Ill will and mental karma

driedleaf

How bad is mental karma versus physical harm?

taiyaki

Depends on the intent.

mental, verbal and bodily are fairly equal in consequence, but you have to factor in conditions, intention, causes.

But really it is impossible to know the full knowledge of karma.

If one was to take karma seriously the lifestyle led by most of us is just crazy. How much good karma was produced to have this current circumstance?

It really is mindblowing.

So keep it simple. What is done will come around.

person

I think results are supposed to be similar to the cause. So mental action would have a mental result and physical action would have physical result.

taiyaki

a thought can produce an action and an action can produce a thought as well.

person

I'm just referring to the traditional interpretation of karma. Of course there's an alternate explanation thats more direct. I can't say which is right.

http://viewonbuddhism.org/karma.html

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm

DharmaField

You can always try it out for yourself - on yourself. Eg mentally pinch your arm and then try it physically. You might get a clearer result if you do this after you have meditated for at 20mins or so. I wonder if the results are what you expected.

No need to think too much about karma as it seems like an endless pursuit and there may not be any value in it. I gained a great deal of insight into karma from doing the labyrinth at Chatres, everytime you get a sense of where you are going there is a turn in the opposite direction. If the fully enlightened Buddha died from eating rancid pork, what hope have we other than to do the best we can without worrying too much about its effects.

driedleaf

Thank you all for replies.

Most of us do not think of something like hate can be an infliction or something that is like an action. I thought about it, and started thinking that it can be so. Because most of us cannot see past the illusion of no-self, it is likewise that our will to generate hate seems fitting for our situation. Just like a person in a certain profession can develop a hate or love for the job and the people that are involved with it, but could have just simply done the job without any love or hate. So once this hate or love is generated, I am starting to see now how it can involve different consequences. I can also see that it can involve attachments. Like when someone falling in love and having their love hurt them in the end. I can see now how they are similar. Thank you.:)

zombiegirl

a thought can produce an action and an action can produce a thought as well.

^ this is great.

in response to the OP, i would say it depends on whether or not you engage the thoughts. every now and then i will have mean-spirited thoughts flit through my mind and sometimes i think, "whoa! where did that come from!?" and refuse to engage them. in this way, i think you can train yourself to be more kind.
but before i started practicing meditation, i would identify with my thoughts a great deal more. i thought that because i thought it, that it WAS me, if that makes sense. now i realize that thoughts are simply thoughts and we have a choice in the matter. just because it entered your mind does not mean that you have to identify with it. i mean, i didn't choose to put 'conga' by gloria estefan in my head all day yesterday... but there it was.