So as you remember, perhaps, there's been a lot of encouragement to study each moment, as much as possible, each moment of karmic consciousness
There's been a lot of encouragement to look inward at the karmic mind, the mind where there is a sense of self, some sense of self, some appearance of self, and all kinds of feelings and images and ideas and emotions
And overall, the overall pattern of each moment is what's called the intention of that moment or the volition.
And that is the definition of the karma of the moment.
And studying this karma,
in the present, attending to it, paying attention to it, compassionately wondering about it, and opening to it, and attending to it, and remembering it, all that
That work is the basis for wisdom.
And I say it's the basis because this kind of study, if it's not done together with a calm mind, it's not yet wisdom.
However, this kind of study which is being encouraged now is the support and basis for wisdom because this is the type of attention which when conjoined with a tranquil state of body and mind is wisdom.
So I haven't said this before, but now I say it again.
that this study sets the stage for insight work.
And insight work means looking at the same material, but in a state of tranquility.
So we also need to be doing some quiet, silent, and unmoving
meditation.
And that type of meditation where we give up, we let go of actually the karma that's going on in the moment.
We let go of the karma that's going on in the moment.
We let go of the pattern of thinking and that comes to fruit as tranquility.
So we can actually study the karmic consciousness in great detail and come to see it more and more clearly.
And then do the same thing
once we have calmed down and relaxed in body and mind.
And then we can see more deeply into the same material of study.
So I put this out at the beginning, and also I discussed this quite a bit in The Third Turning of the Wheel, because the Samdhirna Mochana Sutra, which that book comments on, teaches
First of all, to study the dharma.
In this case, study the dharma, the teaching about the dharma, the dharmic event of karma.
To study those things.
Then, to enter into tranquility.
Then, give up tranquility, where we just let the karmic consciousness go, and then study the karmic consciousness in tranquility.
That's where the insight is born.
So you may have more questions about this later.
I just wanted to put that out at the beginning.
Also, I said this before, I want to say again, that in this great classical work on Abhidharma,
which means higher dharma, Abhidharmakosha, which means treasury of higher dharma.
There's a chapter called The World, and it talks about the worlds of living beings, basically six worlds of living beings, and also talks about the world, the insentient world,
So the first world's called, excuse the Sanskrit, Satpaloka, it's the realm of living beings.
And the other world is called the Bajamaloka, which I enjoy, sounds like pajama loka.
Anyway, that's the receptacle world.
The container world.
For example, it's the world we share, which is the world of color, sound, smells, tastes, touches.
Like for example, now we're sharing this screen.
This screen is part of the container world for each of us and all of us.
Each of us has a room too, that also is the container world.
the walls, the colors, the textures, the smells, the sounds.
That's the container world.
That's what that chapter three of the Abhidharmakosha is about.
And then at the beginning of the next chapter, it starts off with the question, from where does this world arise?
And the answer is that this world arises from the karma of living beings.
So the world of living beings, the world of each of us as a living being arises from my karma and your karma and the karma of all living beings from beginningless time.
The karma of all of us gives rise to each of us and all of us.
To each of each of us living beings and all of us living beings.
arise from the karma of living beings.
Also, the physical world arises from the karma of living beings.
The land, the mountains, the rivers, the water, the temperature of the planet,
the colors, the sounds, the smells, the tastes and the tangibles, they arise from the karma of all of us.
Our karma, moment by moment, every moment of karma leads to consequences.
And the consequence of an individual's karma is interwoven
with the karma of other individuals' karma.
So the way I am made and the way that you are made is an inconceivably complex confluence of streams of causation, interwoven and mutually affecting each other.
All of us are responsible for everybody else and ourselves.
All of us have contributed to the birth of every living being, human and non-human.
All of us, through our karma, have contributed to that.
None of us, like I have not made all of you all by myself, but I have contributed my karma
The karma of this consciousness has, from the time it arose, been contributing to all of you, even to those of you who have not yet been born.
This karmic consciousness has contributed to your life, and it continues to.
and your life, and particularly the karma of your life has contributed to my sentient existence.
And also, we have all contributed to the physical world in which we live, in which we share.
So I am responsible for everybody and everything
but not all by myself.
I'm responsible together with all living beings for all living beings and the entire Earth.
And more than the Earth, the entire universe.
And the entire universe and all the beings are responsible for me.
And nobody's
got a, what do you call it, a monopoly on the responsibility.
And nobody is in control of the creation of the world.
So also in the Abhidharmakosha, it says, when it says, by whom or what are the varieties of worlds
of sentient beings and the variety of the receptacle world of insentient universe created.
Okay, did you get that question?
By whom and by what are the varieties of world of living beings and the variety of the non-insentient container world created?
And the first response to that is, not by God.
So in Buddhism,
We don't say that God creates the world.
In Buddhism, we create the world.
All of us, we create the world.
There's God, and there could be gods too, and they also maybe can, they can contribute, but not one God creating the world.
Innumerable, incalculable numbers of living beings,
from incalculable time create the worlds of living beings.
So we're all responsible and nobody's in control.
We are constantly moment by moment contributing to each other's life and to the world we live in.
And the world we live in is, and all the beings we live with are contributing to our life.
So we are making contributions, we are responsible.
And the point of this assembly is that if we study the place where we make our contribution, which is our karmic consciousness, if we study it and practice with it, then our contribution is beneficial.
