Appendix C

Karma and Liberation

(Compiled from transcripts and dharma talks from Barbara and Aaron.)

Aaron: The title of this talk may seem grandiose, but understanding of karma is essential to our dharma practice, central to liberation. We frequently hear the phrase 'It's my karma,' from someone in either a painful or pleasant situation. We toss the word around easily, yet few of us really understand karma in its many complexities. What exactly is karma and what does it have to do with us, with our daily life, our practice, with liberation?

The word karma means action-simply that. Every action, word, thought carries karma. Only that Arahat, a fully enlightened being who does not need to take rebirth, has the wisdom and complete freedom from attachment and aversion to act, speak or think totally without creating adhering karma. Some of it is what we tend to think of as 'good' karma, some 'bad.' I prefer not to use the terms good and bad. If you take a class in school and fail the exam, and the teacher invites you to come after class and discuss the work to find and clarify your misunderstanding, is that invitation good or bad? The work it leads to may be fun, or difficult, the invitation itself may be convenient or inconvenient, but it is NOT inherently good or bad.

Karma that draws us back is not punishment but opportunity to learn. So first we need to stop thinking of it as bad. Heavy perhaps, painful, unpleasant in some aspects, but not bad. Just opportunity to learn.

All acts, words, and thoughts create karma. We see the effects of this karma in the fruit of the seed we planted, as it appears in the next moment and the next lifetimes. If I'm kind to another, in the next moment I may feel open and loving and may experience that person's lovingkindness. I strengthen the habit for kindness in myself and others. In future lives I also reap the fruit of that seed. Think of it as an orchard. You plant the first seeds and in time, in this lifetime, fruit trees grow and bear; we enjoy that sweet fruit. The falling fruit seeds itself so in future generations the orchard remains, heir of that first orchard, bearing fruit for our ancestors.

While we won't use the words 'good' and 'bad' to define karma, we can categorize it in certain ways. There is wholesome and unwholesome karma. These words, 'wholesome' and 'unwholesome' have strong emotional connotations. We might instead say karma that leads to a pleasant, peaceful, joyful next moment or rebirth or karma that leads to a painful, sad, joyless next moment or rebirth. That is a mouthful. Wholesome and unwholesome are the traditional terms. They will do, but use them with awareness.

When a word, act, or thought is based on delusion and fear, selfishness, greed-basically fear and its manifestations-unwholesome adhering karma is created, karma which leads to a new moment or a new birth with an unpleasant fruit. If you act in anger, you reap anger which leads to the creation of the next moment and the next life, in both of which the fruits of that anger will be experienced. When you act in ways prompted by love but still with the delusion of self-'I am a good person, I will act lovingly'-there is still an 'I' performing these acts. 'I do this for you' here are self and other. There is wholesome adhering karma.

Note that they are both adhering karma that lead to rebirth. They are adhering karma, whether wholesome or unwholesome, because they grow out of that delusion of 'I'-self and other.

For most humans, no act is entirely pure. You help another from a space of love, but there is also that small bit of self. Where the self seeks attention, compliment, reward and thus there is need and a self that needs-when you say, 'I need this,' implying another from which to receive it-there is unwholesome karma. The aspects of the act that are loving and in service to others breed wholesome karma. Nevertheless, as long as there is a self doing and controlling, every act, word, or thought based on that delusion of a solid, continuing self results in adhering karma.

This does not mean that you never act without adhering karma. Each of you has moments, sometimes many moments, of offering acts and words unlinked to self. These acts, words, and thoughts grow out of clear seeing that there is no self or other. The results of these volitional formations free of delusion, free of ignorance, is non-adhering karma. However, only the Arahat, that being who is fully enlightened and free of this cycle of birth and death yet still presently on the earth plane, only that being's every thought, word, and act is free of adhering karma. Movement from non-delusion is a process, a learning into which you enter. With mindfulness, courage, and open heart, that which flows through you becomes purer and purer …

Barbara: … Let's look at characteristics of karma. I'll list them and then we'll talk about them. 1) Karma is specific. Every word, act, and thought has a result. 2) Karma is habitual and fast growing. 3) You never experience someone else's karma. The one who plants the seed gets the fruit. 4) When you have planted the seed you get the result. 5) Karma grows from intention.

