Karma is simply "cause and effect". The theory is most scientific. Unfortunately this term is abused all the time.
There is a Chinese saying, "If you plant melons, you will harvest melons. If you plant beans, you will harvest beans." Karma is just as simple as that.
In the old days, when there was natural disaster, the emperor would reflect on what he did and blame himself as if the natural disaster was a punishment from Heaven for his wrong doing. Well, this might be just a show to tell people he was, in fact, a conscientious emperor. Through that, the people were brought together to reconstruct the country. However, it was abuse of the term "Karma" unless what the emperor did actually caused the natural disaster.
During the "Great Leap Forward", Chairman Mao ordered farmers to turn the soil three feet under to cover up the top soil. His theory was that the soil on the surface had been used for thousands of years while the soil below was "virgin soil" and must be very fertile. This was the cause of the "Great Famine". But, he never had regrets for his crazy policies. Yet, we cannot relate the wrong doings of the Chinese government in those days to the huge earthquake in Tangshan near Beijing in 1976 because these were unrelated things.
The chief editor of a popular magazine in Hong Kong also claimed that the recent Sichuan earthquake to be punishment from Heaven on what the Chinese government did to the Chinese people. Shame on him.
JY
6 comments:
Oh Karma (業） actually means action or forces of action, not cause and effects （因果）. For example, a cup is under the control of "causes" and "effects" because it is made by various elements, and by influencing these elements, what we call "cup" will change its entity at the end BUT the cup DOESN'T has KARMA - because it doesn't have a MIND - 0nly BEINGS WITH CONSCIOSness has KARMA. this is a very obvious and popular misconception; even scholars and teachers made the same mistake. :-)
anyway, I like other things from this wonderful blog.
cheers,
Sherab
Dear Sherab
Welcome to my blog and thank you for your comment. It is good to think aloud in public so that others can point out whatever mistake. Thank you.
Would you mind telling me the Hindi term for cause and effects （因果）?
JY
Dear Joseph Yu,
the Sanskrit (not Hindi) term for cause and effect is (梵文为) "hetuphala", different from "Karma"; Cause+Conditions=Result/effect; therefore by changing the conditions (which I believe, is the main role of FS), we can therefore change the results. The principle of Karma is much deeper than the simplistic law of cause and effect, it plays with conditions - hence Buddhists say Causes and Conditions （因緣法）.Oh you are really a humble teacher, this makes you a great FS master I guess. :-)Would like to learn from you if I have the chance...
cheers,
Sherab Wong
Dear Sherab,
Thanks for your information. You helped me correct a misconception that has been with me for a long time.
As a matter of fact, I am not a humble person. I am very proud of the fact that I acknowledge my mistakes so that I can learn from others. Confucius said:
知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。
If you know something, say that you know it. If there is something you don't know, admit that you don't know. Then you have wisdom.
This is what I remind myself of all the time.
JY
Dear Joseph Yu,
Oh that's a wonderfol self-reminder.
A humble person will never 'know' he is humble, that's real humbleness.
In fact, beyond ALL knowing is real transcendance, Awareness never knows, it just IS.
Another one: what we call as effect is actually also a cause for something else, what we name as cause is also the effect of previous causes... we call it SynchroCause-Effect (因果同時）。this reminds me the concept of Synchronicity proclaimed by Carl Jung, which can used to explain many things, including some theories and case studies of FS. Synchronicity is where miracles, blessings, healing and transformation happen - it's spontaneous and carefree; most importantly, it's acausal - beyond the common law of cause and effect. Synchronicity, though hidden and subtle, is a much greater force that runs things behind the scenes.
Humble or not, we can always learn from each other :-)
We teach what we need to learn, and we learn what we need to teach!
Then and only then, everyone benefits everyone - and that's REAL Good Karma for all!
Synchro-ly yours,
Sherab Wong
Dear Sherab
People bump onto each other not without a reason. When I can squeeze some time out of my busy schedule, I will study Buddhism to know more about the before birth and after death.
Thank you for dropping by.
JY
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