Every moment we can make a beneficial contribution to all beings in the entire world.
And every moment some people are not paying attention, are not studying their consciousness, are not practicing with it, and therefore their contribution is harmful, to say the least.
It's either neutral or harmful.
It's not beneficial if they're not studying it.
Every moment we don't study, it's either neutral, it's not making a positive contribution, or it's making a negative contribution.
So it is, if we wish to benefit, if we wish to make a beneficial contribution to all beings in this world of suffering,
If we wish to make a beneficial contribution to a world where people are being terrorized and traumatized and murdered.
If we wish to make a positive contribution to the world, we need to study this karmic consciousness.
We need to attend to it.
We need to be its friend.
It's constant companion.
Well, if not constant anyway, it's companion.
And eventually it's constant companion.
Every moment we are good friends with this consciousness, the world is positively transformed.
The physical world and the living world is positively transformed.
Every moment of loving kindness and compassion and study of consciousness transforms the world positively.
This is what I think.
And how that works is, again, by each of us making a contribution with others.
So how my contribution is influenced by your contribution, my contribution is modified by your contribution, and all of our contributions are modified by many, many, many other beings, some of whom are not
doing what is necessary in order to make the best possible contribution, or even not even the best, but a good contribution.
This is a teaching from the Abhidharma from the early Buddhist tradition in India, Abhidharmakosha.
And then later,
there comes these great vehicle teachings, these great vehicle scriptures.
And one I'd like to bring up is the flower adornment scripture, the great, huge, magnificent flower adornment scripture.
And in that scripture, there is a chapter called the formation of worlds.
Now, in the Abhidharmakosha, they talk about the formation of the worlds of sentient beings, and those worlds of sentient beings are created by sentient beings.
But in the sutra, it says also that there are worlds created by sentient beings, but it also talks about worlds that are created by sentient beings that are bodhisattvas.
and Buddhas, they also, with their practice, are creating worlds.
But those worlds are not the worlds we can see.
Those are spiritual realms that they're creating.
And those spiritual realms also affect our world.
So we are not only experiencing the results of all sentient beings, but we're also experiencing the results of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas practice.
So the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas practice is bringing the Dharma into our karmic consciousness.
The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas worlds surround our sentient world.
our physical world, and they send dharma light into our karmic consciousness, and the dharma light says, please study this consciousness.
If you wish to be benefited or benefit, please study this consciousness.
Now, I said last week that I was gonna bring up a sutra, which is called in Pali, Satipatthana Sutra, and sati means mindfulness, and patthana means either translated as foundations, but also could translate it as frame, four frames for mindfulness.
So for me, these four frames are four frames for studying karmic consciousness.
And at the beginning of this scripture, the Buddhist says to the monks, monks, this is the direct path.
Monks, this is the direct path.
And in some translations it says,
Monks, this is the only path.
Monks, this is a direct path for the purification of beings, sentient beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of nirvana.
namely the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
So this text does not mention that these Four Foundations of Mindfulness are the direct path to Buddhahood.
In the early teachings, the teachings seem to be mostly for
personal liberation from suffering and personal attainment of nirvana and freedom, which the Buddha was happy to do.
And the people heard the teaching and studied karmic consciousness, and they became free of suffering, and they realized nirvana.
Later, Buddha's disciples
discovered another way of doing this study, which is not just to personally attain freedom from suffering and nirvana, but to attain Buddhahood so that we can help others be free and attain Buddhahood.
So it's a little bit different, but still, these frames are very good.
So again, and what are the frames?
The first frame is contemplating body as the body.
Contemplating body as a body.
Contemplating, that's the first frame.
Second frame, contemplating feelings as feelings.
Third frame,
contemplate consciousness as consciousness.
And fourth frame, contemplate the objects, the dharmas, the objects of consciousness, or the objects in consciousness as the objects in consciousness.
So the third one again is contemplate consciousness as consciousness.
And each of these frames, to do it
ardently, clearly, mindfully, giving up greed and hatred in that study.
So I would suggest to you, in the context of our study, that contemplating the body
as body is contemplating the body that's appearing in karmic consciousness as the body that's appearing in karmic consciousness.
So I can see these hands, contemplating these hands as these hands.
I'm contemplating these hands
and these hands are appearing to the karmic consciousness.
There are some other hands that are not appearing in karmic consciousness, but I can't contemplate them in karmic consciousness because they're not appearing there.
And the sounds and smells and tastes and touches are also the body.
the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the skin, or the body.
And the images of them and a sense of them appears in karmic consciousness.
So part of learning how to study karmic consciousness is to study
the body as the body, to study the seeing as the seeing, to study the hearing as the hearing, to study the smelling as the smelling, to study the tasting as the tasting.
Did I get five of them?
Studying the seeing, the hearing, the smelling, the touching and the tasting,
is studying karmic consciousness as the body.
The Buddha also says that the monk, when walking, when walking, the monk is aware.
I think he says, I am walking.
When walking, the monk understands, I am walking.
When standing, the monk understands, I am standing.
When sitting, the monk understands, I am sitting.
And I would suggest considering a modification of the Buddhist teaching, which is,
When there's standing, there's awareness, there is standing.
When there's sitting, there is awareness, there is sitting.
Or when standing, there is awareness, this is standing.
Or there is standing.
When sitting, there is awareness, there is sitting.
