Historical Context and the Evolution of Buddhist Understanding of Karma

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come on
we have a wonderful boy
the hot product and have
well as scope of more than a candidate status compared to hard i wanted to spotted several and down down down and there was one of asked employment and an impactful
to my teaching the border which is about com
this is a subject
that has bought up from from us from our awesome
oh before i can hear i was struggling to from vander sanden ouch
have introduced the topic we had to was a topic for another two lectures he was the topic for not to liars
and dissected well thus every aspect
and
incredible about ourselves
teaching so that's what i'm hoping i done on a small town
that were or on coleman and and so well well all true on their lives

come sample else i would call some point in as well as because
i grew up a world of our catholic and my twenties
and on
cat and out as a catholic
it was programmed to burgundy
a bicycle was a transgression or go to hell that's it
that's the kind of thing a kid got the kit kid i bet i say about and careful
a very careful and i had to go to confession and are like you'll come up with
what's so i don't know
ah
and it was hard for lack of care or to die that you have to look at the tank and done cameras aren't going to and seven up with things like i i hope my sister well so both my parents but it was a constant over a dead problem for for buddhist practice and away from also
take stock of yourself every week before about and and then we got
very abrupt their pants santa rosa or something's got for dentists purified and that act of confession so that's a kind of them bottom
my classes
that have brought them over
i thought they were right on nick like mirage