What do these mean? Let's start with #1. Karma is specific. We sometimes talk about karma as planting seeds. If you want sweet apples, you have to plant sweet apple seeds. If you plant sour apple seeds and then pour on lots and lots of honey, pour it into the ground around the seeds, you'll still get sour apples.

There's a story in Buddhist literature about a singer, a woman with a magnificent voice. But she was so terrible to look at that when she sang, she had to be behind a wall or curtain. People asked the Buddha why she was so ugly and her voice so lovely. He said in a past life this woman had been a workman building a temple. He worked on this day after day, but he hated his work. He cursed at the building, told people how ugly it was. Finally it was almost finished and then the workman began to see it in a different way. He felt sorry for all his cursing and complaining. So when it was done, he went out and used his own money to buy a beautiful bell, wonderful clear tone, and he hung it at the temple. Here she is, in this lifetime; the ugliness of the cursing and complaints have manifested into the ugly body. The repentance and generosity produced the lovely voice.

Now I don't know if this really happened. The stories say it did. But the point is, EVERYTHING we do, every word, every act every thought, has a result. Karma is specific. You can't eradicate it. That's the first characteristic.

You might also observe that both the beauty and the ugliness were adhering karma. There was a very solid self that bought the bell and gave it. It is wholesome and leads to pleasant fruits. Nevertheless, it is adhering karma.

The second characteristic, karma grows quickly. The Buddhist scriptures say it multiplies every 24 hours. I don't know how they measure that. The math details don't really matter. Karma is fast growing. It has what is called a conditioning quality. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Much of our action is habitual. We establish patterns for ourselves and get very comfortable in those patterns. If we look at our behavior at all, at the small things, we may say 'Oh, it doesn't matter.' But it always matters. Let me give you an example my teacher once offered.

None of us here would kill someone, walk into a store with a gun and shoot it if they didn't turn over the money. That feels wrong to us. Most of us would try not to run over an animal on the road. But what do you do when an insect lands on your arm, a mosquito maybe? Swat! Or at least you brush it off without much thought. Do you do that? I do sometimes. It tickles and my brain says 'mosquito' and I brush it away. I don't swat them anymore, I've gotten that far in mindfulness, but I still brush them away and sometimes I'm not very careful with whether I hurt them or not.

Are you saying, 'Aw, come on. It's only a mosquito'?

What's really happening with that mosquito? First there's sense consciousness of skin sensation. Perception labels it as tickling, a mosquito on my arm. It's unpleasant. Neutral stance moves to dislike and desire to get rid of it. Then the mental formation 'irritation' arises. Finally I move to rid myself of the irritation.

The whole of Buddhist philosophy is in that brushing away. Aversion to discomfort, lack of awareness of how each moment rises out of conditions, reactivity. I, I, I, I-a solidifying self that perceives, dislikes, moves to get rid of. Me against the mosquito.

I'm not suggesting it's wrong to move away from discomfort. If I touch a hot stove, the skillful response is to notice the pain and move away. But I don't need to hate the stove. I still appreciate the fine job it does of cooking my meals or warming my house.

What about the mosquito? As I move through discomfort and getting rid of, do I ever recognize that this is a living being? I don't have to allow it to eat me. That's my choice. I can if I want to. But I can also strive to treat it with reverence as a living creature.

