Last week we talked about the first aspect of the Eightfold Path called Right View or Right Understanding. And in particular what I mostly talked about was what is sometimes called Mundane or Worldly Right View, which is developing actually a view of the world to see how the world works. And the world means the world where... where beings are born and beings die. And where beings suffer because of birth and death. And... and the world in which we think we're separate and we think that we are the author of our actions and where we do actions which have results and the results come back to the author.

[01:16]

So Right View, at the beginning, the worldly Right View is to meditate on this process of individual being committing karmic acts and watching the results and how the results come back to the individual who understands that he committed the acts. This whole story is not said to be, is not proposed to be reality, but it is true that we do see things this way, most of us, and we act in accordance with seeing things this way. By seeing things this way, I mean that we see ourselves as independent and we think we can do things on our own, and most of us, I guess, maybe not, but anyway, we're recommended that we notice that when we think we can do something, that that has consequences.

[02:29]

And where do the consequences go? You can check for yourself, but the proposal is they come back to the one who thinks she did the action. Now, what we don't usually... The way people don't necessarily see is they don't necessarily watch that. Not everybody contemplates this process. Some people are involved in it, Barely consciously. And the less consciously you're involved in it, the more well-established the pattern can become. The more consciously you're involved in the process, the more vulnerable the process is to losing its grip over your life. That's my proposal.

[03:37]

And the view of this process is called Right View. The meditation on this process of karmic cause and effect is Right View. Eventually this view becomes so thorough that we become liberated from the whole process. And I mentioned to you that paying attention to and being aware of your actions, being aware of to whatever extent you think you can do things on your own and that you do things on your own and that you see the consequences and see how they come back to you, that meditation on this is not a calming meditation. There are some kinds of meditations which are trying to stabilize and tranquilize our state of being. This is not that type.

[04:40]

This is a type of meditation which is called insight meditation, which is actually trying to open our eyes to the way things actually are happening. And such meditation can be somewhat exciting, disturbing, even agitating. So we start the class calmly, quietly, and you may have to balance the meditation or the mindfulness of karmic life with sometimes when you aren't so much looking directly at what you're doing, but more in a receptive state where you're just calming down and being with what's happening. but not so much doing or even watching your doing. That's up to you how much stabilizing meditation you need to do in conjunction with this kind of insight meditation of right view.

[05:47]

Actually, the whole Eightfold Path is a kind of insight meditation. But sort of implicit in the whole process is that you have to like keep yourself fairly stable and calm in order to successfully traverse this path of liberation. But the meditation, the calming meditations are not strongly brought out in the usual presentation of the Eightfold Path. I asked you to work this week on meditating on your karma, warning you that you might get upset by it, and I wondered if you have any reports on how the week went, if any of you were able to do some of this kind of cultivation of right view. Any reports? Well, I meditated on the shape of my mind.

[06:56]

What would happen is I kept finding my mind, like I'd be going along and I'd find myself suffering at some point, and then I would remember, what's the shape of my mind? And then I would instantly see the shape of my mind, and it was wonderful because it was really freeing. from the suffering that I was just in. And for some reason, the shape was always kind of like that. I don't know why, but I thought visually it was kind of that sort of shape. How would you describe that shape verbally? Like an hourglass? Yeah, kind of like an... I don't know if it's convex or concave, but it's like that. It's got like a mood and a flavor to it. It's almost like some... It's a shape of the mind as if things were like coming in on the mind, like that. So when you noticed that you were suffering and you looked at the state of your mind, you felt it was like a receptive state, a receptive shape? It was when I would... I'm sorry, can you ask me that again?

[08:00]

Did you say that when you noticed that you were suffering and then you turned to look sort of to the shape of your mind, did you find your mind in a kind of receptive shape? It was more like I noticed that my mind was bent out of shape. It was bent out of shape. But at that time, did you notice, aside from the mind being bent out of shape or being bent by... events impressing upon it, did you notice any tendency at that time, the mind towards an implied action at that time? Well, right after I would start to notice the state of my mind, it was kind of like my mind in that shape was inside of some other mind. So as soon as I would notice, it was like if there was a tendency, it would be gone.

[09:03]

But right before, there was definitely a tendency. There was definitely like an attachment, a pulling, a striving. Right. So it's possible that when you feel suffering and you look, you may be looking more at the results of action rather than the action. So as I said, not every moment of consciousness is your mind shaped in a way that it has a clear impulse but when your mind is more in the experiential mode of feeling pain or something, the shape may be more, either you could say bent out of shape, but anyway, shaped by actions, which you may be able to gradually learn what kind of actions would shape the mind that way. So that's fine, that kind of information, but also I wanted you to look and see, can you notice that the mind has an impulse, this kind of impulsive quality? or to a certain state that you're in.

[10:07]

And what is the inclination of that impulse? That impulse, if your mind has a clear impulse in it, if it's shaped as though it were going in a certain direction, that impulse would be defining the karma, the mental karma of the moment. And that impulse then could lead to verbal and physical action. So did anybody look and see impulses in their mind? And you did? What kind of impulses did you see? I think I understand what you're saying when you say impulses, but I noticed that my mind would move to the future and become sort of fixed on task that was to be done, or something I wanted to do, something I felt like I should do. And when I sort of sat with that, it felt like there was control behind it.

