Karma? Puh-lease…
Earl was right. Karma is a funny thing. Because some people say that if you do good things, then good things will happen to you.
The funny part is that I don’t think it’s right. Or OK, there may be some truth in it, but a lot of the people who say that do so on the occasion that they have done something good expect something back. They can’t tell you what will happen in return, but they’ll say they believe in karma.
When you do something good, you shouldn’t hope for anything good to happen.
More importantly, there is no karma bank.
“Welcome to the Bank of Karma, how may I help you? Your account? Certainly. Every time you make a deposit of Good Things, we hold on to it and pay you back sometime in a way we see fit. If you make a withdrawal or your Good Things balance goes into the red, then bad stuff will happen until you start paying in again.”
No. Stop.
Do something good, and a good thing has happened.
If that’s not enough for you, then you’re probably creating a lot of that negative karma you believe in.
If you’re so desperate for something good to happen to you, why not just do something for yourself instead of helping someone else, and completely cut out the middleman at the Bank of Karma? What have they ever done for you anyway?
Close your account, keep your good deeds under the mattress and splash out a bit.
If you expect good things to happen to you, then you’re attached and clinging to your desires, which we all know is the root of all unhappiness and is only going to make you miserable and increase your suffering.
There aren’t many contradictions in modern Buddhism, but I think this is one and I’m not a subscriber to the karma thing in the whole “what goes around comes around” sense.
I’m not saying my Buddhism is better than your Buddhism, because I’m not sure I’m that great a Buddhist by any stretch. I’m just going along with it, because what appeals to me most is that for my personality, disposition, temperament, whatever you want to call it, I find it works. There is reason and there are cast iron laws with nice rounded edges and they last forever, like those nice expensive French pots and pans. You know, the really heavy ones? They make the lines in the food as you cook. So as well as steaming the food, you’re actually grilling at the same time. It’s really something.
What was I saying? Oh yeah. There’s something real and undeniable when you can look about the place at anything and say: yeah, there it is and I can see why that makes sense and the reason it came about.
There actually is a law of karma: people like good things.
That’s it.
There’s the reward - a good thing for someone.
Feel better already? They do.
Final example: if you have a nice meal or you do something good for yourself, you feel good, right? That makes you more inclined to go on and do the right thing in however it is you choose to live. There’s the karma.
But you don’t expect yourself to do another good thing back to yourself because of the first thing you did, do you? So why is it any different with anyone else? They’re just the same as you.
You scratch my back, my back’s all nice and scratched. Thank you.
November 14th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I’m going to have to chew on this ojne a bit, Cliff. It’s made me think.
At 6:40 in the morning. I ought to smack you.
November 15th, 2006 at 4:36 am
Totally agree with this. Weirdly, I once wrote a column about the karma bank.
I’ve always felt that people who do good things becaue they believe in karma are not doing their good things for the right reasons.
I believe in doing good things (and doing the right thing) simply because it’s better than the alternative.
I also occasionally do bad things and wrong things, but we’re a clumsy bunch, us humans.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Cliff at his greatest. it’s not every day someone can make you look at the world in a new way. thanks man.
and rispek for the title, dude.
November 18th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Headline gold x
November 19th, 2006 at 1:43 am
Yabut… if I scratch your back, that “all nice and scratched” feeling doesn’t last forever. And then you’re back for another scratching. And do you think the second one is free? That “thank you” is enough? Noooo. Time to dip into your B of K savings account, my friend. And what’s more, you’ll be telling all your friends what a great back-scratcher I am, and soon they’ll be lining up for a good spinal abrasion at 100 karmas per hour. At that rate, I could open my own Karmic Credit Union…
There is always payback, good sir, expected or not. The simple “thank you” lasts longer than the all-tussled-up feeling. That’s why they say, “’tis better to give than receive.” They were right. Even when we do for ourselves, if our intentions are pure (not based on likes and dislikes) the result is that we feel “more inclined to go on and do the right thing in however it is you choose to live”, which is the ‘comes around’ part - a happy life.
“Peole like good things” is the law of ordinary people, and so they chase after good things and get only war and conflict. “People like goodness” is the law of those who know, so they chase after goodness and get only good things. As the saying goes, “sukho puññassa uccayo” - happiness is the accumulation of goodness. (Buddha)
Sorry for the preach… it’s an important subject.
November 19th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Yuttadhammo. Dude. None taken - it’s good to challenge.
