Letting go of Karma

[Bearded Dragon]

Of course it is a belief system. You can't prove otherwise. To say it has nothing to with the the past contradicts the premise of karma.

 

The idea of the past is a major reason for why it accumulates. It is only an idea. Once you ditch the past and start working only with the present you also ditch the belief system in favour of things you can actually see and work with. You prove it in ordinary circumstances over and over again.

 

In effect you end up with a glass of water where you just keep the surface clean (surface = present). Stored karmic energy ends up floating to the surface as well.

 

Belief systems are a waste of time.

[ThisLife]

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I've just finished reading through all the posts on this thread. Perhaps unsurprisingly there certainly are a great number of different ideas about what karma is and how it functions.

 

Because the topic interests me as well, I thought I would look up the quote that best expressed my own feelings,... many of you probably know the one ... Buddha saying something along the lines that 'karma is unknowable except by a fully enlightened being'. (Because the one thing that did strike me as unusual in reading through all the replies here, was how 'certain' so many people seemed to be about the truth of their particular idea.)

 

Anyway, in the modern day 'Google method' of looking for answers, the edited article that I've pasted below came up top of the search for quotations. I read through it, and found the things the author had to say about karma left me with a much 'happier' feeling about the meaning of this word that I and many others banter about so freely. I'll tack it on below on the off chance that someone else might find his ideas interesting. They did seem pertinent to the topic under discussion :

 

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Two Ways to Look at Karma

 

As a doctrine karma has been viewed as a way of explaining why things happen the way they do. I like to think of karma in two ways – as a Buddhist doctrine and as a spiritual, contemplative practice. Karma as a doctrine doesn't do much for me, while karma as a practice does.

 

Let’s talk about these two ways of looking at karma, and why the second way is much more meaningful for me – contemplation what is karma as a spiritual practice rather than as a teaching on why things happen the way they do.

 

How do we try to get a grip on why terrible bad things happen, especially when there is no reason for it ? In our culture we often say “It’s God’s will.”

 

I remember watching an acceptance speech for an award like the Grammys – I don’t remember which award it was actually, but I seem to remember it was a vocalist – who immediately thanked Jesus, then her parents.

 

Am I being too cynical here to suggest this is just a bit naïve? I mean would Jesus be invested in someone winning a Grammy?

 

Of course, the rationale that is often offered is that God’s will is beyond the ability of our minds to grasp. Interestingly, this is the same kind of argument presented by Buddhist apologists (at least IMHO) when they say that the workings of karma are unknowable to the unenlightened, and even to the merely enlightened it is still not clear, as one would have to attain the realization of a Buddha to see how karma works. And that is tantamount to saying it is unknowable, as Buddhas are produced over an unimaginably long, long, long time scale.

 

Karma as a doctrine

 

Karma as a doctrine attempts to explain why in this life things happen the way they do. I remember hearing a practicing Buddhist meditator say that a short while after the 9/11 tragedy that every single one of those people who were killed were killed because it was the ripening of their individual karma, as karma is an individual affair.

 

Wait a minute here. Do you really mean that I asked ? He replied most emphatically yes, and cited a Buddhist sutra to back this mind-boggling position. That indeed yes, every single one of those individuals committed horrendous actions in past lives and the karma has now ripened. All at once for each of them on that day, and every single one of them – including presumably the first responders – did unspeakably horrible things in previous lives, and they all just happened to all be together on that horrific morning in NYC.

 

OK, is it only me or does this not strain the bounds of credulity ?

 

That explanation I am sorry to say just does nothing for me. These people died. You could say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could it be that one reason why these explanations stick is because they are convenient ways to avoid the pain of bare, naked reality ?

 

Karma as a doctrine does nothing for me. I can feel myself on certain levels of my mind attracted to it as it tells me that there is some kind of justice or sense to be made out of the world. But this is just a passing fantasy I simply, with a little chagrin, take note of and let go.

 

What is karma as a spiritual contemplation

 

 

This is entirely another matter, and for me a rewarding one. What is karma as a spiritual contemplation is very simple, as I think all commonsense aspects of Buddhist spirituality are.

 

How we view and interact with the world we perceive is affected directly by what we do in this world. And if we give close, careful and gentle attention to what we do in the world, a process of spiritual uplift is placed in motion. The closer and gentler the attention, the more we allow into awareness a type of self-awareness which when coupled with certain ethical encouragements slowly begins to change the way we view the world. Which organically changes the way we act. Which changes the way we feel. And so on.

 

This is what I call putting into motion the process of spiritual uplift.

 

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Edited January 30, 2015 by ThisLife

[de_paradise]

I'd agree with the 2 types of karma. Here's my delineation:

 

1.doctrine or moral system karma. This is what people tell each other to keep them good, a philosophy that gives order to the universe. Think Hindus.

 

2. the opposite of clarity, or the enlightened mind. All the ego machinations and whatever thats clouding us from being in the state of clarity. If you have clarity then its just assumed you successfully worked through your type 1 karma. But thats just an assumption, because type 1 karma may be BS. Whats really important is the reaching for clarity, the enlightened mind, because we know that that is not BS.

[Rara]

How do we know if what happens to us is the product of karma, and not our own doing?

Bit of both?

 

However...birth. I don't ever remember my birth being a consequence of anything!

 

You ask all the right questions...I'm afraid they are unanswerable though!

[Marblehead]

However...birth. I don't ever remember my birth being a consequence of anything!

 

Now don't tell me we need a thread here to talk about the birds and bees.

 

Your birth is a consequence of your mother and father having sex. Cause and effect. Rather simple, really.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Marblehead

[Yasjua]

Is Karma determined by societal and social conditioning? How do we know if what happens to us is the product of karma, and not our own doing? Also, how could karma possibly exist anywhere else but in our own mind? To me, mind programs = karma.

 

For instance, if a person lets go of the cause of some kind of karma in his mind, then he effectively erradicates that karma. However, not everything is easy to let go of. So I suppose, his ability to let go of it is also the product of his karma..

 

Things don't "happen to you" due to your karma. That's a big misconception and one that perpetuates the myth that you're either a potential victim or lucky star from moment to moment or over the course of your lifespan. Your karma simply generates your own moment to moment intentions, actions, thoughts, perceptions, and responses to the neutral phenomena you encounter. It is the trail mix of memory that you continually munch on as you coast through life. Thus, you taste the same phenomena again and again. Open your mouth wider, wider, wider, yes, even wider than that, so wide as to let life burst in fresh, as-it-is, ungarbled by the mountain of shit that has built up around the essence of your personality. An open mind that tastes the whole universe from moment to moment generates less karma. A liberated mind has no karma, there being no fallen entity left. The moment Adam fell from Eden (that's you and God's Mind we're talking about), there was no choice in the matter for Adam (or God) but to begin sifting through delusions. Adam grows strong in his identity first, then returns to source as dusk descends upon his inner world. All karma is ultimately fictional (as it pertains to the pernicious flow of subjective dissatisfaction and preference), but Adam doesn't know that, hence the tragicomedy of life. In other words, Adam's subjectivity is his personal fiction which is also his karma. When his karma is gone, God swallows him back up in Eden. The realm of duality goes on, but with no Adam left occupying the body. No one left on Earth, just infinite consciousness moving in total surrender through the world.

 

Such grace.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Yasjua