When walking, there is awareness, there is walking.
When reclining, there is awareness, there is reclining.
So in the sutra, the Buddha says, when we are standing, we are aware, I am standing.
But in this case, I would suggest to you that the Buddha is speaking in colloquial terms for people who are not very necessarily well educated.
So we can do either.
When we're standing, we can say, I am standing, but we can also do when we're standing.
There is standing.
There is sitting.
There is sitting.
There is sitting.
Clearly aware.
There is sitting.
Clearly aware.
There is sitting.
Mindful, ardent, ardent.
there is sitting.
Ardent, remember.
Remembering there is sitting when sitting.
Remember there is walking when walking.
This is, in some sense, the easiest way to start contemplating karmic consciousness.
Next more subtle is contemplating feelings
as feelings.
So in this case, the feelings are positive, negative, and indeterminate or neutral feelings.
So when there is negative feeling, there is awareness.
There is negative feeling.
There is mindfulness.
There is negative feeling.
There is ardent attention to
the negative feeling.
Can you see that this is looking at karmic consciousness?
Because every karmic consciousness has feeling in it.
Next, contemplating consciousness as consciousness.
And of course, when there's consciousness, which is always,
There is awareness.
This is consciousness.
This is consciousness.
This is consciousness.
This is consciousness.
Ardent, mindful, steady, clear.
This is mindfulness.
This is consciousness.
And also, backing up a little bit with the feeling.
When there's a feeling, this is feeling, but also,
When there's negative feeling, this is a negative feeling.
This is a painful feeling.
When it's a positive feeling, this is a positive feeling.
When it's a neutral feeling, this is a neutral feeling.
For example, right now, I would say, I'm having a positive feeling.
There's a positive feeling.
There's awareness of a positive feeling.
But if there's negative feeling, the practice can go on with the frame of contemplating negative feeling as negative feeling.
This sets the stage for wisdom.
And then consciousness also.
There is consciousness, and the consciousness is unclear.
When the consciousness is unclear, there is mindfulness of unclear consciousness as unclear consciousness.
When the consciousness is clear, there is mindfulness of clear consciousness as clear consciousness.
When the consciousness is agitated, there's contemplation of the agitated consciousness.
When it's calm, contemplation of the calm.
So again, whether positive, negative, neutral, whether walking, sitting, standing, or reclining, whether agitated or calm, whether clear or unclear, the mindfulness practice can be there for whatever the consciousness is.
And then we move to the fourth foundation,
frame, which is looking at the mental factors in the consciousness in more detail.
So in karmic consciousness, there is always feeling.
But there's also many other mental events.
For example, there's a sense of self.
For example, there is a feeling of, there can be a feeling of appreciation.
There can be a feeling of lack of appreciation.
There can be a feeling, not a feeling, there can be a perception of a person and not appreciating that perception.
There can be anger at oneself
or at one's actions or at other people's self or actions.
There can be confusion.
There can be delusions.
For example, I told you about the delusions that the self in the consciousness is doing the activities of consciousness.
That's another, that's an example of an object of consciousness, an object of consciousness in consciousness.
So all those various elements that are in our karmic consciousness then can be looked at individually.
Now we can't look at it individually in each moment because, for example, if there's awareness of a negative feeling at that moment, of that moment of awareness of the feeling, the negative feeling being the negative feeling, that's the thing that's being mindful of at that moment.
But at the same time as that feeling, there could be anger.
But at the moment that we're letting in the feeling, there's just feeling, we're not aware of the anger, even though it's present.
But in a later moment, we can be aware of the anger.
And in the anger, be aware of, in the anger, just the anger.
And confusion, there can be awareness of confusion.
But when we're aware of confusion, at that moment, we're not aware of feelings,
or delusions or anger.
So yeah, so this is the foundation of mindfulness in the details of the karmic consciousness.
And in that picture there, we get a better sense of what are called the intention, where we can see more of the elements
we can see more of what the karma is.
When we're looking at a feeling, as a feeling, it's hard to see the overall pattern of the consciousness.
When we're looking at a posture, as a posture, it's harder to see the pattern of the consciousness.
When we're looking at consciousness as consciousness, and we see that it's unclear, well then the karma is unclear.
But if we see it's clear, we still don't see the direction necessarily, we just see that it's clear.
But when we look at the elements in the karmic consciousness, the fourth foundation, then we can see the shape and the karmic quality and the moral quality of the consciousness.
So that's what the sutra is encouraging
And yeah, so I think that's enough.
And I think you have lots of questions perhaps on how to do this for foundations of mindfulness.
You probably have also questions about the formation of the world and so on.
But again, and also in addition to the formation of the world, I suggested that the way the world is formed
is by the incredibly complex interweaving of all of our karmic streams, both contributing to and being contributed to.
Okay, I'm ready for anything you want to offer.
I mean, I think I'm ready.
I have that thought in my conscience that I'm ready.
Let's observe if I am.
Okay, I see some yellow hands.
Rosie.
I was asked to unmute myself.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Peter.
Peter.
Yes.
Peter, Peter.
I'm not there.
Yes, Peter.
Okay.
Anyway, it's wonderful to be here.
I'm very grateful to be
in this virtual space with you in the Great Assembly.
Do you see some gratitude in the karmic consciousness?
Yes.
Gratitude can appear in karmic consciousness.