if one does everyone has the same problem
so
so when i was so it was really a so wonderful for me to study karma and eventually ended up with a three month practice pad at tassajara on karma
and i spent time reading all of the old ah
teacher has the power canyon and the ib donna study has found a scope them had a lot to begin to about in my mind
and ah
so it was this but and in the process
i've just bought that was encouraged to think about it to fall it to tomorrow
look at our minds and our own actions
and then the there will be almost daily and opportunity to confess
ah and repent
in front of everybody
that's very powerful very powerful so
so for me this says oh and then i think when i was head stood out here i was supposed to be talking about some facebook
medicine buddha basic basically medicine as subdue each other
and what came out during my both such nine talks was just vomiting
all the guilt about i had ah
and then i ended up giving a talk on camera which i found and it was very when i was looking through my folders on karma that it was very interesting to see where i was on in two thousand and eight
versus smile and helen how are you related to its way for me it's a very very
a powerful teaching
so i wanna tell i'm kind of lava or long time standards for sullivan are not so i wanted to give him our first ah
a historical context for teaching teaching us about karma
the notion of corner was a radical shift from a local coin at the book vertigo up with an idea
for headers karma was faint
if you were born in a certain position or which brahmin or a low caste worker it was done to your actions and a past life
should just the idea was to just accept your situation
and perform according to cass definition to slump because ah
if you had if you had been virtuous he would have had a had a higher kind of life but the services are personal responsibility felt very catholic to me when i was reading about it
ah
but there was a possibility though if you live a virtuous life in this life know my
have a rebirth that was a little better you might not end up at a low caste work you might end up from gone from obama to a low caste
a basis for this a lot of was teaching on karma and vote was that there was a belief in heroism a in an ottoman was so a permanent soul
and does it could be called a permanent self and ego self
and you have a sorrow from the beginning a beginning of time and going to continue to have that soul and each robert system was simple permanent a and that will go on and well could have more actions are determined
but the situation about it would be in the next time so after buddhists awakening
he saw that the self or soul was imaginary it was on permanent there were a lot of causes and conditions that created our our environment and he taught the karma was not faint but was related to the laws of causation
basically that our thoughts i am it usually sells body speech and line but i actually think it's thought that far to sponge and actions are based on
i have effects
and by being awoke we can develop a farewell to make decisions based on conscious intention
and thus this intention and as a bonus to set to take vow and to embark on sam volitional action to create our own karma was revolutionary really know her salvation was a pup was possible and also was out kind of outdoor motion of
of so was was
basically
eliminated
but it was interesting because in the early some of that are about his teachings you actually find on stuff that sounds a lot like world a fatalistic teaching were we i have the a powder which has an early morning or last bullet teachings in our press group and
it was really sounding like handle almost like a hand and version so and and so early was catching some of the buddha there i saw signs when they are some teachings that actual talk about my birth sometimes or apply for the well
awesome
but and so it was a while and pint of that i think was
if you're born in situation where the majority have very strong from this happens in every religion as it moves in what has to take on some of the characteristics or kind of those the same terminology so that you can call people and i can kind of done to relate to to the issue
though below team into teaching that you have to kind of take them along so well from what i've known some of the things i have worked at show kind of an evolution of the buddha's teaching and first disciples teaching over time
ah was thought about those are like teach us that that on
they didn't get written down right but didn't have a way to write things down on or print them or whatever so it wasn't until before century when like my i am a book called a ibadan mercosur or i bedava was written and what it was it was about psychology the working of the mind according to buddha and it
detailed and it was very extensive way all of those mental factors the on my works to produce action and hazard and and out but but it still has a tinge
it still has a tench their ways and the best to present
we can do as a role for us to repent
but some things you can't repent from and so there's some implication that we're gonna care carry something is gonna be carried over
to sum up to some other place where we will go to a lower heaven or alert know there are buddhist heaven is that were talking about we'd go to summon less desirable place if we hadn't repented and we hadn't to for friend our karma
but the attention of that were teach originated in
by a philosopher and noble jana gana the second century who was the first went on to write about the motorway and in a better way he had endless vs but taught us how to look at the reality look at objects and look at reality around us to recognize
that those who are permanent to recognize things were that things developed because of causes and conditions around us
and that process was almost all the attention of emptiness and so once that but it was not actually welcomed
at society it was still too far from ah from what people were most to so it really wasn't until a couple of centuries later that bashar bundle another brought us philosopher
took the teachings of a giant and made them more accessible and and some of his writings and then so that it became ah
it was started to slip out in a boomer are acceptable service state the teachings of and that will true old the mahayana school of buddhism for scope the school of buddhism that we are part of so it's interesting to see the historic nature of it and how and of course of it's am
no
a philosopher said this from disciple service so we're kind of i'm toning and maybe it's not so important
naples and so it's interesting to know about the maybe it's not so important maybe how will understand karma how will experience it in our lives
but will know it
but when to work with our minds will work to surmise will work with our lines and and i'm doing it when i have to we don't really have to read those things we actually experience them we actually know them
ah so up this last bit of this type of stuff
and adjust anything but functional bundled that israel really take stuff from the ibotirama tech stuff from a and made them kind of workable
flow and i have i have books like this on the ib dharma right so you cannot expect that that will be very inspiring or i accessible
ah so and you had to kind of make attention that new curb but you could actually explain why people could hair and make people could he tries and i actually say oh yeah i felt this is what my experiences so i and his big toe
teaching was really around the the way or mind works the way we perceive for only process what will preserve obama to sign that fine what will say
how did it on a very
a systematic way so again it was accessible
so let's go back now that we done that myself for me to do that for the study session with the social status or shame so i wanted people to know that it's interesting to go back and look a borderline teachings i think for a very rich and i don't wanna talk about them and they think they was using our
modern understanding why can also benefit from a bus trips are today
no ah don't tell them and philosophical realm and that that more more certainly i know so general says don't worry about studying and told them my first practice oh i was i really have a hard times was down to classes and studying he said don't worry about it just doesn't
isn't come to the class and do zazen the most important thing when i did i'd been swamped by just kept the person so and i slept through a lot of classes
i got a lotta i gotta run a restaurant a classic
much has been official
i have ever up the karma
no
i felt i could be a mature your mother and everything that what a little extra sleep
so i'm going back to just been about to a talking about karma in a way that we practice or understand karma in my mahayana school sakata is this is a sanskrit word sanskrit word for i want won't kick throne which means to door to make and a really any action
well eight whether it's thought word or deed
there's no time when karma is not happening
wherever we are whatever understanding whether we understand it or not what word were acting in a karmic way and hussein ever thought every action every every word will say has some effective reverberates animals that the metaphor that
that is the rod
what is just something like can now throw a pebble in a lotta empty early it a pebble on the ocean and vibrations from and everywhere and this evidence of this right this is really true that every physical action we take and i think of a mantle action we take
take well the producers light or not
and that that mobile what will carry with us but that has an effect on the people were saying the people we talk to that's part of more crawled on our life and and and it as comic
and that's why we'll spend so much time sitting here with our minds
trying to trying to borrow them because they're so powerful
in terms of initiating any action that were taken the world
can't just separate on bad and saying the same thing about water now
so then then it's important to know how karma works or how much karma is any action
ah
it's right at the law of commerce like the law of causation every action has a reaction with with not necessarily in a moral implications but both a both in in eastern and western religions
talk about it as an as if it had retribution
amber stones or buddhism an idea that why are you know the retribution is or not the kind of retro motions like you're going to hell but the retribution so there
anything anything that ah that will thank move some mark or that will say move some mark somewhere
so running into thinking about this as emptiness
focuses
focus is that right on the fact that in lives those a lot of dualism we have to make a lot of decisions were gonna do this or we're going to do that so it's how to win the challenges on how do we work with in a domestic world understanding the emptiness of actor and action and
and yet but make decisions make more skillful man's ah
to wholesome behavior vs on wholesome behavior how do we do that that's the that's our life's work

