Tag Archives: karma

Why is Secular Buddhism Important? – Part 2

Posted by on March 19, 2012 No comments

In my previous post, I talked about why I think that drawing ethics from a dogmatic supernaturally inspired source isn’t really a very good idea.  In this post, I’d like to talk a little about why I think that ethics drawn from a secular source are more meaningful.  I also think that as Buddhism has a long history of doing just that, it has an awful lot to bring to the table in this process.

Why do I think this?  When we hand the responsibility over to a third party to decide our morals, or forgive us, this takes quite a lot away from us as Human Beings.  We can no longer claim to be masters of our own destinies, we cannot evolve our morality in any meaningful way and we still have responsibility for our actions.  This is because we are the ones who chose to let someone else drive and then willingly went along for the ride.

Speaking from the viewpoint of this Secular Buddhist, it’s much more meaningful to take this power back for ourselves.  Buddhist ethics are based in a clear minded view of the world in this moment, as it is.  Not coloured by dogma or beliefs, by superstitions or agendas.  We have to actually think about the issues as they are in this moment, justify what we think and why we think that way rationally and without recourse to dogma.  We have to consider the feelings of others, we must practise empathy and consider the Karma that our actions produce for ourselves and others.  This leads to a greater consideration for the humanity of others and underlines our deep and powerful connection to those around us.

It also brings me back to something I’ve covered in a previous posts, the idea of forgiveness and compassion starting with ourselves.  When forgiveness is doled out by another, we’re not required to understand or forgive and we’re not really able to, not even for ourselves.  When we are the ones doing the forgiving, we are required to understand that we’re imperfect, limited and fallible.  Coming from that position, accepting that we are flawed and imperfect, we can learn to forgive ourselves.  Once we can do that, we’re in a much better position to use that same understanding to begin to forgive others.

 

The NHS Reforms, Among Other Things.

Posted by on March 17, 2012 No comments

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi

I’ve been watching the furore about the upcoming public services reforms and have been signing petitions to try to help stop the gutting of our public services.  To be honest, I can see us being steered towards a system of private health insurance, with all that this entails.  In addition to this, we’re looking at cuts to the availability of legal aid and also cuts to the assistance given to sick and disabled people.

Now, I don’t believe for a minute that the money can’t be found to preserve these things and this whole thing makes me wonder about the commentary this provides on the people running the show in this country.  Let’s be clear, these reforms will hit the poor and sick the hardest and we all know the old maxim that a society should be judged by how it treats the weak and vulnerable.  There are many variations on this theme and in my opinion, the most apt quote is the one above from Ghandi.

We must understand that the presence of these things shows our compassion for others in action, to just slash them would be a betrayal of this compassion for others and would also ignore the very real Karmic consequences of this act.  All of our actions have very real consequences, Karma is not a mystical thing and it can be readily observed in action.  The cumulative and ongoing negative effects of these shortsighted decisions will cause an enormous amount of harm to the life of our nation.  It’s not just the person who is refused treatment who suffers, it’s the family and friends, it’s the carers who have to take up the slack.  These effects ripple outward, in the same way that the closure of a large factory (e.g. the Rover plant at Longbridge) has an effect on the local community and the supply chain.

Let’s hope common sense prevails, before we all suffer.

Making Lemonade

Posted by on February 26, 2012 No comments

There’s an old saying “When life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade”.  It’s good advice and I’ve had time to reflect on it, given that life has indeed chosen to give me Lemons of late.  I’m going to post my thoughts on this with the hope that they will be beneficial for someone.

I found it very beneficial to take the view that these things can serve as a valuable lesson, if one decides to make the effort to learn from them.  It’s very easy to point out the faults of others, to deride them and place oneself above them.  To my disquiet, I became more aware of myself doing that and resolved to stop doing it.  As the situation I was in drew further on, I found that I was being moved to meditate on humility and finding compassion for others, whereas before I might not have been so understanding or compassionate.

Of course, my own faults were there too and their karma came into play, which taught me the importance of honestly acknowledging one’s own faults and resolving to address them.  This process of acknowledging your own faults builds humility, I found that it helped me in my efforts to view others and their faults and shortcomings in a more compassionate way.  It’s always worth remembering that while someone may not have your experience or skillset and seem helpless to you, the same is true from their perspective if the roles are reversed.  Remember what it was like for you when you were starting out.

Now the challenge is to apply all of this!

Us Through a Lens

Posted by on October 18, 2011 2 comments

I had an interesting moment the other day, interesting and somewhat unsettling.  I realised that the way I was being seen by someone wasn’t the way I’d thought.  This lead me to a train of thought.

