World Equilibrium To begin with,
I would like to discuss our external world.
A world with which we are in constant interaction.
Imagine yourself floating in a very large,
Calm pool.
Every motion you make causes ripples and the movement of the water.
You simply cannot move without the water reacting to your movement.
And when the water moves,
You are in turn affected by the current and waves.
You and the water are in an interconnected balance.
That's more or less the situation we are in.
All our actions change or disturb our environment,
And all changes or disturbances in our environment affect us.
In this fully connected environment,
A single action does not produce a single effect.
For example,
If we move our hand through the water,
We create not a single wave,
But many small waves.
An action creates a multitude of waves.
All these waves go out into our environment,
And through our environment we receive each of their echoes as feedback.
That's not to say that the best we can do is float motionless,
Afraid to disturb anything.
Motion is neither sensible nor possible.
In reality,
Our pools are not so calm.
Things are happening.
There are waves and currents,
And we must respond.
Living in the world always requires action.
The idea is to be wise enough to act in a way that reduces or eliminates reactions that bring us suffering.
So whenever we act,
The world reacts,
Responding in equal measure to the change we impose upon it.
A big,
Sudden action makes a big,
Sudden change to the world.
A slow,
Steady action makes a slow and steady change.
All these changes,
Sooner or later,
Feed back to us.
If our actions make changes to the world that are gentle,
Comfortable,
And smooth,
The world will respond to us in the same gentle manner.
Conversely,
If our actions are aggressive,
Hostile,
Or rough,
We will receive aggression,
Hostility,
And roughness from the world.
In our instant karma world,
Good begets good,
And bad begets bad.
What comes around,
Goes around.
As you sow,
So shall you reap.
Yet,
It's not an instant tit-for-tat,
Do-this-get-that world.
Our picture is not quite right.
Life is a journey through time.
From moment to moment,
Time is moving on,
And our life moves along with time.
When we act,
It will take some period of time to affect the world.
Change requires time.
The effect takes time to manifest,
And the result that feeds back to us will not be instantaneous,
But will be experienced in a future moment,
When the conditions are right.
Karma takes time.
To illustrate the principles of karma within this diagram,
I've shown our action and the returning feedback as single arrows.
In fact,
The reality is more complex.
A continuous interaction of many waves,
But the principle is the same.
All that we send out,
Will in some way,
Shape,
Or form,
Return to us.
And this process takes some interval of time.
So we must wait for our kindness to return to us,
Likewise with our bad action.
But at some point in time,
In equal measure to all change imparted to our environment,
The results will return.
The chickens will come home to roost.
No one gets away with anything.
We are the owner of our ripples and waves.
It is a law of nature.
It is fair.
We have all had experiences in our lives where doing good obtained for us a good result at a future time.
Perhaps we were diligent in studying,
And then did well on an exam.
Or we spoke nicely with others,
And had them respond in kind.
Certainly,
We've all experienced that doing good,
Doing bad begets bad as well.
Teasing a dog and getting bitten,
Saying unkind words and being repaid with the same.
But what about the good-dee people who get nothing good in return?
In the Buddhist view,
The conditions for the feedback from the world are not yet in place,
So their karma has not yet returned.
Likewise,
In a great many instances,
The cause of returning karma is unknown.
We experience the good or bad luck seemingly for no reason.
Buddhist teachings say we are simply unaware of our past action,
Whose reaction we are now receiving.
Thus,
Buddhists would say that winning the lottery is not actually a case of random luck,
But is feedback from our previous actions returning to us,
The result of our own intention in a forgotten past.
These past actions still resonate in our world,
Affecting our world equilibrium.
Suppose we were to die suddenly tomorrow,
And the results of our good and bad actions had not yet ripened.
These actions do not just vanish.
Just as energy can neither be created nor destroyed,
Merely transformed,
So too with the effects of our karma.
According to Buddhism,
Our responsibility for our actions doesn't end with our death.
Our ownership of our actions continues beyond this lifetime.
Buddhist doctrine says that we are responsible for our actions through more than this single life.
We are responsible until we finally move beyond the playing field of birth and death,
Until we reach the point that we are free.
If the idea of past and future lives is strange for you,
Then perhaps you could play along as a mental exercise.
Ponder the possibility and consider the ramifications.
The Buddha always warned people not to believe what he,
Or anybody for that matter,
Said simply because he said it.
He encouraged everyone to use critical thinking and to check carefully with their own experience when deciding what is true and useful and beneficial.
Everyone should be his or her own judge.
A Buddhist would view our multiple lives something like the image below,
Where each oval represents one lifetime,
And actions can have their reaction within the same lifetime,
Or even cross over to future existences linked together,
Like a chain by karma.
Our present life is a short span when compared to the effects of karma.
However,
This is not to say that we are helpless victims of our old karma.
Quite the contrary.
This means that we are truly the makers of our own fate.
We are architects of our own environment.
Our actions are meaningful.
We have the power to make things better.
There is nothing random or haphazard about the workings of the universe.
The effects of our karma also lead us to be born in fortunate or unfortunate circumstances.
The good fortune to be born with a healthy body into a financially stable,
Loving home is a result of good past actions.
This good fortune may resonate through an entire lifetime,
Protecting us,
Insulating us to some degree,
From the rough seas of the world around us.
Children from loving,
Stable families find doors open to education and financial opportunity.
Likewise,
A less fortunate birth may cause us to suffer and struggle our whole lives for things that others receive freely.
Yet,
We are still fortunate to be born human at all.
A word of caution here.
The action of karma does not mean that we should disregard others' suffering as they are merely getting what they deserve.
Absolutely not.
Such a view lacks compassion and understanding.
Buddhist teachings say that in our long chain of lives,
We have all had experience being rich and poor,
Beautiful and ugly,
Happy and sad.
And as Jesus said,
We have all been sinners.
We are all here together in this world,
Unable to avoid suffering,
Old age,
And sickness.
Death awaits us all.
And since we cannot look back through our lives to see all our past connections and actions,
And how they might relate to the person standing in front of us,
We should always try to view all beings with compassion and loving-kindness.
So what to do?
So what are we to do at this point in a long chain of lifetimes?
Our unknown past awaits to ambush our future.
We could have a terrible traffic accident,
Lose our job,
Or suddenly become ill.
All for actions that occurred prior to this life.
Indeed,
The law of cause and effect insists that our past bad actions are echoing through our world,
Literally accidents waiting to happen.
And Hollywood movies notwithstanding,
We cannot go back in time to undo our previous bad deeds.
How can we cope with such a situation where unknown,
Forgotten retribution lurks in every life?
The Buddha advised us not to despair,
But rather to understand how karma operates and take action to take control of our lives now.
There is much we can do.
First,
A properly lived present will not create any future bombs to shatter our peace.
So we should stop doing bad things.
Next,
Since all good we do shall return to us,
We should start doing more good.
Further,
The Buddha counseled us to build a wall which prevents us from causing more trouble for ourselves.
A wall of harmonious action.
A wall of morality.
This wall is built by accepting precepts which are strong intentions not to harm ourselves and others.
In fact,
This wall does more than stop bad action in the present.
It actually buffers the effects of the bad actions returning to us.
We'll talk more about this buffering effect later.
First,
Let's look at this wall.
