Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म, from the root kri "to do") is an active verb. So you could approach karma from the p.o.v. of "What are/were my actions" as opposed to, "Why am I experiencing this or that effect?". According to Buddhism karma's a law, the enactment of a principle as opposed to any kind of moral governing.
The thinking goes, if we realize that the pain we sometimes experience is the effect of our own misguided actions, hopefully, eventually we'll stop creating those actions. In other words, if we can generate a little awareness in our lives, it might help us see that we're the ones whacking ourselves in the head with a hammer--its not the result of some unknown, mysterious force.
Speaking of blunt force trauma, time for another coffee...
6 comments:
I think comtemplation on Karma is great. It's cool to start small....what consequences did my immediate actions evoke and then work out to see the actions of groups, communities, and entire global and economic communities. I've always seen karma as a very practical thing, you get what you give.
But don't the teaching have a much more spiritual vision of it dealing with reincarnations and realms?
Well, its interesting that you qualify it as "spiritual". When you get down to it, karma isn't spiritual nor is it not-spiritual--its a law of cosmic operation, "...Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer".
So, to grossly oversimplify it, volition begins in or with the mind, is then enacted by our body or speech. If we think aggressively we tend to act aggressively--we are what we think, so to speak.
Since thoughts are/create energy, then the mind bears the imprint of the energy it creates--and this energetic compulsion fuels the mind, then us, towards certain situations--we tend to attract ourselves to energetic/emotional situations which "feel" like the energy we create with mind.
Reincarnation is how the mind, fueled by those imprints is compelled or attracted to environments which support and reflect its existence. For instance, animals live in a largely aggressive environment--kill or be killed.
True, there's a tremendous element of fear, but the overriding emotion is aggression. So animals live with an overriding emotional output of aggression. Lion's stalk, kill, eat. Then, repeat. This energy of the Lion's mind creates an energetic imprint.
The Lion doesn't wake up one morning and have the compulsion to stalk say, a salad. It wakes up and the energy of its mind puts it right in to the groove of habit its mind has created.
When you think about it, no different from us on some level. We act out the thoughts we think and the most intense thoughts, the ones we play over and over and over in our minds like a sub-conscious i-pod, dictate how we perceive ourselves and then, how we act.
In Buddhism, the various realms of existence are nothing more then manifested realms of particular energy--some of the population in any given realm have a body (humans) whereas other realms (the so called hell-realms where the energy is characterized by intense, unrelenting suffering and pain) are purely psychological states of disembodied energy.
One way to consider this--think of a day/moment when you were completely, blindly enraged. Than multiply that by oh, infinity. And throw your ability to reason out the window. And forget about having any friends around to talk you "off the ledge". And you never heard of meditation and there's absolutely no chance, ever of you having a glimpse of an opening to even think "Wow, I'm like super-pissed". Welcome to the hell realm.
Sadly, you see this kind of thing everyday in the human realm also--people just so locked in to their state of mind, its very hard for them to see anything else. You see a homeless, psychotic person eating garbage and peeing themselves? To them, there's nothing else--there's no basis for comparison psychologically. To them, that is the only reality they are and can experience.
Okay. Awesome. There's a lot of things I'm going to have to digest in there. w r a p my little brain around.
I guess it just brought up ideas about intent versus impulse. Even though all states of mind are equal there are different levels of suffering. And if the lion and the homeless person are stuck in their karmic energies...I guess I'm asking what if it's not of their own choosing. What if the individual or situation is the result of someone else's choosing. Okay. for instance. you're born into a family where the parents are irresponsible and drink or abuse you. You will suffer. Physically, psychologically, emotionally. If you are physically harmed because of someone else actions, the suffering is still yours.
Okay. I'm not sure that makes sense. I understand ones own thoughts transforming into action, I think that was what I was originally speaking to. Karma seems like an extraordinary amount of responsibility and a good tool for mindfulness and contemplation, but I guess I am wondering if there is a place for victimhood ( and I don't mean in the bohoo way, but in the "things are out of my control ah look out here comes a bus way").
Maybe I need to digest that more... hmmmm
im·pulse: A sudden wish or urge that prompts an unpremeditated act or feeling; an abrupt inclination:
In·tent: Something that is intended; an aim or purpose.
Dear big-brain, truly a kick-@ass post, thank you! Let's both keep chewing and digesting, but for now a couple of things spring to mind. I remember reading a long time ago that one of the features of cause and effect is that its unerring. There is no effect which cannot be traced back to a cause.
Is it the child's fault they're abused by sh*tty parents? Well for starters, its rotten. But according to the law of cause and effect, there's some kind of causal link that created the conditions of that child being born to those people.
