Day 8 What is Karma? Delson Armstrong

What is karma? The Buddha said it very simply. He said, intention is karma, chetana, volition. And this is a very important distinction because during the time of the Buddha, you had many other schools that had different ideas of what karma is. In the case of the Nigantha, who were the ancient Jains. So Jainism is an existing philosophy in India, founded by Mahavir, who I think existed sometime before the Buddha. I think they were almost contemporaries.

And Jainism says that whatever action that we have done, intentional or unintentional, we must pay the price for that. And the Buddha comes along and he says, intention is karma. It is our intention that is the process of karma. It is the intention that determines how we experience karma. And so there are three types of karma. Bodily karma, verbal karma, and mental karma.

So bodily karma is the karma we do with the body through actions, through physical actions. Verbal karma is the karma through which, or karma that arises through speech, what we say with intention. And generally, most of us have intention. There are a few people who forget to think before we speak.

So that's verbal karma. Mental karma is, as I was saying before, we have two types of thoughts. There are the thoughts that arise just like, you know, the green of the grass, you see that, just like the sound of the birds, you hear that. And you can't change the greenness. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass.

You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. You can't change the green of the grass. Those thoughts are coming and going. What you choose to do with those thoughts. You choose to engage with those thoughts. You choose to have a thought that is filled with ill will. You choose to have a thought that is filled with loving kindness. You choose to think in a thought that is filled with loving kindness. You choose to think in a way of the grass. You choose to think in a certain way of the grass. You choose to think in a certain way of the grass.

You choose to think in a certain way about a situation, person, thing, place, whatever it is. That's mental karma. So when we talk about the birth of new action, that's what we're talking about. The birth of mental karma, the birth of verbal karma, and the birth of physical karma. There's an intention before all that to do that particular karma.

But karma can be used in different contexts. There's karma in the process of an action, an activity that we do, whether in thought, speech, or action, in terms of body. But there is another kind of karma, which is the inherited karma, the karma that we experience as a consequence of our previous actions, known as Vipaka. V-I-P-A-K-A. Vipaka. That is the fruit of our actions. The fruit of our intentions.

The way to look at karma, as we were discussing before, is old karma and new karma. What the Buddha has said is that old karma is to be experienced. It's to be felt. It's the only way to go through it. It is to be felt and experienced. So this body that we use, the six senses through which experience arises, the mind, the faculties of the mind, all of this is old karma.

The aggregates, all of that is old karma. In terms of what we inherit, moment to moment to moment. How we choose to utilize them is the new karma. So you can think of new karma as choice. But a specific kind of choice, which we'll get into. And old karma as the consequences of that choice. So this is the one that encompasses ignorance.

If you go even further, the asavas, ignorance, the sankhara or samskaras or formations, the vinnana or the divided knowledge or consciousness. Nama-rupa, or mind and body, name and form, or mentality, materiality. The sense bases themselves, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind.

Contact. Eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, mind contact. And feeling, the process of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching and thinking. All of this is old karma. And it's the formations that allow for that karma to be engaged with, to flow. They're the carriers of karma.

And their termination is at feeling, at vedana. Feeling and perception. But if the mind sees every experience as this is me, this is mine, this is myself, if it engages with every experience as this belongs to me, that this I am, this is me. There is a lack of mindfulness in that moment.

The lack of mindfulness is the ignorance. The ignorance is the misperception of that which is impermanent as permanent, that which is suffering as happiness, that which is not self as self. That's the misperception. And when we talked about the lack of mindfulness in every moment, we talked about the lack of awareness of conditionality in every moment.

That is what the Four Noble Truths are. Conditionality. With the arising of this, there is the arising of that. With the passing away of this, there is the passing away of that. If you see it in this way, then your mind is disengaged from taking it as me, mine, or myself.

But as soon as the mind is unable to see it, it is unable to see it due to ignorance, because of muddled mindfulness or lack of mindfulness, then in that moment, there is the liability of an underlying tendency to arise. In the case of pleasant experiences, we said underlying tendency towards craving. In the case of unpleasant experiences, we said the underlying tendency towards aversion. And in the other five, in regards to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experience, unpleasant and neutral experience.

So when we take the experience as this is me, this is mine, this is myself, then there can arise craving. The reactivity, the reaction to the experience, will give rise to craving. That craving gives rise to clinging. That clinging gives rise to habitual tendencies. And those are the ingredients for that choice rooted in craving, that choice rooted in ignorance, in craving, in conceit, in the wrong notion of self, in misperception.

And because you have that choice rooted in ignorance, there is the birth of new action. There is a birth of a further karmic chain, a further karmic link in the chain, and hence suffering. So it is at every experience, in every given moment, that we have mindfulness, that there is no liability of craving to arise.

And specifically the mindfulness of conditionality. And the realization that this arose due to causes and conditions, and it will pass away. Hence, it's not mine. Hence, it's not mine. It's not me. It's not myself. So why am I getting so bothered about this? Why am I getting so agitated by this? Why am I wanting to control it?