[11:21]

So perhaps the impulse was control, I'm not sure. but like trying to control, looking towards the future as a way to try to control it. Looking towards the future as a way to try to control it, and also impulses towards certain actions or certain tasks, and you felt like the background motivation for these tasks was to control. Is that what you said? Yeah, control the outcome. To control the outcome. So I can't say always, but part of the nature of these impulses is that whether you are aware of it or not, you do want to have some consequence. The mind is shaped in such a way. And then if it is shaped in such a way and you feel like you can be the author of that shape,

[12:22]

then you may sense that there's a consequence that goes with that that you maybe want. Now, sometimes if you watch that shape and you see what the consequence that it might give, you would realize you don't want that consequence. But one way you can meditate on this when you're sitting is that when you're sitting, you might feel the impulse to move. you might be able to see a nice clear shape in your mind that you would like to move. And just look at that shape for a while before you move. It's okay to move in this meditation class, but you might enjoy the clear sense, the clear impulse to move before you move. You could see several moments of that in a very short period of time. And you can actually maybe see a very clearly defined impulse there. And you can watch. You might also check to see whether you think it's a wholesome impulse to move. Some impulses to move are rather wholesome.

[13:28]

Others are less wholesome. If you feel pain and you feel that the pain could be possibly damaging to you and you feel the impulse to move, it's probably a wholesome impulse. But some other impulses to move are just fidgeting. And you might see, now what good is it going to do for me to sort of fiddle with my thumbs or scratch my knee or wiggle my toes? Is that actually a wholesome impulse to move? Sometimes if you, or sometimes you find yourself wiggling your fingers or wiggling your toes and then you can maybe just stop for a second and notice the difference between the way you feel when you're wiggling and the way you stop. Then when the impulse to wiggle again comes up, you might just watch the impulse for a while and see if you really think it's a good idea to move. And if you think maybe it is, you might move and see if it is good.

[14:31]

And you might find out that it is, or you might find out it isn't. When you find out it isn't, you might just stop it. This is the kind of thing which seems like you can control. You might stop it and you might feel better. You might feel more calm and present because you were kind of like just distracting yourself, you might find. Or you might find, no, this is an extremely wonderful thing to do, to wiggle my toes. It's possible. Somewhat unlikely for most people that are doing meditation, but possible. Yes. The business of watching and noticing. A question that I read this week got me stumped at that. And the question is, am I my body or am I inside my body?

[15:33]

Uh-huh. And when I could see myself as inside my body, then I could see the importance and the need and possibility of observing and watching. But if I was considering myself, that I am the body, then I couldn't be the observer. But I thought the question was very intriguing. I did. Playing with it all week. Good. Have you been able to develop a sense of whether, can you see impulses in your mind? How many people, I don't know, have not been able to see an impulse in their mind? You haven't been able to see it?

[16:37]

So you felt the impulse, you saw the impulse. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, that's fine what you did, but In some sense, you got into later phases of the path when you try to restrain or work with those impulses. The first thing I would like you to do is be able to see the impulse and clearly say, now there's the impulse to honk at this person, or there's the impulse to yell at this person, or there's the impulse thought of, I don't know what, I hope they drive off the road or something.

[17:46]

So those kinds of thoughts, to be able to see those kind of thoughts is the first thing, the first step to be able to actually... So anybody have trouble actually seeing some impulses in their mind? What do you mean see? Well, like can you see or feel or intuit or sense or imagine that there's an impulse to move? By some way, can you feel like an impulse to move? Like if you just, for example, sit still until you get a clear sense of there is an impulse to move. And there it is again, and there it is again. And that is an impulse to move. And actually, it seems to be the impulse to move The same movement, the impulse to do the same movements coming up again and again and again. Like, for example, when you're sitting, the impulse to move just to change your posture, whatever way. Or the impulse to go to the toilet.

[18:49]

Or the impulse to drink water. Or the impulse to lie down when you're tired. To... and some of which you'll act upon, some of which you won't, but to actually try to, like, be aware that there is an impulse, a mental impulse, an intention, an inclination, a type of thinking that precedes physical and verbal action. Is anybody having trouble identifying these impulses that are happening throughout your day? I'm not asking you, can you identify every single one, but anybody have trouble finding any? Is what you're describing, are you saying only if it precedes physical action? In other words, the... No, no. Because some impulses you never act on. Like you might have the impulse to touch somebody and realize that it might wouldn't be appropriate. But you might have the impulse 50 times in a few minutes. You know, a very clear impulse to touch somebody and realize it's not appropriate.

[19:54]

because they're afraid or whatever, you know, but it would frighten them or discourage them or confuse them. Or you might have the impulse to, again, like simple things like go to the toilet. You might have the impulse to go to the toilet, but you feel like it's not appropriate here. You know, you have the impulse, again, to let go of urine. And you feel like it's not appropriate. It's not that important to do it right now, considering... the, you know, unwholesome consequences of doing it here, wherever, you know. But you have a very clear sense of, I would like to do that physical action. But it doesn't have to lead to the action. Also, it can be a verbal action. I would like to say something to someone. And it might be a good thing. And strictly speaking, you know, good things you probably shouldn't restrain for too long because you might miss the opportunity. But for the sake of meditation, you might actually restrain a good action for a little while, a good verbal action. expression for a little while, just to feel, to feel it and say, now this seems like a good, an impulse to speak in a way that I think would really be beneficial.

[21:03]

And there it is again. And I really do, I still feel like it would be good, but I'm really just going to, just to enjoy for a little while the impulse to speak in this, in this way of like, you know, I really appreciate what you did yesterday. I'm grateful to you. That was beautiful. That's usually, if the person did something wholesome, that's usually a good thing to say. But you might, before you say it, just enjoy it and enjoy the fact that here I see something, a tendency that seems to be wholesome and I think it really is wholesome and it's really nice to have a nice, clear, wholesome intention and just like see it there. That's really nice. Okay, and now I'm going to do it. Now here is a nice, clear, unwholesome tendency like to, you know... honk you know or or yell at that at that rude driver who looks like he's you know actually going to probably like run into my car if i if i say anything to him there's a nice clear probably unwholesome unhelpful and dangerous thing to do but i feel it and i really do feel it and i'm not going to actually play that out because it actually might