however our
another part of causation is understanding dependent core arising that as bad as what the buddha taught that every thing that happens to us
is impacted by a whole host of things both internal and external
ah
and yet
yeah it's and let me have to know even as we're doing it that it's also impermanent that it's also coming and going but it's coming and going based on analysis of our input
so
the that's wrong dispels any notion of eternal suffering an eternal retribution for a bad action
and yet
there are consequences so
the consequences are not kind of punishment from outside but retribution from above where there if we pay attention
we can actually see that and if all if will say a snap from to somebody
that even if that person is able to
shine it on for us we haven't we have as a smell you talk about was talking about a smell that a bad smell or biden doesn't feel right before irritated my phone guilty all of those things come from that action we don't get away with it we can't be careless and our actions
ah because we have to say know it is like of will go on an astronomer really makes a difference if you look at people i found if you can never just notice them
we've we've created something by just noticing them is a visible effect
and i'm so that's a saddle us that
it's a subtle as how you got somebody it's a sunless but you're saying the morning when you get up to somebody
that sounds so subtle
so
hey this i the milestone in kind of the more i see karma connotation or the action of corner as it's covering our whole life
it and let me stay calmer more study pretty much ah may end up studying all about as all of buddha's teachings pacificorp in the perception that i will chill so very an album
the perfections of restaurant all of that is part of how on work with our actions it's all part of helping us to be aware because it ended ended and that when you look at it like that it can be kind of overwhelming like to have to be have bed and my mind all the time
conscious sometimes we have to be self conscious
i was starting out
and i'm thinking about how long a pad thing everybody else in our world
so it just takes a long time to and in a smaller over israel a never-ending must never ending you are as apologizing for a careless remark good spelling something or whatever you're always have until the back and say oh i thought i was over that
i thought i i thought i had that down but no it's impermanent so no
ah
and
so it really starts thinking about this starts with understand like some of a basic teachings like like understanding
right from under switch at which six understanding emptiness understanding the parent independent dependent cauterizing saw how it works and right thinking how didn't look at an object what happens when you look at an object what does your include with that contact with that object
so what what's going on here what when i encounter an object what does pound in my consciousness what what happens in nice storehouse consciousness where memories come up and color that vision so right family because right thinking of course is what good
us
well in a direction to take action but if for thinking is not ah
it is not
is not pure
if as covered by
a habitual patterns habitual reactions when
my where i work were constrained
we're constrained by that wide that habitual mind that gets us in the same situation
we can't build up bill campbell three we can't been liberated because what allowed i'm on your end
and i say aloud less is true or we're allowing we're allowing these thoughts were allowing these patterns of thought thinking what if for don't question it borrow responsible for what happens
ah
so i've i've cut of been working for on it as i say from of years
and i'm trying to look at some i had a early on i i i actually i thought i thought of myself and as a i had some bad things i had definitely will judgmental mind
oh was an analytic mind i was studying science i'm
and when i started to think about
what came up from will green gulch
time with remember studying was i just started noticing that i had kind of this certain reaction
from both certain on
and i just sat with that's how it works said about those women i seem to be heaven you know i was very supportive of other women doctors but not maybe that one with that one
and i started to recognize i was at that time i was a kind of up and coming if you will in my career
and i realize that that was i was up and coming i was conscious of myself i was focused on my skills my a competent my accomplishments and that way and when i bumped up against other women who just like me
oh i see cause there ain't no we weren't we moved in in as in when they were almost no women for example in medical school but just a handful so and it's interesting that instead of the what initially this is in china or but initially instead of the women
bringing feminine bombs sensitivity a terrible about spokesman think that has to the in order to survive he overcame like them in so it impacted us when we were transformed by the causes and conditions of so working in a hospital where the hierarchy was
to find where the attitudes were defined and so in order to this is my understanding is i just got very complicated for me as you can see ah
right oh the can they had to become aggressive to survive
in that environment
and so a lot of us got to buy patches
at least we have that side you know because well they get it from all over the nurses didn't always treat us nicely
the doctors thought of a second class and it was that with and so i hear i was instead of a know trying to support over women when i when i noticed that was that i had been co-opted and i was poisoned by a bible by that those causes and conditions that i was around when
that was really quite an awareness for me because i i thought oh i say why
that's a big problem over here and i met and know it wasn't overnight but just that awareness that time and green gold child from fuel weeks or whatever just was enough for me to get that picture of my behavior and it wasn't it wasn't a picture that i was very proud of