Why am I craving for it? Why am I identifying with it? Why am I craving for it? which we call the witness, that which we call the observer, is just another experience, is just another thought, is just another mental object.

If we can find that space before the I arises, then that is true meditation. That is natural samadhi. Experience everything fully as it actually is, but disengage the I from it. Disengage the me, the myself from it. And there's nothing else for you to do. In that moment, your mind is free of any craving, of any further karma. And in fact, that karma weakens.

When you meditate in this way, no matter what hindrance may arise, you see it as just another thought, that this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. And so how do you choose to engage with it? You don't try to control it, you just see it as an impersonal process. So the intention to let go is the only intention that is rooted in the Eightfold Path.

Of course, they have the cultivation of loving kindness, the cultivation of compassion. You're using these to condition the mind, recondition the mind. But just abandoning and letting go does not result in future, and then you're using this. You have been doing this retreat as well. And should you choose to continue with this practice, then you must understand what the Eightfold Path is.

First is right view. Sammaditthi. Sammaditthi means right view, right perspective, right understanding. There is the mundane and super mundane right view. The mundane right view is the acceptance and acknowledgement of karma. There's a bunch of different factors in there, like there is mother and father. And what that says is we have our parents to be thankful for, for bringing us into this life, for the potential to experience total liberation.

But more than that, it's also causation. It's also causation and conditionality. Our parents have our parents. Our parents have their parents and so on. So there is this conditionality and causality that's always going on. That there is meaning to our actions, our intentions. There's meaning in giving, in what is offered, in what is sacrificed, in what is let go.

So there is this development of generosity. There is this development of letting go. There is this development of having the right understanding of action and consequence, causes and conditions. That there is this world and the other. Now, this part of right view can mean that there is this world in terms of our physical sense-based world. It's the internal world of our mind through which jhanas can be cultivated, through which super mundane experiences can be had.

There are teachers, there are guides, there are ascetics, there are practitioners who have walked this path and teach the noble path. That's also part of right view. This is the mundane right view. This human right view is the understanding of the four noble truths. How do you understand it? How do you cultivate that? By understanding what suffering is.

You recognize when the mind is suffering in that moment. By abandoning the factors leading to that suffering, the causes and conditions, by dropping them, by letting them go, by relaxing, namely craving, which is an abbreviation for the links of dependent origination. The third noble truth. By doing so, we realize for ourselves, here and now, nibbana.

We realize dukkha nirodha, the cessation of suffering. And the fourth noble truth. We cultivate and develop and perfect the eightfold path. So this right view then leads to what's known as sammasankappa, right determination or right intention. And this is made up of three things.

Renunciation, non-ill will, and non-cruelty. When we mean renunciation, we mean having an attitude of this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. An attitude of disengagement. An attitude of fully immersing in the experience without adding the sense of self to it. Completely engaging. In the seeing, there's only the seen. In the hearing, there's only the heard. In the sensing, there's only the sensed. In the cognizing, there's only the cognized. In the meditating, there's only the meditation.

Let go of the desire to control. That's the ultimate renunciation. The second part of that is non-ill will. Letting go of the desire to control. That's the ultimate renunciation. The second part of that is non-ill will. Let go of the desire to control. Not to add to the suffering of others. Not to add to the suffering of others. Because when we engage with people through our anger. Because when we engage with people through our anger. Through our hatred.

Through our greed. Through the misperception of self. And we say something from that. We act from that. We even think from that towards that person. That is cruelty. We must see that when a person attacks us verbally. When a person tries to engage in these debates and arguments and is trying to pull us down. That is a reflection of them.

That is a reflection of their own suffering. So it's about changing the perspective. Or is it possible to disengage? And save them the trouble and pain of adding to their own suffering?

So this takes us to right speech, right action and right livelihood. Right speech is not using speech that is false. Not indulging in gossip. Using unnecessary speech, and using speech to demean, to harm, to create division. So I use an acronym for that. Think before you speak. T-H-I-N-K. So T stands for timeliness.

Is it the right time for me to say what I'm about to say? H is for honesty. What am I about to say? Is it true or untrue? Do I know it to be true or untrue? I is for intention. What is the intention of what I'm about to say? N is for necessity. Is it necessary? Is it going to benefit them?

Is it beneficial for me or the other party? Or both? And K is, can I say it, with kindness. Think before you speak. You can still scold your children. You can still admonish them. You can still reprimand them. But can you do it with kindness? Can you do it in a way that doesn't demean them? That doesn't make them feel like they're not loved.

That doesn't make them feel like our love is conditional. Right action is keeping the rest of the precepts. Which means we do not engage in harming other beings. We do not engage in taking what is not freely given. We do not engage in sexual misconduct. We do not engage in indulging in intoxicants. Of course, when you see in the sutras, that's not mentioned. But it is implied.

