weak, or too strong, you have too much energy or too little energy because of what you did or what you said, then wisdom is difficult to realize because the mind is so shaky that it's hard for it to harmonize with what's happening. Even though what's happening is shaky, it's hard to realize the shakiness of shakiness when you're shaky. It's better to be unshaky first, and then later you can realize the shakiness of shakiness more advanced.

[20:13]

So the Buddha, after many many deep penetrations of the nature of mind, probably the Buddha could still see what was going on. As a matter of fact, the Buddha did say, at a certain point, he said, you know, these ethical rules are for you, not for me. I don't need them anymore. I keep practicing because I like them, but I don't actually need them. I won't lose my understanding just because I would do some of these actions which for you will disturb you. Like, overeating is not necessarily harmful to other people, but it's harmful to your meditation. And undereating also might not be harmful. As a matter of fact, some people undereat because they don't want to harm people. But if you undereat too much, then you can't do your meditation, which that might harm people if you don't do your meditation. So that's just a little bit about how ethics is the basis for concentration.

[21:20]

Concentration is the basis for wisdom. So, we're ready? So, Right View. The main thing about Right View in the preliminary phase, and this is a huge topic, and, you know, next week I have a workshop on this topic, and I'm sure you'd like to spend the whole week here talking about this first topic, but anyway, the main ingredient of Right View in the preliminary stage is the actual understanding that action has effects. And that those effects are pivotal for

[22:23]

liberation and happiness. In other words, not just belief in cause and effect, you know, in nature, which also you can trust, but particularly that moral action or immoral action have effects. That's the basic thing. Trust in cause and effect. And most people, even if they're practicing sincerely, cannot verify from personal experience how action leads to effects. They don't necessarily see how that's always true. People may see it somewhat, but to see it as an inexorable law vis-à-vis spiritual development, most people can't see that.

[23:27]

And some people who aren't Buddhas have been able to see this, but have very different interpretations from Buddhas about how it works. But anyway, Buddhas all teach this, all the Buddhas I've heard of, teach that action has effects. And you have to study that in order to move forward in the path of liberation. You have to accept and study this phenomenon. Yes. So are you saying that that's right karma? Pardon? Is that what would be considered right karma? I guess it's actually the action. What do you mean by that? In other words, what are you referring to as right karma? Well, I was looking at what you were talking about, the steps this morning. Yes. And when you go from understanding to action, you're doing a cause and effect event.

[24:33]

Yes. And when I hear people use the word karma, I never quite understand what they mean. Oh, I'll tell you that now. Okay. So by action, what the Buddha meant by action is the basic definition of action, the definition of karma is... I'm going to write the Sanskrit word. The Sanskrit word is cetana. And I like the Chinese character for this. The character has two parts, one part, the top part is a rice field, and the bottom part is a character for the mind, the consciousness. I like this because the rice field has a shape.

[25:40]

You see, it's shaped like a rice field. See the rice field? It has a shape. So what cetana is, is the shape of the consciousness. So the basic definition of karma is the shape of your consciousness. So cetana comes from the root of the word citta, which means consciousness, and cetana means the shape of the consciousness. So every moment, your consciousness has a shape. Okay, even a Buddha's mind, even a Buddha's consciousness, as a Buddha has a normal human mind, if you just look in a Buddha's consciousness or a Buddha can tell you what's going on there, you can see the shape of that moment of consciousness, certain confirmation. Okay, and I don't know if you can look at your consciousness right now and see the shape of it,

[26:53]

but maybe you can. And then maybe if you can see the shape of your consciousness, maybe you can see how the shape changes from moment to moment, the last kind of landscape of your mind. Now if you take a consciousness which has a shape, and then you have a sense of a belief in an individual existence of a person who owns that consciousness, then that consciousness can be seen as the way this person can act, or the way this person will or wishes to act. They often translate chaitanya as volition, but volition isn't necessarily the translation, but volition or will or impulse or tendency of a moment of consciousness,

[28:04]

that's the action. And if you have a sense of a person, then that action is karma. And if you have the sense of a person with this shape of the mind and illusion of action, this person does and acts with mind and body and voice based on the shape of the consciousness, then that pattern of person and mind being shaped this way, in action, that has effects. And the rule is that there's basically three kinds of effect, three kinds of patterns, wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate. You look at the shapes of the consciousness.

