Explains the chain of causes and effects, commonly called karma which is at the core of the heart of the Buddha's teachings.

We all want to find happiness and be free from suffering. Happiness comes from positive mental states and actions and suffering from the opposite. The twelve-part process of dependent arising shows how actions underlain by ignorance propel us from one rebirth into another, keeping us trapped in suffering, and how through understanding reality correctly we can break this cycle. The twelve links that make up this chain of causes and effects are an extension of the four noble truths, the heart of the Buddha's teaching, and demonstrate in particular the connection between true suffering and true sources of suffering. This oral teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen is based on the Rice Seedling Sutra and the twenty-sixth chapter of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way.

How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent-Arising, Geshe Sonam Rinchen, Snow Lion Publications, Paperback, 160 Pages, $22.95

Geshe Sonam Rinchen (dGe-bshes bSod-nams rin-chen) was born in 1933, in Dargye (Dar-rgyas), located in the eastern Tibetan region of Kham. In 1945, as a young teenager, he decided to join the monkhood and entered Dargye Monastery (Dar-rgyas dGon), where he turned out to be an excellent student and debater. At the age of nineteen, Sonam Rinchen travelled to central Tibet on foot � a journey that took two and a half months � in order to study at Sera Monastery (Se-ra dGon-pa). At Sera, Sonam Rinchen took full ordination and carried on studying until the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 forced him to leave Tibet and seek refuge in India. Upon arrival in India, Sonam Rinchen, along with 1500 other monks and nuns, were placed in what had been a British internment camp in Buxa Duar, West Bengal. The weather was unbearably hot and humid for these Tibetans, who were used to the cooler and drier conditions of the Tibetan plateau. At Buxa Duar, the conditions were so harsh that many of the monks and nuns died. But Sonam Rinchen persevered and continued studying, and in 1967 he enrolled at what is now known as the Central University of Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, gaining both Shastri and Acharya degrees by 1976. A few years later, he obtained at Sera the Geshe Lharampa (dGe-bshes Lha-rams-pa) degree, the highest category of geshe degree. In 1979, he joined his teacher, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey (dGe-bshes Ngag-dbang dar-rgyas), as the additional teacher at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Geshe Sonam Rinchen travelled and taught widely, from roles such as guest lecturer at Kyoto Buddhist University to teaching tours in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. But it was at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives that he had the largest impact. Over 34 years, Geshe Sonam Rinchen taught almost every day at the Library, usually with his translator Ruth Sonam at his side, offering the essence of the Buddha�s teachings with compassion and humor to thousands of students. In September 2013, Geshe Sonam Rinchen passed away at the age of 80 in Dharamsala, India, after a battle with stomach cancer. Despite the suffering of the illness, he did not experience pain and did not require any drugs, and thus he passed away peacefully and with a completely clear state of mind. He was cremated on the grounds of the Library of the Tibetan Works and Archives.

	Contents: How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent-Arising
1.	The Wheel of Existence	7
2.	The Root of Our Troubles	13
3.	Dependent Arising	19
4.	How Things Are Produced	23
5.	Extricating Ourselves	35
6.	The Twelve Links	45
7.	Ignorance	49
8.	Action and Rebirth	59
9.	Experience and Response	69
10.	Bith, Aging, and Death	77
11.	Advice about Actions	83
12.	Reversing the Process	91
13.	A Gift for the King	95
	Appendix 1: Contents of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way	99
	Appendix 2: Ways of Summarizing the Twelve Links	105
	The Root Text: Examining the Twelve Links of Existence	109
	The TIbetan Text	113
	Notes	117
	Source Readings	141