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Bad Karma
AllbuddhaBound
Veteran
How often we believe we are experiencing bad karma for past deeds or misadventures. We think about bad karma and how do we rid ourselves of this blight. To understand the effects of Karma, it is important to consider both sides of good and bad karma, and to realize we don't even know what type of karma we are actually dealing with.
How often in our lives, has something that appeared to be bad at the time, actually turned into the best thing that could have happened? During all of the time we experience the situation we considered "bad karma", it was actually good karma. And the "bad karma" was only our attitude and the suffering and ignorance that brought.
We don't have the insight to judge karma. By doing so, we bring on bad karma. The skillful use of karma is to have it teach us to stay on the path, but it also teaches us to never judge. We simply don't know how things turn out and we cannot pretend we do.
http://www.diydharma.org/dealing-fruits-bad-karma-ajahn-sister-vayama
How often in our lives, has something that appeared to be bad at the time, actually turned into the best thing that could have happened? During all of the time we experience the situation we considered "bad karma", it was actually good karma. And the "bad karma" was only our attitude and the suffering and ignorance that brought.
We don't have the insight to judge karma. By doing so, we bring on bad karma. The skillful use of karma is to have it teach us to stay on the path, but it also teaches us to never judge. We simply don't know how things turn out and we cannot pretend we do.
http://www.diydharma.org/dealing-fruits-bad-karma-ajahn-sister-vayama
4
Comments
One person's 'good' is invariably another person's 'bad' so it's just best to suspend judgement and evaluation, and deal with stuff wisely and skilfully, as it arises.
I don't rightly care about WHY stuff happens, only about what I should DO when it does. The Why is an impossible to see spider web complex of causes and conditions that occur because.. of causes and conditions.
When you "see" it happen within your ego, the less it happens and the more likely you are to not get carried away by it. It is a natural part of the human nature to judge, for if we did not then humans would not of made it to the point where you can question such things.
I've personally come to see the ego as not "me" to a certain point. When I have a judgement appear in my mind I try not to identify it with myself and attach to it or run away from it. it is just as it is, a mental process.
A judgment that lays claim to some ultimate and abiding and shining truth is bound to be a problem. No one is very happy living in this sort of comic-book land. But a best-guess judgment -- one that arrives in the moment and seems to provide a tentative usefulness that is bound to morph -- well, it's what anyone can muster.
If you're right, terrific. If you're wrong, correct it to the best of your ability.
And if you're right ... correct that too.
Just my take.
For my part, that is. I speak for nobody other than myself. I refuse to credit circumstances with the evaluation of kamma. It's too complicated.
Kamma is simply VOLITIONAL ACTION.
One does not decide voluntarily to starve to death, and one cannot choose one's birth circumstances.
The complexities of the workings of kamma are beyond anyone's ability to discern.
Therefore, be simply occupied with YOUR OWN personal deliberate actions, and never mind trying to ascertain the circumstances of others.
Good karma you can keep with my blessing. :clap:
Address:
Lobster Dharma Karma Home for Retired Demons
Crustacean Sea of Happy Tears in Reality
Samsara East
Nibbana
OM YA HA HUM
killing 999 people has that effect..
Ah, I had to look him up of course after that remark. So he was a serial killer that the Buddha rescued and took into his fold? While I suspect the "999" number was exaggerated for effect, it's an interesting story. It also begs consideration that some of those rocks being thrown at the monk were probably from people who had lost friends or family to this man when he was crazy and going around killing. Just because the King pardoned him and the man was cured and remorseful doesn't mean the people you wrong are required to give up their anger. They would claim the man put on the robe for protection (just think of the bad karma for killing a monk!) and faking his change when he knew the King was on his way to kill him.
it's said even the Buddha had to experience vipaka(fruit) of unskillful actions in past lives until his parinibbana. Changing your life definitely does not automatically mean all is forgiven and everyone loves you. In my line of work with child protective services I've seen it where someone really did some bad stuff, lots of court involvement lots of drugs, prison, they decide to change their life and one day BAM an old warrant they forgot about and they are back in prison, which spirals them back to old habits. It's a tough road to come back from, as Angulimala found out.
btw Angulimala was not his real name, that was the nickname they gave him for the finger necklace he wore with the finger of each person he killed, as per the request of his teacher. If the story of Angulimala shows anything it shows to not do whatever your teacher tells you to just because he is your master and says it! and also the redemption of course.
He learned the art of annoying people from the Southern Baptists; or maybe he was a serial killer, the Dexter of those times.
On the other hand, it's a story with a moral and meant to illustrate a point.
This is the sutta about Angulimala meeting the buddha and becoming an arahant.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.086.than.html
and this is the back story, Ahimsaka is Angulimala's real name - http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/hecker/wheel312.html
In due course, his father sent Ahimsaka for his traditional studies to Takkasila (Taxila), the ancient and famous university of India. He was accepted by the foremost teacher of that seat of learning, and he continued to be so studious that he surpassed all his fellow students. He also served his teacher so faithfully and humbly, was of so pleasant speech and conduct, that he soon became his teacher's favorite. He even received his food from his teacher's family. And this made his fellow students very jealous: "Since that young Ahimsaka came, we are almost forgotten. We must put a stop to it and cause a break between him and the teacher." The well-tried way of calumny was not easy as neither Ahimsaka's studiousness nor his conduct and noble ancestry gave an opening for denigrating him. "We have to alienate the teacher from him and thus cause a break," they thought; and so they decided that three groups of people should approach the teacher at intervals.