I wanted to ask about your use of the word intention and intentionality.
So, at the beginning of the, I think all three of our previous sessions, when we entered our silent time, you asked us to
observe the intentionality in consciousness.
And I even think it, I'm pretty sure at one point you said something about it.
What is the motivation?
Maybe I imagined it, but I thought you didn't.
No, I did.
I did.
Okay, good.
And so that's a big part of how I think of intentionality is motivation.
And so this, this, I was doing that today, even though you hadn't brought it up.
And I was seeing my motivation to, to calm
to have my consciousness calm down and become clearer and less full of whatever was going on inside of it.
And then later today, when you were talking about intentionality, you spoke of intention as the whole karmic consciousness, that all of it together is the intention of that moment.
It's not so much the whole of it.
The whole of the karmic consciousness is the whole karmic consciousness, but the intention
is the pattern of the karmic consciousness.
So different, every moment has a whole karmic consciousness, and every moment has a shape, but the karmic consciousness is the shape of the moment.
So some karmic consciousnesses, for example, have an intention to calm down.
Others have an intention to get more excited.
So the shape of those two different consciousnesses is different.
In both cases, the whole of the karmic consciousness is there.
But in one case, the shape is sort of simplified.
In your case, the shape is towards calming down.
The other case, the shape is towards getting more excited.
So it's the kind of the motivation is the motivation, the intention, the shape,
I often sometimes use the expression, the watershed, the way water would run through that consciousness.
That's the karma.
That's the activity of the consciousness.
I'm wondering then about the relationship between my intention or this intention of calming down or whatever, and the
is that what's the relationship between that and then the intention or the pattern of the entire karmic consciousness of which I don't know that I'm directly in touch with the collective intentionality.
I only am aware of my own sort of what, how do I get that relationship or identity?
Other people's karmic consciousness.
Yeah, kind of an inclusive, not like any individuals, but the inclusive.
Yeah, it is not called karmic consciousness.
I see.
So each living being has a karmic consciousness.
OK, and each living being's karmic consciousness is influenced by all other karmic consciousnesses that I see.
Yeah.
And.
Each
individual karmic consciousness influences other karmic consciousnesses.
The way that all works is not a karmic consciousness.
The way the karmic process works is dependent co-arising.
The shape of my consciousness is a dependent co-arising, but the shape of my consciousness cannot
express or typify the incomprehensible process of dependent co-arising by which this consciousness arose, and by which this consciousness contributes to the arising of all other consciousnesses.
But the way the whole process works is called dependent co-arising.
And the Buddha discovered this total way that all the karmic consciousnesses work together
and give rise to each other and influence each other and are influenced by each other.
That total relationship among all karmic consciousness is not karmic consciousness.
It is the Dharma, which the Buddha discovered.
And when you see that Dharma, you see Buddha.
Buddha is the discovery of that Dharma.
And Buddha is not
a karmic consciousness.
Buddha is the relationship between all karmic consciousnesses, how they are mutually creating each other and created by each other.
And that's not a karmic consciousness, but it embraces and understands each karmic consciousness and the relationship among all karmic consciousnesses.
And also it understands how the world arises
from the relationship among all these karmic consciousnesses, and how these karmic consciousnesses arise from relationship with the world.
Thank you for that clarification.
So for now, I'm really concerned about Ukraine.
The world, it's really impacting me and influencing me and making me who I am, that I'm so concerned about the misery and horror of that part of the world.
It's really impacting me.
It's making me who I am.
But also, I have contributed to it together with all of you.
Okay?
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you for your question.
Hi, Reb.
Hello.
I'm very happy to report that I'm confused and I'm aware that I'm confused.
And last week you just were emphasizing what a great state confusion is.
And then this week... Confusion is a great state.
I'm saying studying it is a great state.
Okay.
Okay.
I somehow thought last week you said it's a good sign.
It's a good sign that you notice that you're confused.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
So yes.
It's a good sign that you're confused.
Okay.
All right.
And it's not a bad sign that you're confused.
It's just your opportunity.
Yeah.
All right.
That's how you're aware of it.
That's the Buddha way.
Right.
So two pieces that are vying for top confusion for me right now.
When you talk about, when you say karma is action, I think you said that.
I just don't know what that means.
It's the synonym.
But then you said today, we've contributed to all living beings by our karma.
By our action.
Like how, what actions have I had that have contributed to all beings throughout time on all universe?
I don't know.
I don't know what you mean.
Well, like have you, can you remember some, some actions in your consciousness during your lifetime?
Can you, like when you think of going to the toilet, that's it.
That thought is an action.
Yeah.
When you think of eating lunch, that thought is an action.
But how does that affect the rest of the world?
How does it?
Well, I would say it's inconceivable how you thinking of having breakfast influences me.
Right.
The teaching is your karma, the way you think.
If you think of benefiting me, that changes my life.
If you think of harming me, that changes my life.
What if I don't think about you at all?
That changes my life too.
Well, if you don't think about me at all, you think something else.
If you don't think of me, you think of your uncle.
Or you think of a tree.
When you think of a tree, that influences the whole world.
Can I say how?
Sure, you say how.
And for example, you just thought, you had this thought, can I say how?
Okay.
And then based on that thought, you said, can I say how?
And saying that changed my life.
But does it change the tree's life?
Yeah.
Wow, how?
I'm going to say how again.
