31-01-2010

Is it Karma?

Karma is a curios thing, is it and perception of reality, an escape of it and based on something on indentified? Is it karma if you get meningitis or a car accident or being buried under the rubble of a building due to a natural disaster?
Is it Karma or is it a reason to avert responsibility to deal?
Is it Karma? Is it? If someone gets ill and that illness leads to a near 100% disability is it because something he or she has done in a previous life is it really?

When Shakyamuni draw up the rules for what would be his view of life, he archived something that would give millions of people a new view on life, an ever lasting view.

However, there is an severe flaw in his learning’s a flaw easily accepted if you are a Buddhist, but standing out as a sore by other way thinking people, which make up more than 90 percent of the total population. Shakyamuni could not explain poor people, illness, disability and death.
He therefore came up with a novel solution, being poor, ill, disables and bad luck, was due to bad behavior in a previous life. Not that he could show or proof that there was a previous life, but the suggestion was enough to get people in his line of thinking.
To make it more relative to daily life, he suggested that there would be also a future life. Not only would there be a future life but compassion and altruism would be rewarded with a better life in the future. Bad behavior at the other side of this suggestion would be reducing the possibilities in a future life.
Hence the link was made, bad behavior in previous life result in poorness, illness, or disability in the present life. Bad behavior in this life would be forwarded to the next life resulting in possible poorness, illness or disability.
At the other hand that people were now wealthy and healthy, was due to their compassion and altruism in a previous life. If they were at present still compassionate and caring than they would be in a future life even wealthier and healthier.
A real karmic behavior.

None of this could or can be proven, but a Buddhist really generally would not take the risk, you after all never know.

This point of view is similar as what the Abrahamic religions have as view. Although they do not have a next life, they are rewarded if the are compassionate and caring in this life so that they will go to heaven in an afterlife. For this is also no proof, but a real believer in one of the three Abrahamic religions would not take the change, you after all never know.
It is not Karma as in the Buddhist sense but it is karmic behavior.

Is it not simple so that the Buddhist can not explain certain occurrence, and those they therefore hide to avoid responsibility, is it Karma? There is no proof not even a suggestion of proof that that person has done anything wrong in a previous life, if there was one.
The presumption therefore is a simple one, they hide from taken responsibility.
The chatter lately about whether a person who is disabled regardless of being born so or due to an accident or illness, is being punishes for actions in a previous life makes us reluctant to take a Buddhist serious. I a similar way as we did not take serious the Hari Krishna kids in their orange dresses making a spectacle of them selves. They were and are not taken seriously, more an amusement. In fact for those living rooms Buddhist they are escape vehicles.
It does mean however that those disabled in effect are blamed for their own disability being there own fault and having it brought on by themselves. After all under the learning’s of Buddha they acted badly in a previous life. Pointing the finger on a person that contracted meningitis and saying it is your own doing because of actions in a previous life is to put it simple, SICK!

It would carry some weight if we knew that there was a previous life, that we know what we where doing in a previous life. We would know then of we really where that bad that we would be punished in the present life. However, there is no proof not even close. So how can a Buddhist say this, how could Buddha make such a claim? Could he see in the past, could he see what people had done in their past. Could he see the people in a future live? There is no evidence that he could, so why making such a claim, other then avoiding to take responsibility.

In a time that people are poor, one tribal state tries to take over another, wealth is just an illusion attributed to the very rich. The poor, the sick, the slaves, the down and out, they suddenly get the message that a next life will be much better, just believe. It is an opportunity of a life time. And they took it, better save then sorry. Shakyamuni’s Buddhism takes off.

The Christians in the early days did more or less the same, in that time the people were poor, one state was fighting against another, and wealth was in the hands of small group of the very rich.
The poor, the sick, the slave, the down and out, they suddenly get the message that there will be a next life in heaven, just believe, it is an opportunity of a life time. \And they took it, better save then sorry. Jesus Christianity takes off.

Let us make it clear this is not against the learning’s of Buddha, we do not know enough to even come close, to criticize this, it is also not against the Buddhist who from father on son, from mother on daughter always have believed and lived to the learning’s of a Buddha.

It is merely directed against the Living room Buddhist in the Western world. The basic of Buddhism is ethical behavior and altruism. It is just what is missing in the Western Buddhist. The main concern of Shakyamuni Buddha, was that humans were overpowered by greed, hatred, arrogance and delusion. It is just what is so clearly visible in the Western Buddhist who without having studied the learning’s say they are Buddhist. We know people who were one day Christians and the next day Buddhist carrying a peace of paper with the Lotus Sutra on it.
They explained us that they had the chant this and all what they wanted would come to them.

If you have nothing, live on state handouts, do not know were next days food have to come from, be bored out of your skin, and than someone tells you be a Buddhist chant and life will be better. Life is not getting better, they are still without money or possibilities, but they are now in a group of likewise people that gives comfort. Those people, who have read an interesting book suddenly, decide that they are a Buddhist, without having a clue or the learning of what it contains.

Those are the ones who in fact give the Buddhist a bad name. Those living room Buddhist are Buddhist in name only, they are people lost in space as a matter of speaking. They want to belong to something, at the same time they want to stand out of the crowd, Buddhism is such a standing out in the crowd. In Christian countries they can say I am a Buddhist, in the hope that they impress the listener, placing themselves higher than others who are just mere Christians.

