This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations by people like you. How many of you are here for the first time today? And how many of you were here last week? I have a secret reason for asking that question. Today, I want to talk about karma. And I think in this Bay Area Buddha land that most people have some notion of what karma means. And I think that it's casually used. And I will use it myself this way sometimes today to mean the effects of our actions or our accumulated merit or demerit.

[01:15]

But the actual technical meaning of the word karma is volitional action. The most important point about the Buddhist teachings on karma is intentionality. So karma producing actions are always intentional. It's always stuff that we do on purpose. If you accidentally step on a snail, you don't accumulate karma for that. But I think if you swat a fly, that you do. And good intentions tend to produce happy results. And bad intentions tend to produce unhappy results. So I want to read to you a passage from the story of the Buddha's enlightenment.

[02:22]

This is the night the Buddha got enlightened. And the passage that I'm going to read begins just after. It talks about his entering the first and then the second and third and fourth jhanas. So that's where I'm going to begin. When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, and rid of imperfection, When it had become malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed, I inclined my mind to the knowledge of recollection of past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives. That is to say, one birth, two, three, four, five births, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 births,

[03:24]

A thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many ages of world contraction, many ages of world expansion, many ages of world contraction and expansion. I was there, so named, of such a race, with such an appearance, such food, such experience of pleasure and pain, such a life term. And passing away thence, I reappeared elsewhere. And there, too, I was so named, of such a race, with such an appearance, such experience of pleasure and pain, such a life term. Passing away thence, I reappeared here. Thus, with details and particulars, I recollected my manifold past life. This was the first true knowledge attained by me in the first watch of the night.

[04:27]

Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. Darkness was banished and light arose, as happens in one who is diligent, ardent, and self-controlled. But I allowed no such pleasant feeling as a rose in me to gain power over my mind. When my concentrated mind was thus purified, I directed, I inclined my mind to the knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, happy and unhappy in their destinations. I understood how beings pass on according to their actions. These worthy beings who were ill-conducted in body, speech, and mind, revilers of noble ones, wrong in their views, giving effect to wrong view in their actions, on the dissolution of the body after death, have reappeared in states of privation.

[05:50]

in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in hell. But these worthy beings who were well-conducted in body, speech, and mind, not revilers of noble ones, right in their views, giving effect to right view in their actions on the dissolution of the body after death, have reappeared in a happy destination, even in a heavenly world. Thus, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, happy and unhappy in their destinations. I understood how beings pass on according to their actions. This was the second true knowledge attained by me in the second watch of the night.

[06:53]

Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. Darkness was banished and light arose as happens in one who is diligent, ardent, and self-controlled. The next paragraph, which I'm not going to read, talks about what happened for the Buddha in the third watch of the night. And that was his realization of the Four Noble Truths. So I wanted to read this to show the provenance of this idea of reincarnation and rebirth, that it does, in fact, come from the Buddha himself. Having said that, I think that a belief in rebirth and reincarnation is a sticking point for many people. A lot of times people say, do I have to believe in reincarnation to be a Buddhist?

[08:01]

And I think that different teachers and different traditions have various answers to that question. And we in the Zen tradition don't emphasize it. It's maybe more of a Tibetan thing. We don't talk so much about reincarnation and rebirth at Zen Center. So I want to suggest some ways that we might work with this teaching without having to answer that question. Some ways of holding that question. One thing we can experience for ourselves, that our parents passed on some of their karma to us. And we know that we will pass on some of our karma to future generations. Everyone's actions and intentionality have an effect on the world.

[09:12]

And I also think myself that it's no more fantastic to think that there might be something like rebirth or reincarnation. Then the fact that life exists or that once I had a tiny baby's body and now I have this body and can't remember having a baby's body. So I think that the whole world is so amazing that it's hard to say that something's just too hard to believe. When Buddha was asked questions about such things, he refused to answer. He said it wasn't important. It didn't matter. That the only thing he cared about was helping beings to attain liberation and end suffering.