Again, you can say how, but I started with something that maybe you could see a little bit.
It's pretty clear that when you ask me a question, my life changes.
Can you see that?
Yeah, yeah, right.
Some things you can see.
Right.
You can see how I'm changed by the questions you give me.
Yeah.
And then when I answer, you're changed.
Yes.
You can see that.
Yeah.
So you're having trouble seeing how that affects the tree.
Yeah.
Okay.
But let's say we could make it easier.
We could say, I could tell you that I think trees are beautiful and wonderful.
And you might say, I agree with you.
And I could say to you, let's plant trees because we appreciate trees.
And our conversation based on our thinking and our karma
Our karma led to us having a conversation where we encourage each other to care for trees.
And then maybe we go out and plant some trees.
Like I plant trees.
The trees around this house have offspring.
And when their offspring get a certain size, I plant them.
And then when they get larger, I plant them in the ground.
So like there's 10 maple trees over at Noah Boad now that I planted and I planted them
because of my karma.
And the trees, do they know that I planted them?
I don't know if they know.
It's like, hey, thanks, Red, for planting us.
I don't know if they know that.
But you know that I did.
And that changes your life, that I planted the trees.
That I take care of a tree influences your life and everybody else's life.
Now, there's some things which maybe you can't see.
There's some effects of what you do that you can't see.
Yet there's still an effect of what you did.
You still have influences, even though you, like I often tell that story, you know, it's a long story, but it's that story about this friend of mine who said, you don't know how much you help people.
Remember that story?
And he told me a story that I did not know about,
about how I helped them.
But still, even though he told me about that story that I didn't know about, how I helped them, he thinks that he knows how I helped them.
But he doesn't know either.
So, you help me.
You help me.
But maybe sometimes you don't, I'm sorry to say.
It's possible.
When you do something, if you are not kind to somebody,
it very well might hurt me.
How?
Well, I might see it.
But even if I don't see it, it still might affect me.
I mean, it's not still might, it still will affect me.
So anyway, this text, the Abhidharma is for people who do not yet see dependent co-arising.
So the Buddha is saying, okay, let me tell you, I discovered it.
And everybody's influencing everybody.
And it's inconceivable.
And if you study your consciousness, which is conceivable, you can see conceptions are in your consciousness.
If you study this realm, your wisdom will grow.
And when wisdom grows, you will see how everything is influencing everything.
And that's why, since we're influencing everything, we probably would like our influence to be good.
Because if it's not, it's gonna come back to us, and it's gonna hurt the things we most care about, like the trees.
If I'm not kind to you, it's gonna hurt the trees.
If I am kind to you, it's gonna help the trees.
And you can make a conceivable version of that, is that I'm so kind to you, you just wanna go out and hug all the trees in a really beneficial way, and water them, and protect them.
Because you feel so full of gratitude
for how a human treated you.
So how humans treat each other, if humans benefit each other, if humans benefit each other, I say they then will be more likely to benefit trees.
If they don't benefit others, if people are mean to other people, then the people who are being abused might take it out on the trees.
Like some people, their parents are mean to them and then they go kick trees.
Or somebody might even cut a tree down because they can't fight back against their father, but they can hurt the tree.
But people who are treated kindly, again and again, they start to transmit the kindness.
So the kindness comes to me, and then it bounces off me to you, and bounces from you to the trees, and the trees back to me, and then me back to the trees.
It resonates.
between you and me and Rosie and John and Laurie and Barbara and Barbara Joan and Jeff and Homa and back from them to me and from them over to the trees and the trees back to them.
That's the, that's the realm of dependent co-arising which the Buddha discovered and was very happy about because seeing that realm, you become a Buddha.
That's very helpful.
I appreciate that.
And I know you've probably said it a million times.
You'll say it a million more.
I said it.
In this moment.
I never said it like this.
Thank you.
Okay.
Reb, would you just clarify again the difference between karma and karmic consciousness?
Karmic consciousness is where karma is living.
So each karmic consciousness lasts for a moment.
And in each moment, it has a pattern.
And that pattern is its action.
So it's an action, it's an activity to think, I'm gonna have breakfast.
And then from that activity of thinking you have a breakfast, you might have breakfast.
But even if you don't have breakfast, you still have thought.
And the thought is a mental action.
And that's the basic kind of karma.
And that's the source of physical postures and vocalizations.
So those three kinds,
of karma create all living beings and create the whole physical world.
Karma or three kinds of karmic consciousness?
Or three aspects of karmic consciousness?
They're three each.
So I'm having a karmic consciousness now and these physical movements are in karmic consciousness and are supported by karmic consciousness.
They're in karmic consciousness
and they are created by karmic consciousness.
And at the basis of them are the intentions that make these actions.
So there's three kinds of karma, which you could say are three kinds of karmic consciousness, yes.
Three kinds of karma being body, speech, and mind, and then three more qualities to karmic consciousness, wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.
So three kinds and three qualities.
Thank you so much.
You're so welcome.
Hi, Rep.
Hi, Marie.
I've been wondering about
What's the relationship between consciousness, karmic consciousness and awareness?
I use karmic consciousness.
That's when I use the word consciousness.
Okay.
The karmic consciousness.
There's other types of awareness.
For example, there's unconscious awareness.
which is the source or the support for karmic consciousness.
So if you turned off our unconscious process, we wouldn't have a karmic consciousness.