They therefore come together and chant. Generally they do not have a clue as what they chanting about as it is in a language they do not control and in most cases do not have the status the learn a foreign language. But they chant, so that the neighbors can hear it. They hope that the neighbors will look up to them as being a Buddhist. It will be obvious for the reader that this is all in the mind. In reality what we have seen and experienced close by is that they are less educated but wants to be somebody, but are not able too.

Buddhism is therefore for them an escape form out of reality.

Karma is for them not a point as in reality they do not believe that their is a previous life or a life after. If they did, would they say that the people in Tibet are punished by the Chinese for bad behavior in a previous life. The Dalai Lama himself in exile in India is that due to his bad behavior in a previous life, his activation of a rebellion against the Chinese will that affect his being in his next life? Regardless of this is being seen as good or as bad depending on which side your stand.

Was America punished in the actions of 9-11 and the hurricanes because of bad doings in previous times, we don’t think so.

It will be obvious that from our point of view Karma is just an escape route from responsibilities. They cannot not explain it, so has to be something from the past, before this life.
Take for example a woman close by calling herself a devout Buddhist but by asking question does not know the simplest of the learning’s and only know about Buddhism on what she had read in a book. Her mother was struck down by meningitis, made worse by doctors who would not see it as meningitis, till it was too late to avoid complete damage. This woman, always their mother’s apple of their eye as a matter of speaking, suddenly hesitated to visit. She explained that as she did not like hospitals. However out of the hospital, she hardly did not visit either, too busy she said. A rather strange statement from someone who was unemployed and lived on state hand out’s.

She had grand plans, she always had grant plans although they never got anywhere, and she described herself as a model and photographer. The model jobs were done as a child and photography took never off. However she convinced her mother on the seldom occasions that she visited, that she now was ready to start her own business based on the experience of modeling and photography. She was given free advice, use of a car, her office paid; she was given extra money in the form of loans. She herself set the conditions for pay back.
Which she all broke. This year 2010 she visited her mother late at night for 10 minutes mainly to see of she could borrow more money and the use of the car. When that was not possible she did not visit her mother again. It is therefore obvious that the only link what made her visit her mother was the use of the car and money.

That woman sunk even that low she on New Years Eve started a humiliating fight with her sister with the help of her friends, all Buddhists. This while the sister with more common sense was not. But that sister was always with her mother is at help wherever she could and to have to run her own household at the same time, even had to resign her position at the Hospital to look after her mother.

This woman even went so far that she removed any form of contact with her family via face book. Refused to answer the phone. She even bullied her 10 year old son in avoiding his family.

How is that for Karma, did this act of evil happen because of her bad deeds in a previous life and will her evil actions make the Karma even worst in her next life.
Or does is this Karma due to the disability of her mother, and her way to avoid responsibility even if that was only in visiting her mother once a week. Is this what Buddha calls compassion and altruism.

It makes you just wonder where her circle of Buddhist stands in regards with her evil actions, which they are well aware of. Would they start chanting again on their next social gathering, after which they will drink themselves more or less total loss. As that is what the circle in social gathering by close observation several times, does, chanting, drinking, gossip, chanting, drinking, gossip, and more drinking one bottle after another.

It will be obvious that those living room Buddhist are in reality not real Buddhist, but that those living room Buddhist just using Buddhism as an escape attempt from their daily situation and hope thereby to be standing out in the crowd. A social gathering of the nearly down and out.

It will be also obvious that compassion is an unknown word for them, and that if Karma indeed exist they will be judged in a next live, a Karma they deserve, a kind of Samsara in the wildest of forms. It will be obvious that some of the readers are not aware of the back ground of the Buddhist learning’s and unless they are real Buddhists why should they.

It is however a need for us to explain some of the thinking behind Samsara and the affiliated Karma.
Samsara is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth (i.e. reincarnation) within Buddhism, and other related religions. Colloquially, "Samsara" can also be a state subtle suffering that occurs in day to day life.
According to these religions, one's Karmic" account balance" at the time of death is inherited at the time a person is reborn. During the course of each life, actions committed (for good or bad) are determine the future destiny of each being in the process of coming into the next life. In Buddhism, at death the underlying impulses as such are than accrued and developed, carried and transmitted in a consciousness structure known as the soul, which, after an intermediate period forms the basis for a new biological structure that will result in rebirth and a new life. This process ends in the attainment of moksha. All Buddhist religions believe that each living-being, be it an ant a plant or a human, is destined to attain moksha
If someone performs extremely evil Karma, it even can be the case that a reborn will be a plant or a rock. Nonetheless, most philosophic traditions of Buddhism maintain that if the rebirth is in the form of a plant or rock it is not longer subject to Samsara as they lack the possibility of experience and, hence, of karma.
The concept of Samsara as a cycle of rebirth and suffering is taught in the learning’s of Buddha. To understand the concept of Samsara it is important to know about the six realms, (see a previous article) rebirth, karma, and the liberation from the suffering. In Eastern beliefs, the karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences.

So while the real Buddhist lives and act to the learning’s of Buddha, the living room Buddha simple select what they like, and reject what they don’t like, what they can use and what profit and standing it will give them.

We think that with the above we have shown that there is a different between Karma and Karmic behavior. We cannot show of Karma really exist, nor can we provide proof for the Samsara principle. However, it will be obvious that if Karma and the Karmic experience do exist, we will have an excuse and an explanation for every good and bad occurrence in this world.

However, as we wanted to know more we asked around and were pointed to Ole Nydahl a Danish Buddhist of the school of elders. From there we were several time directed to others till we were contacted by a Buddhist Suddhdava Okaki who said he would try to answer our question.

The result of the question and answer will be published as soon as it