Food for thought for the coming year 2020: “Karma”

Sslee

Publish date: Sat, 28 Dec 2019, 03:16 PM

Dear all,

When bad things/misfortunes happen to us or others, should we think of them as fate, pre-determined destiny, divine retribution or bad karma?

Let examine this question from the view points of religion and philosophy.

According to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions; at first, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Subsequently, Eve is created from one of Adam's ribs to be Adam's companion. They are innocent and unembarrassed about their nakedness. However, a serpent deceives Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam. These acts give them additional knowledge, but it gives them the ability to conjure negative and destructive concepts such as shame and evil. God later curses the serpent and the ground. God prophetically tells the woman and the man what will be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God. Then he banishes them from the Garden of Eden.

The Bible teaches that good choices will naturally have good results, but bad choices will naturally have bad ramifications: "Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail" but "He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend" (Proverbs 22:8, 11)

The fall of Adam and Eve from Garden of Eden become of their bad choice of disobeying god brought sin into the world, corrupting the entire natural world, including human nature, causing all humans to be born into original sin, a state from which they cannot attain eternal life without the grace of God.

Romans 3:23-24 New International Version (NIV)

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Our destiny pre-determined

However, it is Allah Who, before we are born, decides a person's destiny, Who prepares everything that happens to us, and Who determines what these events will be and what kind of life we will have. The Qur'an tells us that everything that happens to us is the will of Allah, and has been decided by Him before we experience it: "Nothing occurs, either in the earth or in yourselves, without its being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for Allah". (Surat al-Hadid: 22)

Qur'an 13:11 - Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.

From this view point: Although you are given a free will to choose/to change but whatever happen to you is pre-determined by the creator god and you will only find salvation through his grace and not of yourself.

Let examine the same question from Karma point of view.

The word ‘karma’ has originated from the Sanskrit root ‘kri’ which means ‘to do’ or ‘to ‘act’

"Karma" although literally means "action," but more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, which Hindus believe governs all consciousness.

Karma is not fate, for we act with what can be described as a conditioned free will creating our own destinies. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other lifetimes

Hindu scriptures divide karma into three kinds:

Sanchita karma (heaped together) is one of the three kinds of karma. It is the sum of one's past karmas – all actions, good and bad, from one's past lives follow through to the next life. Out of this, we each lifetime, we choose prarabdha karma, a collection of past karmas, which are ready to be experienced through the present incarnation.
Prarabdha Karma are the part of sanchita karma, a collection of past karmas, which are ready to be experienced through the present body (incarnation)
Kriyamana karma, is everything that we produce in the current life. All kriyamana karmas flow in to sanchita karma and consequently shape our future. Only in human life we can change our future destiny. After death we lose Kriya Shakti (ability to act) and do (kriyamana) karma until we are born again in another human body

From this view point: Your current misfortunes or fortunes are not just due to your good or bad deeds/free will on this life but also from the collection and accumulation of past Karma. This concept gave legitimacy to hereditary caste system social order where you are born into upper or lower caste is base on your past and accumulated karma.

In Buddhism, the concepts of karma and karmaphala explain how our intentional actions keep us tied to rebirth in samsara, whereas the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the Noble Eightfold Path, shows us the way out of samsara.

Rebirth, is a common belief in all Buddhist traditions. It says that birth and death in the six realms (three good realms (heavenly, demi-god, human) and three evil realms (animal, ghosts, hellish)) occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance (avidyā), desire (trsnā), and hatred (dvesa). The cycle of rebirth is called samsāra. It is a beginning-less and ever-ongoing process. Liberation from samsāra can be attained by following the Buddhist Path. This path leads to vidyā (true knowledge), and the stilling of trsnā and dvesa. Hereby the ongoing process of rebirth is stopped and the person attains nirvana, the "blowing out" of the desires and the gaining of true insight into impermanence and non-self reality.

The Buddha defined karma as intention; whether the intention manifested itself in physical, vocal or mental form, it was the intention alone which had a moral character: good, bad or neutral. As one intends and acts, so does one become: one becomes virtuous by virtuous action, and evil by evil action.

From this view point: The beginning-less and ever-ongoing cycle of death and rebirth is driven by ignorance, desire and hatred. The cycle of rebirth is called samsāra and this cycle can be broken by following the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the Noble Eightfold Path.

Karma and reincarnation is a part of key tenet of Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism but literally Karma means “to do” or “to act”.

The "primary critique" of the doctrine of karma is that some feel "karma may be socially and politically disempowering in its cultural effect, that without intending to do this, karma may in fact support social passivity or acquiescence in the face of oppression of various kinds and further that karma has been used to rationalize racism, caste, economic oppression, birth handicaps and everything else.

Instead of seeing karma as purely as punishment/reward system for merit/demerit actions of your accumulated past and current lives, you can better understand it as a lesson toward living in Oneness with all people and things by following the 12 philosophy lessons of Karma:

1. The Great Law (Karmic cycle)

Whatever we put into the universe will come back to us.

2. The Law of Creation

Life does not happen by itself, we have to make it happen.

3. The Law of Humility

We must accept something before we can change it.

4. The Law of Growth

By changing ourselves, we change our lives.

5. The Law of Responsibility

We are responsible for what happens in our lives.

6. The Law of Connection

The past, the present, and the future are all connected.

7. The Law of Focus

We cannot think of two different things at the same time.

8. The Law of Giving and Hospitality

Our behavior should match our thoughts and action. Selflessness is a virtue only if we’re accommodating something other than ourselves.

9. The Law of Here and Now

We cannot be present if we are looking backward to examine what was or forward to worry about the future.

10. The Law of Change

History repeats itself until we learn from it and change our path.

11. The Law of Patience and Reward

The most valuable rewards require persistence.

12. The Law of Significance and Inspiration

Rewards are a result of the effort and energy we put into it.

Karma is a lifestyle that promotes positive thinking and actions. It is a set of values that are meant to teach us all to do better. The more good people do the more good will come of it.

So what will you do when bad things/misfortunes happen to you?

- Will you resigned to your fate and console yourself that in the end you will be saved by god's grace?

- Will you continue with your destructive patterns of behavior as god will and thus forever caught in the Karmic cycle of hatred and war?

- Will you reluctantly accept it as your past bad karma catching up with you?

- Will you blame others for you own shortcoming/misfortune and plan your revenge with trolling, cursing, poison letter and etc?

- Will you cry father and cry mother and never get over with it?

- Will you be so heartbroken console yourself with alcohol and drug or commit suicide?

- Will you learn from it and change your path?

- Will you admit your mistake and move on as god works in mysterious way. When one door closes, another open?

A person only suffers if he has created the conditions for suffering. It is a universal truth that a lot of the suffering in this word is a direct result of resigned and inaction. Karma teaches us to act, to do. We need to start thinking, acting, and doing good base on above 12 lessons.

I end my written with Mr. Koon’s last year quote when he make a wrong bet on JAKS that cost him RM 64 million for all to ponder and decide what you want to do in year 2020?

“Life has many challenges; don’t give up because life also has many solutions. The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness.”

Thank you

I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2020.

P/S: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. -Albert Einstein

The Law of Change: History repeats itself until we learn from it and change our path.

I agree with Philip sometime i3 forum comments can be very toxic. So the law of change teaches us what need to be done either to continue with our toxic way or to change our path and thus break our toxic karmic cycle. That change need to come from all.

Discussions

1 person likes this. Showing 50 of 240 comments

Welcome! Select a username of your choice.