Repaying the "Karmic" debts....
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Kia Ora Karmic Conundrums aka (loosely put) Selves,
Search the self for an honest answer.........
What do you do when the inevitable unwholesome "S#!T HAPPENS" (hits the fan) ?
Do you see it as a debt that needs to be paid off and with acceptance work diligently through it?
Or do you b1t<h and moan the ‘why me’ mantra ie, accumulate more interest on the karmic debt ?
Or perhaps you don't buy into karma and just think along the lines of "S#!T HAPPENS" end of story........
“It’s easy to smile and be pleasant when one’s life flows along like some sweet song-
But the person worthwhile is the one who can still wear a smile, when things in their life go all wrong!”
For me personally, I tend to just go with the flow of what "is"....That is acceptance of what "is" and I just get on with it,,,
Metta Shoshin . 
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Comments
@Shoshin
Within equanimity, karma unfolds as just one of a number of forces of inertia.
Outside of equanimity, karma dictates our responses to anything.
What I do when the shit hits the fan has less to do with karma
than with whatever level of equanimity I can muster in any given moment.
Kia Ora @how,
I'm not quite sure what you mean, but it sounds good...
Metta Shoshin .
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I'll let you know if that ever happens.
Actually, that was more or less serious...but seriouslier...
Every single thing that ever happened to me that I ever thought was horrid, set me down a road on which I found something so valuable, that had I known that was the cost - I would have signed up voluntarily.
Oh heck, I have to edit this. This sounds so incredibly saccharine, I almost sound like one of lobster's gentle Buddhists. This "three in a million" disease that I've recently come down with for instance. It forced me to quit a job that I no longer enjoyed and led me to answer the question: What would you do if you could do anything - that you'd love so much, you'd feel guilty getting paid for it?
It was writing. It always had been and I refused to look at it. Well, not always. Since I was seven years old and picked up a copy of Jonathon Livingston Seagull and for the first time in my young life, didn't feel alone in the Universe. I wanted to give back to someone what Richard Bach gave to me with that book.
So I wrote, got it picked up and decided that if I did touch anyone with the book, that my childhood hero had a hand in it by forever changing the course of my life. So I wrote him and thanked him - both from me and the folks who get something out of my book and will never know to thank him. He wrote back. We began a correspondence. Then he called me. Today I have a new friend.
What was the cost of this disease? Eventual death, which was coming after all...and a bit slower day to day, which gives me a bit more time for contemplation. And the reward? I get my dream job and a friendship with my childhood hero. Sign me up!
Kia Ora @yagr,
That's a great way to see things....Sometimes life can throw a wobbly, but in the long run it's still flowing in the right direction...
Metta Shoshin .
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@yagr you ain't no saccharine Buddhist.
Bravo. Karma? Don't wait for dukkha to get you . . . go grab some karma . . .
Sounds like a plan . . .
How much funding do we require for your wife's temple?
I lost track but I sent it to the usual swiss bank account c/o 'Lobster Cushion Fund' - I think you can check the balance from your computer.
Kia Ora @how,
BTW...Welcome back...I hope you enjoyed the kayaking experience...
Metta Shoshin .
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Hope you are back feeling kayak mellow . . .
Yesterday not formally meditating and needing to, I was offered a herbal kalm tablet and Mega dose b vitamin. Patched me up but is not ideal . . .
Interesting use of word inertia . . . meaning movement of dukkha rather than stillness of 'like a mountain' sitting . . .
:wave: .
I believe that my actions will cause either good or bad outcomes for myself and others. If something happens, I will just wish and pray that it will pass as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Besides paying off a debt, or if your prefer, turning that vicious wheel, we should try not to create any more debts in this life.
If I do something stupid, I do my best to learn from it. And try not dwell on it. Try not!
I think chasing good karma is not a good idea, it's pure selfishness.
My motto I guess is learn from my mistake or if it's out of my hands. Just weather the storm and try see the reality of it.
Looking on the bright side helps too! I have food, clothes and a roof! Can't be that bad right?
Actions have consequences, so I rarely plunge headlong into situations that I calculate beforehand will yield suffering.
And if by pure foolishness I do, I take responsibility for my decisions without whining.
But my responsibility counts from the present onwards. I don't look back.
So if s..t happens due to karmic debts of any kind or for another reason I can't figure out, I simply take a breath, schlepp on and make the best with what I have. It's about the present I can do something about, not about the past.
