Karma is one of those Bhuddisty topics that’s big, huge. Understanding it fully is equivalent to understanding the whole kit-n-kaboodle of how this world works, how we came to be born, the cycle we are stuck in and how to bring about its cessation. In other words, my details are pretty sketchy ;). Arguably it was way too big a topic for me at the time in my practice I began to consider it (the next entry dates back to 4/14 ) . Frankly it is still too big for me now… But I came across that dragon laying in my path and I poked at it…so, to be fair to my program of recording my path, I will share those contemplations, or rather the synopsis which took the form of an email with questions to Mae Yo and Neecha, in the next few posts.

First though, I feel like I want to give a little intro about Karma in broad terms

 

A Little Intro to Karma (to The Best of My Limited Ability)

So then, what is karma? Karma is quite simply the universal law of cause and effect that governs this world. Everything and everyone is subject to it, period. Period. The problem is, after that statement of fact, it gets a little fuzzy. That’s because no one, but the Buddha, can actually fully see someone’s karma —  i.e. the intersecting web of causes that leads to effects that in turn becomes more causes that have certain effects..and the snowballing continues. Add in countless lifetimes, and countless beings whose lifetimes are intersecting, and karma starts making quantum theory look simple.

So, rather than give myself massive migraines contemplating the unknowables of Karma, I like to use a parallel and think of karma like dark matter in the universe. Scientist can’t see dark matter, they don’t know exactly what it is, but they know it’s real because they can see its (gravitational) effects on the things around it.  With karma, we will never see the full picture, are never be able to point to that ‘one thing’ that was the definitive cause of that one effect, but we sure as heck can start seeing patterns and understanding likely consequences. Our experiences of its effects in our everyday life can prove to us karma is real.

So an example:  You can’t say I went and shot-up my neighbor’s house yesterday and that’s the reason my house was shot-up today. Afterall, plenty of folks who shot-up other people’s houses never have their houses shot-up, and many folks who have had their houses shot-up never did it to someone else. Nonetheless, you can begin to see that folks who are in gangs, who run around doing gangy things, like shooting-up houses, are way more likely than other folks to suffer some kind of gang violence themselves.  Or folks who bully and abuse are more likely to have been abused themselves (after all, we learn the behaviors from somewhere). Or folks who are generous and kind often receive favor and affection from others (because we do tend to favor the folks who have been kind to us). Again, none of these are fixed relationships, because no action takes place in a vacuum there are many circumstances and factors that feed a result, and yet…

And yet, karma is not magic and it is not fully unfathomable/unknowable. And that is probably the critical point for my contemplating on it and, for my sharing those contemplations with you in the posts to come. Because I have real examples of how when I was being a bitch (like to my friend Candy) I escalated fights and got bitchiness back, and when I stopped being a bitch fighting de-escalated and I got sweetness back.  So, I have learned that I can alter myself, my beliefs and (as a result) behaviors in order to change the effects I get.  I have also, as you will see in the next post, developed a healthy dose of concern, of cautiousness about the seeds I sow ( the karma I create) because frankly, I don’t want to get bitten by the bad stuff later on.

The next few posts will be about my initial karma contemplations.