[29:06]

The wholesome consciousnesses are in some sense, you could say, well, the wholesome consciousness, the rule is the wholesome consciousnesses lead to beneficial fruit. The unwholesome consciousness, when acted out, lead to harmful negative results for the actor and for others. But for sure, for the actor, the one who's imagined as the actor definitely gets the results of wholesome and unwholesome action. And some of the unwholesome actions hurt other people, so other people get hurt, but the main brunt of the unwholesome is coming back in the person who does it, in terms of spiritual evolution. Other people may be harmed, but it doesn't necessarily,

[30:14]

it doesn't affect their spiritual development, but it definitely affects the spiritual development of the one who imagines that she did it. Okay, that's the basic thing, and you look a little sleepy. It's hot in here, isn't it? It could be hotter though. It gets hotter. So, before I stop, let me just mention to you that there are these three basic types of, well, I guess there's six, no, three basic types of shapes of consciousness, which are the basis of all karma. And there's ten, traditionally ten basic types of wholesome and unwholesome. There aren't ten basic types of intermediate, indeterminate.

[31:17]

Think about why that's so. Anyway, for the unwholesome, the ten basic types are the ten ways, the ten patterns of mind, which a person then can act out with. Number one, body, is killing, killing life, taking what's not given, and sexual misconduct. Three physical ways. Of course, there's many more, but those are three basic. Then, with speech, lying, harsh speech, slander, and idle chatter. And what? Idle chatter. Gossip sometimes could be idle chatter and sometimes can be slander.

[32:27]

Sometimes you can gossip without... So, slander means, see, I think I was talking to somebody, lying means, you know, trying to deceive. Harsh speech means talking in a way that hurts people, which is harmful to people. It's possible sometimes to speak loudly and have it not be harsh speech, but speech that really hurts people, basically. Slander is talking in such a way as to, even if you tell the truth, in a sense, to, you know, hurt a person's name, and to say it with the intention of hurting their name. Of course, if you say it without the intention, it's still kind of slander. It still counts if you don't think about it, because maybe on some unconscious level you wanted to do it. But basically, on some level, you're saying something bad about people, even though it may be somewhat factual. Like some people, I don't know, you might say,

[33:31]

that person's a basketball player, in a group of people that hate basketball players. You know, so, in that context, you might be slandering the person, because you're ignoring their... It's more like, you know, in some circles, like we have some vegetarians here, in some circles, if you say that a person's a vegetarian, everybody hates them. It's a slanderous thing to say about somebody. In other situations, you say that's a meat-eater. The point is, you're meaning to devalue the person in some way. If you sincerely meant, you know, if you sincerely looked at somebody and said, now, there's a vegetarian, and you really meant it as a compliment, even if somebody else thought it was an insult, your intention would be you're praising them, right? So, even if somebody didn't like them for that, that wouldn't be your intent. Your intention would be to say something good about the person. So, to say something which you think is bad about the person, that's slander. Even if it's true. Even if they really

[34:32]

are a basketball player, and you think that's sickening, you say, now, there's a basketball player. Or like some people say, well, there's a man. So, you're sometimes saying there's a man, you know, there's a man, and then sometimes the other way. And then, idle chatter is talking and using your speech and using your energy in a way that's not helpful. Not necessarily harmful, except maybe wasting your time, and perhaps distracting other people from their practice. And gossip, I think what that means is to tell stories that, you know, that you haven't verified, and that might be untrue. You don't mean to be lying, but you're telling stories that might not be true, and that might, again, undermine

[35:40]

that community in some way, and cause disturbance in people's meditation practice. And then, the thought ones are harshness in the volume of the speech or in the meaning of the talk? It's that you talk, usually it's that you're talking loud, but not necessarily. I could quietly say, you know, a savvy or a rat. Could you hear that? Yeah. That wasn't too loud. Could you hear it over there? Yeah. See, they couldn't hear it over there. I said, savvy or a rat. Did you hear that? Not too loud, but it's kind of harsh, especially if I meant it, and it hurts you. Now, if I say, savvy or a rat, and you think it's cute, and I meant it to hurt you, then I don't give quite as much trouble. Now, if I say it, and I really meant it as a compliment, you know, because you and I are kind of like, we've got this rat thing going here. Did you see that cute rat last night on the wall?

