How Samsara is Created

In daily life, if you don’t practice Dharma, especially if you don’t apply the lamrim meditations, there’s no protection for your mind and delusions rise. Why do delusions rise? It’s because the seed of the delusions is there in the mental continuum and has not been removed in the past. The seed is there and that gives rise to the delusions, which then motivate karma and leave an imprint back on the mental continuum. Those imprints produce the future samsara just as past karmic imprints produced this samsara that we have now. The seeds that we have now give rise to delusions, which motivate karma and that leaves an imprint, a seed, on the mental continuum that produces the future samsara.

That is how these aggregates are compounding, or creating the future samsara. How? By creating the cause of the future samsara, by giving rise to delusions and karma, they produce the future samsara. Because these aggregates are contaminated, the seed of disturbing thoughts, they compound the future samsara. These aggregates which are contaminated, the seed of delusion, bring future sufferings. They cause the future lives’ sufferings, so all these aggregates are pervasive compounding suffering.

That includes the form and formless realms. They don’t have the suffering of pain and the suffering of changes but their aggregates do have pervasive compounding suffering. As long as they don’t generate renunciation for the whole entire samsara, including the form realm and the formless realm, which has four levels—limitless sky, limitless consciousness, nothingness, and the tip of samsara—having total renunciation even for the tip of samsara, not having the slightest attraction even for one second for samsaric perfections. The kind of renunciation that sees everything as totally suffering all these are pervasive compounding suffering. So showing the form realm is to describe the third suffering, the pervasive compounding suffering from where the other two sufferings arise.

Now in the center there are three animals: a pig, from the mouth of the pig a chicken, and from the mouth of the chicken a snake. Actually it’s not a chicken. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche gave a speech in Switzerland many, many years ago. He explained about the twelve links, about samsara. A very good teaching. I think according to sutra it’s not a chicken, not the one who makes a noise at dawn time, it’s a pigeon. I’m not sure of the particular reason why it’s a pigeon but anyway, whether it’s a chicken or a pigeon, it’s to signify attachment.

Generally, if you have attachment that makes it possible also to get angry because when something or somebody interferes with your attachment, not allowing the attachment to do what it wants, then you get angry. But if there’s no attachment, if somebody tries to interfere it doesn’t bother you. For example, if you don’t have attachment to reputation, to receiving praise from other people and hearing nice words, then if somebody criticizes you, you don’t get angry. But if you are attached to receiving praise, if you have that expectation, then when somebody criticizes you, you get angry and upset. It is very clear that attachment makes it possible to get angry.

So there are ignorance, attachment and anger, the three poisonous minds and around that there’s a white side and a black side. This side is black and there are people naked and fastened by the limbs being brought down by Yama. The other side is white and people are very well dressed and very happy, going up. The white side is showing good karma; due to good karma people are going up to be reincarnated in the higher realms, the deva and human realms. The black side is showing negative karma; by creating negative karma with the three poisonous minds those beings are going down to be reincarnated in the lower realms and suffer.

I don’t think you can create good karma with anger, but with ignorance there is a possibility to create good karma—not the ignorance not knowing karma, but the ignorance not knowing the ultimate nature of the I, the aggregates, and so forth. With that ignorance you can practice morality. Knowing that samsara is in the nature of suffering you practice morality so as not to get reborn in the lower realms and to get a higher rebirth. Then you practice morality, concentration and wisdom, the three higher trainings, in order to get out of samsara because samsara is only in the nature of suffering. You can do that. By practicing morality and charity with that ignorance you get reborn in a higher rebirth, in a deva or human rebirth. This happens.

You don’t create good karma with the attachment to this life, but you create good karma with the attachment seeking the happiness of future lives. So you can see the good karma relating to the attachment, there’s still a connection. Then there is the ignorance not knowing the ultimate nature of the I.

So these are the two causes of samsara, delusion and karma. In samsara you experience the three types of suffering and what cause these are delusion—signified by the animals in the center—and karma. Delusion and karma. So there’s negative karma.

Now, how does that happen? What is the evolution of that? That is explained by the twelve links, the evolution of samsara—how from these delusions and karma you reincarnate in samsara and experience suffering. This is described by the twelve dependent related limb [Tib: ?].

The whole entire wheel of life is held in the mouth of the Lord of Death. That looks like a terrifying being, but what it shows is that wherever you are born in these six realms it is in the nature of impermanence and death. Not beyond that. As you are reborn, you die. In any realm you are reborn you have to die. To show that the whole thing is in the nature of impermanence, the wheel of life is held in the mouth of Yama, the Lord of Death. And the two hands holding the wheel of life show that all of this is in the nature of true suffering and the true cause of suffering. One of these hands is true suffering and one is the true cause of suffering. Due to the true sufferings, experiencing the true sufferings, then not free from suffering.