[10:14]

And the answers to these questions don't help people to practice and get enlightened. I also think it's useful to consider these realms of existence, which I'm going to talk about later, as psychological states that we all go in and out of all the time. Um, it allows us for one thing to do the practice of that realm. Um, for example, there's a realm called the jealous gods that I have, um, visited and, um, I can say to myself, Oh, now I'm in the jealous God realm and I know what kind of trouble people can get into in that realm. So I had better be careful. I'd better look at my intentions right now and really consider my actions of body, speech and mind.

[11:18]

And. I think it's useful to try on these teachings and see if they work for us in some way. And in fact, that's what the Buddha told us to do with all of his teachings. He said, don't believe something just because I said it or some teacher said it. Practice it in your own life and see if it works. So those are some of the ways that I think it. might be useful to think about this, these issues. And now I want to talk about this painting. I'll hold it up so that you can all kind of see it for a minute. So this is called The Wheel of Life. depicts one of our lists.

[12:23]

You know that Buddhists are famous for lists. And one of our lists is called the 12-fold chain of causation. Thich Nhat Hanh calls the same list the 12 links of interdependent co-arising because he likes to emphasize that all the elements in this teaching, all the things that are depicted in that world, are cause and causes and effects of each other that they enter are, as he says. So at the top of the picture, on the right side, I think, is Buddha. And he has his he has one hand in a teaching mudra and with the other arm, he's pointing to the moon. And the moon represents enlightenment. So this wheel represents a world of suffering.

[13:27]

And he is indicating that enlightenment is the way out of this realm of suffering. And in this, and then the monster who's holding the wheel represents impermanence. And he has a a headband with skulls. And down at the bottom of the picture, there's a vanquished tiger. I'm not sure whether this tiger is dead or whether he has been tamed and subdued and is peacefully sleeping. But the monster seems to be wearing him as kind of a skirt. And the roundness of the wheel has some symbolism. I like to think of it as a mirror that we can use to see ourselves and our intentions more clearly. Another way of studying ourselves. And since suffering in the realm of cyclic existence is beginningless and endless, this circle has no beginning and no end.

[14:40]

It just goes. round and round and round. Also, all the links, as I said, are interdependent. And later I'm going to talk about the links that are on the outer rim. And, um, and the point is that each link is both a cause and an effect of every other link. At the core of the picture, there's a drawing of three animals, a pig, A rooster and a snake. And the pig represents ignorance. The rooster, greed, and the snake, hatred. And the rooster and the snake are coming out of the pig's mouth, which suggests that although greed, hate, and delusion are considered the three poisons and the causes of all suffering, that really ignorance is the root delusion, and that ignorance is the cause of all suffering in the world.

[15:48]

And this is a particular kind of ignorance. It's not just not knowing something, but it's actively clinging to a wrong view of how things actually exist in the world. and in particular to a belief in an inherently existing separate self. So the Buddha taught over and over and over in many ways and in many different teachings that belief in the self is the cause of all the suffering in the world. Um, on the, of that core, you see two half circles, one black and one white. And the white one has drawings of some beings that seem to be headed upwards towards the happier realms of existence.

[16:51]

And those pictures are a human being and a jealous god and a god. And the black half circle has beings who seem to be plunging into the pit of the lower realms of existence. And the drawings are an animal, a hungry ghost and a hell being. So these are, in fact, the six realms of cyclic existence. These are taught as realms that a person can be born into. But they're also psychological realms that we all visit all the time and go in and out of from day to day. So I think it's really important to think of them that way. The top ones above the half mark are the three happy trans migrations and you.

[17:53]

go to any of those realms through good karma, through a good action in a previous life. And the highest realm is the God realm. So there's a picture of a being sitting on a golden throne in front of what looks like a palace. And he's being served fruit by a woman. He has an attendant. They have musical instruments and they're all wearing red and purple regal colors. They look very relaxed. They look like they're just enjoying their leisure time. And this is what the God realm is. The gods live long and very pleasant lives. And they spend their time either absorbed in pleasures or blissed out in meditation.