[36:45]

That was a rat, right? Wasn't that a gorgeous rat? So, now, if we look at that rat, and then I would say, savvy or a rat, you might say, well, thank you. It depends, you know. The point is, do I mean to be harsh and mean to you? And then, do you actually feel it? Am I skillful at hurting you? And that's harsh speech. Kind speech is the opposite. Okay, so then the last three are having possessive, greedy thoughts, you know, you want to get something, or you're trying to hold on to what you've got in your mind. And the other one is ill will, like actually not just being angry, but, you know, dwelling on it. You know, you're angry, and then you keep being angry, there's a flare, and then you sort of hold

[37:48]

it, and it's that kind of hold, that's an unwholesome action. Just an angry thought is not this kind of unwholesome action. But to do it again, that makes it unwholesome karma. And the last one is called the last mental karma, which is unwholesome, is called wrong view. So, right view is to meditate on karma, just to see how actions lead to effects, and to meditate, for example, on how unwholesome action leads to effects. But the last unwholesome thought, the type of thought karma, is wrong view. Wrong view is that karma doesn't lead to results, and therefore you don't have to watch it, and it's more like a

[38:50]

waste of time to study it. So wrong view would be the kind of thinking that would toss out this whole meditation on cause and effect, on karma, cause and effect, would toss it up, or at least undermine it. Okay? And the ten types of wholesome action are basically the opposite of those, which are put negatively, because it's sort of Indian style to put things negatively. So it's the non of all those things, you know, non-killing, non-stealing, non-sexual misconduct, and so on. Non-ill will, non-covetousness, and non-wrong view, right view. So those are the ten types. So part of the meditation is to notice, be able to tell, to be able to understand unwholesome

[39:52]

and unwholesome action, to be able to see it happening in terms of body, speech, and mind, and then also to be able to see the roots of wholesome and unwholesome action. So you meditate, here's your right view now, you're meditating on, you're watching your behavior, you're getting ready to practice ethical discipline. Okay, that's coming up. So you're starting to notice what is wholesome and unwholesome states of mind. And you start to notice acting upon those wholesome or unwholesome states of mind. And you start to notice, it's unwholesome, which of these ten types is it? It's wholesome, which of these ten types is it? So you say, oh, here's an unwholesome thought, here's an unwholesome state of mind, here's acting it out physically, verbally, or mentally. Okay, I can see that now, here it is, right here at home we have an example of lying.

[41:00]

And watch how that works. And also as you meditate on this, you start to open your eyes as part of this preparatory right view, you start to see the source, the root of the unwholesome, or the root of the wholesome. And the root of the wholesome, of the unwholesome, basically three roots, greed, aversion or hatred, and ignorance. Those are the three roots. And the three roots of the wholesome actions are non-greed, non-aversion, and wisdom,

[42:07]

at least some wisdom. If you're practicing wholesome karma and acting it out, there's some wisdom at the root of that. So this is a little bit about right view, which is a preparatory right view. We haven't gotten to the indeterminate state yet, but how would non-greed or non-aversion be wholesome as opposed to indeterminate? Oh, that's a good question. So he said, how is non-greed wholesome as opposed to indeterminate? Because what is meant by non-greed is not just the absence of greed. Non-greed means renunciation, detachment, non-hate means loving-kindness,

[43:18]

gentleness, patience, and non-ignorance or non-delusion means wisdom. So those aren't indeterminate. But an indeterminate state, the wholesome and unwholesome, you can't tell, it seems to be wholesome and unwholesome elements. Like it's possible to have anger in your mind and have it be a wholesome state of consciousness. There can be anger, but there can also be a strong kind of gentleness at the same time as the anger. Or you can be angry about your lack of gentleness and at the same time you feel the anger, notice the anger, you can feel and resolve to be more gentle at the same time. So it's possible

[44:23]

to have a balancing of elements to create a state of mind that you can't really tell whether it's wholesome or unwholesome. There are states like that. And there are also states which are very, very simple states where there's very little emotion going on and there's this basic delusion or ignorance, but there's no greed or hate. So there's not great wisdom in the state, but there's also not a lot of negative elements in it, and also not a lot of positive elements. So you can't really tell. Why is ignorance unwholesome? Why is ignorance unwholesome? Ignorance isn't exactly unwholesome, it's just the source of unwholesomeness. Unwholesomeness, again, unwholesomeness could also be called unskillfulness. The word unwholesome applies to action. That's what we're using.

