Karma, action, action has consequence. If you act on your sense of independence, if you think you independently exist and you think that person can do stuff, there are consequences for you who thinks you could do that. That's the second point. Action produces results or retribution either in this life or future lives. And the third point is action ripens for their author. The one who thinks she can do something on her own, she gets the result of the action she thinks she did on her own. Those are the three points. So you not only study the action, you can also study how there's a result and how the result comes back to you. Study these three points. And how, and then also the subtleties which I hope to get into somewhat, how, what is the process of retribution and how does it come back to the author. So you study, you study, you're studying karma, you study

[01:06]

the self, you watch the self and watch the impulses. How do the impulses lead to thought karma, verbal karma and physical karma? What are the retributions for the karma, for the action, and how does it come back to you? This is the study in the simplified form. You have a question? It seems interesting to think that consciousness, that the development of the self, even though it's evolutionarily adaptable, even though it's looked at as normal, healthy development in terms of psychological development, that it's actually kind of a corruption in some way, or that it might be in that, in earliest infancy there isn't really a self. There's no sense of separateness from the other, so that we have to learn to be socialized in some way as to what to make of our person. And that in some cultures that's done differently than in other cultures. So some cultures maybe are, there's a little less, less of that power

[02:13]

relationship, less of that power, karma power landscape being transmitted, and that the self actually develops more in union with nature, more in communion with a group identity, more in communion with a transcendent sense of reality. So it seems that even though it's looked at as a normal thing for the self to develop, that it's kind of a corruption in some sense. Which is well, I mean. Let's see. It can be seen as a kind of corruption, and actually I think it could be seen as a corruption or it could be seen as, the Indian way where Buddhism developed tended to think of it as, this is like the locus or the focus of corruption, but the self itself is not exactly a corruption, it's just a place where corruption can start. Because the self is

[03:17]

just an image, just an idea. The idea of something independent of other things is just kind of a fantasy. It's like a unicorn, or a turtle with wings or something. It's just an image, just an idea. But it turns out to be an idea that had power, and it was hard for people. Turtles with wings, it turns out that that concept has not been capitalized on yet. Nobody's thought of something really interesting to do with that. But this self thing had tremendous power, and the corruption was that somehow the living system couldn't leave it alone, and then the living system used it to reinforce the idea of self itself. And that caused some disturbance because it started to become taken as real. Maybe the corruption is not the self so much, but some consequences of it, namely that it then gradually

[04:19]

substantialized itself and became something set in stone against the flow of nature. But even that's not so bad until it started to cause pain, and then again it started to generate actions to cope with the pain of greed, hate, and delusion, and to cope with the pain that was caused by that. And then cruelty started to develop. So it's more like the locus of the corruption than the corruption itself. And societies handle it differently, but the problem is, again, that the ones who handle it in a more, what do you call it, enlightened way, live in the same planet as the ones who don't handle it in an enlightened way. So we still have to confront the most unenlightened way of handling this material, and study it. Because as long as some, if you understand what you really are, as long as somebody in

[05:21]

the planet is misusing this thing, you have to understand how to work, how to help them. And if you don't know what they're, if you can't interact with their level of self power tripping, that's going to, because of your connection to them, which you understand, you have to liberate them. So you have to understand this very powerful way of handling yourself too. So, it may be that the most enlightening way of handling this problem is to help people develop the meditative skill to confront the worst scenarios. And not ahead of schedule, but you know. So it's not so much to create a little island where people are avoiding confronting the delusions, but to develop their abilities to face and understand and study delusion. Rather than teach them a less deluded way of seeing things, teach them a skill

[06:23]

by looking at the less deluded way of thinking things, and the more deluded way of thinking of things. Because if you can study all these different delusions thoroughly, they all turn into light. The radiance of an evil thought is not any dimmer than the radiance of a nice thought. All things are equally brilliant when you understand how they happen. So, it's good to, of course, it's good to be kind to children and to give them lots of love and to make them feel as confident as possible as they're growing up, and to give them a sense of security and all that. But at the same time, train their abilities so that when they run into difficulty, they'll be able to face it. Don't shelter them to such an extent that they won't be able to cope with certain things when they meet them. And in