so i had to really think about it
oh in terms of you know how i would function in the future what was i gonna do how would i when i had that
and i consciously focused on when i had that response to somebody to actually engage with them and and not have not be separate not have them over there and me over here but actually giant in some way so it was very powerful for me which is why we're hooked
so this happens
this happens with a lot of things we have a conditions in our lives that
and we have conditions around us and we have internal working properly programmed
we me activity so we develop and and is easily in it's easy for us if we don't watch carefully if we don't aren't mindful very mindful of our actions yeah we we will let our preferences take over our preferences it what i like us right where they don't like us wrong
oh we can get drawn too much towards the pleasant unpleasant pleasant experiences and pressure while the negative which is wrong the presence of greed and an aversion so both without are paying attention though those things say about and so the summer of karma is really the study itself
the city of so deep study of yourself
suzuki roshi so glad to work with karma our minds should be more careful more attentive and more reflective so notice when i'm creating a problem in your everyday life we're creating bad karma for yourself or others there's is a reason why you suffer and it is not possible to escape for
i'm suffering unless you change your karma
when i follow karma and dr carmen a good direction you can afford the just avoid the destructive nature of karma
makoto there by being attentive to the nature of karma till the nature of your desires and ensure more activities as bought a pointed out to know the cause of suffering was ten know how to avoid suffering if you're steady wise if you're steady way you suffer you will understand cause and effect and how unwholesome
we our actions result and will have unwholesome effects as long as we have an idea of self
karma has an object to work on this systems are getting resources in commercial talking so for me this this means
somehow ah
myself practicing
why a lot of mine from us but also ah
the suffer the these patterns are inevitable so in working on them a is not the answer
so yes we have to watch yes we have to be careful all the time but we also can laugh at our at our or verbose
ah
and i'm an m and okay of it because we know it's empty and i know that will have working with our experiences and working with our lines my can change things so that's the beauty and the salvation that comes out of practicing buddhism
ah
i guess where are we
okay
because i want to give people time to kind of respond
i don't want to talk about a one one known last a kind of
fact i'm and this was something that read anderson talked about endlessly
and that is what is called and said sanskrit china now cantata is kind of intention or volition
but as connick action is not just stuff happens
like we can just step of things without thinking they can be doing mindless then ah the bad stuff happens and sometimes bad things happen you know also not on horseman on undesirable effects happen and sometimes they down or sometimes that's natural but it's the actions
that will take that will take out of that thought process of i say an object i have an opinion about it i like it i don't like it i wanted or i don't want it was good and it's bad and i'm gonna do something about it and i doing something about it is comes out of intention we
have a thought that it will be more go to do that
i i'm i don't really do that like when can be heading the wrong thing and not let ourselves think that i really want to do is just do it but most of the time we have a second or two at least two before we take an action there's a thought there's a thought process and one can read the
erect one's intention in that in that moment so gentle is very powerful
oh
and
end up and that's a that's really i think i'm one of the most important
aspects of looking at karma we're gonna look at that a little bit more later and the weekend but this idea that
that won't say or workings
let's say how our mind good things together may say how how i sort of have this idea that someone else shows up and says something normal rise were wrong oh wow i had a preconceived notion i just know about or up and my way someone else that sample skillful to me and the
a smile
you have was my awareness i bought another condition and weather conventional happened that's why it's called to run i think to talk to people about difficult things because in the process of discuss discussing am more can kind of them pull out your were biases and a helps
for a dollar boiler system will say i do you think you will was thus rule may seem okay
where i am really
are you really were being judgmental my mom
gossiping
what are you doing here what are you doing here so that's a big question and com what am i doing here
why do i wanna do so difference between
acting with our purpose and and whether a life of of purpose living a life of conviction or haven't haven't this intention to save all bangs that's the ultimate intention has a bodhisattva
if i had that intention and hold on in my mind i can i can find them in you know i can say what a very sad the dubious does sound like a bodhisattva act as as kind to resist i trying to show off his is this kind or or am i just in a bad mood or
these things
as will process them
we can become something else
well i become while we're processing it and i will learn or something we're learning a skill or learning how
how the way actually want the world
as a bodhisattva what is it that i need to know
what do i not just studying
some teacher and i might need to study that will help me with that particular thing
i of remember bad turn right the eightfold path or some of the rebel teachings so i am and i just stop and a minute second
ah
well i thought i'd like to have i'm just a robot will that so so i i said
boy
welcome rising recognize that every act as cormac act
a conscious when are not go