Because you need right mindfulness. And you can only have right mindfulness when your mind is not topsy-turvy due to intoxicants. And right livelihood. Which means not engaging in any kind of trade, business, career, or job that results in the direct harming of other beings. This then leads to right effort. Now we are getting into Samadhi. We just talked about Sila with right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Now we're getting to Samadhi, which is the development of right effort using the 6R's.

That is the heart of the Eightfold Path. That is the foundation of the Dhamma, is right effort. Because it is only through right effort that we go from wrong view to right view, wrong intention to right intention, wrong speech to right speech, wrong action to right action, wrong livelihood to right livelihood. And then our mind starts to become mindfulness. Then our mind is able to directly engage with every given moment and understand how mind's attention is moving from one object to the other.

And only then do we get to right collectedness. Right effort leads to right mindfulness. Right mindfulness leads to right collectedness. Right effort leads up an object and stays with it. It anchors in that particular object. And it starts to teach itself where the craving arises, how the craving arises, how when one lets go, there is relief. So directly exercising the Four Noble Truths through the practice of meditation.

Here is a hindrance. That is suffering. That is the first noble truth. My undue attention and desire to control that hindrance is the second noble truth. I choose to release my attention from that and relax. And in that moment I experience relief. That is the third noble truth. And when I re-smile and return, I am directly engaging with the rest of the Eightfold Path. And cultivating right meditation.

Right collectedness. Every time you do this, you are directly engaging with the Four Noble Truths. You are teaching yourself causality and conditionality if you see it in this way. This therefore leads to the establishment of super mundane right view. And the super mundane right intention, which is just to see that you see everything as an impersonal process. That's part of panna, wisdom.

And what gets unlocked eventually is sammavimutti and sammanana. That is right knowledge and right freedom. There is the freedom and the knowledge that one is free. Engaging with the Eightfold Path in this way is leading directly to the cessation of further karma. That is the tool set required for disengaging with karma.

There is a sutta called the Conch Blower. It's a very interesting sutta. It talks about how when one radiates loving kindness in the different directions. In the same way. Has anyone ever used a conch shell before? Or seen that? There is a special way in which you have to blow into the conch shell. And when you do that, it produces this trumpeting sound.

Right? And that sound vibrates through the air in different directions. And you drink it. You will not taste that salt. Or barely, if at all, taste that salt.

That salt is karma. And our cultivation of the practice is expanding from the glass of water to that lake. That same amount of karma that arises is diminished in terms of how we are able to handle it. Namely, by letting go. Now it's also important to understand that karma is not everything.

There is a sutta called the Moliyasivaka Sutta. In which the Buddha says that there are those who will say, oh, I am in this place with this knee pain because 542 lifetimes ago, I kicked someone and now I am experiencing knee pain. To even think in those terms or to even say that to someone is so ignorant and non-compassionate.

How does it resolve anything? So what the Buddha says is that instead of looking at it from that angle and from that perspective, that karma is that karma is so ignorant, that karma is in every moment. And you can only engage with karma in every moment. Yes, there are causes and conditions preceding that. But what of it?

If you try to find all the causes and conditions, as the Buddha says, your head will explode. And he doesn't mean that your mind will be blown. He means your head will literally explode. Because you are trying to figure out something that has so many different connotations and possibilities.

And you are trying to find a single source of how that karma arose. And all you will see is further causes and conditions. Which were then led on by previous causes and conditions. Which were affected or have been affected by even further previous causes and conditions. And it is a fool's errand for us to do that. It makes no sense. It's impractical.

So what does he say? Directly engage with karma in the present moment. What can I do about this karma? So he talks about the two darts in another sutta. He says, it's like you get pierced by one dart.

And that's the actual experience of karma. And the second dart is mental. Where you have a reactivity to that karma. And it's like you don't think about where this dart came from. You don't think about who shot that dart. How it was made.

What kind of material that dart is. You are just concerned with how the hell do I get this dart out. Right? That's it. It's in the present moment. How do I deal with this karma? Furthermore, in that Moliya Sivaka Sutta, he says there are other factors and other experiences that are not directly karmic in nature, like diseases of the body. He talks about the three humors.

So for those who are aware in yoga and Ayurveda, we have the three types. We have pitta, kapha, and vata. Those are the three humors. So those have to do with the imbalances in the body. And that's what the Buddha is saying. Due to disorders of the body. Due to disorders of those causes another imbalance in the body.

Did you cause that? Did you directly affect that? It just arose because of the weather, the conditions, whatever had happened. Speaking of words, the Buddha also says that. The weather, the climate, that's another factor that's not in your control. But that's what's present. Nobody expected so much rain to be there last night. But there it was. Did anybody call upon it?

Call for it? Did they speak to the rain gods and say, it's time for rain? It is just the climate. That's just the way it is. Likewise with our environment, the society that we grow up in, the things that we pick up from that.

And assaults, right? Unprovoked assaults, attacks. When you're, let's hope that this doesn't happen. It's the last day of retreat. But you're walking down the road and there's a cottonmouth, right? And it bites into you. Did you cause that? It just happened to be there, got startled by you, and attacked you.