Here's where we return to the characteristic 'karma grows.' Every time I mindlessly brush off that mosquito, I move deeper into a pattern of non-awareness of the sacredness of life. Maybe next week I find a groundhog eating the beans in my garden. He's burrowing under the fence and he's really destroying the plants that are my food. When I haven't paid attention with the mosquito, it's easier to take action to kill the groundhog. Can you see that? What about my neighbor's dog who runs lose and snarls at my kids when they play in my yard. My neighbor won't confine the animal. When do I decide it's okay to poison it?

If I act each time, without reverence for life and awareness of my connection with that life, acting to suit my own needs, to ease my own pain, am I more likely to start to keep a gun under my pillow to protect myself from an intruder? Will I use that gun when an intruder enters, not intent on harming me but on stealing my TV, perhaps?

Each time I practice non-awareness, non-respect for the sacredness and oneness of all life, it makes that pattern of disrespect and solidified self a little firmer.

What if I notice the mosquito, notice the irritation and desire to be rid of it, and then gently brush the mosquito away, taking care not to harm it. If it keeps coming back, I can use repellent or put on long sleeves. Here I'm planting that sweet seed. Each time I'm thus aware and respectful of life, move with mindful intention both to notice my own discomfort and also not to harm another, I nurture that seed. Harm of another starts to become unthinkable. New, skillful patterns develop.

Where I only saw trapping the groundhog or poisoning the dog as alternatives, when they are no longer thinkable alternatives, new ideas arise. Yes, they may lead to some inconvenience, cost or discomfort. How do you decide if it's worth it? Look carefully. It's far less expensive to build a stronger fence than kill the animal-not just out-of-wallet expense but karmic expense.

Karma grows. Skillful patterns become established, or unskillful patterns. Are you planting sour apples, or sweet?

Lets take the third and fourth characteristics together. 3) If you don't plant the seed, you don't reap the fruit, sweet or sour. 4) If you plant the seed, you always reap the fruit, sweet or sour. This gets into who's responsible for what. Let's use children as an example. A has a toy B wants. B grabs it. A gets angry and hits B. B's nose is bleeding. He yells and Mom rushes in, sees B crying, nose bloody, and punishes A. Is it fair? Whose fault was it. Is A getting punished for something B started? He was just sitting quietly, playing.

No matter what the provocation, we are ALWAYS karmically responsible for our own choices. B gave a pretty strong provocation. Instant karma, he reaped a bloody nose. A was provoked; still it was his choice, to hit or not to hit. He hit, he's punished. Again, instant karma.

This was a pretty simple example. Sometimes it's much more subtle. In the sixties I spent a lot of time in the south, working with non-violent direct action for human rights. Once I was on a freedom ride. People forced the bus off the road and it half turned over in a ditch. People were thrown around, injured. As they climbed out, there were these people with pipes, wood clubs, other weapons. So people were getting heads bashed in. Then the national guard came along and started after the bashers until they fled.

I wasn't hurt. I just sat there watching all this mayhem around me and asking 'Am I responsible?' Clearly I was being non-violent but I was there, on the bus. Was that in itself a form of violence? If we hadn't been there, this brutality wouldn't have happened. That was the last time I participated in that kind of action, because I couldn't answer the question, am I responsible? I couldn't answer until I came to understand karma and how it works.

My intention was not to force my agenda on another, only to ask him or her to consider my viewpoint. I was there to say that I had a right to sit next to a brother or sister of any skin color, not to say that someone else had to. He was free to stand if he didn't want to sit down. But he had to respect my right to choose for myself and to sit. Can you see the difference? To force my viewpoint on another is a form of violence to that person. To ask him to consider my viewpoint and allow me to act in my own way as long as I don't harm another is not violence.

Yes, he might say I am harming him by sitting. Am I harming him or just asking him to confront his own fear? There's a huge difference.

I don't want to get into a long moral discussion here, only to use this to illustrate. If I am clear that I'm not trying to force another to do it my way, only asking him to consider my way and allow me to do that, then I have no intention to harm. I'm not karmically responsible if he reacts to my movement with violence. It does get subtle. I knew it would provoke him. I knew he might react with violence. If I'm willing to be the object of that violence, to accept and forgive his reaction, in order to make my statement, then I have no intention of doing harm.

