In the Footsteps of the Buddha

My last post was on bringing awareness of karma into our life.  Karma explains what positive and negative actions are and helps us to live and act accordingly. Rigpa has a wonderful free daily email with inspiring quotes from Buddhist teachings (sign up here) and in the last couple of weeks two of them were on karma. The first one from November 21 explained karma:

“Karma means that whatever we do, with our bodies, speech, or minds, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences. It is said by the masters that even a little poison can cause death, and even a tiny seed can become a huge tree. And as Buddha said: “Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain.

Similarly he said: ‘Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel.’

Karma does not decay like external things, or ever become inoperative. It cannot be destroyed ‘by time, fire, or water.’ Its power will never disappear, until it is ripened.”

In the Judeo-Christian culture I was brought up in negative actions are thought of in a very moralistic way. I find it very helpful that in Buddhism the concept of Karma is not moralistic. It is simply telling us that there is a natural law of cause and effect. Every action has an effect. In essence it means that positive actions bring positive results (happiness) and negative actions bring negative results (suffering).

I often still fall into the trap of thinking of negative actions in a moralistic way and as sins. This kind of thinking is quite ingrained in our culture and language.  For example we often speak of the act of doing something negative as “committing a negative action”. It seems to me that the word “committing” is already moralistically charged because it is usually used in the context of “committing” a sin or a crime. For me it immediately invokes the idea that I need to be punished or that my action made me a bad person.

The wheel of life

In Buddhism it is not seen like that. The Dalai Lama often says that when we do something negative the action is not good but it doesn’t mean that it makes us fundamentally a bad person. When we commit a negative action we do not commit a sin and are a doomed bad person but we have done something that creates harm and is not in accord with the natural law.

I don’t know if the word sin originally really had such a moralistic meaning. I recently read that idea of original sin could be compared to a fundamental ignorance that prevents us from being able to see how things are. Sin was then explained as “missing the mark”, of not being in or acting in accord with how things are. That is very similar to how karma is explained in Buddhism.

In Buddhism an action is called negative when we are not acting in accord with the natural “law”. “Law” is another charged word so maybe it would be better to say “being in accord with the natural order” or “being in harmony with how things are”. It means we are doing something that is not good for us and for others.
Even vows in Buddhism are not really moralistic.  For example, when we take vows not to lie, in Buddhism we say “I commit to training in refraining from lying”. There is an understanding we are not perfect and that we need to practice and train in avoiding these actions.

In my last post I focused on the underlying principle and how motivation determines whether an action is positive or negative. What make an action positive or negative is the motivation and intention behind it. A positive action is considered to be something that is done without attachment and aversion in the mind. The main message of the teachings on karma is therefore to always have a pure mind and good intention.

Here is another quote on karma from the December 3 Rigpa Glimpse of the Day email that also highlights this:

“Every single negative thing we have ever thought or done has ultimately arisen from our grasping at a false self, and our cherishing of that false self, making it the dearest and most important element in our lives. All those negative thoughts, emotions, desires, and actions that are the cause of our negative karma are engendered by self-grasping and self-cherishing. They are the dark, powerful magnet that attracts to us, life after life, every obstacle, every misfortune, every anguish, every disaster, and so they are the root cause of all the sufferings of samsara.”

The teachings on karma do not only only explain the fundamental principles of cause and effect but they also highlight ten action which are considered negative. Three of these ten are physical acts: taking life, taking what is not given, and sexual misconduct; four are verbal acts: lying, sowing discord, harsh words, and worthless chatter; and three are mental acts:  covetousness, wishing harm on others, and wrong views.

In Buddhism these ten actions are not commandments like in Christianity, but guidelines. The ten actions are considered to be negative but ultimately what determines whether they are negative depends on the intention behind them. That means that karma is not black and and white. It also means that it is not so easy to determine if an action is positive. Only someone who has fully awakened from ignorance and can see all the factors involved can truly see it.

Thus the teachings on karma are also telling us that we need to be very careful in judging the actions of others. Especially in the case of realized spiritual practitioners, even if on first sight their actions might look negative their motivation might be very pure and well intended.

