[throwaway290]

> You can see how a lot of good karma is accrued.

FYI there's no "good karma" in Tibetan buddhism. There is just karma. Karma is not good because it will cause samsara.

Maybe it is supposed to be a fun cheat to remove karma not "accrue good karma" but surely no one uses it seriously lol

[spongebobism]

Is that an innovation of Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhism? I've only read Theravada texts, and in those, good and bad Karma are clearly differentiated. Attaining a pleasant rebirth is considered a wholesome pursuit that the teachings of the Buddha are supposed to help you with, though it is considered a lower pursuit than attaining Nirvana (the hierarchy is pleasant current life < pleasant rebirth < Nirvana, and the Dhamma claims to be the supreme authority on all 3).

[mtalantikite]

There are definitely descriptions of virtuous and non-virtuous results of actions (karma) in Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism. A teacher of mine, who spent 20+ years as a Gelug monk, gave a nice talk about it from a Vajrayana perspective [1].

The major innovation in Vajrayana would be an addition to the hierarchy you laid out, which is full Buddhahood in this lifetime and the tantric methods to get there. Nirvana/samsara are considered two perspectives of the same reality [2].

[1] starts about 20 min in, after the opening meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdYmiLvSzfY

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed2uc-0_n2s

[throwaway290]

I heard any rebirth is samsara, circle of suffering, karma keeps it going, you should clear karma not accrue even more

I don't know the different buddhisms but checked wikipedia about karma in tibetan buddhism and it seems to say it too

[Frummy]

Hmm maybe, anyways what I read was shantidevas way of the bodhisattva and some other texts like dhammapada and some tibetan texts and art It speaks of merit that is good and that spinning the mani korlo generates merit, and many tibetan monks like shantidevas text But yeah you got me I've copypasted from many separate things it's the result of a big cultural and literary melting pot