ha
that's a broad topic loaded over
ah
i not in the same way as for example retribution
although at times we are born with certain
a lot of our physical stuff
is something will come with right when i didn't have anything about because because it's tobacco subject but yeah we come in with a lot of
conditions or subconscious mind and on our genetics so they come to the world was that that's how are
oh so so a lot of elephants are a kind of like that
i not any bomb but over behavior has as a particular has of a relationship to manifesting certain things if i don't have the jane from by obama's ah well i bet you can i get a manifested so i can paint over one some people you him though
and they just are all the stuff well and yet we're you came in with the different profile that more that ice cream cone is just not been a bullet and and i think that's that's kind of how i look at mm yeah being a physician i will like one of the things of for
and harmful to people especially now i i heard on a an african american woman on radio and i'm to they talk and was starting a movement ah can force a kind of consciousness and support for people who
i burn over ten does have a bit overweight and and she talked all about fat shaming and but every time show which was fat she was overwhelmed from was a very little girl and she had to starve herself
and she was always ashamed and and and a lot of other people follow and it's certainly not not the best characteristic as in one group or another but this woman was putting from that point of view that it felt that there was just a shaming and judging process going on about
how should behave and and it's heart as her fault and somehow shes well than because of that and the same thing about people who get hired tax and get all those other things well and also a lot of our the our physical disease
has it has as i say has a biologic and genetic origin but of course for things where are rose what will behave
for example
six negative
but i'm getting into anti-social behaviours are now
the cause stress