[22:15]

causing major damage. But there is a consequence even if you don't say it. Even if you just think it, there's a consequence. You might notice those consequences too. So thinking a positive thought and thinking of saying something kind already has a consequence. But the consequence is different when you say it than if you don't say it. And also thinking an unwholesome, angry, cruel... or selfish thought or clinging thought, it has consequences even if you don't act it out verbally or physically. But the consequence is different. And you can also study the difference between the consequences of thought karma and verbal and physical karma. So meditate on the impulse and then when you do act verbally and physically, meditate on the consequences of the impulse, the consequences of the physical and verbal action. All this I'm suggesting you become knowledgeable about kim did you want to say something you can hear me but i can't hear you if you had an impulse to squash a bug because yes

[23:31]

So what's the bug doing again? It's eating a plant or something. It's eating a plant? OK. So you see a bug eating a plant, and you have impulse to squash it. And even though you feel like you shouldn't squash it, you save it. Is it the same thing as if you would have squashed it and felt bad about it, that you shouldn't have squashed it? If you see, for example, a bug who's eating a plant, maybe a plant that you think, that you've been trying to grow, perhaps, and then you feel the impulse to squash the bug, okay, and so I'm asking you, pardon? Well, first of all, I'm asking you to notice the impulse, okay, just so you get experience of noticing there's an impulse to squash the bug. Then, where I suggest next, since this is a possibly, this is possibly a questionable impulse, that you meditate on and you think, now, will this be beneficial? Will it be beneficial to the bug?

[24:46]

Will it be beneficial to the plant? You might say, I think it will be beneficial to the plant, but not to the bug. Now, is there some way to benefit the plant and the bug? Maybe there is. So, at La Ron Zen Center, people... go to great lengths to move bugs away from areas which we don't want bugs, like to move bugs off of plants or out of food or out of water or off our bodies, but not necessarily killing them or damaging them in the process of the movement. So they might think, well, that might be an act which would protect the plant. If I got the bug onto a piece of paper and moved it away, that might be That would be maybe more wholesome and more beneficial to me, the bug, and the plant than to squash the bug. So you might notice that. And then you might actually act on the act of moving the bug. Now, if you do squash the bug, then you'd be good to notice the consequences of that.

[25:52]

And you may not be able to see the consequences of squashing the bug right away. But there are consequences of squashing bugs. I was just wondering if you felt like it should be the same as... Should you mean, so you have the impulse plus you also think it's good? No. Where does the should come from? Is the should like should because it's good or should because of what? What? I think what she was asking was the impulse. Constantly is the impulse the same as the consequence? Yeah. No, no. The impulse, the consequences of impulses are mental. Okay? And then there's physical actions and verbal actions. They're physical. Okay? The consequences of verbal and physical actions are different from the consequences of thinking about it beforehand.

[26:56]

They're not only different in the sense of then you have two acts rather than one. Like if you think of hurting someone, you have a thought, and there is a consequence of thinking of hurting someone. And generally speaking, there are negative consequences of thinking of hurting any living being. Because thinking of hurting living beings basically has the consequence of you having a mind which is, you know, Suffering. Generally speaking, your mind will suffer as a result of thinking of hurting other creatures, including yourself. Thinking of hurting or harming any living being causes suffering to the author of that thought. A general rule I propose to you to meditate on and see if you have some contradictory information to me, to give to me or us. However, the consequences of mental actions are not as heavy as the consequences of physical actions and verbal actions.

[27:59]

Generally speaking, the physical actions, the mental actions, their result is similar mental type of actions or kind of reflections of that type of action. So if you have angry thoughts, angry emotions, And not just angry thought, but also that your mind is inclined towards an angry impulse. Just being angry is different from thinking of wanting to do something or having an impulse to do something based on the anger. Just being angry with someone is not the same as wanting to do something about that anger, like hurt them or punish them or get away from them or speak ill of them or whatever. See, there's somewhat different between being angry and the mind being shaped and molded by the anger. When the mind is shaped and formed and kind of lined up with the anger, and the whole tendency of the mind is sort of lined up with the anger, then there's angry karma.

[29:03]

You could have an angry thought, but the mind wouldn't be lined up with the angry thought. You might have an angry thought, but basically think, I don't want to act on this. My impulse is not to act on this thought. then even though there's anger there, the mind would not be inclined towards implementing and establishing and memorializing the anger. Then it wouldn't be an angry karmic impulse. Did you follow that? That make sense? But let's say it is not just anger, but the whole mind is lined up with that and going in that direction. that there will be consequences of that. There'll be a tendency to do that again. There'll be a tendency for the mind to line up with anger again. There'll be a tendency for more anger. There'll be unhappiness and pain coming from that to the mind. But this is all sort of just in terms of mind producing similar things in mind.

[30:06]

Of course, if it's physical postures and verbal thing, you also get environmental trouble from that. But another thing that you get from physically and verbally enacting these karmic tendencies is a kind of special effect you get and that is it's almost like a physical effect you get from the physical and verbal actions and that is that your your mind becomes like structured around that act your mind becomes like permanently shaped by that act by the physical and verbal act Like a piece of furniture is moving into your mind, and your mind is actually permanently shaped to be conducive to that type of thought. That's why it's good, when you think of something good, to put it into words and posture. Because then you'll structure your mind to be conducive to further thoughts, good thoughts like that.

[31:11]

And that's why it's also, besides the negative effects of being cruel to people, verbally and physically, it isn't just that and all the trouble you get in for that, but you actually mold your mind to be conducive to further ones like that when you put them into physical and verbal actions. Whereas if you just think them, there still is a consequence to perpetuate that thing, but it isn't as heavy and doesn't build your mind, doesn't start structuring your mind to support those things. That's why it's really, again, really important not to physically and verbally enact unwholesome impulses and why it is really good to physically and verbally enact wholesome thoughts. But basically, again, the first phase of the path is to meditate on how this all works. And that meditation will apply throughout the whole course of the Eightfold Path.