Since motivation determines whether an action is good or bad, the physical and verbal acts can actually not be considered definitively negative. If the intention behind them is good they can be positive. There are examples in the scriptures of seemingly negative actions that were actually positive. In the “King of Samadhi: Commentaries on the Samadhi Raja Sutra and the Song of of Lodrö Thaye”, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche said:

“…the question arises: ‘Should any action that appears to be negative be avoided in all cases?’ The answer is no. There are some circumstances in which a negative action of body, when carried out intelligently, for the sake of others and without any selfishness whatsoever directly benefits other beings.

A story from a past life of the Buddha illustrates this. It is the story about a shipload of five hundred merchants on a ship traveling from India to the islands off the coast laden with riches. Among the travelers was a murderer named ‘Spear-wielding Criminal’ who intended to kill everyone aboard the ship to keep the riches. The bodhisattva “Prince Fortitude,” who was the ship captain, knew about this intention and thought, ‘If I kill him first, I can save him from the negative karma, from killing five hundred people.’ So the bodhisattva killed the criminal. Instead of creating negative karma from this act, he accumulated a vast amount of merit. So this story illustrates that, by using discriminating knowledge and pure motivation, a negative action can become virtuous. If our motivation is utterly free from disturbing emotions, the action can be carried out if it relieves the suffering of others or benefits a vast number of beings.”

The centre of the Wheel of Life, featuring a pig, snake and bird representing the three poisons ignorance, anger and desire

However the negative actions of the mind can never be positive. If your mind is full of confusion, malice and wanting then whatever you do will be negative, even if it might look good from the outside. This is also an important point. One’s actions might look very good from the outside but if the intention is selfish or self-serving or one’s mind is full of anger and malice then even the most noble looking actions are actually negative.

The heart of Buddhist ethics is very practical and not moralistic.  The ten negative actions are not declared as sins but they are given as guidelines that will help us avoid accumulating negative karma. The teachings explain that if we engage in certain actions we run the risk of harming others and creating negative karma. When the seeds that we have created will ripen then we will experience suffering. That’s why ultimately harming others is not good for ourselves. When we harm others we are ultimately harming ourselves.

I have heard these warnings to abstain from the negative actions described as light beacons on a shore that tell a seafarer to avoid dangerous currents and cliffs. If you know the shore very well you can  sometimes overstep these boundaries without harm. But because there is a great danger and likelihood that you will be doing something negative, it is advised to abstain from them.

Another way of looking at these negative actions is relating them to the general principle of motivation and intention that karma is based on. When we are self-centered and see our own well-being and happiness as more important than that of others, what do we do? We take what doesn’t belong to us. We starts fights with others. We attack them physically and might even kill them. We take advantage of others for our own pleasure. We lie to achieve our goals. When someone displeases us we respond with abusive language. We talk badly about others behind their backs and sow discord to further our own agendas. We say all sort of thoughtless negative things in idle gossip. We covet things that others have that we don’t. We harbor anger and malice towards others. We develop views, concepts and attitudes that are not reflecting how things are and just create confusion and suffering.

The ten negative actions seem to be simple a list of the things that we do when our heart and mind are not pure and we are afflicted by the three poisons of anger, attachment and ignorance. When we find ourselves doing something on the list then maybe a good first step would be look at our mind and heart. And check our intention and motivation. Because that is the root out of which these actions arise.

The Great Tibetan Saint and Yogi Milarepa

It is said in the teachings that there is one positive side to negative actions: They can be purified! Karma is that we are very powerful. In the same way that we can create negative karma we can create positive karma and purify past negative actions. Even the most harmful actions can be purified. For example the story of the life and liberation of Milarepa is a great example of this. How to do that in detail is another story, … maybe a topic I could pick up at some point in the future.

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to write about how we can know that a spiritual teacher is an authentic. But since my reflections in the last few days have been on karma I decided to write about that instead. A few months ago I already did a short series of posts on that topic, You might find it helpful to read these, because they cover some of the basic explanation that I will not repeat here. Start with this post and then use the link on the top right of the post to go to the next two.

Karma fits very nicely into my recent series of reflections of what Buddhism is about. It is a key principle in the Buddhist teachings. Essentially, karma is about the principle of cause and effect; that everything in this world is interdependent. Every actions has an effect on us and the world around us and contributes to our and others future reality.