so
thus on the top
what a lot

hi

what is intentional action
oh also if you get the flu and die and get the phone died because she will happen by on a bus or plane and your contact your somebody those things are not things that are
as a result of intentional action and then of mobile of just took a little more and labor day that's that's intentional action that's different
i don't i i don't know it all understanding about that yeah
well yeah i wanted
i was free that everything is positive
but all positive effect is not gonna play as as you said
volitional act sister
forgive the classic tests your other the other forms of position
here's a system visit the set of the yeah which are also position so genetics isn't filled with it
earthquakes
where are you where you are placed in relation to those states they are being supported
the efficient realize that there are other forms of
s that's really important because intention to say ham jersey
ketones in the opportunity
what is
as opposed to
earlier and other religious
a expressions or definitions of climate the opportunity is what is it is that if you are aware
oh you're my hero were intentional choice institutional traces were making then you can actually alter
a large degree can alter the situation or
ha and that
taking it was in the optical emotional thing
we can't know
incomplete next causes a fast
we only what we have to get started
to beat the awkward it is
okay this is what's happening
how do i want to live
and as a as a physician you want to give people advice for help or roving that might help from lethal condition
but if feel as if you're kind of don't do it as a boat trip and that the town you have to divorce their solution and because we didn't do this for most that's why this happened so that's a danger
for our influences single causes and conditions for illness but if you don't take a snap but read because of your acting in a certain way so that so that such a bat boxes that makes of unintentional right but the other kind of causes since i was there those those are the conditions and customs of
i underlying your behalf of or and your health and you will be called i don't you have something to say

to say something
yeah
officiate first part of your time is not very fundamental
ah
happy history

person in realism
hey
just incident such as at all
how many countries versus
ha ha ha
he understands is missing their fish
it also
and my always raises the question
how is it
practicing catholics them
how to transform

how
i'm tested
that thing as because it
after
if of
no means that right
suffer from a different person back
and that is a big
war isn't result of intention that people list after it happened that
originally
if i said
and that
cause and effect because it's be
active
the us
of thing
has been
how happening to death during the crisis in his excellency made
a very large numbers
rapid transit permit isolated me
it said
he said
right
night and i
get something worked really hard for you elect somebody that
gum
an effort out internet
sunday
outdoor porch for the on going to talk about different types of karma individual
one individual and collective karma and we'll be talking more about that this afternoon yeah
which he said it said about a sickness and your general condition kind of causation
it seems to me
but what we read that situation set up i have we been and around my body speech so when we rioted situation no matter how they benefit
well how we react to that of this work that will behave in a sideways is going to be a product of our attitude state of be and had a past era
any instance have our make
hurdles are comic tools or or make assets or liabilities to deal with any given situation where a sickness or genetic or not it seems to me that
the paint a vigilant about body speech in order to make we're right in these situations
we understand his power and work
yeah i mean that that
yeah that's was definitely i thought i was saying that but mobile items so clearly that a bicycle will have to come with your baggage whatever those a the couple package and so more aware that it has remained a new situation you can't know can go back and can remind yourself
what one word him

me
our culture

haha
oh
came out because of i was i had a lot of judgment
it was my hair was know it but it it came out because that's how i the at that's how i was thinking then
and and so yeah that down
i can appreciate sensitivity to that okay i think how donald pesticide

i could say that he didn't know and delay this time yeah
hard left
favorite pencil you know
well
that's it
now sometimes home
four different about january and karma as that more i don't intentionally but you don't know that you've offended somebody or will find out and sell jam side and telephones or that that's that's clean to me
that's what it that's what we're working with karma is my words had an effect
other people had a response to that i'd accept our words
because i respect people's opinions on what he went they have to say and i and i admit if i was on from it's a special way we deal with him as much as i wanted to write real time i much prefer long time to run yeah i'm i'm also dealing with something
if he tells him
and they weren't intending to do something that is that that is not the kind of karma we're talking about
oh yes of course
how many times the will do with scale it as you know careless word without thinking well as will get caught in some stores that were telling or whatever
no and as and everybody has different sensibility so i never talk here i mean you have no idea what people are coming from all different places have all different sensitivities and illusion we're pretty open i think women a lot of us will won't talk and named know and i will take the risk
what this is absolutely the last
okay well