So "Do no harm, act for the good and purify your mind." Whatever comes from there should be okay.
And if it isn't, there's always my favourite motto by Sheng Yen: "Face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go."
I work with what I have to try and make the experience positive. I try not to think about karma but rather try to do good for goodness sake. If I work off bad karma or create good karma that's fine but if I'm aware of my actions I figure the damage could be minimal.
I work at an old age home and often times your mood affects the mood of those depending on you. I can't carry my suffering into work with me.
I lie awake at night just worrying about how much my karmic mortgage is. I'm actually thinking about being rebaptized in the Church, accepting Jesus, and having my slate wiped clean. It's a real perk of the Christian religion just having all your "bad karma" (sins) taken away and replaced with "good karma" (grace).
Hmm. I wonder if Shakyamuni ever taught people to be so derned metaphysical. Well, if not, at least it gives people something to distract them from the path he taught. So he used the term and spoke on those terms a lot. I daresay that they were moral and practical lessons, not existential ones.
I just try to figure out what and why it happened. Then try to figure out how to handle it. I have no way of knowing if it is karmic debt or just cause and effect.
I'm grateful, in retrospect, that I never got the idea of karma as anything really solid so that I even THINK about it.
It's a semantics thing -- 'karma' is this word that has all these associations and connotations, both scriptural and personal. As a word it doesn't seem to be 'used' by my story telling function or in the daily interface.
If I had, I'm sure I would have misinterpreted it horribly and would be using it as just something else to make papanca about . . .
If we're talking about the facts of cause and effect and examining the conditionalities, I DO do that almost constantly (quantity over quality most likely
).
But I never regard a difficulty or failure or negative thing happening as 'karma' or 'that's what you deserve for xxxxx'. It doesn't even make sense, logically speaking. It strikes me as such a self centered, self absorbed going nowhere but in circles that lead back to me me me me thing. I spent the first half of my life 'there', it is boring and useless and didn't teach me a thing. In fact, it is the cause of more suffering than was there in the first place.
@Nirvana from my beliefs karma has nothing to do with sins and grace.
The Buddha only taught the path to the cessation of suffering. Metaphysical or existential is the same thing in the end.
My existence is what it is. There is no mind/matter/spirit. It's all one. Buddha just points this out to end suffering.
No grace, no sin. Karma is just arising of conditions you have created. Good and bad is just a dualistic human words for categorising
There is definately energy at play. Whether god made it or not. Who knows
Karma has to do with intention. I'm not sure what it has to do with the 'intention' spoke of the eightfold path. My teacher says compassion and kindness help keep on task in the dharma. There are so many phenomena. Right intention is part of the eightfold path along with right view. I am interested in how karma is boring. My teacher calls that the great 'so what'. What's next? Well it's one of the spokes on the eightfold path. Right effort should also be called joyful effort, right? So that actually feeds right intention I think. So like say you are having a hard time. You might be 'stuffing everything up' as my New Zealand friend would say. But if your intention is good then eventually the ship will right itself, perhaps having to reshuffle the deck a lot. I think this way. YMMV.
@Earthninja, C'mon don't be so literal minded.
We haz plan! I will make an excellent Christian. Now which type to choose . . . m m m . . .
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
m m m . . . sounds hard, isn't there one you just kneel on a cushion and feel unworthy? That will do for me . . .
@Nirvana I just woke up, while reading your post. Again. I lie awake at night trying to figure out puns made on this forum.
Kia Ora,
I should point out, I don't see karma as being good or bad -reward or punishment, I just see it as the run of the mill cause condition and effect , for this to happen that must (have) happened ie, the universe's way of balancing things out...
Whereas in a past life (life before Buddhism found me) "I" might have become somewhat pissed off when s#!t happened that affected "me", but now "I" realise that, that "me" who got somewhat annoyed with the natural flow of things , was just creating even more s#!t, by trying to disrupt the flow... "Constipation"
Since practicing the Dharma-Life's become much karma (calmer), no more drama, Thank You Dalai Lama !
Metta Shoshin .
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seems like love fails a lot haha
Every day.
I luvs being unworthy and still lovable and loving. I could be a luvee . . .
All together now . . .
Better than being airy-fairy and seeing things that aren't there. Buddhism is basics.