[07:24]

some ways, protecting beings and nurturing them is a good way to prepare them to face certain of the horrors of the world, rather than the other way of being mean to them, and they tend to get numb, and then they can never face what's going on. So I think there are different ways of coping with the biological inheritance, and it's such a mystery about the way it goes, because as you know, if you ever run into children, especially teenagers, there's such vitality there, it's hard, it's so radiant and so intense, it's hard to know what is the enlightening response to all this energy? What would be the way to wake them up to their own processes? And every moment they're coming up with a whole new way of relating and expressing this, and you've got to be right there with it, because they

[08:27]

won't listen to you if you're a little bit off in the tone of voice, or if your language isn't quite right. So you're also in the process of learning from them how to teach them in a sense. So you're also a student, and so it's so dynamic that we really have to develop our ability to really be present in the middle of a storm. So studying karma means really studying on sight, so in the middle of a very intense construction scene, or kind of a cross between a construction scene, a cocktail party, and a rock and roll concert, or maybe even a war, too. That's where karma happens, it happens in really the vital center of our life is where it's generated. So how do you stay present and awake and alert in the midst

[09:36]

of this very dynamic, creative situation? And so I feel myself that conveying that to children is really good, because we don't know what they're going to be dealing with, and if we try to present them with this or that, that may not be what they are going to deal with later, and we may be sort of, what do you call it, making them obsolescent or something in their approach, if we give them a special program of education. Like I think it's nice, like in some of the Rudolf Steiner schools, the kids, they don't watch TV and stuff like that, and maybe that's good, or they only make things out of certain materials. That may be okay, but then what are they going to do when they run into TV? But sometimes

[10:37]

staying away from TV will help them develop a presence, such that when they do run into TV, they'll be able to like see what TV is. So if the point of staying away from TV is not to necessarily shelter them from dealing with it, but to help them spend time developing a presence so that they can cope with the media when they run into it, then I think it's appropriate. Because you don't have to watch TV, what, ten hours a day for six years to get the idea. You can just watch, and maybe, you know, kids are really smart, so they can watch like one hour a week and sort of like get the idea of what TV is. The rest of the week, those other 70 hours which some kids spend watching TV, they could be practicing meditation, but the meditation might not be sitting cross-legged in a Zen or the meditation might be some other situation where they're somehow present with their body and mind. Could be dance, could be singing, could be swimming, could be conversations

[11:43]

with their parents, where their parents are actually there. It could be a lot of situations where they're actually doing the thrilling thing of being present. And then, if they can do that, then they can go in all these different situations and visit all these different cultures and see what's happening. So the Zen part of studying karma is the kind of presence that we need to, practically speaking, actually study karma as it's happening. So, right now, Pam and, what's your name? Pam. And Pam and Ann are writing. And, but before they wrote, did they feel the impulse to write? And before you write again, are you

[12:46]

going to feel the impulse, huh? You didn't feel it, yeah. So, it's very, you know, try now for the rest of the day and the rest of your life to see if you can be present moment by moment. And then see if you, from that presence, you can feel the impulse to act. Because before you act, you do have an impulse. And that impulse is called mental karma, which may not lead to physical and verbal karma, but it's there first. See if you can start to, like, step back now and for the rest of the day, and I'll try it with you, see how much of the time you can be present with your experience and feel the impulses for your actions arise. From that presence, actions can arise. You can still act from presence.

[13:53]

The impulses still arise, and you can still act verbally and physically express them. Still can happen. But, you may notice a difference. So, for the rest of the day, if you ask questions, see if you can feel the impulse to ask the question before you ask the question. And then notice the difference between feeling the impulse and noticing the impulse and then asking it, maybe from when you ask without feeling the impulse first, even though it was there. Now you can also get into, feel the impulse to speak, and then just, then sort of see, would that be beneficial? Is that a beneficial verbal expression? And usually in a situation like this, where you're studying Dharma, you feel the impulse to ask a question about Dharma, it's usually wholesome. But just check

[14:56]

anyway, because in Dharma-studying situations, although the impulse to ask questions about Dharma is very good usually, very good, Dharma-studying situations are also situations which are set up to allow you to pause, to consider your motivation. So, both of the questions are usually good, but also the environment is such that it's okay if you consider beforehand. People won't think you're weird if you do that here. Some people think, I can't do this at work, they say. Like Betty said it to me one time. I can't do that work. People think I'm weird if I'm like looking at my motivation before I act, that you look weird, and they'll say, what's the matter with you, Betty? And they might do it when you're learning how to do it. Like when you're first learning a language, you're awkward. Like at Tassajara, we do some chants in Japanese,