[32:12]

And you can bring up this kind of meditation throughout the course. Okay? Yes? What is your name again? Carol? What is it that when you think of, you have an impulse to, and you enact it some way, either verbally or physically, something that you intended to be an impulse at? Yes. And? You felt an impulse, okay? Let's say you noticed an impulse and you thought it was wholesome, okay? You thought it was wholesome. Yes. You enacted it from this idea that it was a good thing. Yes. And it isn't. And then when you enacted it, you felt like it wasn't.

[33:16]

What the consequences that you saw or heard or felt... Yes. ...of this action... Yes. ...were... did not feel wholesome. Did not feel beneficial. Did not feel beneficial... Right. ...to you and or whoever... Yeah, right. ...was focused on. Right, okay. That does happen. Okay? Yes. Do you have some question about that besides that? Yeah, what do you do then? Okay. Now, one of the main advantages of being... She's doing this meditation, okay? She's actually aware. Let's say you're actually aware. You've got an impulse. You look at the impulse. You see your mind has a tendency... or an impulse or an intention. The intention is going in this direction. You see where it's going and you think, I think this is a wholesome direction. I think this will lead to beneficial consequences for myself and others.

[34:20]

And so I'm going to try it out. You try it out. The consequences you see, at least short-range, the short-range consequences are not what you thought would happen. The short-range consequences are not the short-range consequences you thought you were going to get. Okay? However, since, I say, since you were meditating and noticing the impulse, seeing you thought it was good, that would lead to good results, and now you watched and saw the results were not good, part of the good of this is that you actually saw all that. And it was, in some sense... a successful experiment, not in the sense of leading to the results you wanted, but in terms of learning. And your intention was, you thought it was wholesome. And thinking that your intention is wholesome, there is presence there and awareness there.

[35:26]

And that is good in itself. And it allowed you to see that the results were not good. and to see that you, in some sense, weren't quite so accurate, but you did get to see that you weren't accurate because you were looking at some wholesomeness and because you were following that pattern of experimentation. The next time, it's fairly likely that you might try it a different way because you learned something from that. Yeah, hopefully. And the long-term effects you can't see yet, either. That's the short-term effects. There's long-term effects which are that you were present to observe your mind, to see its shape, to see its impulses, to see that you thought it was good, and to want to do what you thought was good. To want to do what you think is good, is very good, is more important, is more important...

[36:35]

than the immediate results. And then on top of that, not only did you want to do good, but you were able to see that because you saw something good and wanted to do it, you were able to be open and able to learn that the results were not what you wanted. It might not always happen this way either. What sometimes happens, and this is, you know, is that you see something that you think is good, you want to do it, it doesn't work out the way you want to, and then you say, sometimes we say, well, see, that doesn't work, so I don't want to do good anymore. So you give up on meditating on cause and effect. You say, I'm not going to try, when I see positive impulses, I'm not going to try to do them anymore. That would be a very unfortunate result of trying to do good.

[37:36]

So you have to be careful of that because if you see something that you think is good and you want to do what you think is good and you do what you think is good and it doesn't seem to lead to good results, if you then say, okay, I no longer will do what I no longer will do, I don't want to do what I think is good anymore because it doesn't lead to results I want, then I would say be careful of that. Be careful of that because actually you did a good thing by wanting to do good. Wanting to do good, it really is the intention that counts. When you give a present to somebody and they don't like it, the most important thing is that you wanted them to like it. Now, if you want them to like it and they don't like it, then it's possible that you can say, hey, what would you like? Or it's okay with me, you can return it. You know, or teach me what you do want. Because I actually do want to give you, I do want to give you something you would like. The intention is the most important thing.

[38:37]

The intention is the most important thing. And that's the definition of karma. Yes? Did you have your hand raised? Just stretching. Did you have your hand raised or just stretching? You feel strongly that your intentions are good, you think about it, you do what you think is the good thing, and then it's not received well, even though you still perceive it as a good thing. Yeah, that's pretty much the same as Carol's. Your name's Carol too, right? Yes. What? For example, if a person wants to give you something and wants you to like it, even if you don't like it. Well, wanting somebody to like something, that's not very wholesome. It's not for that person, but how do you respond if you're the person that's given that and keep being given things that you don't want and get offended if you don't want them? If you're given something that you don't want, okay? I'm not, but the other person is giving it to me. How do I respond to it?

[39:38]

So you're given something you don't want. I am given something. Right, and you don't want it, right? You're not wanting it is not karma. It's not karma if I give you something you don't want. If you've just eaten breakfast and I bring another breakfast to you, you're not wanting that. It's not karma. Then another scenario... Let me just tell you what the karma would be. The karma would be I bring the breakfast and you have an impulse to do something in response to me bringing you a breakfast that you don't want. But not wanting the breakfast is just you don't want it. You might even hate the idea of another breakfast. But let's just say you're not interested. Just make it simple. You're not interested. I don't want another breakfast. But still, you might think of an impulse. The impulse might be, I'd like, I kind of would wish, I would like to do something so that he won't bring me another breakfast anymore. You know? You might think of that. Then you might think now, What's the impulse?