We'd be dead.
But you can turn off karmic consciousness and still have the unconscious awareness.
Like people can sleepwalk because their unconscious process is taking in the room
to walk and all that.
But their consciousness can be turned off.
But our consciousness, our karmic consciousness arises from our unconscious awareness.
And there's another kind of awareness, basically, which is called wisdom.
It's an awareness.
It's an awareness of, for example, great Buddha's wisdom.
It's an awareness of dependent co-arising.
It's not a consciousness in the sense of karmic consciousness.
But a lot of people call it a consciousness, but I don't call Buddha's wisdom consciousness.
Okay.
Consciousness does not reach Buddha's wisdom.
Buddha's wisdom is an awareness.
Okay.
And also karmic consciousness doesn't reach the unconscious process.
The unconscious process is way too vast and complex for karmic consciousness to access.
And sometimes when the karmic consciousness gets a glimpse of the unconscious, it passes out when it sees too much of it.
It's just total overload.
And I think myself that autism is in a case where people's karmic consciousness is too porous in relationship to the unconscious.
They get flooded with the incredible complexity of the unconscious awareness.
that you can't cope with at all.
And some people also, if you have too little access to the or input from the unconscious, if you have too little input from the unconscious awareness, you also will pass out or you know, not be conscious.
So too little you were unconscious and too much we go unconscious.
So when
I've heard people talk about like the big consciousness and the small consciousness.
I think referring to like the small consciousness being karmic consciousness.
So and the big consciousness being maybe they mean wisdom wisdom.
Maybe they maybe that's what they mean.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Welcome.
You're muted.
I guess.
Do you hear me now?
Yeah.
I guess I started my listening tonight with the intention of I'm going to listen to rep.
That was my intention.
And as I listened, and I'm just reporting what I heard.
Yes.
So that intention was also an action.
That intention was an action.
However, I still... Okay, here's where I define action versus mental decision.
I think what I was doing, that was more mental decision.
I would not call it an action.
So, to clarify the term now, are you calling the mental decision an intention?
The reason why I said intention was action, but a mental decision might not be an intention.
Intention still goes...
a little bit deeper than mental decision.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I would say it was more of a mental decision.
It was not intention.
It was a mental decision.
And the reason I said it was a mental decision is because at least I hear from outside, I still call it outside, I hear outside Rev telling, Rev speaking about
are the intention, what is the intention?
So the words are still for me, it's coming from outside in.
And then I take that words outside in, and then as I was listening, so I said, oh, here is my mental intention, and with my mental intention, all I heard more words.
More words, more definition, more confusion.
More words, more definition, more confusion.
And then I'm questioning, as I hear it, I'm questioning, are these more words, more definitions, more confusion, gets one to their actual sense of being, which is the state of I am and that you
You said you modified with awareness, that you're being aware.
So as long as one is not fully, I call it fully because there is a fullness, fully connected to your sense of being.
The words we're going to say, it's going to be all mental.
And that's why I see a lot of mental discussions versus being discussions, living discussions.
So when you are actually living, when I'm actually living in the state of living, I could totally see how everything is connected to everything.
I mean, it's so obvious.
It's just, that's the way it is.
But when I go into studying, I call it studying, not going in Buddhism, but mentally, then I start to say, okay, co-arising, co-creation, what does it mean?
So I'm trying to get it from outside to make it my own.
And as long as there's this division from getting it from outside and making it my own,
There's this friction, and there's this separation, and there's this mental.
So hearing, and that's my word is hearing, hearing the teaching is totally, totally different than our talking about the teachings, or mentally engaging with the teaching.
And I'm not sure if our mental engagement will actually allow us to penetrate in the teaching itself.
And that's my question.
I'm wondering, I'm not sure.
I am really not sure if our mental engagement will tap us, will get us to the core of what this teaching is all about.
So we keep talking about it and never realize it.
So it stays unrealized, but a lot of talks about it.
I question this.
So I heard you say some things.
And it sounded like you were telling me about karmic consciousness.
I like to
Truly, I like to see what's beyond karmic consciousness.
Right, I heard you say that.
When you said that, I thought I heard karmic consciousness talking to me.
What I heard was, I would like to see beyond that.
That's the kind of thing that's in karmic consciousness.
I think that's the kind of thing that is in consciousness.
That is consciousness, not karma.
I don't, then I don't understand.
Well, I'm just saying the way I understand karmic consciousness is you seem to have a karmic consciousness and I'm hearing words from you and they sound like they're coming from karmic consciousness.
They sound like my words, which are coming from karmic consciousness.
So yes, that I can see that I can see how words can, can.
Okay.
Here's, here's my question.
How can words not take the form of anything?
How can words not have a form?
I don't know.
I never saw such a word.
It didn't have a form.
All the words I see have forms.
And we talk about a form, a formless form.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are words.
Anyway, Alma, I heard you.
I heard you.
And I'm just saying to you that everything you said
You just showed me karmic consciousness.
And what I'm saying is I hope you appreciate everything you said because everything you said was karmic consciousness.
That's all it was.
And I just, I'm not sure you were like really happy to give me this report that you gave me, but you just gave me a really good report on karmic consciousness.
And that kind of thing is what the Buddhist studies.
And the Buddha has realized what we really are, but the Buddha realizes what we really are by studying what we really aren't.
