This is such an interesting point, it sounds nice - oh yeah our minds play a role. Rinpoche said one time, and I'm quoting him exactly I promise, it's very shocking when we hear it, I've quoted it a lot, Rinpoche said - "The vast majority of all human beings on the planet have absolutely no idea that their mind plays any role at all in their lives."

Now this sounds almost impossible to believe doesn't it. I'll qualify it, we clearly know that our mind plays a big role when it comes to learning mathematics, learning music, and learning carpentry, I always say this point, we know our mind is the main player. If you don't have the right theories and think the right thoughts, you can never play the piano, you can't make a cake, and you can't make a table. So we do know it when it comes to theoretical things, intellectual things, or scientific things. We know the mind has to be trained to perfection. But Rinpoche's point is when it comes to becoming a happy person or an unhappy person, we have absolutely no idea that our mind plays any role at all, and that's the part that's shocking, and I think that's exactly right.

Even if we're good little Buddhists we all know karma, yeah, blah, blah, blah. But the moment your hubby does the wrong thing, your wife slurps her coffee, the red light is red, you don't think it's your mind that is the problem at all. I mean even the best Buddhists, because we are so addicted, totally from eons of lifetimes, Buddha says, to seeing that the outside world is the main cause of our happiness and suffering, and that's why it's so difficult, it's incredibly difficult. Even the smallest disturbance on the outside, we know this, the smallest disturbance, we don't even bother looking at our mind, we just believe in the thing out there being the problem, and we know this is true. So it's very humbling.

Karma theoretically is not complicated, it's just that it's so utterly shocking to us because it's the exact opposite of what we think. Many of us practicing for so many years, we know how tremendously hard it is, so we should not underestimate how difficult it is. But it's the essence of being a Buddhist, it's the absolute total point of all Buddha's teachings, that the mind is the main player. That the mind is the creator of everything, from the hell realms to Buddhahood, the mind is what creates it, it's as simple as that.

So all we can do is keep hearing it, keep getting the theories clear, and be able to say them in a simple way because we mostly just get very confused, we go - oh yeah it's karma! What do you mean? Oh well it's just karma. That's like saying please explain the roses in the garden. Oh it's botany! Can you explain it for me? No! What good is that? You've got to learn a bit of botany, so you know how to use the law of botany. So we have to learn to know the words so we can use the law of karma.

So let's look at how to think simply, what are the basic principles? This is part of our problem, we can't say the basic principles. But because we've heard it from the Tibetans in the same way that they would have said it in the 14th century, and talking to the choir, they don't really explain it in the way we need it to be explained. They don't stress the logic behind it, because the main point of karma in the first stages of the Lamrim is behave yourself, be nice, and don't kill, don't steal, and don't lie; and if you do you'll go to the hell realms for twenty two eons. I mean you're shaking in your shoes if you hear Lama Zopa talk.

So let's use our concepts, let's look at what would help us! Western modern people who don't have this view. How do we present it to ourselves so that it begins to be logical to us? Well there's lots of different ways, you know, let's do that. Questions include - Karma is a natural law so there's no room for guilt? Why is 'should' anger? Karma as a hypothesis? What is the correct way to act towards a teacher? What can we do to become more attuned to karma? What is the relationship between karma and loneliness? If someone is unkind to us, how do we fix it?

Question on karma and children born with disabilities. How do delusions relate to karma and how do we work with them?

Vajrayana Institute, Sydney, July 27th 2025.