[40:41]

The impulse might be to say something to him so he won't bring you a second breakfast anymore. It might be an impulse. Would that be a helpful impulse to say to him, you know, don't bring me breakfast anymore? You might look at that. Would that be beneficial? Well, it would be beneficial in some ways, like we wouldn't waste the food on extra breakfast. He wouldn't waste his time, and I wouldn't be subjected to this situation. So maybe it would be good to say, Something about that. Now, what way of saying that would be best? You know, well, probably in a way that, which leads us into the next aspect, which is right intention. Okay? Now, if you're trying to, instead of, instead of like what, so you're meditating now on what, you know, you're almost like creating an impulse. Shaping an impulse you have an impulse to do something you feel an impulse to do something to stop this extra breakfast being brought to you Then you can shape what kind of an impulse would be would be best now if you're better meditating on talking to people for a while and watching what happens when you talk to them certain ways and Seeing that we talk this way it leads to harmful results and you talk that way and it leads to beneficial results you might realize the kind of speech that would probably be good and

[42:03]

then basically you try to then think of what kind of speech would be beneficial. And then maybe when you see that kind of speech, then you try to say it that way. And your intention is, I think that would be good, and I want to do a speech karma which I think is good. Then you do it, and then sometimes it doesn't work. But again, you examined, you saw what you wanted to accomplish, you thought it would be good, you saw that speech would help it, you thought it would be good speech, you tried to do the good speech, and sometimes it doesn't work. But the whole process is wholesome of trying to do a good thing. Because again, when you try to do good and you fail, you learn. But if you try to do bad and you succeed, you don't learn. And also, if you try to do bad and you fail, you don't learn because when you try to do bad, you don't pay attention so much. You don't have to pay attention to do bad.

[43:08]

You can be really bad, really, really bad and pay no attention at all. But to do good, you understand you have to look to see if it is or not. And also, you care about whether you are successful. When you're bad, you don't care that much if you're successful. You say, well, I want to hurt people and I want to make sure I'm successful. Actually, I challenge that. I don't think we're so careful about, you know, whether we're successful in the bad things we do most of the time. Say, what about if you want to kill somebody and make sure they're dead? Yes. That's the difference between an impulse and a pervasive mood. I'm wondering if a pervasive emotional state of mind seems to be affecting all of your actions. I remember one day last week that I felt rather sad, just generally.

[44:18]

And I thought about it. And I thought, this is just a state of mind. I'm not necessarily a sad person. Yeah. And I tried to think, what, you know, what's this? And I recognized that it was a pattern of things on me sometimes. A pattern of sadness? A pattern of sadness. Mm-hmm. Yes. And I thought, today's a really good day. You know, I can't... It's too bad to let the size day be dominated by that pattern of sadness because... Now you're shifting, see? She's shifting from the sadness to you'll be too bad to let the day be dominated by the sadness. See, that's a different kind of thing. Yes? What I thought was important to me was really just to acknowledge that it wasn't just a state that I...

[45:18]

that identified that it was... that there was something beyond that, that it was just an emotional frame of mind that I had put on that day or that had come to me. Sadness is not something you put on, I would say. It's something that comes to you. Okay. But I would like to just discriminate between some different things you brought up. One is sadness. The other is Um, the other is thinking that it would be good not to be dominated by that sadness. That's a different kind of a thought from sadness. That's closer to an impulse. Like I have a sadness and I do not want my day to be dominated by the sadness. Or, and, or another, another kind of experience you had was there's sadness, but I don't have to be identified with that sadness. Okay. Which is related, I think, to... Could you follow that?

[46:21]

These different things? I think probably what she didn't say, which is related to, is she has some tendency to identify herself with the sadness. Okay? So there's several different things you're noticing there. Okay? You can be sad without identifying yourself with the sadness. You can be sad without thinking it would be good not to be sad. Or even you can be sad without thinking, I'd like to do something to not have the sadness be there or get away from the sadness. Okay? That impulse, the judgment that the sadness is not so good or would be better to be gone, that impulse, that judgment is not yet an impulse, not yet karma. Okay? Many people have a negative judgment about sadness. I think sadness is not negative. Sadness is a good thing. And also, I wouldn't recommend that you identify yourself with the sadness because the sadness is like a medicine. You know, like you're not an aspirin person.

[47:26]

You can be that, but, you know, you don't have to identify yourself with the medicine which your mind is offering you. Sadness is a medicine Not depression, but sadness is a medicine which relieves us from clinging to things that are already gone. And so a healthy mind produces sadness as an antidote to clinging to things that are gone. Sadness and grief I use personally pretty much synonymously. When you feel grief about something that's lost, it's because you haven't let go of it. When you feel sad, you feel sad about something that's gone, that you haven't let go of. Sometimes you don't know what thing you're holding on to that's gone. So sadness comes up. Your mind gives you this as an opportunity. If you feel the sadness, at some unconscious level, you let go of what you're holding on to, which isn't there.

[48:30]

It's not good for our mind to be holding on to things which are gone. The mind does not like it. It gets upset. It wants to move on. But it also can hold on to things which hold it back from living. Sadness comes up and says, feel this, and if you feel this, we can move on. Okay, so sadness is fine. But people sometimes judge against sadness, and then based on that judgment against the sadness, they give rise to the impulse to eliminate the sadness. That impulse to eliminate the sadness, to do something to limit the sadness, like drink, alcohol, or get really busy, or beat up somebody, or whatever, those impulses to eliminate or distract or get away from the sadness, now those, that's karma. Identifying the sadness is, I would say, you know, not necessary, but I wouldn't get too heavy with it. Huh? Huh? No.

[49:32]

Identifying with the sadness is not karmic. Identifying the sadness is just a kind of confusion, which, you know, one could entertain. But it's not karmic yet. If you identify with the sadness, that might set up the karma. Like you say, here's sadness. Like I can feel sad and not think I'm a sad person. In fact, that's my case. I do feel sad sometimes, and I don't think I'm a sad person. When I feel sad, I basically say, feel it. Hey, Reb, feel it. And I usually go right to work on it and feel it all the way to the bottom, and then I'm like fresh as a daisy. I did my thing. I felt the feeling that I was supposed to feel. When you're sad, you're supposed to feel it. I don't think I'm a sad person. I think I'm a happy person because I just now I felt my sadness and I'm ready to go back to like living my life. I'm not a sad person. But if you do associate yourself with your sadness, and I would say, excuse me for saying so, but if you have, if you're really a heavy clinger and you cling to a lot of stuff that's like passing through your life, you know, you're clinging to a lot of stuff that's gone.

