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Do we always have to exhaust our negative karma?
blueberriesplease
Explorer
This topic is complex and I realize there's no way to fully explain this topic, I'm just looking for some understanding.
I've read there is no way to escape any negative karma, like the instance with Maudgalyāyana a disciple of the Buddha and how he was murdered despite the fact he had done so much good, but had to pay the debt of negative karma in a previous life where he killed his parents.
But then sometimes I read where there are practices to be free from the consequences of our negative karma, or maybe karma altogether. Is this part of the definition in enlightenment or am I missing some sort of important practice I'm unaware of? I'm just confused because some Buddhist teachings say karma is very powerful and there's no escape, while others say there's a way to cleanse our karma or become free from it?
Also, I'm sorry if I'm repeating a thread or something. I couldn't find this throughout the site and its buggin me. I appreciate any teachings/advice! Thank you
I've read there is no way to escape any negative karma, like the instance with Maudgalyāyana a disciple of the Buddha and how he was murdered despite the fact he had done so much good, but had to pay the debt of negative karma in a previous life where he killed his parents.
But then sometimes I read where there are practices to be free from the consequences of our negative karma, or maybe karma altogether. Is this part of the definition in enlightenment or am I missing some sort of important practice I'm unaware of? I'm just confused because some Buddhist teachings say karma is very powerful and there's no escape, while others say there's a way to cleanse our karma or become free from it?
Also, I'm sorry if I'm repeating a thread or something. I couldn't find this throughout the site and its buggin me. I appreciate any teachings/advice! Thank you
0
Comments
Work with what is in front of you at this moment. Be mindful of the conditioned patterns that arise in your mind. When you're mindful, you can respond to those conditioned patterns, rather than reaction. This is the whole point of mindfulness meditation.
With enlightenment comes nirvana. Nirvana being free from suffering. What causes suffering? Attachment to ideas, feelings, thoughts, etc (any attachment). Even the attachment to spirituality, doctrine, experiences, enlightenment itself can be a hinderance (looking at the big picture).
So yes you can escape all your karma right here right now by being mindful. Sometimes your karma will win, but you can cultivate more mindfulness to respond to it better.
What I do to work on my karma is mindfulness and a willingness to say YES if my ego says NO. So if my ego says to avoid the annoying people at work, I go YES time to talk to the annoying people. My conditioning forces me to see some people as annoying. They themselves aren't inherently annoying, though relatively they may be. I talk to annoying people and work on my patience, which is also working on my karma. If I listened to my conditioned self, I would have avoided them.
Hope this helps.
Helps a lot! I think the " you can cultivate mindfulness to respond to it better" is a good way to put it. I've definitely noticed being mindful helps with situations. I may still feel pain, but its a different kind of pain, its something I can watch and theres a free sense about it. Thanks
Additionally, if we're sick and its negative karma, is it avoiding accepting our negative karma if we take medicine? Are we just postponing the negative karma sickness to strike later? or is it generating good karma to take medicine to heal our bodies as it could be seen as a compassionate act to relieve our own suffering?
Don't think of sickness as 'negative Kamma'. It is just simply, what it is. If you view it as negative, that's your perception that's askew, not your kamma.
Being sick might be a fantastic lesson in respecting and looking after your body, taking care of yourself, and marvelling at the miracle of simply being human.
It's also a lesson in how precious and fragile life is, and how we should really make the best of every moment.
Forget positive/negative kamma in being sick.
be sick, and get better.
Focus on your mental, verbal and physical actions now, not on wondering just how this came about in the first place....Waste of time....
We can never exhaust all our karma. Samsara is beginningless. So we cut at the root of suffering. Which is turning away from experience and not seeing it clearly. The first step is to develope the ethics to create an environment conducive to practice. A space. And that comes from generosity to yourself and otehrs. Starting small like a bow to a shrine or a kind act to a kitty or bird. Then develope patience through all difficulties... With such a space created with a light touch and much joy... Then we don't need the agression, craving, and illusions that keep us 'safe'... With that stability we gain insight. Which further leads to more skillful action (ethics) and a virtuous cycle.
In the Suttas, the Buddha defines kamma as intentional actions of body, speech and mind (AN 6.63) that have the potential to produce certain results, which, in turn, have the potential to produce pleasant, painful or neutral feelings (AN 4.235). The word itself simply means 'action.'