We all put a lot of effort into how we come across, we care how we’re seen by others.  This goes to various degrees, depending on the situation and the individual.  But at what point does this behaviour become unethical?  Is it, in spite of our best efforts, ultimately futile?

No matter how carefully we craft our public faces, how carefully we choose our words, they will be seen through someone else’s lens.  The persons you and I are, are the result of our lifelong Karma; choice after choice, event after event.  This is as true of the person you project to the world as it is of the person I am, as I watch your actions and hear your words.  We see each other through the lenses of our Karma.

Ultimately I cannot control how you see me, too much depends on the lens through which you view me.  For me to try and try, ultimately results in me taking (or trying to take) too much control over your perceptions.  Thus taking what is not freely given and violating a precept.

For example, I support and have written Free Software.  I do this because I wish have more control of the software that runs my computer; I wrote SitQuietly for the Linux platform because I wanted to give something back to the community, however small, for all the good their software had done me.

But, through someone else’s eyes, am I the enemy?  No matter how compassionate my motives and aims?  Think not? Look again….

When using open source makes you an enemy of the state.

Should Open Source Be An Enemy Of The State?

My entire Karma led me to this point, if you are an intellectual property lobbyist or an advocate of certain proprietary software companies then you will quite possibly see me as the enemy.  Whether I want you to or not.  But drawing on my point above, for me to go too far in trying to change your mind isn’t just unethical, it’s unskilful.  At what point does it cause suffering for us both?  I’ll also wager the attempt will fail.  So it would seem easier for me to present myself as you find me, and simply allow you the room to make your mind up then live and let live.  No, not just better, more ethical, more skilful.

Interesting train of thought, isn’t it?

Thoughts on Karma – it’s secular.

Posted by on December 10, 2008 3 comments

I was mulling Karma the other day after a number of events I’ve had happen.  I thought to myself “Rich, why don’t you put your thoughts into text and see how things go?”  So I plan to and hope to make 2 (or maybe even 3) posts.

So, I now need to explain what in the world I mean by that post heading.  Here goes.

I’ve seen the definite meme that Karma is some sort of divine judgment force, that there’s some kind of mystical account being kept for us.  I think that’s an unlikely state of affairs.

I tend to apply Occams Razor which means I usually go for the simplest explanation, thus I consider Karma to be a simple matter of cause and effect.  The reason it looks mystical is, in my view, down to the simple fact that we do not (and cannot possibly) possess (or keep track of) all the information in any given situation.  There are just too many variables, many of which are hidden.

For example, a person may well injure themselves in the gym, but again no mystical judgement force is involved.  Unheeded bad habits, poor exercise form over a number of years, simple carelessness, maybe even an undetected medical condition all can be factors.

So let’s build from the gym example, I gave examples of bad secular karma above.  But are there examples of good?  Of course there are, because there are things that can be doen to combat the above, even before they happen.

This is where I invoke parts of the Eightfold path. Right Mindfulness, awareness of your habits while using machines and performing exercises.  Mindfulness of the fact you may have a condition and taking that into account.  Right Action ties in by actually getting you to the doctors to get that condition checked, or seeing a Personal Trainer to get your poor form corrected.

Buddhist readers can no doubt take my example and tie the other elements of the path into it, so as is my habit, I’m going to leave the question open as a thought exercise for the reader.

A few thoughts on Karma

Posted by on June 4, 2008 No comments

I was working to this post for some time, but recent media coverage of comments by Sharon Stone prompted me to put fingers to keyboard. 

Now, let me start by making a point, I’m not taking a pop at her, enough people have already done that and it’s not really served any purpose.  She made some points that I agree with:

“It was a big lesson to me that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren’t nice to you.”

As a servicedesk analyst I can vouch for the above from personal experience and from the experience of my colleagues past and present.  I will be going a little deeper into my insights from my POV as a headset jockey in a future post.  Also, I agree with her following sentiment:

“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.”  

So, what are my views on Karma?  I view it in a secular manner, not as a supernatural phenomenon.  It comes down to simple cause and effect and is in part psychological conditioning, or to quote Marcus Aurelius:

 ”Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.”

Essentially, you create you own Karma by your attitudes, which create your actions, the results of which colour your attitudes in a continuous feedback cycle.  You don’t really need past or future lives for Karmic Law to be valid, the above quote makes it perfectly clear to me, the consequences of your Karma will be played out in the moment with every thought and action.