Karma is one of the most important concepts in Buddhism. Karma is an imprint in one's Mind. When one performs a good deed out of good intentions, the good intentions come from the Mind. Having done that good deed, the residues of these intentions stay in one's Mind as "imprints", and that is "good karma". The opposite goes for evil deeds (or what the Buddha would call "unwholesome deeds") done out of greed, hatred etc.
A person's karma affects a person in 2 ways. The first is his disposition. If a person is an angry one, performing many deeds with anger, his mind will be imprinted with experiences and intentions of anger. Because of this imprint, in a similar situation, he would be more likely to feel angry. In a sense, the imprint creates and reinforces a sort of mental habit that causes a person's mind to react in a certain pre-disposed way.
The second and more important way karma affects a person is by affecting his experience. Our experiences, our feelings of joy or sufferings, come mainly from our reaction to perceptual inputs. Taking our angry guy as an example, in many situations, he feels offended, angry and that seriously affects his state of mind. He often feels the pain of anger, very little peace. But if that person practices meditation, develops his mind, etc etc, such that he develops peace and love. He may live the same life all over and he may not experience the anger or the pain of anger etc in those same situations. In a sense, his karma is one of the main determinants of his experiences. In this sense too, we may say that our sufferings comes from our karma and our states of mind.
in a nutshell, if you do something good you'll get something good in return. do something bad, and you're in for a world of hurt.
so for some reason karma came up in my head, and i started to think how many times the idea has caused me to change some of the decisions i made in my life. not like HUGE decisions, but little minor actions. for example: after dinner i walked over to my sink and placed my dishes in there. and i wanted to walk away without washing them. before i left the kitchen... i turned around and started washing all the dirty dishes in the sink.
now this might not seem like a big deal, but in my head i thought... karma. "you know if i do this, something good will happen in return." and whether that's true or not, its pretty satisfying to look forward to.
now i'm not buddhist or anything, i'm actually roman catholic. and though i'm not the most avid church goer, i still find it exciting to take in some ideas from other cultures that - for me anyway - just makes sense. now the entry says there are two types of karma... the good kind and the bad kind.
i really like the good kind. not only do good deeds leave you feeling oh so SPESHUL on the inside, but it is also potentially rewarding you at another given time. its kind of like a bonus. see in my case, i just washed all the dirty dishes - i feel good, and then maybe the Chinese gymnasts get to keep their well deserved medals. i'll do someone a favor? and maybe Georgia and Russia will enjoy a cup of fish-head soup while watching ballet. the good karma will not only help me, but others as well (even if the other is me again)
realizing that karma must be somewhat easily balanced, i dont imagine washing a coupe dishes will fix something like war or conspiracy. so maybe some little kid out there will find a quarter on the floor `=).
then theres the bad kind. the kind i don't usually think about until after i've done it. and to be honest it does put a spice in my life, but not the good one. bad karma is like... paprika or something. either way it keeps my life in check. lets say i punch a baby in the face. sure i might have been angry and felt justified when it happened, but when i fall down the stairs later that day... i'll know why. and it makes me learn my lesson. i'll never punch a baby in the face again.
basic summary. karma is just a good idea in general. it keeps me alert and makes me think twice about my actions. its part the reason why i'm ish-pacifist. i don't like to fight. i'm not gonna throw punches because i know i'm going to get punished later (and its true - i throw a punch either i lose the fight and get my ass kicked or get my ass thrown in jail or some otehr kind of trouble). just isn't worth it. and so making better decisions makes me a happier person.
what do you think of karma?
ta ta kids
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