Pragmatically speaking, actions are deemed 'unskillful' (akusala) if they lead to to self-affliction, to the affliction of others or to both. Actions that don't lead to self-affliction, to the affliction of others or to both are deemed 'skillful' (kusala) (MN 61). Therefore, the distinction between skillful and unskillful actions is based upon how their results are experienced—not only by ourselves, but by others as well. (This emphasis on the consequential aspect of actions is similar to Jeremy Bentham's teleological utilitarianism, with John Stuart Mill's idea of higher and lower happiness being similar to the Buddha's distinction between long-term and short-term welfare and happiness.)
Psychologically speaking, however, the quality of the intentions behind the actions is what ultimately determines whether they're unskillful or skillful. (This aspect is closer to Kant's deontological categorical imperative when combined with the Buddhist principle of ahimsa or harmlessness.) Intentional actions rooted in greed, hatred or delusion produce painful mental feelings "like those of the beings in hell," while intentional actions rooted in non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion produce the opposite ("like those of the Beautiful Black Devas"). Then there are acts rooted in both that bring mixed results "like those of human beings, some devas, and some beings in the lower realms" (AN 4.235).
Actions that have been done can't be undone, so the seeds are already sowed so to speak. Nevertheless, just because a seed is planted doesn't mean that it'll grow and bear fruit. In other words, an action has a tendency to ripen if the necessary conditions are present and play themselves out. But if those conditions are absent, then an action won't be able to produce a corresponding feeling of pleasure, pain or neither pleasure-nor-pain, just as a seed won't grow and bear fruit without fertile soil, water and sunlight. In addition, there are ways in which to lessen the inevitable harmful results of past unskillful actions. The first step is to at least observe the five precepts in order to help prevent further damage from being done. The next steps are to abandon wrong view and develop expansive mind states of good-will, compassion, appreciation and equanimity (SN 42.8).
Moreover, since the Buddhist conception of causality is non-linear, we don't have to exhaust all our negative kamma, which is essentially the doctrine of the Jains (see MN 101), we simply have to eliminate the production of kamma in the present. And that's a good thing. Theoretically, if we assume for the moment that all of the teachings on rebirth are literally true, then it'd be statistically impossible to exhaust all of our 'negative kamma' due to the fact that a beginning point to samsara (literally 'wandering on') isn't evident (SN 15.3).
The Buddha's teachings, on the other hand, state that to gain release from samsara, one must put an end to all types of kamma, not just the negative. That's why the noble eightfold path is called "the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma" (SN 35.145). They're skillful actions that, when used appropriately, have the potential to ultimately lead to the elimination of the skillful/unskillful dichotomy altogether, leaving only moral perfection and a mind that's free and undisturbed behind.
It's in my belief that karma is simply an abstraction that describes cause and effect, like minutes making the abstraction of hours describing time. Therefore karma is empty, giving it life and superstition will lead to anxiety. In this light it's wise to interpret the Tipitaka when necessary; remember it's a collection of discourses aimed for vastly different audiences that the Buddha was confronted with, not as a manuel you'd find in the Abidhamma.
Tibetans describe three types of karma: karmic forces, karmic potentials and karmic constant habits. The first two, collectively called karmic legacies, will be exhausted but they never ripen, the third will not exhaust until parinirvana but does ripen. You can read about these at the Berzin Archives if you'd like.
Certain types of karma can no longer ripen if the circumstances for them to ripen are removed.
All that you can do is to strive to stop grasping to the aggregates so that when karma ripens it won't cause suffering and when the circumstances occur for karmic tendencies and potentials to arrive you won't act upon them.
Do you know how monkeys were caught in ancient India? They cut small holes into coconuts, placed candy into them and then attached them to something fixed. Once a monkey had grabbed the candy it wouldn't let go until it passed out from exhaustion. This is how sentient beings are affected by the aggregates. Letting go is the closest you get to eliminating karma.
karma is almost related to mood. ie: you are angry or sad because of something you did or didn't do.
The idea of "exhausting kamma" is a Jain view. The Buddhist Path is about transcending kamma.
Metta,
Guy
It is impossible for sentient beings to know what has caused an experience in a particular moment, that is apparently something liberated, or 'awoken' beings are able to do.
If you are sick you are sick, take medicine. It wold be unskillful to remain in suffering if there are available medicines out there for you. You can meditate all day long but it won't cure your broken leg, it may help you deal with it in more skillful and positive manner but won't cure the situation. I read on a forum a long time ago something that still remains with me as it is quite a good analogy. You can think of meditation as something such as a mobile phone, (cell phone) whatever, it is amazing for contacting people, you can check the weather on it, play games etc, but can you wash your car with it or paint your house with it? Meditation is a great thing but is not the answer to everything.
We are in total control of our lives. Anything and everything that happens to us is a reflection of our own mind, not something coming from outside ourselves, like an act of god or something.
Palzang
Best wishes,
Abu