[18:56]

And since their lives are so nice, they don't feel any need to practice. And so they don't. And the only drawback, well, there are two drawbacks to being in the God realm. One is that you don't practice. And the other is that it comes to an end. they suffer from the knowledge at the end of their lives that they're about to be reborn in a lower realm. So when the good karma that caused them to be born in that realm in the first place is exhausted, they die and are reborn in some other realm. Very close to that realm is the jealous gods and the Karma and enjoyment of the jealous gods is inferior to those of the gods, and so they're jealous. And they have ill will towards the gods.

[19:58]

And the picture shows a being sitting in front of a sort of smaller palace than the one in the god's room. And there's a tree that's growing in the jealous God's realm, and it has a lot of fruit on it. But the fruity part is up in the God's realm. And there's this there's this man with a hatchet who's trying to cut a piece of fruit, but he can't do it. And also you might notice that they're wearing military outfits. They have shields and spears and helmets. And this is because they hate the gods and they keep attacking them and starting wars. But since the gods are superior, they always win.

[20:59]

And the jealous gods are defeated and wounded and more unhappy than ever. I think of these realms and how, you know, how they relate to the real world that we live in. When I think of gods, I think of some of our super rich CEOs who make many multiples of what other employees make. And I think of the USA, the richest and most envied country in the world. And I also think of myself when I'm lying in bed in the morning, feeling really blissful and relaxed and cozy. And I know that the alarm is going to go off in 15 minutes. The jealous people or the jealous gods, I think of jealous people and I think of comparing mind, comparing myself to other people.

[22:10]

how other people are and what they can do and what they have. And this state of comparing mind feeds anger and resentment and causes ill will and leads to just more, more negative karma and misery. So the third realm up at the top, where the good people go is the human realm. And there's a picture of a doctor treating a sick person and a mother giving birth and a man with a bow and arrow presumably killing some animal for food. There's a farmer driving some work animals. And then it's typical of this style of drawing that Up in the very top corner, right next to the God realm, there is a picture of some monks with their teacher.

[23:17]

So the human realm has a mixture of pleasure and pain. The beings in this realm are not so overwhelmed or distracted by pain that they can't practice. And yet they have enough suffering that they're motivated to do so. So this is actually considered the most desirable realm to be born into from the point of view of realization and practice. Down below the line are the three unhappy transmigrations. And the one that's highest and most closely connected with the human realm is animal realm. And like us, animals suffer from heat and cold and hunger and thirst. But they also suffer from the incapacity to have speech and language. And they have to continually hunt for food and at the same time try to avoid being eaten themselves.

[24:28]

And they're used often for others purposes. So we have. work animals and we raise animals for food and even pets who can sometimes have a very nice life. I think it's a pretty iffy proposition to be born as a pet animal in our society because they are completely dependent for their well-being on the humans who take care of them or don't. When I think of this realm, I think of selfish people who are only interested in themselves and their own agendas and who are sometimes fiercely competitive and very aggressive in going about getting the things they want without much regard for consequences. So we have this phrase that it's a dog-eat-dog world.

[25:34]

Another realm is the hungry ghost realm, and the beings in that realm have very large stomachs, so they're hungry all the time. And they have long, thin necks and little, tiny throats, so they can hardly get any food at all down their throats, and they're just ravenous all the time. And if they do manage to swallow some food, it turns to fire and burns them. So this realm makes me think of people who are never satisfied, who never have enough, who are always complaining about something. And the lowest realm of all, the worst it can get is the hell realm. And there are some pretty sordid pictures in that realm. There is a picture of a person being sawed in half.

[26:38]

some people being boiled in a cauldron. There's a person impaled on the branch of a tree. And there's somebody who looks like he's trapped in a burning house. So this is the most intense suffering in the cyclic realm that is said to result from extremely harmful actions, such as murder. And when I think of things In this realm, I think of people in prison, especially people on death row, people in war-torn countries who are constantly in fear for their lives, the mentally ill and suicidal, and ourselves when we're extremely distressed, remorseful, sorrowful. grieving or just can't find any peace anywhere.