If you’re back for another scratching then aren’t you attached to the feeling and you’re trying to avoid the inevitable that you’re going to itch? I’m just asking.
I disagree with your distinction that there are “ordinary people” and “those who know” or “goodness” and “good things”. It’s all down to your intentions, I think.
“Goodness” to me implies rules, like not drinking, never swearing, having to be loving and kind all the time and avoiding hurting other people under any circumstances. I think this definition of goodness has very little in common with doing the right thing.
If you are kind and loving to the man who is kicking your dog, then you’re not helping anyone. The man doing the kicking is already suffering - you shouldn’t be afraid of adding to it a little bit just because you think it might not be the right thing to do.
Until google comes up with an English to Sanskrit translator, I would say “happiness is the accumulation of the right things for you as long as they are not contrary to the greater good.”
Less punchy, and maybe we’re saying the same thing.
And you’re not preaching. I can always leave this website. I think. Say what you like, you’re an ordained monk in a Thai monastery, for god’s sake. Not for god’s sake, literally. For goodness’s sake. Or for the sake of good things.
November 20th, 2006 at 1:54 am
Mr. Jones, dude. I’m not the one looking for the back scratch, but I’d be much happier to give you one than get one from you (no ideas - monks don’t give back scratches). You understand the cause of suffering, why can’t you understand the law of karma? Kicking the guy who is kicking your dog doesn’t really help him, or the dog, or you become free from suffering. You just get to be known as “the guy who kicks people who kick his dog” - very bad karma.
Ordinary people need rules to stop them from doing bad things like kicking dogs, etc. because they don’t know. Those who know don’t need rules, they don’t kick dogs or people.
The “right things for you” are, universally, goodness and virtue. They last a lot longer than what most people think are right for them (booze, sex, etc.) and, as opposed to the latter, actually conduce to happiness.
Semantics make it difficult because “goodness” is also a “good thing”. But if by good things you mean anything accompanied by a happy feeling, that’s not goodness. Kicking dogs makes some people happy, while they do it…
While Google’s working on your request (surely…), here’s some more Pali for you (Sanskrit comes from the Brahmins):
Papopi passati bhadram
yava papam na paccati
yada ca paccati papam
atha papo papam passati.
Bhadropi passati papam
yava bhadram na paccati
yada ca paccati bhadram
atha bhadro bhadrani passati.
(Say that five times fast…)
Translation (
provided by Google):Even an evil person may still find happiness so long as his evil deed does not bear fruit; but when his evil deed does bear fruit he will meet with evil consequences.
Even a good person may still meet with suffering so long as his good deed does not bear fruit: but when it does bear fruit he will enjoy the benefits of his good deed.
(Dhp. 119-120)
We’d better be saying the same thing in the end cuz there’s only one right answer.
Over and out,
Yuttadhammo
November 20th, 2006 at 8:51 am
You understand the cause of suffering, why can’t you understand the law of karma? Kicking the guy who is kicking your dog doesn’t really help him, or the dog, or you become free from suffering. You just get to be known as “the guy who kicks people who kick his dog” - very bad karma.
I do understand karma, but I don’t think it’s a law.
There’s a downside to everything. There may be one with being known as the “the guy who kicks people who kick his dog”, but there’s a much bigger downside to “like kicking dogs? I know this one guy…”
I don’t think there there is any distinction between “ordinary” people and “those who know”, either.
November 21st, 2006 at 5:21 am
Those who know don’t kick dogs, because they know it’s bad karma. They also don’t get angry when other people kick their dog, because they know it’s not really their dog anyway. That doesn’t mean they stand there sending love-vibes while people kick dogs, it just means they don’t get angry. Usually they find a way to change things without creating more bad karma, because of their knowledge which ordinary people don’t have.
Karma, like any law, is very difficult to understand. Kind of like British law, I suppose; another one of those funny thing we Canucks inherited. Sometimes you just throw up your hands and think “crazy Brits”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not law. Karma’s like that, I think… No I don’t, I just don’t do bad things. They always bring a bad result. If I weren’t mindful, I wouldn’t know it.
November 21st, 2006 at 8:39 am
OK - now I’m with you. Maybe it is like British law. I kind of understand it, but I’m not sure it exists.
I like what you said about “finding a way” to change things. It suggests challenge and a journey.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Cheers. Sorry for cracking a joke about your country. It will surely come back to haunt me later