Then there is Buddha holding a moon, a white circle, and pointing to the other side. There’s Buddha, there’s the wheel of life and there are the instructions, the Dharma. This Buddha holding the verses shows the Dharma of the true path and the true cessation of suffering. Buddha is showing how to get out from true suffering and the true cause of suffering. He is showing how to get out of all these oceans of suffering of samsara—the suffering of pain, the suffering of changes and the pervasive compounding suffering—in each realm and their causes—delusion and karma. How do we get out of all this? The method is to practice Dharma, to actualize the true path, then you become Buddha. Here there are just a few words from the Vinaya, “Attempt and eliminate”. I’m not going to explain that now. It’s very powerful. You can read that in the books. They are very good, very powerful words.

By actualizing the true path you achieve the true cessation of suffering. Buddha is holding the moon in his hand, a full white circle. That’s the cessation of suffering. By actualizing the true path you achieve the cessation of suffering, so Buddha is holding the moon but also pointing, showing that if you practice the path you can achieve the cessation of suffering.

That’s just a rough description of the wheel of life.

So dro-la: “to benefit transmigrator beings”. You can see now how the sentient beings transmigrate due to delusion and karma. They are reborn in the six realms and one after another constantly experience being tortured and attacked by suffering, experiencing the three types of suffering without one second’s break. Even though there are times when there is no suffering of pain, even though there are times when there is no suffering of changes, the sense pleasures, like in the form and formless realms, but, continuously they experience this third suffering, the pervasive compounding suffering, the aggregates which are contaminated in the nature of suffering, which creates future samsara. They’re not free from that. They’re not free from delusion and karma.

Therefore, constantly, from beginningless rebirth up to now, without one second’s break from the suffering of samsara, they transmigrate in the six realms, one after another, under the control of delusion and karma and experience all these sufferings. How they transmigrate is explained in more detail by the twelve dependent links. How they transmigrate continuously in one samsaric realm after another is explained by delusion and karma, by the twelve dependent related links.

So, “may I achieve enlightenment in order to benefit transmigrator beings”. Dro-la means transmigrator. When you say transmigrator, you have to understand the whole meaning: All that suffering and the cause of it, how they go around, the evolution of samsara. Think how they transmigrate under the control of karma and delusion as it’s explained in the twelve links. This is very heavy suffering. Sentient beings have no freedom at all. Sentient beings are completely caught, like a person who is put in prison and who is going to be executed. When you think of the meaning of transmigrator being like this, how it transmigrates, then there is no choice, compassion has to come. Compassion has to rise. When you think of the whole meaning of transmigrator being, the deep extensive meaning, compassion has to rise. You have got to do something. So you are going to achieve enlightenment to benefit them, to liberate them from all the suffering and its cause and bring them to enlightenment.

We are going to recite slowly, “I go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, until enlightenment is achieved.” Cause refuge, result refuge. Maybe we could repeat it three times. You normally recite this straight but I think it may be easier for meditation if we just do it one by one. “I go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha until enlightenment is achieved.” Think of the meaning, meditate on that.

“Due to the merits of having made charity and so forth, may I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigrator beings.”

Meditate on the meaning of transmigrator.

“Due to the merits of having made charity and so forth, may I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigrator beings.”

“Due to the merits I have collected by having made charity and so forth, by me,”

I left out, “by me” before, “by me, by me!”

“May I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all the transmigrator beings.”

These transmigrators, the numberless sentient beings have been suffering in samsara, time without beginning. They have been migrating in samsara from time without beginning. They have been experiencing continuously the three types of suffering from time without beginning.

Especially if you think that from time without beginning they have been suffering. They have been migrating under the force of delusion and karma and suffering the three types of suffering. Thinking like this, it becomes even much more unbearable. If you think how long they have been suffering, it is much, much more unbearable.

[Rinpoche and audience recite Sangye cho dang…]

“How wonderful it would be if all the sentient beings were to abide in equanimity, free from discriminating thought, anger and attachment, discriminating some far and others closer. May they abide in equanimity. I will cause them to abide in equanimity. Please Guru Buddhas grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

“How wonderful it would be if all the sentient beings were to have happiness and the cause of happiness. May they have happiness. I will cause them to have happiness. Please Guru Buddhas grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

“How wonderful it would be if all the sentient beings were free from all the suffering and its causes. May they be free from all the suffering and its causes. I will cause them to be free from all the suffering and its causes. Please Guru Buddhas grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

“How wonderful it would be if all the sentient beings were not separated away from temporal happiness and ultimate happiness. May they not be separated away from this happiness. I will cause them to not be separated away from this happiness. Please Guru Buddhas grant me blessings to be able to do this.”

Then the particular, special bodhicitta:

“The purpose of my life is to free all the sentient beings from all the suffering and causes and to bring them to enlightenment. Therefore I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore I’m going to do the preliminary practices of the retreat.”