[50:45]

and everybody's got stuff that's gone, you know, but you're heavy into clinging, then you've got to have a lot of sadness to go with that clinging. And some people are really heavy clingers, so they've got to spend a lot of time being sad. That's the word, that's the price. Now, to identify yourself with being sad, that might make you feel like, I don't want to be a sad person. So then you might say, then that would set up, that would set up then the karma. I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to get a new dress, which isn't that bad a karma, actually. It supports various industries and so on. It's actually a pretty wholesome response if you're going to try to avoid sadness. But the better response is, I got sadness. I don't want to be a sad person. I'm just going to feel the sadness and forget about this being a sad person's business and just get over it. That would be a more wholesome impulse. But the impulse to do something about the sadness, that's the karma.

[51:48]

The sadness is not karma. Pervasive moods are not karma. When you have a pervasive mood, or even not a pervasive mood, but just a little twinkling mood, but you wanted to have an impulse to change it or manipulate it, that impulse to do something about it is basically karma. And then to say something or physically do something to do it, that's karma. And it could be wholesome or unwholesome, depending on whether you think, whether it seems like the impulse would be beneficial to you and others, or whether you think it would be unbeneficial. And to be able to see that an impulse, to be able to see an impulse at all is a result of beneficial karma, or just flat-out enlightenment. To be able to see an impulse at all, and then to be able to wish to do good is the result of good. To wish to do bad is not the result of good, it's the result of bad. But to be able to see that you wish to do bad is the result of good.

[52:49]

And then to not only see that impulse to do bad and not want to do the impulse of bad, even though the impulse is there, and as soon as the impulse is there, you've already done wholesome, the karmic thought is there, but not wanting to act it out further is the result of good karma. The more good karma you do, Easier it is to do good karma, and easier it is to observe and restrain and not act out on bad karma. Suze? Why is identifying with the sadness not karma? Isn't that... It's just identifying with the sadness is just a... What do you call it? It's just a... a cognitive mood, move, you know, that you associate the self with the sadness. That's not an action. But doesn't it have volition? Isn't there some motivation behind it? If you want, no, if you say, I would like to associate myself with the sadness and make myself into a sad person, then that would be a volition.

[53:55]

But just the association of two elements in your mind is not karma. For example, to feel a pain and to associate it with an object is not karma. But for the whole mind to be shaped around that pain and then to want to get rid of that pain and associate it with that object and do something with that object, then the whole mind, all the different elements start to coordinate it around this particular sensation and to do something about it. And if you looked at the mind, you see that's the overall tendency of the mind. That's the karma of the mind. That's the... intention that's the direction of the mind but just to make an association of the mind might not be the direction of the mind like i might i might associate you with a feeling and i could go in a number of different directions from that association the direction is the karma the association is just part of the landscape that sets up the impulse and sometimes the association of self and impulses

[54:57]

leads to a state of mind where you don't see any clear direction at all. Sometimes the same association could lead to a clear impulse. Sometimes in the same person, sometimes it could lead to a clear impulse towards evil, harmful, sometimes towards good, helpful. The association is in karma. Karma is a big, heavy, clear inclination of the whole state, your whole experience at the moment. That's why you can see it. That's why it's possible to actually see this, to learn to see this. Did you want to finish that? Yes? Well, yeah, because I actually had a sort of a complicated question. Yes. Okay. Okay. So does that mean that if you ever see an impulse, it's automatically a karmic action that you're visualizing? That any action that has an impulse proceeding with it, it's karmic? First of all, the impulse itself is mental karma.

[55:59]

Already it's karma. That's the basic, that's the source of all karma, is the shape of your mind. Yes. But even if you don't walk across the room, even if you don't say anything, if your mind has a clear shape, that's already karma. That's already a mental act. Mental acts do count in our life. And mental acts precede physical karma. They do not precede all physical activity. For example, the example of tapping your knee. The reflex is not preceded by the thought to move my leg. karma karma is always is basically the inclination of your mind the tendency of your mind that's the that's the root of all karma and karma comes in these three types mental verbal and physical and all physical and verbal are preceded by mental but not all speech is karmic which means not all speech is preceded by an intention if you just poke somebody and they go ah

[57:12]

That's not necessarily, they didn't have the intention to do that necessarily. And therefore that would not be preceded by the intention to make that sound. And it wouldn't count as karma. And you don't evolve spiritually up or down from going, huh, huh, huh, from, you know, from various touches and so on that happen to you. Like, you know, and we're sometimes that way. Sometimes, but sometimes people do make those sounds with an intention. to please or something. Somebody touches you and you go, ah, and your intention is to express that you appreciate them touching you. Okay? But then there was the impulse of, oh, they touched me, I probably should, you know, should express appreciation if I want them to do it again, or, you know, if I don't want them to get upset, you know, all that stuff. Then this is karma. How are you doing? You have a lot more questions? Well, good. This is complicated stuff. We're trying to learn this is a very complex field.

[58:14]

This is the field, this karmic field is the field in which we generate the entire world. This is how we make the world. We make the world in this way. So it is complicated, but you can learn it is built on very simple building blocks moment by moment. And there's a lot of moments, so we can build a whole world very quickly. So I think it's James Erwan and Daniel. This morning I was on the phone and I had a very clear, strong impulse to say something. Yes. But I stopped myself thinking that that would not be good. Yes. And that was also a very clear, strong impulse that blocked the first action. So it was like two separate shapes really quickly in a row. Yeah, you could say that was two separate shapes. Or you could say it was just an impulse and seeing this is not good and just letting it drop.