We aren't really karmic consciousness, but that's all we've got to study.
And I feel like you're a little bit, don't want to study all you have to study.
You want to study something else.
which you don't have to study.
But this thing you told me about, that's all we've got to study.
And Buddha wants you to study it.
Yes, and I do see that and I do want to give my full commitments to the full study of it.
See, that's what makes the difference.
I hope you do.
The full commitment to the full study of it.
The full study of it, that's what the heart is, not the mental.
Wait a second, you said not the mental anyway.
The full study isn't not anything.
The full study isn't excluding the mental.
Excluding the mental isn't the heart.
The heart's not excluding the mental.
The heart doesn't exclude anything.
The mental excludes the mental.
The mental excludes the mental, not the heart.
The heart embraces the mental.
And you say you want to wholeheartedly study, that is the heart, yes.
Yes, but the heart embraces.
The heart embraces the mental, so the mental can melt in the heart.
You can say melt, that's fine.
Are you going to embrace the mental now?
For the melting, yes.
Are you going to embrace the mental only for the melting, not for compassion?
Only for melting?
That's a partial embrace.
That's okay.
That's a half-hearted embrace.
I will stay with a half-hearted until everything melts, and then I will decide what I need to do.
Hi, Rev.
Hi Jeff.
So my question is, hopefully slightly simpler but I don't know.
So I think I heard you say a couple of times that that all of our consciousness or consciousnesses are constantly have created and are constantly creating the physical world.
And, and that you also said
for an incalculable time past.
And I guess I'm having trouble with that.
I can see how in every moment from now on, or every moment, perhaps when humans first arose or sentient beings, whatever they may be first arose, that might be the case, that we're influencing the way the world is at every given moment.
All the karmic consciousnesses are influencing and the interaction of them are creating the world as it is in a given moment, now and in the future.
But the physical universe existed before there were sentient beings.
I think that's fairly well said.
It actually has an origin at a point in time, whenever the Big Bang was.
So I'm trying to reconcile that with what you said, which seems inconsistent with that.
And can you help me with that?
Well, I share your difficulty.
And I would say that it's really hard to understand how there could be sentient beings before there was a Big Bang.
But when you have a Big Bang, then I think maybe I can see a sentient being.
At some point after the Big Bang, yes.
Well, but... How do we know there's a Big Bang?
Well, through study of the universe, and yes, it's true humans apply their consciousness to that.
So...
You're saying we could all be misled?
There was no Big Bang at all?
No, no, no.
I'm not saying that there's no world.
I'm not saying there's no stars.
I'm not saying that there's no Ukraine.
I'm saying that this type of consciousness contributes to the process.
And there's no process
separate from this process.
There's no like physical process that doesn't include mind.
That's what I'm saying.
So there's no mind aside from Big Bang and there's no Big Bang separate from mind.
That's what I'm saying.
But it's hard to imagine what kind of a being, what kind of a consciousness there could be
before there's a big, before, during and right after a big bang.
But I'm just saying this teaching is about a mind, which is the same as reality of the universe.
So it's like, it's not like there's reality and a mind or like there's reality and a physical universe.
There's a reality of a physical universe.
And it's, it's not, it's a mind.
I hear what you're saying.
Give us some more thought.
I'm not sure that I'm kind of there yet.
I'm having trouble with this too.
Okay.
I'm having trouble with working with an inconceivable mind.
This is an inconceivable Dharma about an inconceivable mind.
And the inconceivable mind has sent us a message, and the message is there's no universe aside from mind.
And there's no mind floating free of the reality of the universe.
They co-arise.
The universe co-arises.
Now, a lot of people say, well, I can see how minds co-arose with the universe.
like the universe gave rise to the planet Earth and then there was life and then there was, but I have trouble seeing how the universe co-arises with the mind.
So this is a teaching which is very difficult for us to understand how we co-arise with the whole universe rather than before and or after.
And our consciousness is just like that.
Our consciousness thinks
that some part of our consciousness arise before other parts of it.
But actually all the parts of the consciousness co-arise.
And by studying that consciousness, we will discover that everything in the consciousness co-arises.
Before that, we have delusions that maybe I'm there before the consciousness, or the consciousness is there before me.
We have delusions like that.
But if we study it, we realize that nothing in the consciousness arises before the consciousness,
and no consciousness arises before the things.
They co-arise.
And the karma co-arises, and the world co-arises, and you and me co-arise.
You do not... Even though maybe biologically, somebody might say, I'm older than you.
I think I get all of what you just said.
I still think there's a leap to be made
to the fact that the physical world that we think at least physical world and that the universe arose before there was any sentient beings in it and so it seems like you're it's almost like we're being asked to accept that what you just said that the mind co-arises with the physical universe I don't want you to accept it I want you I want you to hear that this is a teaching which many people have contemplated
It's a teaching from, you know, the ancient contemplatives, they have contemplated this, and it seems to have been very beneficial to them.
And I think it, it's part of the it's part of the encouragement to be very careful of everything we do, because everything we do affects so much.
And if you start drawing limits on what, you know, the range of our responsibility and the effects,
then I think it cuts back on how careful we're gonna be and how kind we're gonna be to all beings.
Yeah, I see that point.
And I won't take up more of your time because there are a lot of other hands, but thank you.
You didn't take any of it.
Well, thank you.
Take up the assembly's time.
We didn't take any, we gave it to you.