[16:05]

and so some people, when they're learning Japanese, they're reading the word, you know, and like, ne-ga-wa-ku-wa, ne-ga-wa-ku-wa. That's not the way you speak Japanese, but that's the way you have to learn it, ne-ga-wa-ku-wa, and then gradually you say, ne-ga-wa-ku-wa. But you have to start with ne-ga-wa-ku-wa. So, when you first start meditating on your karma, it's kind of like chunky, like action, impulse. Okay, impulse, is that wholesome or unwholesome, you know? Oh, unwholesome. Well, okay, I guess maybe I won't do it. Won't be helpful, I'll forget it. So it seems a little clunky and awkward, but in a situation like this,

[17:07]

that's why sometimes you need a Dharma study group where you can practice checking out what you're up to, and for people to give you that space for you to do that. And then gradually as you get more skillful, you can do it more quickly, more smoothly. But at first, it may be a little clunky. So, like today, if you try, you may find it's a little clunky, and or you forget to do it. If you remember to do it, then of course there'll be a lot of moments that'll be different from usual, because usually people do not look back and check their motivation. I guess they don't. But when they start, they have a little trouble remembering, and even when they remember, it's a little awkward. But the more you do it, the more fluid it gets. And

[18:08]

a Buddha did this. You know, Shakyamuni Buddha is pretty good, but he had to do this too. So, the first part of the Eightfold Path is right view. The right view is karma is important. There's more to right view than that, but I'm just bringing up karma is important. And it's important because we're mentioning karma, and then karma has result. Check it out. That's important. The next thing is right intention. Right intention is harmlessness, loving-kindness, and detachment or renunciation. That's right intention. So, when you check your impulses, if they're the right kind of impulses, they're harmless, they don't hurt, and they're loving, and they're renunciate.

[19:19]

They're going through the world without clinging to things. Those are the types of impulses that are appropriate and beneficial. But you can't necessarily practice those right away because you probably have, to some extent, harmful impulses, impulses of ill-will, and impulses of attachment. You probably have them. You probably have them. Buddha had them, so you probably had them. But what did Buddha do? He studied his intentions. He studied his impulses. He studied his impulses. He studied his intentions. He studied the landscape of his mind. He studied the landscape of his mind. He studied, he studied, he studied, and he saw, oh, there is a ... the Buddha, right? Before he was Buddha, the Buddha looked and he saw, oh, there's an impulse to harm. There is an impulse of ill-will. There is an impulse of attachment. He saw that in himself. He spent the time looking at himself and saw that kind of thoughts in his own mind.

[20:24]

So maybe you have some thoughts like that too, because you're probably just like Buddha before Buddha was enlightened. As a matter of fact, certain teachers say, we're just like Buddha before Buddha was enlightened. But Buddha was just like us before waking up. So it's appropriate, actually, probably, that we would have to look at the same stuff Buddha would look at. So he looked at these as impulses, and he found these unwholesome impulses. And then he saw how these impulses worked. He saw, oh, impulses of attachment, impulses of ill will, and impulses of harm. And they cause misery to me and others. They cause misery and bondage. He saw that over and over and over again. And then it says in some scriptures, so then he destroyed them.

[21:28]

And again, the Indians are very negative, and I don't know what the word destroy means, but I don't think you should, being in America where we have this heavy-duty destruction equipment, where our minds are kind of like analogs of nuclear annihilation, I think we should be careful of the word destroy. And rather than destroying these impulses, I think we just let go of them. But you don't let go of them even like throwing them down. It's just that I think what happened, or what is happening now in this world, the way the world is now, is if you study these impulses, and you see the impulses of attachment and clinging, you see the impulses of ill will, you see the impulses of harmfulness, you see those impulses, you see the results, if you see that stuff, naturally they'll drop. Because as your mind becomes a mind that studies them, as your mind becomes a mind which studies

[22:30]

them, as your mind becomes a mind which sees their results and understands how that works, your mind changes, and as your mind changes, they don't happen anymore. So spontaneously, through study, the ill will intention, the cruelty intention, and the attachment intention, they drop, and in their place these other intentions of loving-kindness, harmlessness, and detachment come up. The mind is transformed through study and understanding, not by like manipulating itself. And in some ways, trying to manipulate the mind, or trying to destroy these unwholesome impulses, in a sense, is an unwholesome impulse. It's more wholesome in a way to study what you are, lovingly, lovingly study the unwholesome impulses will transform your impulses. So they say sometimes, I don't think destroy is really the proper feeling anymore.