[59:18]

Or you could make it into... It was difficult to control. I had to keep paying attention. The impulse stayed there, actually. I would say check it out. I think really impulses don't stay. Impulses don't stay. I don't think they stay. They happen very fast, and then they change into another one. That could be very similar, but the impulses do not last very long. These mental impulses are very fast. But since they're yours, you have a chance to see them. But to say that it stays means you maybe had 50 in a row. They're basically the same thing, you know? Basically the same impulse. And the context is changing a little bit. You know, you're getting older, but basically they're repetitive. It's repetition rather than staying. And then you can have another impulse, which is high intensity. Another impulse, the impulse is to not say this. And then the impulse is, you could say, and then you could say, and I am not, and then you could say, and it is good, it is a good thing not to say this, and now I'm going to do not saying this.

[60:31]

So sometimes being silent is something you do. You feel that way. I'm going to not say that. So that's intentional, karmic, that's an intention, and then your speech aligns up with that intention of not saying that thing you thought would be unhelpful. So all those impulses are karmic? All those impulses are karmic. That is what karma is. It's not like there's this thing called karma over there and these impulses qualify as karma. That is karma. That is mental karma. Impulses are the definition of mental karma. Impulses are... And karma is looking at impulses in terms of... Karma is when you look at your mind in terms of action. When you look at your mind in terms of action, you call your impulses karma. If you want to define your karma, see what kind of karma you have, it's the shape of your mind. Erwin? Yeah, one way I noticed it, that sort of how my mind, you talked about how the mind gets sort of set in a certain direction, or I forget how you phrased it.

[61:42]

But one way that my mind certainly is, and I think for a lot of people, is it's sort of driven, like driven for achievement, driven for perfection, like a got to get there kind of goal thing. So we're talking about this conversation of karma, and sort of the impulses that arise in my mind are impulses to sort of get all this, learn all this, and then arrive at some perfect state of enlightenment. Right. So, can I say something? Yeah. The driven quality of our being, being driven is not karma. Being driven, however, can set up certain impulses. Having an overall sense of wanting to improve yourself is basically greed, you know. Or you could say avoiding, you know, not being good. These kinds of impulses These kinds of tendencies, or I shouldn't say tendencies, impulses, but these kinds of qualities, of emotional qualities, they set up the action, which is, I want to do this, I want to say this.

[62:56]

Calm is more the result of the kind of driven nature of a person. Because you can be generally driven, and your drivenness can manifest in all kinds of individual acts. individual mental impulses, like, I want to study this, or I want to work there, or I want to say this, or whatever. Okay, so this really is my question, like, what is this driven nature? So you're saying driven nature is actually not karma, that just to be a human being is to be a driven beast. You're just driven. Because for me, I'm just driven. Period. And I sort of have it that I'd like not to be driven. Because you see that the drivenness leads to suffering. Right. But the drivenness, you're saying, isn't karma. Right. The drivenness is more like... There's three kinds of drivenness. Confused drivenness. Angry drivenness. and greedy drivenness.

[63:58]

That's the way it manifests. And the drivenness comes from basic delusion, self-concern, based on believing that I'm individual. Once you think you're an individual, you're basically driven. Once you think you're a separate individual, you're basically driven to fix, to make things work for this individual which you feel you've got to take care of. When you're an individual that's cut off from the support of the entire universe, then you've got to take care of yourself or get other people to take care of you, rather than realizing they're already taking care of you, otherwise you wouldn't be here. So, first is number one, and this is, again, right view. Okay, right view, when you develop right view, you start to see, because of ignorance, There is karma. Ignorance of what? Ignorance that I'm not independent of other people. When I ignore that I'm independent, then I think my individuality is something I made up by myself. Now that I'm an individual that I made up by myself and I'm isolated from other people, I've got to protect myself.

[65:05]

I've got to do things for myself and my friends. I've got to do it. I'm driven to do it. Based on that ignorance and that delusion, now I do karma. So ignorance manifests in these different kinds of delusion, greed, hate, and delusion. That then leads to karma. Karma then leads to results. Results come back to me, boom. To me, cut off, isolated me, independent me, boom. Now I got to do something, come back to the delusion, this delusive, deluded, confused, isolated delusion. Imaginary person was cut off from everybody, was ignorant of his inner dependence. Now I have to do more karma, get to more results, which drive me to do more karma. So you're driven before you do the karma, and then you do the karma, and then the karma results drive you to do more. So round and round you go. That's the cycle. Okay, I think I understand that. So greed isn't karma. Greed's not karma, no.

[66:06]

But greed fuels impulses to get stuff for the person. But delusion can also fuel impulses to get rid of negative things or to do harm to beings which are threatening this person who's cut off from that person. And the actions, the impulses fueled by delusion, greed, and hatred. Those impulses of the mind, the tendencies of the mind, that's the karma. So when you meditate on karma, which is the grossest thing, karma is the grossest. It's the big, chunky quality of the mind. It's the easiest thing to see. I shouldn't say easiest, but it includes the whole smear of the mind. All the different elements of the anger, the confusion, The lack of self-respect or the presence of self-respect, the faith, the concentration, the diligence or lack of diligence, the honesty or dishonesty, all those different elements of mind are kind of like, they're the shape of the mind.

[67:16]

The karma kind of incorporates the overall picture of all that's going on. So if you start, what we're doing first of all is we're saying, meditate on, become aware that your mind has an overall shape. That overall shape includes all the little elements. So tune into the overall shape and then notice that that overall shape has consequences. And notice how the consequences come back to the person you thought could do it and how that's a cycle. Notice that. As you turn into the cycle of delusion, karma, results, back to you, results of karma, delusion, more karma, results, coming back to you, responding to you, into the cycle and notice the cycle, then gradually you can start to notice the details of the cycle. And you can notice the details like independent self, I don't think I'm, you know, blah, blah, blah, pain, blah, blah, blah. You start to notice the details and gradually things start to change by your enlightenment in this process.

