Karma is made of dream-stuff

Jeroen

I came across this quote in Osho’s book Tantra: The Supreme Understanding…

“Whatsoever you have done, I tell you, don’t be worried by it. It has happened to you because you were not aware. Alight your inner flame – find it, seek it, it is there – and suddenly the whole past disappears, as if it all happened in a dream. In fact, it has happened in a dream, because you were not conscious. All karmas have happened in a dream, they are made of the same stuff as dreams are made.”

To me this makes a lot of sense — us non-enlightened beings are still asleep, and so all our karma’s play out in a kind of dream-state. When you attain full awareness these all disappear, an enlightened being does not suffer the effects of karma, it all disappears like snow on a warm day.

It reminds me of the story of Angulimala, the murderer who became enlightened. There are all kinds of explanations about how he was quite advanced before he started murdering people, but I prefer the explanation that he just applied himself during his time with the Buddha and ended up freeing himself of his past karma. It has a redemptive quality which does not need further explanation.

Kotishka

If I recall correctly, Angulimala was beaten to death by angry villagers whom he had tormented before. The Buddha said to him to bear with this "last task" (being subjected to a beating) as it represented the extinction of his karma; a burden that would have, if not, taken many many many lifetimes to vanquish.

While reading the sutta, I remember feeling that Angulimala seemed to not experience grief nor despair at that moment. We cannot escape our karma but, if one reaches such understanding / state, perhaps it becomes easier to let go and accept the consequences.