Now, its also now that b/w. What we call a Megan or a Dana is/are simply the accumulated energies over eons of time and consciousness. Before your accumulated karmic tendencies came together to produce the conditions for you to be born, the same consciousness which/that animates you participated in countless other births of beings.
So, the tricky thing is looking at Megan or Dana as an isolated, momentary and fixed point of experience and think "Ahh, Dana seems like such a good guy--why the run of bad luck?". Well, this momentary expression of embodied consciousness is experiencing the effects from causes instigated from/in innumerable lifetimes past.
Megan, I totally hear you about victimhood. And I have no problem with the boohoo kind, either. In fact, I'm just emerging from a long period of looking at my own feelings of presumed/dreaded/conjured-up victimhood and it has me spinning.
Here's what I've decided. When I practice, I know for a fact (because I see and feel it) I create less conflict in my home and with my family. If I'm acting from a more clear place of understanding, then the actions I create carry less confusion, more integrity.
I can't change my past actions, but I can work with my present results. If/when I experience sh*tty things, I'm really trying to keep the perspective that if I don't react with a poisonous response, then at least in that instance I've managed to not continue on the energy of confusion.
True dat. That's exactly all I'm trying to do these days. Simplify. See clearly. Act sanely. Its a b*tch. And its not half as juicy as cooking up my own toxic brew of "fcuk you" responses I'd just love to sink my teeth in to and send out to all my attackers. Whoever they are. Wherever they are. If in fact, they truly are. Turns out most of the time its me, pouring gasoline all over myself, flaming up then blaming someone else for the original sleight, which by comparison wasn't even a flicker.
Okay. I totally hear ya. And I thin I have a *slight* c-o-m-p-r-e-h-e-n-s-i-o-n of the idea of being part of a larger web of energy where cause and effect are not labeled as "good" or "bad," but are nothing more than just...cause and effect, endlessly pushing forward (if we're going to think in a two-dimensional universe, which I find rather boring), and in this kinda scary bible-toting way it seems the only way to enact change on the "past" is to learn/practice the dharma (because we see that karma is the dharma and so naturally practice is our way "out"), I guess I'm just wondering about people who have their baggage, maybe really horrible stuff, and therefore, for reasons out of their control, are stuck in this hell on earth realm where because of their baggage, change is s l o w if possible.
Maybe I am still thinking on a level where I am distinguishing people into "people" with separate "bodies" and "minds." hmmmmm
It just seems like being good person is a whole lot easier when you've had the life, and if you've had the cards stacked against you from the beginning....you're just gonna have to work a little harder? Too bad? Isn't it all out karma? Shouldn't it be all our karma? Is that too mahayana of me? Couldn't we see karma as a collective thing rather than an individual thing?
Dear Super-Megs..."in this kinda scary bible-toting way it seems the only way to enact change on the "past" is to learn/practice the dharma"
No bible-toting allowed. The path is a totally "Come as you are, see what you do" party. Buddha never said "Do", he only said "See". As in see for yourself, then decide for yourself. Any kind of outside pressure to partake is purely self-inflicted.
"I guess I'm just wondering about people who have their baggage, maybe really horrible stuff, and therefore, for reasons out of their control, are stuck in this hell on earth realm where because of their baggage, change is s l o w if possible".
I hear 'ya. And I have to say at first glance, what you say is what I've experienced. What put them in such dire straights may be out of their control, but my experience has been if I'm able to pay attention to my state of mind I can stop producing the same results.
Google Milarepa. One of our lineage saints. Previous resume entry was he practiced black magic and killed people. Point? You can change it this very lifetime. But you gotta have a ton of heart, guts of steel and meet someone who can put you on the path. Not necessarily a Buddhist path, but some path of practice/insight that reveals your confused mind.
"Maybe I am still thinking on a level where I am distinguishing people into "people" with separate "bodies" and "minds." hmmmmm".
Well, we had to make the distinction that we're both more and less than appears. Having done that, we can go back to seeing it as bodies and minds. But you know, I'm sure you've had a moment or two in mediation where you felt the story line dissolve just for a *second*. Once you feel that, hard to ignore it.
"It just seems like being good person is a whole lot easier when you've had the life, and if you've had the cards stacked against you from the beginning....you're just gonna have to work a little harder?".
This I don't agree with. Believe me, I've met my share of really fcuked up millionaires who seemed to have it all; time, access to teachers and plenty of opportunity. And most of them were just as unhappy as the people I've met who didn't have 1% the means. To me, it all comes down to motivation. If you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to get it--be it a better life, better job or better understanding.
"Couldn't we see karma as a collective thing rather than an individual thing?"
Its both.
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