So is there any unwholesome, adhering karma for me. That depends on ego. Again, it's subtle. If I'm attached to a result, trying to make something happen or in a sense, to manipulate, then there's some violence in that, and I'm responsible for my own attachment, my own ego. But I'm not responsible for his violence.

There's a lot more we could discuss about these characteristics. I want to go on, to make sure there's ample time to talk about what this means, in terms of our own work in this incarnation, and in terms of liberation.

First we need to define liberation; I understand two uses of this word. One is total liberation, freedom from this samsaric cycle of birth and death. Second is increasing freedom from reactivity and lessening of suffering in this moment, as we bring deeper awareness to the attachment, aversion and delusion that lead to suffering. Such awareness may not instantly lead to total liberation but it does allow our present lives to be more joyful and peaceful and our relationships with others to be more skillful and compassionate. Happily the same process that leads us to this partial freedom from reactivity will also eventually lead to total liberation.

Most of you have heard of this spiral we often talk about of sila, panna, and samadhi. These are Pali words. Sila translates moral purity or moral awareness. That's a little narrow. Actually, I find it means moral action that grows out of awareness of interbeing. Harm to another becomes unthinkable when there is no self or other. That level of knowing our deepest connection leads to sila. Panna is wisdom; it's not knowing, not intellect, but wisdom, insight. Samadhi is concentration.

To realize final liberation, to become free of this samsaric cycle, we have to work with all the portions of this spiral. Grasping at wisdom, trying to attain wisdom, doesn't work. We already have the seed of that wisdom within us. We allow it to develop. It's like a rose bud. All the wishing in the world can't make it open; you can't pry it open. Yet within the bud is the full flower. There's nothing more that it needs. The flower is already there. Nutrients like sunshine and water allow it to open. The enlightened being is already there; the Buddha nature is already there. Two of the nutrients we can offer are samadhi and sila.

Here's where we come back to karma. We can't just make a decision to always act without harm to others, to always practice sila. What does that mean, to act with non-harm? I said before that intention was important. The same act can lead to drawing back or liberating karma. Here in a hospital a surgeon works with all his skill, cutting open a heart in effort to save a life, but the patient dies. On the street outside, a thief cuts his knife into a man's heart because that man protests the stealing of his wallet. Same act, knife into heart. Two different karmic results.

We can't even know what we're doing all the time. We don't have enough perspective. We just have to trust our intention to do no harm and follow our own inner wisdom. Effort and letting go. That's another talk.

So what can we do? How do we offer these nutrients of sila and samadhi? A friend wrote recently and said he saw he needed to clean up his life, to move deeper into the practice of sila. That's fine; we all can stand to clean up a bit. But can you hear the judgment in that? 'I'm going to fix myself; get it all cleaned up; put myself on this super clean-up project; change it all …'

Sila is an expression of love. It can't be nurtured by force nor by self contempt.

I've heard others say the same thing about mindfulness, 'Now I'm going to do it, be this much more aware …'

You can offer effort and energy out of aspiration to live more skillfully, but you can't create a program out of a place of 'I should,' berate yourself when you fall short, and expect to develop anything except a more solid ego.

We begin to practice awareness, not from a place of 'I should' but from a real place of love and aspiration we allow our true nature to express itself.

We start with awareness. Just that. Seeing the careless brushing off of the mosquito. No self hatred there that we've done that, just clear awareness, here is an unskillful pattern. If I pay attention, I can create a new and more skillful one to replace it.

Awareness, awareness and awareness. As mindfulness grows, we make more skillful choices. We begin to see the constant arising of fear and how that fear solidifies self. We begin to see that all this arising is truly empty of self. Wisdom deepens. With deeper wisdom our faith in the process grows and we give even more energy to being aware. And around it goes.