[27:41]

So all of these six realms from top to bottom are part of cyclic existence and all of them are subject to impermanence. So good things can't last and bad things can come at any moment. I think it's interesting that each realm, at least each of the lower realms, has a bodhisattva in the midst of the realm who is there to help the suffering beings with their suffering. So now I want to talk about the 12 links around the edge. And you could start with any link. But it's easiest for me to start with the traditional one, which is ignorance. That's the same ignorance that's at the core of the whole thing.

[28:41]

And the drawing is of a blind man hobbling along with his cane. He is blind. He can't see where he's going because he's blinded by ignorance and he's hobbling because he's because ignorance is unstable and has no firm foundation and can be overcome by wisdom. So of these links, there are three lines represented in the perimeter of this wheel. And the first two and a half links are one life. And then we'll talk about the others. So the second link, independent upon ignorance, we do actions. We do karmic actions, karmic formations. And the picture is a potter at his wheel.

[29:42]

So actions of body, speech, and mind shape our lives. And the shape of our life depends on the intention behind our action. And the third link, consciousness, this is the hardest one to explain. So I'll see how I can do consciousness. The picture is a monkey scampering up and down a tree, which represents how we go from one life to another or one realm to another, how we go in and out of various mind states all the time. And consciousness is divided. Um, there's cause consciousness and effect consciousness. So the first life that we're talking about in, um, dependence upon ignorance, there is action. And the action leaves an imprint on consciousness, um, that can be nourished, um, during a lifetime or many lifetimes.

[30:50]

And, um, can eventually come to fruition as a new life. And so the effect consciousness is the new life. So the fourth link is name and form. And name is another word for mind and form for body. So this is the embryonic new life. And the fifth link is the six sense spheres. It's represented by a house with six windows. And the sense spheres, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind, develop in the womb at different rates. And once the sense spheres are developed, they make contact with sense objects.

[31:52]

And contact, the sixth link, is represented by a man and woman embracing. So when the sixth sense powers make contact with the sense objects, feeling arises. And the drawing for feeling is a person with an arrow in his eye. Ouch. So from sensory contact, feelings arise, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings. And the pleasant feelings are said to be the result of positive actions, and the unpleasant feelings are said to be the result of unpleasant or of negative actions. Craving is the next link, and the picture is of a person drinking alcohol. So once there are feelings, we have desires.

[32:57]

We want to keep the pleasurable feelings and get rid of the unpleasant feelings right now. And this can become like an addiction. So that's why there's a picture of someone drinking alcohol. And it is said that craving is especially strong near the time of death. that the being has a strong desire to keep living. The ninth link is grasping, and the picture is of a monkey trying to grab fruit off a tree. This is a more intense form of craving. And in this realm, we may put a lot of energy into seeking pleasurable experiences instead of just experiencing our life as it unfolds and enjoying what's right in front of us.

[33:59]

So we may spend lots of time and money and energy running after pleasure. We may go out to dinner or go shopping. And as death approaches, it is said that beings grasp at a new body to replace the one that they're losing through deterioration and death. And that this grasping is influenced by a lifelong habit of craving and grasping. The tenth link is becoming. or existence. And it's represented by a pregnant woman. And this is actually the end of this second life. At the time of death, one of the seeds of consciousness, one of the impressions left on this consciousness

[35:10]

is matured and ready to establish a new lifetime. And this process is influenced not only by the various actions that you do in all of the lifetimes, but also by your state of mind. A peaceful state of mind is an ameliorating factor. And this is why I think so much attention is given certainly by Buddhists, to cultivating a peaceful state of mind in someone who's dying. The eleventh link is birth. So this is the beginning of the third life. And there's a picture of a woman giving birth, even though the new life is actually said to begin at conception. And the twelfth link is aging and death. And the picture is a person carrying a corpse because beings are forced to carry the burden of suffering throughout their lives, including old age, sickness and death.

[36:23]

So that's the third life. And these lives just keep coming. I'm impressed as I study this. that the upward or downward movement towards happy existences or unhappy existences seems to gather momentum. So on the good side, if you have a good intention, you'll probably practice kind speech and gentle action, and you'll feel a sense of well-being. You'll have a pleasant atmosphere around you. You'll have memories of actions you've done that have been beneficial. You probably will have will form good habits of body, speech and mind. And once these become habits, they'll affect how you carry your body and affect your general state of health.