Good evening, Rev.
Good evening, Eric.
I am also plagued by questions around this subject.
Did you say plagued?
Yes.
Oh, rather than, you're not blessed by questions?
Well, it seems like a troublesome little nest of, I'm really glad that you've brought up
a lot of these teachings in conversation with each other.
I like how you're assembling the questions, and I think wrestling with some of the early teachings in the light of modern science is helpful.
And yeah, as you say, they're difficult to comprehend or to realize, to work with.
Karmic consciousness is difficult to comprehend.
Yeah, and sometimes I feel like I want to just kind of discard parts of the tradition because it doesn't necessarily.
Yeah, there's a lot of karmic consciousnesses which have in them a wish to discard some stuff.
That's troublesome.
Yeah, and the teaching that's being offered is it's really good to be mindful
that there's an impulse to discard difficult stuff that's in karmic consciousness.
Karmic consciousness often has agendas to discard trouble, which is fine.
Well, and how would you say with a countervailing force of wanting to evolve the story with which we communicate dharma?
to the new understandings that arise every day.
That also occurs in karmic consciousness, what you just said.
And you reported that because it's in your karmic consciousness, right?
So you reported some impulses to discard during the karmic consciousness and some wish to evolve and co-evolve with the teaching to make it more and more beneficial.
That's also in karmic consciousness.
And the teaching is not that the second part's good and the first part's not, or the first part's good and the second part's not.
The teaching is what's good is to study what you just reported.
That's what brings benefit.
Can I ask some questions about the Abhidharmakosha?
You were saying that in the formation of the world,
You focused on the intentions, the karma, which creates the world.
Was there space in there for insentient dynamics or forces of physics?
How does physics and biology interact with that in a causal way?
The insentient also influences.
For example, in Asia,
they really appreciate trees like we do here.
And sometimes they have trees which are inside the monastery.
And sometimes the trees are near the bells.
And so the bells ring, and the bells are incension things.
So human beings ring the bells, the incension things, and the sound of the bell goes out and it changes the tree.
Can you understand that?
The sound waves change the shape of the tree.
Also, the sound waves go into the meditation hall and change the shape of the consciousnesses of the monks.
Okay.
So then when the sentient being rings the bell, the big bell, it changes the monks in the hall and it changes the trees outside.
So the sentient thing
interacts with the insentient, and then the insentient gives off something which affects the insentient and the sentient.
Then the insentient reflects back to the sentient, so that the tree in the courtyard, which has been absorbing the sound of the bell, it resonates back to the monks in the hall.
And the monks in the hall also resonate back to the tree.
So the monks to the bell, to the tree, to the tree, to the monks, to the monks, to the tree, to the monks, to the monks.
So the sentient, insentient are in an intimate dependent co-arising.
So the karma, the sentient being, insentient beings don't have karmic consciousness.
but they are in the process of creating the world together with the karmic consciousness.
It's just that the emphasis here is that karmic consciousnesses that aren't studied are not gonna, are gonna be a big problem.
Karmic consciousnesses that study, then they ring bells, which transform trees, which transform people, which transform mountains.
So the insentient are in this intimate dance with the sentient,
But the call here is to an area that's not being cared for enough.
What's that area?
Karmic consciousness.
If we take better care of conscious consciousness, we'll take better care of bells and trees.
If we take care of better of bells and trees, the trees will take better care of us.
But they need us, they want us to take care of our karmic consciousness.
Because if we don't, we won't be nice to them.
And that's not good.
But if we do take care of our consciousness, it'll benefit them.
We'll protect them.
And then they'll protect us.
So they're teaching the Dharma too, but they don't have karmic consciousness.
So they're not being, what do you call it?
Lazy bums and not studying their karmic consciousness.
The Buddha is not telling them to study their karmic consciousness because they don't have karmic consciousness.
People who have Karmic Consciousness, the Buddha is saying, please study it.
It's very beneficial to study it and it will help the sentient beings and the insentient beings and then the insentient beings will help us.
The more healthy we are, the more healthy the trees, the more healthy the trees, the more healthy we are.
The more healthy we are, the more we can hear the teaching of the trees.
And the more the trees can help us.
because we are kind to the trees.
And we're kind to the trees, we receive their teaching.
It's a resonance back and forth.
It's just this class is focusing on karma.
The trees don't really do karma, but they do resonate dharma.
Dharma bounces off them back to us and bounces off them to each other, but they don't have karma.
We're the karma guys.
We got this karma we have to take care of.
And it's hard.
And sometimes our karma is really lovely.
Like let's co-evolve in a higher way.
That's nice.
But sometimes you want to get rid of trouble.
Well, that's not so good.
But anyway, the point is, study all your karmic consciousnesses.
Please, for the welfare of trees and mountains and the Ukraine.
Okay, well, I'm sorry, but I really appreciate your questions.
I'll try to stop earlier next time so that more people can get on the question wagon.
So, and those of you who have questions, please write them down and we'll try to call on John and Bhatia and
And whoever else didn't get questioned, I'll try to call on you early.
Thank you very much.
May our intention easily extend to every deed and place with the true merit of Buddha's way, being pardoned and blessed.
We vow to save them.
Afflictions are inexhaustible.
We vow to cut through.
Dharma gates are boundless.
We vow to enter them.
Buddha way is unsurpassable.
We vow to become it.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you.