The first group of pupils went to the teacher and said, "Some talk is being heard around the house." — "What is it, my dear?" — "We believe it is about Ahimsaka plotting against you." Hearing this, the teacher became excited and scolded them: "Get away, you miserable lot! Do not try to cause dissention between me and my son!" After some time, the second set of pupils spoke to him in a similar way. So also a third group, which added: "If our teacher does not trust us, he may examine it himself and find out."
Finally the poisonous seed of suspicion took root in his heart and he came to believe that Ahimsaka, so strong in body and mind, actually wanted to push him out. Once suspicion is roused, one can always find something that seems to confirm it. So the teacher's suspicion grew into conviction. "I must kill him or get him killed," he thought. But then he considered: "It will not be easy to kill such a strong man. Besides, if he is slain while living here as my pupil, it will harm my reputation and students may no longer come to me. I must think of some other device to get rid of him as well as punish him."
It happened that soon afterwards Ahimsaka's course of studies had come to an end, and he was preparing to go home. Then the teacher called him and said: "My dear Ahimsaka, for one who has completed his studies, it is a duty to give a gift of honor to his teacher. So give it to me!" — "Certainly, master! What shall I give?" — "You must bring me a thousand human little fingers of the right hand. This will then be your concluding ceremonial homage to the science you have learned."
The teacher probably expected that Ahimsaka, in his attempt to complete that deed, would be killed himself or, being caught by the king's men, would suffer the highest penalty of execution. Perhaps the teacher may also have secretly cast Ahimsaka's horoscope, seen from it his latent propensity to violence and now tried to incite it.
Faced with such an outrageous demand, Ahimsaka first exclaimed: "O Master! How can I do that? My family never engaged in violence. They are harmless people." — "Well, if the science does not receive its due ceremonial homage, it will yield no fruit for you." Now Ahimsaka consented and, after worshipping his teacher, he left.
The stories of old on which this present narrative is based do not tell us what had moved Ahimsaka finally to accept his teacher's macabre demand, without any further and stronger protest. One of his motivations may have been that an unquestioning obedience to the guru appeared to him as the first duty of a pupil, this being an echo from his earlier way of life that was governed by higher principles. But the stronger factor in his decision will probably have been that his hidden dispositions had actually emerged in his mind when vistas of violence were evoked by his teacher's words. He may have felt attracted by a life of violent adventure as a challenge to his manly prowess.
Tradition tells that in one of his former lives he had been a powerful spirit, a so-called yakkha, who used his superhuman strength to hurt and kill living beings to satisfy his appetite for human flesh. In all his past experiences that are reported in the Jatakas, two traits are prominent in him: his physical strength and his lack of compassion. This was the dark heritage of his past which broke into his present life, submerging the good qualities of his early years.
So, in his final response to his teacher's demand, he did not even think of the alternative, to gather the fingers from corpses thrown into India's open charnel grounds. Instead he equipped himself with a set of the fivefold weaponry, among them a large sword, and went into the wild Jalini forest in his home state, Kosala. There he lived on a high cliff from where he could observe the road below. When he saw travelers approaching, he hurried down, slew them and took one finger from each of his victims.
Milarepa on the other hand practiced black magic and killed some people in a family conflict. He found a teacher so that he could overcome that bad karma because he knew he would have to pay the karma unless in one lifetime he could become enlightened. He went and studied with a learned master, Marpa. He accomplished the task and broke all the fetters.
The story of Ahimsaka would have also served to caution students about their own jealous backstabbing when it came to jockeying for position and the attention of their Master. In spite of the picture the West is given of the enlightened guru and loving disciples in search of universal harmony, this picture we are presented with here is more realistic to the monks who would have read this.
It would actually make an excellent Koan. Who was at fault for Ahimsaka killing 999 innocent people? Was it the jealous students who lied to the Master, or the Master for ordering the student to do such a thing, or was Ahimsaka himself the only one at fault for actually doing the killing? How far are you willing to excuse the Master by making up justifications for his own failure in believing the lies and setting this in motion?
What do you answer to that? I believe that will tell you more about bad karma in action than anything else.
that does not mean that we cannot have compassion and understanding for him and his predicament, but for me, if most of the blame lay with everything else besides him, then his conversion and decision to change his life has MUCH MUCH less meaning, because well that wasn't he who decided to make the change, it was the buddha and his magical powers of 3rd eye insight.
The fact that Ahimsika made the choice and changed himself to become awakened, is what makes his story so powerful for me and one of my favorites of all the ancient suttas. The only other non buddha related story I could say I might like better is that of the Bhikkhuni(nun) Patachara.. but that's another story