[68:19]

I think Daniel was next. Jerry, I'm trying to make sure I get this right. No myth out there. So my question, Brad, is... I've heard you talk about karma before and, like, you should do good karma even though it's still karma, at least for karma. Is that...? If you're going to do karma, it's recommended to do good karma. Good karma is not sufficient to become liberated from the cycle of karma. But if you're involved in doing it, if you're involved in the world of karma, try to learn how to do, as much as possible, good karma. Because good karma sets up the possibility of understanding karma. If you can understand karma, you can become free of karma. But being in a chain of karmic effects, good karma, leading to effect, coming back to you, having to do more good karma...

[69:23]

The effects of good karma come back to you and you have to do good karma now. So you're going to chain, you're chained up to do good karma. And we're telling you, do good karma. You say, well, okay, I don't want to be chained into doing good karma. Well, I'll do some bad karma then. Well, yeah, that's, you know, please be patient, you know. If you just keep doing good karma long enough, eventually you'll start to understand it. No, I'm sick of doing good karma. I don't want to do it anymore, you know. Good karma is still not sufficient to get you out of this cycle of birth and death. Because good karma is still based on delusion that you're an independent operator. That's not true. That's miserable. We're always unhappy, uneasy, insecure, and frightened, and anxious as long as we're independent. We're not happy, really. But relatively speaking, you're much happier to do good karma as an independent operator than bad. But the most important thing about good karma is that good karma sets up the ability to study karma. The most important thing is to study karma, and good karma is the kind of karma that makes that possible.

[70:26]

If you can study karma, you can become free of it. If you can become free of it, then you're going to really be happy. So yeah, if you're going to do karma, do good karma, but don't wait too long to start studying it because you might get sick of doing good karma and switch back to bad karma, and then you're going to totally blow your chance at practicing. So do good karma now and start practicing as soon as possible. So in this class, I'm not emphasizing doing good karma. I'm just sort of saying I hope you got doing good karma. I'm sending you right to work on studying it. If you don't have enough good karma, you're not going to be able to do the assignment. So then do some good karma so you can do the assignment. So could you say shortly what karma is as a recommended practice is? Can you say that again? What karma is? What karma is and what recommended practice is? Karma is the overall kind of inclination of a moment of consciousness. It's the shape of your mind. It's the watershed of your mind.

[71:27]

That's what karma is. originally. That's mental karma. Physical karma is in the shape of your voice and the shape of your body. Okay. And the practice is to meditate on, to try to see what the shape of your mind is, to see how it does or does not lead to verbal and physical ramifications of that, to watch the consequences of that and see how the consequences come back to you. Study that process. That's the beginning of developing right view. To see all that, okay. To meditate on karmic cause and effect. Okay. I'd be able to identify... The teaching is karma has a result. But how are you going to see that? Rather than just say, okay, yeah, I agree. To actually observe that here's karma, there's the result, and it comes back to me. Here's me, there's my mind, here's me, this is the impulse, This is the consequence. The result comes back to the one who could have that thought. The result comes back to the one who could do that speech.

[72:30]

The result comes back to the one who could do that posture. This is how it works. When it's wholesome, it goes off in this direction and brings me back unhappiness. When it's unwholesome, it goes this way and comes back and brings me unhappiness. This is the process. This is what I'm studying. This is how you develop right view. Now what I want to tell you now is, you know, I thought maybe we were going to get to right intention, which is the next phase, but we didn't get too far into right intention, which is okay. But right intention is what comes as you start to study the process of karma, as you study your intentions, and watch how your intentions, which way they're going, and how when they go different ways, it leads to different results. As you start to understand this, your intention starts to modify itself. your intention starts to evolve from studying how your intention works. When you start to see, to understand that this kind of intention leads to unwholesome, leads to negative results, this kind of intention leads to positive results, this kind of intention leads to indeterminate results, as you start to see that, your intention starts to modify and evolve.

[73:40]

It evolves from the information that you get, from the feedback, but it also evolves from the actual just paying attention. So you get better at paying attention and you get more convinced about the kind of intention that you want to be involved in. You get more convinced of the kind of intention you want to put into speech and action, speech and posture, and you get more convinced about the kind of intentions, the kind of impulses you do not want to put into speech and do not want to put into action. the more you see, this is the kind of intention that's unwholesome, I do not want to speak it and act it, and the more you follow that, again, the more your intention evolves in the direction of not wanting, of not happening that way, and vice versa. And also, the more you do this, The better your meditation gets at watching this, the better meditation gets at watching this, the better your intention becomes. So the meditation and the intention start to co-evolve so you get better at paying attention and having better intentions and better inclinations and better impulses.

[74:44]

And then the better impulses lead to better meditation. And the better meditation not only leads to better impulses, but leads to clearer vision of all that's made up of the impulses and how it all works until you're better and better start to see and understand the whole picture. Okay? But it's getting late and this class is too short. I'm sorry. It breaks. We only have so much time to study. So please, continue this meditation and watch and see if you're... You know, in one week, it's possible, in one week you can see that actually your intentions may start to evolve and your attention or your meditation, your ability to observe this might evolve and how the evolution of the ability to pay attention modifies the intention. And as the intention modifies, your ability to pay attention modifies.

[75:48]

So they pull each other up. Or, if you don't do it much, you may see, well, not much change. Probably won't get worse. If you look at all, probably won't get worse. But if you look a lot, if you really concentrate on this, you can learn a lot in one week. Really. So, I'm sorry I didn't get to answer all your questions tonight, but I think we should just be quiet for a little while before we stop, okay? And I also brought you a little chart of basic teachings of karma which you can...

[76:23]

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