[45:27]

And talk, I mean an act, physically, that has effects, you know, gross effects in the world. And the source of all unwholesome action is ignorance. So ignorance isn't really itself unwholesome. Ignorance itself, in a sense, isn't really ignorance, and it isn't really unskillful. It doesn't really do anything, except it basically ignores or turns away from what's happening. So it's pretty hard, for example, talking about cutting vegetables in the kitchen, it's pretty hard to skillfully cut the vegetables in the kitchen if you ignore your hands, or ignore the knife, or ignore the vegetables. Any kind of ignoring a situation, in a sense, is a kind of unskillfulness, but it's not exactly unskillful,

[46:32]

it just sets up unskillfulness. It sets up missing the vegetables, or hitting your fingers, or whatever, or not getting the knife and the vegetables together, or whatever it is. Because you're ignoring the situation. But ignoring isn't exactly karma, or action, or unwholesome action. And wholesome action involves at least a little wisdom, because, you know, there's a little wisdom in cutting vegetables in such a way as to not cut your fingers, but to cut the vegetables. There's some wisdom there, because you're somewhat in accord with what's happening, to be able to do that. That's why Zen monks sometimes like to cut vegetables, because they have some wisdom there. Now, of course, sometimes while they're cutting the vegetables, they're not there, right? They're thinking about some other place. Their mind's in Hawaii, even though they're really in California. Or they're thinking about this

[47:36]

person next to them, who they like or don't like. And still they don't cut their fingers off, but they're just lucky for a while here. There was a time when they developed a skill, you know, they were present for a while and they developed a skill. And then once you develop a skill, because of the good karma of developing skill, you can sometimes say, well, how are you today? And you still don't cut your fingers off. But if you're just developing your skill, you've got to put all your energy in there and be very wise. Beginners have to be very careful, keep those fingers close to that vegetable, not up ahead of it, right? Mm-hmm. So that's the preliminary right view. Any questions about that?

[48:36]

Okay, go sharp now. Please be careful. No? Mm-hmm. Given how you talk about these things, it's a little hard to visualize what I mean. I mean, when I think of states as being basically neutral and harmless, I can imagine some greed or the opposite. When I visualize, when I try to visualize a state that's indeterminate,

[49:48]

that's basically neutral and neither harmless nor beneficial, you know, when I try and think of that concretely, I always come up with some greed in there, or some wish to benefit in there, or... Yeah, that's a pretty good imagination. Those are indeterminacies? What you just said, as you were trying to imagine, you came up with that stuff? Yeah. That sounds fairly indeterminate, by what you said. But another way to do it is just watch your states of mind, and see if you see any wholesome ones. Like some people, anyway, just look inside and see if you see a wholesome state of consciousness. Do you? Just look inside and see if you see a wholesome state. And if you can't find a wholesome state, well, put that aside for a while, look for an unwholesome one. If you can't find an unwholesome one or a wholesome one, then maybe you've got an indeterminate

[50:50]

state. But then keep watching, and maybe eventually you'll see an unwholesome one. Or a wholesome one. Once you start seeing them, then you realize that maybe a lot of your states are indeterminate. Or maybe you just can't see very well. But as you get more and more experience of seeing wholesome and unwholesome, the more you see of those, the more you realize that maybe the other one's part indeterminate. But then you might see, then you might realize that more and more and more, you're seeing more higher percentage of wholesome and unwholesome, and lower and lower percentage of indeterminate, and the reason why you felt there was more indeterminate before is because you weren't so good at seeing the wholesome and unwholesome. But then after a while you may feel like you're getting pretty good, but as your vision of seeing the wholesome and unwholesome gets clearer, your vision of the indeterminate will get clearer, too. And you can say, actually, I can see what's there and it is indeterminate. I can see that there's some aversion, there's some confusion, there's no lust or attachment,

[51:56]

there's some faith in studying it, because I'm actually studying it. So that's pretty good, I'm studying it. The fact that you're looking at it in an indeterminate state is pretty good. But you also have some greed there, mostly as an aversion, and some pain, so not super greed. So the fact that you're studying this state is already pretty good. But if you don't see any real positive things besides the fact you're studying it, like there's not real zeal, there's not what we call mental and physical relaxation, there's not strong concentration, there's not diligence. Now, there are certain dharmas which, if you see them, you immediately know it's unwholesome. For example, the dharmas which basically neglect and put down