[37:34]

So it's like the good becomes more and more good. And on the other hand, the same thing happens with bad intentions. If you have bad intentions, you may indulge in harsh or rude speech or harmful actions and develop ill will and have an unclosent atmosphere around you. You probably have bad habits of body, speech and mind. And these affect the way you carry your body and your state of health and state of mind. And one of the benefits of pursuing the good route is that you don't have unhappy things on your mind that prevent you from meditating and practicing. Um, whereas you do if you have a lot of bad karma.

[38:35]

So the good news about karma is that whatever your circumstances, um, every moment is a choice point where it's possible, um, to make choices and act on good intentions that will favorably influence your karma and your life now and in the future. In some difficult circumstances, it may be that arriving at some kind of peaceful, peaceful state of mind about how things actually are is the best that you can hope for. But that's actually an extremely favorable outcome. If we can't change our life, then we have to change our mind. And when we change our mind, it will change our life. And in fact, a true and stable happiness can really only be cultivated from within rather than by changing one's outer circumstances.

[39:45]

If we make good choices from moment to moment about our thoughts and take care of our state of mind, if we're careful about our speech and actions, Our world will be a better and happier place. We're the creator of our world in that sense. I want to do one more thing. The secret reason why I asked who was here last week is that Mark read you this story last week, but I can't resist reading it again. It's the story of Pai Chang's box. So once when Pai Chang gave a series of talks, a certain old man was always there listening together with the monks. When they left, he would leave too. One day, however, he remained behind. Pai Chang asked him, who are you standing here before me?

[40:51]

The old man replied, I am not a human being. In the far distant past, In the time of Kasyapa Buddha, I was head priest at this mountain. One day a monk asked me, does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not? I replied, such a person does not fall under the law of cause and effect. With this, I was reborn 500 times as a fox. Please say a turning word for me and release me from the body of a fox. He then asked Pai Chang, does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not? Pai Chang said, such a person does not evade the law of cause and effect. Hearing this, the old man immediately was enlightened.

[41:52]

Making his vows, he said, I am released from the body of a fox. The body is on the other side of this mountain. I wish to make a request of you. Please, Abbott, perform my funeral as for a priest. Pai Cheng had a head monk strike the signal board and inform the assembly that after the noon meal, there would be a funeral service for a priest. The monks talked about this in wonder. All of us are well. There's no one in the morgue. What does the teacher mean? After the meal, Pai Chang led the monks to the foot of a rock on the far side of the mountain. And there with his staff, he poked out the body of a dead fox. He then performed the ceremony of cremation. That evening, he took the high seat. before his assembly and told his monks the whole story.

[42:57]

Wang Po stepped forward. Wang Po, I have heard, was about seven feet tall, and Pai Cheng was a little tiny Chinese man. So Wang Po stepped forward and said, As you say, the old man missed the turning word and was reborn as a fox 500 times. What if he had given the right answer each time he was asked a question? What would have happened then? Pai Chang said, just step up here closer and I'll tell you. So Wang Po went up to Pai Chang and slapped him in the face. Kai Cheng clapped his hands and laughed, saying, I thought the barbarian had a red beard, but here is a red bearded barbarian. And that's a compliment because the red bearded barbarian is Bodhidharma.

[43:58]

And Bodhidharma is the Chinese ancestor of Zen. So this is Wu Men's comment on the case. Not falling under the law of cause and effect. Why should this prompt 500 lives as a fox? Not evading the law of cause and effect. Why should this prompt a return to human life? If you have the single eye of realization, you will appreciate how old Pai Chang lived 500 lives as a fox, as lives of grace. So I like to think of Pai Chang as that bodhisattva that lives in the animal realm to help take care of the beings there and their suffering. I hope that he spent some time during those 500 lives doing that.

[45:00]

So please take care of yourselves and pay attention to your intentions. actions of body, speech, and mind and enjoy your lives as lives of grace. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[45:43]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.66