Atisha’s Seven Points of Mind Training – Lojong

The First Key Point

Practice 3: Karma, Cause, and Result

“Our heart’s desire is happiness, yet we engage in actions that produce suffering. We don’t want to suffer, yet we’re constantly accumulating the causes for suffering. When we look at our actions closely, we’ll see that what we want and what we do are often in opposition to each other. If we had the true causes of happiness and no causes for suffering, that would already be our experience. Consider every action to be like planting a seed in the ground of consciousness. When the conditions supporting its growth unfold, it manifests as our experience.”

                                                                         

     – Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé Rinpoche

Root Text

First Key Point: Preliminaries, The Support For Practice 
1. First, train in the preliminaries.

Resources

Required Reading
  • The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk’s Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge by Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé
  • Daily Practice Instructions
Optional Reading
  • The Great Path of Awakening by Jamgon Kongtrul
  • Enlightened Courage by Dilgo Khyentse

Assignments

Assignment 1

  • Listen to the recording for this practice, Cause and Effect.

Assignment 2

  • Read the corresponding passages in The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk’s Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge by Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé, pp. 34–40.
  • Additional Optional Reading:
    • The Great Path of Awakening by Jamgon Kongtrul
    • Enlightened Courage by Dilgo Khyentse.

Assignment 3

  • Read the Daily Practice Instructions.
  • Spend two days integrating an awareness of karma, cause, and effect into whatever you are doing throughout the day.
  • In addition, integrate this practice into a brief formal meditation.

Daily Practice Instructions

Set an alarm or leave a note next to your bed reminding you that the practice for the day is the contemplation of how actions are causes that produce results. Then, make a vow to remember cause and result all day long no matter what occurs. In this way, respond to everything that happens during the day in relation to it being a result of previous causes and conditions, and that your actions in response to events create new causes and conditions, which will produce results similar in nature to the actions taken.

Keep setting commitments: 

  • Before starting your morning routine, make a vow to yourself that you won’t forget that every action you engage in is a cause which will result in your future experiences.
  • Before getting in the car and driving somewhere, commit to remembering this every few minutes during the drive. 
  • Before starting work, commit to remembering actions, causes, and results in relation to whatever comes up during work. 
  • Before going to a party or social event, commit to remembering cause and effect before walking in the door. 
  • Most important, commit to remembering “actions = causes = results” before meeting a person or situation that might be challenging for you. Consider the perspective that this situation is the result of previous actions; that the actions you engage in now are conditions which will further influence the way those results ripen in this moment; and finally, your current actions are also causes that will result in future experiences. 

In this way, before you start any new activity, vigilantly commit to remembering actions, causes, and results throughout whatever occurs.

How to practice this in difficult situations (adversity): If people or events upset you, pause and refresh your perspective. Consider the necessary relationship between cause and result, and recall that each moment of experience is a result of specific causes and conditions. Adversity could not happen without its causes and conditions, so ask yourself whether your reaction to adversity will contribute to future positive experiences.  

Think of the suffering you may create for yourself and others, now and in the future, if you justify the disturbing emotion and act on it. Consider that every moment you indulge in the emotion creates a habit to experience it again in the future. Pay special attention to each thought, word, and action, and remember that in the long run their results will be similar to the cause. 

Once reflection on causes and results brings carefulness to your choice of actions and reactions, apply any other remedies you might need to talk your mind out of reacting badly to a person or situation.

To practice this in positive situations: Consider how positive situations are also the results of like causes and conditions—previous positive actions. In addition to this, resolve to create more causes for happiness by engaging in positive actions in response to your good fortune. The idea is to enjoy the happiness while continuing to engage in the causes for more happiness. 
To practice this in neutral situations: In each situation, pause to consider how each moment is the result of previous thoughts or actions, and also notice that your actions within the situation are themselves causes for future results. In other words, results and causes happen simultaneously. What you experience and your perception of your experiences are the result of habits, the collective effect of causes and conditions. How you react with body, speech, and mind plants habitual imprints, or “seeds,” in the ground of consciousness; these become your future experience.  


Nothing happens without a reason, and the reason is that the causes and conditions are in place. This is never random. If the cause is negative, its result will be similar; if the cause is positive, its result will be similar. See the formal practice below for further points about karma.

Nightly Routine:

  1. Reflect on how you did today:
  • Did you integrate the perspective of actions, causes, and results into everything you did?
  • Did recalling cause and result change your perspective or actions?
  1. In recalling the moments that you forgot to practice, generate regret and resolve to do better. You might imagine yourself in that same situation and envision yourself remembering this practice. In particular, review any actions whose karmic effect you wouldn’t enjoy experiencing and consider how those habitual imprints are now present in your mindstream and will bear fruit if not counteracted. You might also imagine yourself in that situation and see yourself reacting not with negativity, but with positive words and expressions in order to build new habits for the future.

3. Where you succeeded in practice, rejoice, then dedicate the merit and make aspirations. 

Schedule: 

  • If you are able to, sit for 5-20 minutes each day. 
  • If you already have a daily meditation practice, you can add this contemplative meditation to it. 

Formal Meditation

How to Practice:  Begin by sitting in meditation posture to cultivate the key points of body and speech. Then, establish your motivation. Pause for a moment and think that you are going to contemplate how actions are causes that produce results in order to free beings from suffering and bring them to genuine happiness.

Review this section as you sit using the book, The Power of Mind. This is a contemplative meditation. Read a point, reflect on its meaning, and apply your understanding to your experience. For example, contemplate the following aspects of actions (karma): 

  • You cannot have a cause without a result and vice versa.
  • Results are always similar to their causes.
  • Karma is certain. This means actions always produce results. 
  • Karma multiplies just as one seed can bear multiple fruits or a small seed can become a huge tree.
  • You will never face the results of something that does not have a cause.
  • Your actions do not disappear. They remain as imprints in the mind until the result has either been experienced or it has been counter-acted. 

At the end, think about how you would react differently if you truly saw your every action, thought, or word as planting seeds that would grow into similar results. Make a strong resolve to act in a way that will produce the future you wish for. Make aspirations for creating the causes and conditions for human rebirth, encountering the Dharma, and practicing an authentic path to liberation. Make aspirations to continue this path until you have found freedom and transcended karma.

Conclude with short dedications and aspirations.

Assignment 4

  • Use a journal to document your reflections on this week’s practice.
  • Are there any insights, experiences, or questions you would like to share in the discussion box below?

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