[52:58]

a positive effect, those immediately make a state unwholesome. Those two by themselves will immediately make an opposite. But you may have to have quite a few wholesome states, wholesome phenomena, wholesome mental factors before it gets to be a wholesome state. Like the people went over there to work in the kitchen, they might actually in their mind at some point be willing to do the work, but not be willing to concentrate on their hands. Or, they might have some resistance to the work and even be saying, I don't like this work, but be willing to actually pay attention, even though for themselves. Or, they might be willing to do the work, actually be concentrated, feel joy, feel relaxed, and so on. And all those, and then the states start to start to seem quite skillful. Because not only are they able to concentrate on the work now, but they'll probably be able to do it for a while. And then if you could watch that too, that would make it even more wholesome. But it is possible,

[54:06]

the ability to watch your states of mind, your ability to look inside your states of mind, I would say, is the result of what's called a merit, or a virtue, which comes to you by past wholesome actions. One of the wholesome effects, beneficial effects, of wholesome action is that you can study your state of consciousness. So if you're able to look inside yourself and see what's going on, that's because in the past you've done some good actions. But it's possible to have done lots of good in the past and therefore be able to look at what's going on with you. But what's going on with you is not wholesome. So if you're able to see unwholesome activity in your own mind, that shows that you now have unwholesomeness, but you did some good in the past. It's also possible that you do unwholesome acts for a while, and then you can't even see that you're doing unwholesome acts when you're doing

[55:09]

unwholesome acts. If you do wholesome acts, you can see when you can meditate on unwholesome and neutral action. If you do unwholesome acts, it tends to mean that you're not even able to see what you're doing, which of course is a great tragedy. Because human beings can do this, they can meditate on what's going on inside, but if they don't do enough wholesome karma, they lose their chance to see what's going on inside and to learn from the process. So that's why in some sense we might have to take on faith that we better do good karma, that our action should be wholesome, otherwise we won't even develop the ability to see how true it is that it better be wholesome. But most people that I know and talk to and hear about that do wholesome karma, they get the reward of being able to see how good wholesome karma is. Most people that have enough awareness to see and watch how wholesome karma works

[56:13]

are very happy about how it works. And most people who have enough presence and awareness to see how unwholesome karma works are convinced that it's not a good deal. But just hearing about it without actually seeing it for yourself may not be sufficient for you to be convinced. If you aren't convinced, you sort of have to do it according to some extent, give it a try. If you don't give it a try, you're never going to be able to verify it. So the Buddha said, don't just take what I say on because I said it, test it on yourself. But in order to test this out, you'd have to do some good karma to see whether he's right. And you'd have to do some good karma to see whether he's right about bad karma, too. Because if you do bad karma, you won't necessarily be able to even see that bad karma causes trouble. That's the bad part about doing bad karma, is that you do it, you get in trouble,

[57:15]

and you don't even know what's the problem, necessarily, unless you did some good karma. So how does the addicted thinker come? They said an addicted thinker, a person who keeps doing the same thing, and it's unwholesome, and they keep creating bad karma for themselves. Is that a weak mind, a strong mind? What kind of mind would that be? An addictive... A person does an unwholesome thing? Yes, because he keeps repeating, like, say a person has an addictive thinking. This is the problem. This is the big problem. You do an unwholesome thing, you get in trouble, what do you do? Do an unwholesome thing again. And what do you do? Get in trouble. What do you do? Get doing... This is terrible. This is what happens, right? That's why, if you ever have the good fortune of hearing something about doing good karma, do it! Because this other thing is a terrible trap, because once you start doing unwholesome, it tends to drag you down into more unwholesomeness and take you over. That's the way it works. You say addictive, but it's a self-perpetuating system.

[58:21]

Unwholesomeness leads to bad results, and when you get bad results, what do we do? We react unwholesomely, often. Yes, there is. And so, if you hear about that, then you should act on it as soon as possible, rather than waiting any longer. And is that a weak mind? What? You consider that a weak mind? No, it's not a weak mind. It is a powerful mind. The mind is powerful. The mind generates unwholesomeness. It's powerful. It has powerful effects. Our minds are not weak. Our minds are undisciplined sometimes. But they're not weak, they're like workhorses. You have to train. You have to find some way to train your big, powerful mind. Our mind's karma is incredibly powerful. It's not to say it's weak. No. But that's the point. That's what right view is about. Right view is saying karma is extremely powerful. You have to meditate on it.