[23:35]

Maybe in India, everybody was so relaxed, and so on, that destroy was okay, that what they destroyed was kind of like ... But we're so brutal, that I think, just lovingly study actually, lovingly study your impulses, that's why I suggest, check your impulses out, and if sometimes you do go ahead and act on impulses that are attachment, ill will, or harmful, if you do, then try to stay with your study and see the results, and if you can, even if you can't stop these impulses from rising in your mind, and also from being spoken or physically enacted, even if you can't stop them, if you can study them, your mind will be transformed through that study, and they will drop away gradually, or fast, but they

[24:35]

will drop away through that study. And so, this is a practical suggestion for today and forever, that this is practical, basic work of a Buddha, or of a Buddha aspirant, or a Buddha in training, you have to study these impulses, because these impulses are the source of karma, and karma creates the world, the world is created by actions we do based on these impulses, and as you know, we do sometimes act on these impulses, and it does lead to results which create a world which is not too good, to say the least. So, we can't stop, we can't get out in front and stop this thing by more power. One time an army was approaching the Buddha's country and his name was Shakyamuni, he was the Muni, the sage of the Shakya clan, so the Shakyas

[25:40]

were getting invaded, and the Shakya people said, Buddha, please stop that army. He understood actually that he could stop it, so he walked out and sat in front of the army, and they came up and saw the Buddha sitting there and they stopped and went back home. When they got home they said, how can we let the Buddha stop us? That was stupid, let's go back and get him. So, they came back and the people said, they're coming again, Lord Buddha, please go stop them. He says, this time they won't stop, I'm not going to go sit there. So, you know, sometimes you can stop something, sometimes you can't. Well, if you can't stop it, sometimes you're going to do something mean, say, it's no good, don't do it, and you don't, it's okay, don't. Sometimes you can't. You can't stop this stuff when you can't and you can't stop it when you can, but if you can't, you can always study it, potentially. Even when you

[26:44]

slip, you can study, and if you study, as you study, you watch, the study is already your mind's transformed when you're studying. Then you study and then you see the results, it's transformed again. So, watching the impulse, watching the action, seeing the results, seeing how it comes back, those moments of study are already transformation, plus when it's done, it's transformed again. So, that's the key thing in studying karma, is you have to pay attention to every physical action, the way you move your arms and legs, head, so on, how you stand up and sit down, your mindfulness, mindful of how you use your body, mindful of what you say, but also, before you talk, you're mindful of the impulse to talk, you're mindful of the impulse to move, and even when you don't talk, and don't speak, I mean, don't move, you have impulses in your mind, you're aware of those too, even the ones you don't act on. They all count in different ways, but they all make a world,

[27:47]

they're all important, and they're all joyful to study when you study them with the right attitude, so it should be a loving study, you should enjoy this. If you're forcing yourself and being mean to yourself, you know, putting yourself in a prison of studying karma, then you won't do this for very long. This should be an enjoyable study. Somehow, you should realize you're doing this, you're being like a Buddha, or a baby Buddha, studying karma, practicing right view, and practicing right intention. And what's next? Right speech, right action, and right livelihood. So the first four aspects of the Eightfold Path are really about studying karma. It's the ethical foundation for the meditation practice, is

[28:48]

this kind of study. And so it's in its foundation because karma is pretty gross, it's not that subtle, not that difficult to see yourself act, but it's a major change in your life, to be trying to work up to being constantly aware of your karma. Yes? Q. Could you say more about the loving-kindness within? I get that this is a lot of self-disgust, but I feel a lot of self-disgust. Could you say a little more about how to change that? So you might look to see your impulses, and find that they're not so wholesome, and then say, well, I'm a pretty bad person for, I'm a sleazeball for having these impulses? Q. Well, I think how the image of myself differs from the nature of my...

