Recently I listened to a conversation about karma and how could a small child suffer injuries from the fall-out of a bombing.

I wanted to explain how my teachers have helped me with this question combined with some reflection on why this question (in varying ways) always seems to come up.

Karma is simply cause and effect. There is nothing cosmic or supernatural about the concept in Buddhism. For us Buddhist, to deny cause and effect is just as absurd as to deny gravity. Whether you acknowledge its existence or not, you are still subject to it.

A simple example: if we drop a large brick on our bare foot, we are going to experience pain! There is no supernatural force at hand: dropping a brick on one’s foot (the cause) results in pain (the effect). That’s karma!

The difficulty comes when we start working with the notion of karma (karmic imprints) from past lives. As Vajrayana Buddhist, we subscribe to the View that we have lived many lives. Karma – positive, neutral, and negative is what we get to carry from each life. Its our only baggage.

We do not carry our possessions, our bodies, or a soul from a past life, however, we do carry with us our karma. Karma may have immediate effects such as in the case of the pain from dropping the brick. Karma may have a slightly delayed effect such as failing to get a desire job as the result of having a criminal record. Karma may have a longer delayed effect such as being born in a wealthy family as the result of being extremely generous in a past life. It is all still just cause and effect.

The Buddhist View extends this cause and effect into future lives. We do not wipe the slate clean when we die. In fact it is our karma that propels us from one life to the next. This is the part that is difficult to accept as we begin to work with Buddhist teachings.

From a Buddhist perspective, the small child who gets caught in a war, carries karma from past lives. You might ask what did such a person do in a past life to have to face these painful consequences? You could likewise ask what a very fortunate child did in their past life to be so very fortunate?

Shakyamuni Buddha had repeated said that the karma which creates our current life and current situation is way too intertwined and interconnected for us to ever unravel and figure out. Besides, there is no value in trying to figure it out, anyway.

Shakyamuni Buddha likened the situation to someone being shot with an arrow. You come upon the injured person. You could spend your time trying to figure out what the arrow is made of, who shot it, why they shot it; etc. In the mean time the injured person may die. It is better to remove the arrow and attend the injured person. We should focus on helping.

Teachings on karma, I feel, are to remind us that you cannot get away with anything. Cause and effect are infallible - whether you like it or not! Second, we are reminded that no good deed is ever too small. No negative act is overlooked.

Why is karma so difficult to accept? I feel there are three main reason:

(1) We would like to think that we can sometimes get away with things. If you ever took a caramel candy out of one of those big candy bins when you were a child, you would like to think that you got away with it since you were not caught.

(2) We like the notion of an innocent baby at birth. To accept karma from past lives means that a newborn child carries with them karmic imprints from past lives. They are not, as many Western thinkers would contend, a “clean slate.”

(3) One needs to understand rebirth. We need to understand and accept that we have had many lives and will continue to be reborn in future lives (until we attain Enlightenment…but this is a whole different subject).

So karma for Buddhist is indisputable. We cannot avoid the direct connection between cause and effect. Even if the effect is delayed.

While we may not ever understand why certain things happen to us or others. We are well advised to know that it was not just “bad luck.” Then we need to focus on doing what we can to help.

There are other subtopics to this matter I would like to get into in the future including: Purifying Negative Karma, Creating Positive Karma, Moral Conduct, the path of a Bodhisattva, and the reason for practice and Enlightenment.

For now however, I will just conclude with the wish:

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May you have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May you never be separated from the unchangeable happiness beyond delusion and illusion.
May you live in equanimity.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

We just had the wonderful gift of having a great Lama stay with us for over two weeks. One of the best discussion I had with him addressed teachers, especially teachers available to us here in the West.

The conclusion: Watch out! Most of those who travel to the West are not what they claim. Most add lots of titles and designations to their resume when they pass through customs.

I have had the opportunity to meet some great masters including Chatral Rinpoche at his retreat home in Nepal. I know that there is a marketable difference in the pace and presence of someone with this level of practice and wisdom. Despite meeting such a great master, I am not going to trust my own judgement when it comes to the authenticity or qualities of a teacher.

Lama-la emphasized the importance of practice over getting more and more teachings. So for now, I shall continue my daily practice.

By the way, we are experiencing a solar eclipse today (March 29, 2006) so the karmic effects of all our thoughts, words, and deeds are multiplied 100,000 times. Best to do good and practice.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

Just remember, we should only say good things to
others Practicitioners and Sanghas. Only say good things
about their Sangha, their center, and their teachers.
(My teacher would have my head if someone in
the Sangha speaks negatively about another Sangha!)