[59:24]

You have to pay attention to this thing, because it can ruin you. You have a mind which can ruin you. It can blow your chance. But also, if you pay attention to this mind, the process of meditating on this karma, you can become free of it. But the opposite of freedom is not just freedom. Terribly negative results can happen if you don't keep track of your karma. And if you're still doing unwholesome karma, all you can do now is study it. And that's sufficient. If you study the unwholesome karma and understand it's unwholesome, you're developing the right view. And you're getting ready to practice right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Did you have a question? I think maybe you answered it. An image came up of the exhausted mother holding her baby and rocking the baby, singing a beautiful lullaby to the baby,

[60:25]

and wishing she never had the baby. Right. Because the three, good speech, good body, good mind, simultaneously two different causes. And the other thing, I didn't want to be here, I was exhausted. And did that awareness, I mean, if she becomes aware that those three things are simultaneously almost going on, is the karma of the negative thoughts, of the cruel thoughts, mitigated in some way? Mitigated by the awareness? I mean, thoughts have karma. The karma of the mind. For example, it isn't just that the thought crosses the mother's mind, I wish I hadn't had the baby in the first place. It's not just that thought. It gets to be karma

[61:27]

when she hasn't twice, you know, hold it for a while. It's the fleeting, that's not quite karma. Karma is when, not only is it the thought, but then she does it again, for a minute or five minutes or something, or a week. Then it gets to be karma. And then it could be the source of speech, like yelling at the baby, or action, not taking care of the baby. So let's say though that she has actually a negative thought, even though she's still taking care of the baby and not speaking harshly. If she's aware of that, she's on the road to freedom. And she's on the road to freedom, she's in difficult circumstances, but she's still able to be aware. And the fact, I say, that the fact that she can see inside her head and notice that she has these negative thoughts, that's because of good karma she's done in the past. Otherwise, the mother has this thought, doesn't even notice it. And then of course,

[62:31]

if she doesn't notice it, then her voice and her action. So I know this woman who was quite closely related to me, who had thoughts like that. And she gave me the baby at those times. It's at times like that, maybe you notice, you're still taking care of the baby, but maybe it's possible, maybe sometimes you can't, but it's possible at that time. Maybe you love the baby, usually, but right now it's a time to have somebody else help, because you're kind of like, so that your awareness protects you from slipping into, and then maybe your awareness helps you take a rest, so that you don't, and rest is part of right action, so that you have energy to not be in so much pain from overwork. Overwork is also not right action, sometimes. So when we talk about right action, but basically the fact that you're

[63:35]

aware is the result of good karma, and it is more, it's not karma, it's not good karma. The awareness of not good karma, you may have an indeterminate or unwholesome state, but the fact that you're aware of the unwholesome state, protects you from the unwholesome state, and you can learn, even though it's unwholesome, you can learn about causing the effect of this unwholesome state. That protection isn't karmically, you're saying the fact that she's aware... That's karma, but the awareness is not karma. Awareness of karma is not karma. Awareness of karma is not karma. Practice this thing here, right view, even at the initial stage, right view is not karma, it is studying karma, and if you have the opportunity to study karma, you're a lucky person, and then if you realize you're lucky and then do study karma, you're very fortunate and you're using your good fortune well. You have the good fortune to hear

[64:39]

about studying karma, and you're studying karma, that's excellent. But the study of karma is not karma, but the ability, the opportunity to study karma is karmically conditioned and karmically set up. So the more good karma you do, the more chances you have to study karma. In other words, the more good karma you'll do, the more chances you have to do life and live a life which is not karma. Buddhist practice is not karma, strictly speaking, it is to study karma. Right view is not karma, right view is karma is important, it should be studied, and I'm going to study it. That's right intention. Right intention is the next one. I understand that karma is very important to study, the cause and effect is essential to understand, and I'm going to study it. So by understanding that you need to study karma and being willing to study karma, the two together, you start to study karma, and you start to study karma by practicing it, by practicing right speech.

[65:44]

You have to study it in order to do it, you have to be aware of karma in order to study it. You don't have to be aware of karma, however, to do wrong speech. That's one of the nice things about wrong speech, you don't have to study karma. It's very easy to speak badly, unskillfully, without meditating on karma. But in order to speak rightly, you have to watch what you're doing. In order to act and have the right livelihood, you have to study. But the study itself is not karma, the study itself is the path. Okay? But it's getting late, I think people need to go. Can you save your questions? Is that okay? Can we stop? Can you remember your questions? Yes. Thank you.

[66:28]

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