It will take time, even many lifetimes, but eventually we're no longer creating so much unwholesome, adhering karma.

What about old karma? I've said karma is definite. If we create it, we will definitely experience the results. This is sometimes taken to mean every result. How many bugs have you killed? How many eons would it take to move past that?

Here is where non-adhering karma becomes important. When we see our past unskillful acts and really do clean that up, move past that fear or attachment, we start to do acts instead that offer wholesome karma. We see the bug on the floor and put it outside. Maybe it stings us too, and we still put it outside. Yes, we keep getting tests like that to see if we really learned. 'Okay, I'll put this little brother outside. Ouch; it stung me, darn ***; but it's still a little brother.' I can feel the pain, and still choose not to act to take revenge, but put it outside.

You can't do this with a sense of hatred and decision to balance the account. Remember it's intention. If the intention is self-serving, to create a balance of wholesome karma for yourself, that won't do it. There has to be a genuine desire to serve another, to love.

Out of the practice of such acts, we find the solidity of self naturally begins to dissolve. We move into a sense of connection; we begin to see through the fear that solidifies self. We move more and more from the clear wisdom of our fearless hearts, from a place of emptiness of ego, from a place of love, from that heart we all share. As these patterns deepen, we act and speak increasingly with wholesome, non-adhering karma.

So we can offer skillful acts. We can be mindful of everything. Forgiveness wipes out karma too. Some people practice certain kinds of purifications. They're less common in Theravadin practice. People do prostrations, or say mantras. It's not the DOING or SAYING. Where is your heart? Is there real regret? Do you really ask for and give forgiveness?

I want to share with you a small bit of past lives I've seen. Let me precede this by saying that I happen to have seen a lot of my past lives clearly. That doesn't mean you should, or that there's anything special there, just that I see it this way and I can learn from it.

I've seen the beings I was in past lives kill animals, and even people. I've seen the beings I was be killed.

I can ask forgiveness of those people that were killed, but I also have to forgive each time that was done to my karmic ancestors. If there's any resentment left, it's not complete. All of it needs to go. Total forgiveness, no matter how horrible or unfair a death was. No judgment. When I can do that, something new happens.

I said that karma is definite, that you must always experience the result. Let's take it a step further. You must always experience the result when the conditions are ripe for that result to be experienced.

With constant awareness, energy, faith, concentration and wisdom (called the spiritual faculties), the conditions cease to be ripe for the expression of that karma. With forgiveness, the conditions cease to be ripe. The karma is still there, but it becomes transformed by the power of love, of wisdom, of forgiveness.

As long as there is still self, the conditions may again become ripe. If by this point your practice has taken you past all delusion, then the conditions don't become ripe. Yes, self still does arise, over and over, but our relationship to it changes. We stop moving into protective stance and just notice, 'Here's ego,' watch it arise and then dissolve. There's no longer need to act out of that ego.

So we are always practicing, every moment. We're not trying to do away with karma, or even to transform it, but to allow ourselves to learn from it so we don't have to repeat those patterns. Wisdom deepens; the illusion of self dissolves; skillful actions become habitual; we feel deeper peace that allows deeper concentration, penetrating delusion still more.

As a self that we seek to defend at all costs dissolves, at some point karma becomes a friend. We begin to recognize that it isn't there to punish but to draw attention to, so we may continue on our path. Experiencing it deepens our faith in the rest of the dharma. Experiencing it reminds us to open, let go, and learn.

Be as aware as you can be through the rest of this week. Notice everything that arises in your experience, and notice your relationship to that which has arisen as a new arising. Here is the smell of lunch; here is desire; here is judgment of that arising of desire; here is compassion to that being I am and through whom all of this flows. Feel the expansiveness of that, the shift from moving from a center of self to moving from a center that is true center, empty of self. We watch the constant interplay of phenomena, no self, just emotions, thoughts, sensations coming and going. Strengthening a new growth, the sweet fruit of a loving and open heart.