Review 32 of the 37-Practices of a Bodhisattva:

While speaking of others, the force of delusion may
cause us to dwell on the flaws they possess.
Should we find fault with a Bodhisattva, our own own
reputation will suffer instead.
Avoid the mistake of disparaging others who have
entered upon the Mahayana's great path.
We should only speak of our own faults - the Sons of
the Buddhas all practice this way.

Just remember, how the Dalai Lama speaks about the
Chinese dispite what they have done to his country.

No matter what others do, we can always wish them the very
best success in following their chosen path to
practice.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

During a discussion with Lama Osel yesterday, I caught a glimpse of one reason why all great teachers see themselves as students of the Buddha-Dharma and not as a teacher.

I seems that if I have the attitude “I am a Teacher,” I would focus my attention on how I need to fix everybody and everything around me.

If I hold the attitude “I am just a student,” I will always focus my attention on how I need to correct myself in every situation.

Clearly, the second attitude is that of a Buddha-Dharma practicitioner.

Happy Guru Rinpoche Day!

Geoff

So okay. My teachers keep telling me that I have this “precious” human life and that I need to use effectively now. There is no time to waste! After all, when can I ever hope to have this opportunity again!

Well, sometimes my life feels precious. Much of the time, it does not seem so very precious. My body hurts. I get sick. People get mad at me. I get upset at them. I become frustrated, disappointed, confused, lost, or scared. It is very easy to not be so very happy with this life. It is easy to see how much better my life could be if only…[fill in whatever you want].

So the traditional teachings repeat again and again what is meant by “this Precious Human Birth/Life.” You will find it in chapter 1 paragraph 4 of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara written in the 8th Century:

These freedoms and advantages are extremely difficult to obtain.
Since I have gained the opportunity to accomplish that which is meaningful for a person,
If I do not practice what is beneficial like this come about later?
How will a perfect opportunity like this come about later?

You will find it in the 37-Practices of a Bodhisattva written by Thogme Zangpo in the 13th Century:

This sound human body endowed with full leisure --
an excellent vessel rare to be found --
since now we’ve obtained one in no way deficient,….

You will find in the Ngondros such as under Longchen Nyingthig as well as throughout many sacred texts and practices of all lineages of Vajrayana Buddhism.

Every time, we hear about the (8) Freedoms and (10) Advantages which in total are referred as “human body endowed with full leisure” it reinforces our understanding this precious human birth.

However, this academic understanding is just the beginning. Why is it so special?

Recently, I have been reflecting on teachings and writing from Robert Thurman’s Infinite Light. Dr. Thurman in Chapter 4, begins by recounting how we eventually find that nothing that we temporarily posses ultimately belongs to us…including even our thoughts, our memories, and our body. They are all impermanent.

All that remains is the residual imprints from our past actions, words, and thinking which propel us into future realms according to these natural tendencies. If we are constantly grasping for more and more, we might materialize such tendencies by being hard-wired with large grasping claws such as a lobster. We may manifest as a venomous snake as the result of continued poisonous acts in this life.

Within such a future life, we no longer have any choice. These tendencies are now hard-wired into our being for that life. Further, it becomes increasingly difficult to propel oneself back towards a human birth once one falls into a lower realm of existence. We fail to even have the ability to aspire to human existence.

Dr. Thurman points out the unique feature of human life is that there is far more flexibility in living. We are far less hard-wired into a living pattern. We have the freedom and flexibility to learn, study, and train. We have the ability to make choices including the choice to rid oneself of negative thinking and actions including the 5 Poisons of Desire, Attachment, Pride, Jealousy, and Ignorance.

So this is the Preciousness. We have the ability to make choices. As the result of making these choices, we can transcend the entrapments of re-birth. We can fully awaken because we have the ability to train, practice, and correct our actions and thinking. I appreciated his comment that we are more ‘soft-wired’ than other species and beings. As a result, we have the ability to Evolve. The vulnerability of the human condition is its greatest advantage (and responsibility.)

Consequently, we are constantly reminded “Don’t waste this rare opportunity! It won’t last and every moment wasted cannot be regained.” Once this life is over and you are at the mercy of the imprints from all of your past, its too late.

Spend your time wisely while you have the time, the freedoms and advantages of this precious human form of being. Otherwise, you just might find yourself living at the bottom of the sea with a hard shell as your home!