[29:54]

You mean how your ideal differs from your action? I mean, you'd like to be a kind person, and you're noticing that you have impulses to do unkind things? Q. The kind actions have very different motivations than I thought. Oh yes, right. Even sometimes an action which is supposed to be kind, you notice has maybe some clinging motivation, and then you get upset with yourself for that? Q. Yes. And then I freeze and don't do anything. My first response is, remember, you're just like Buddha. Buddha was just like you. Buddha had selfish motivation too. Before Buddha understood completely what self was, Buddha had selfish motivation too. So although it's not that it's good that you're operating,

[30:55]

that you're doing something with some selfish motivation, that's not necessarily good, but what's good is that you're aware of it. Being aware of it, you're just like Buddha. Now, to have selfish motivation is like Buddha, but not exactly. Everybody's got selfish motivation. The part that's like Buddha is selfish motivation and being aware of it. So if you're aware of your selfish motivation, you're just like you're in Buddha training. So it's not pleasant work, in a sense. It's petty, selfish, mean work. We have to be grounded, your practice has to be grounded in the awareness of your limited, selfish, stingy, etc. aspect of your

[31:58]

life. You have to be aware. If you're not grounded in that, you'll never get out of that. And remember, all the Buddhas did this grounding work. And then, as you do this work and study how this all works, your mind transforms to that study. Now, sometimes, if you're doing this work and you get so disgusted with it, it's okay to take a little break. And maybe either sit down quietly and just meditate on your respiration, or just try to relax and get a little calm down, maybe like what we call bomb shelter practice. Just go down under the ground, where it's really quiet, and just take a break from such, in some sense, intense meditation. Meditating on karma is, like I said, really intense. It's horrendous

[33:03]

in a way, sometimes. So maybe you need to put aside meditation on karma. Meditation on karma is insight practice. It's insight practice. And so, sometimes before you can do insight practice, you have to do calming practice first. You have to calm down. That's why I say, develop this presence, this kind of presence, calm presence, in the middle of all this. But sometimes, as you start to meditate on your karma, you get so... that you have to maybe stop for a little while and just calm down before you start studying again. Because even if you say, well, yeah, Buddha did this, but I feel like I'm going to throw up. I can't stand it. Okay, Buddha did it, but also Buddha took some meditation breaks. So just go sit under a tree for a while. Just relax. Take a nap. Take a walk.

[34:05]

And even while you're walking, I'm not going to check my impulses after a little while. I'm just... this walk isn't that bad. I'll just walk and enjoy walking and just relax. And then after you feel calm again, then start to say, okay, I feel better now. Now check your impulses out. It's a little bit more agitating. This is taking out more. So you have to balance your... you have to keep adjusting your presence, coming back to just being there and being still in the middle of it all. And then say, okay, now I'm going to do a little insight work. I'm going to like start and check my motivation out again. You start doing these little agitating. If you get too agitated, go back to the calming. So maybe we should like have a little meditation break right now. Okay? So why don't we... I'm going to suggest that you watch your motivation now. Okay, ready?

[35:14]

Now I'm going to say something and you're going to do something, I suppose. Right? So please stand up. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[36:36]

Okay. I felt an impulse to speak. And I checked it out and I said, okay, you can act on it. And you're hearing the results of that. And one of the things I wanted to say was that during our lunch break, I would suggest that you do some walking meditation around the area.

[38:12]

And that you find yourself a nice place to do it in the neighborhood. And you start by standing still and you stand there until you feel the impulse to move. And then you watch to see if that impulse to move is wholesome or not. And then if it's wholesome, of course you can go right ahead. If it's unwholesome, I don't know, I would suggest you don't do it, but it's up to you. Unwholesome means unskillful or unappropriate, like for example, it might not be wholesome to just walk out in front of a car. But anyway, check your motivation and do some walking meditation where each step you try to feel the impulse before you move. Just practice walking that way each step. And it also sometimes helps to walk back and forth,

[39:14]

either in a circle, not in a circle, but walk in one direction and then go in another direction so you can feel the impulse at the point of changing directions. It's a nice time to feel the impulse. So do that during lunch break, do some walking meditation in that way. And also, during the lunch break, if you do decide to talk to someone, practice, see if you can practice feeling the impulse to speak in the process of the conversation. You could also have a conversation about that practice, of course, but some of you might not want to do that, it can upset the stomach. And what time do we have lunch, by the way? About 15 more minutes. 15 minutes, we have lunch in 15 minutes? Okay, now, I'm going to give you instruction, but before you respond to my instruction,

[40:19]

I'd like you to consider how you want to respond to it. Like, I'm going to suggest you do something, but it's up to you to decide what to do. It's a free, it's a suggestion, and you see what your impulse is, and then you can also consider whether to act on your impulse or not. And I'm going to give you an option, I'm going to suggest that you either continue to stand up or sit down. Or go to the balcony, of course. I'd like each person to say their name, and then everybody say their name, after they

[41:24]

say it, okay? Is that alright? Then we can start.

[41:30]

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