Karma is often misunderstood as predestination but actually the teachings on karma are telling us that through our actions we create our world. It can be difficult to understand that karma is not moralistic and not a punishment. But actually it is simply about cause and effect. It means that we are powerful. We create our reality with our actions. Whatever we do leaves very subtle  imprints in the ground of our mind and creates seeds that will ripen in the future. Thus, our past actions have created our present reality and right now we are creating our future with our present actions.

In my practice there is a beautiful one line essentialization and reminder of the message of karma:

“Unalterable are the laws of karma, cause and effect cannot be escaped.”

"Light always finds a way" photo by flickr user Katarina 2353

Karma is telling us that we better pay attention to what we do, speak and think. It says that positive actions bring happiness and negative actions will bring us suffering.

The main reason why I have been reflecting on karma recently is because I want to bring it more into my day to day awareness. One of the things I am trying to understand better is what exactly positive and negative actions are.

There are ten actions that are said to be negative but the main factor that determines whether an action is positive or negative is the intention with which it is carried out. Today, instead of going into detail about the ten negative actions I want to reflect more on the underlying principles.

What makes an action negative? It is said that an action becomes negative if it is done with attachment and aversion. Attachment for example refers to a self-centered attitude of wanting. We then often act without regard or awareness of others for our own self-gratification, often at the expense of others. Aversion is usually triggered by negative feelings towards others and circumstances. Something bothers us and all we want to do is to remove this sore spot in our world without much regard for others.

The underlying attitude behind negative actions is a self-centered attitude with which comes an often unconscious disregard of the needs of others. The basis of this self-centeredness is the idea of an independently existing self. This idea gives rise to a mindset of “I” versus “other” or “me” against “the world”. This then leads to the idea that “I” am more important than others. We operate on the basis that what “I need” is more important than what others need. We don’t give a lot of thought to whether doing or getting what we want effects others.

It might seem that we need such an attitude to take ourselves in this world. But actually the teachings are not saying we shouldn’t take care of ourselves. The main point is the attitude we have when we take care of ourselves. Granted if we have more awareness and care for others our own needs will probably be less than they are now, but these choices will be made with wisdom, love, compassion and joy. Self-centeredness limits our mind and prevents us from seeing how things are. It also closes our heart and prevents us from feeling love and compassion. All this is the cause of suffering.

Being free of aversion also doesn’t mean we become a doormat. For example, if we engage in a conflict with hatred we create negative karma. But if the same action is done with the intention to defend ourselves or to stop injustice and done without malice and hatred in our heart then it is not negative.

The underlying attitude behind positive actions can be said to see ourselves as part of a bigger world and live with awareness of that connectedness and oneness with the world. It is an attitude of respect and care for the world and all beings within it. The key is the motivation behind our action, whether it is self-centered or is infused with a good heart and awareness of others and our environment.

One the burning questions often in my mind is: How can I bring this into my life? Reflecting on this made me realize that even the ordinary things we do all day can become positive actions if our being is infused with a deeper awareness that sees the need of others.

Even washing the dishes can be a positive action that will plant seeds for future happiness and well being. We can see the dishes need to be done and do them with joy, rather than frustration about the endless stream of housework. Or we do them because we see our wife is tired. Or we use them as an opportunity to practice, imagining that cleaning the plates we clean the obscurations of all beings. The possibilities are endless! We can infuse whatever we do with good heart and awareness of others and use it as an opportunity to purify our mind and heart and to develop love, compassion and and wisdom.

We are powerful. We can take charge of our minds and our lives and use our present life to create a positive future reality. How? By being mindful of what we do and aware of how our minds are. By avoiding actions that create causes for future suffering and engaging in actions that sowing positive seeds. If we are in fully harmony of our true being then what we do will be naturally virtuous. As long as we don’t live with a true understanding of reality, as long as we engage in them with the sense of a separate  “I”, “others”  and an “external outer world” these actions leave imprints in our subtle consciousness. When we have awakened to that realization it is said that all our actions will effortlessly and naturally benefit others.

Ultimately, when our being has fully transcended the realm of dualistic existence then we will cease to be bound by karma, but until that time it is important to pay attention to karma. The great master Padmasambhava said:

“Though my View is as spacious as the sky, my actions and respect for cause and effect are as fine as grains of flour”