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Sharon Stone and the unskilful interpretation of karma
zidangus
Veteran
First of all those who don't know this story may like to read the link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/may/28/news.chinaearthquake
Just a point really, feel free to add further comment if you wish.
Anyway, It's rather unfortunate that the Buddhist notion of karma has been totally, misunderstood and misrepresented by the actress Sharon Stone, in recent comments attributed to her regarding the recent earthquake in China which may have killed up to 67,000 people. I do not know if it is true when she claims the Dali Lama is a good friend of hers, but it would be a bit worrying if this is true, since she seems to be taking glee from the fact that an earth quake, which as I have mentioned may have killed up to 67 000 innocent people, may be retribution for actions taken by their goverment. I suggest she speaks to the Dali Lama again or some other bhikkhus to improve her understanding of the Buddhas teachings of karma.
Metta to all sentient beings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/may/28/news.chinaearthquake
Just a point really, feel free to add further comment if you wish.
Anyway, It's rather unfortunate that the Buddhist notion of karma has been totally, misunderstood and misrepresented by the actress Sharon Stone, in recent comments attributed to her regarding the recent earthquake in China which may have killed up to 67,000 people. I do not know if it is true when she claims the Dali Lama is a good friend of hers, but it would be a bit worrying if this is true, since she seems to be taking glee from the fact that an earth quake, which as I have mentioned may have killed up to 67 000 innocent people, may be retribution for actions taken by their goverment. I suggest she speaks to the Dali Lama again or some other bhikkhus to improve her understanding of the Buddhas teachings of karma.
Metta to all sentient beings
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Comments
Metta to all sentient beings
I mean, just look at the Robina Courtin thread. Does it require someone to spoonfeed her info to anyone when a quick Google would bring up more than enough information?
It's been suggested more than once that those opening a thread include enough info in their OP to enable people to comment without having to do individual research. It's a practical suggestion, and a courtesy on behalf of members who may not be on top of all the relevant personalities and events worldwide.
Metta to all sentient beings
So although the remarks are a few years old, if the story is to ancient for you to care about, then if anything it is a good example of the Dependent Origination of all things, in this case the thread and indeed this post.
Metta to all sentient beings
Like this one which originated from Simonthepilgrim in May 2008
Lovely, too, to be reminded of old friends and conversations long gone. Where are they now, @Knitwich, @Knight of Buddha? We "tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky", didn't we?
On, rather than off, topic, I think that we must expect more and more slipshod use of Asian terminology as it passes into mainstream discourse. The same thing has happened with psycho-analytical language: the writings (cinema, novels and journalism) of the first half of the 20th century certainly show a process of popularisation and widening (and betrayal) of meaning.
We have had many a conversation about karma, without, I would add, coming to many firm conclusions. For myself, I have reflected long and hard on the notion of the Imponderables. Not on this or that particular Imponderable (the workings of karma, the origin of all things, what a Buddha is and where I am on my journey) but at the way in which I join in with the modern, 'democratic' dislike of being told not to think about some specific thing.
It is such a human trait: the need to make patterns and find causes. In another poem, Albert and the Lion, a dramatic monologue, Albert's father, after his son was eaten by the lion, says "Somebody's got to be summonsed". We are more comfortable, faced with disaster (or triumph - another poem: one your favourite, I think, @Federica), if we can blame or praise someone, a person preferably. Having lost a 'God' on whom to fix our pain, we look for other 'reasons'. We blame "-isms", the authorities or we name individuals. This is particularly true when we feel helpless as confronted by large-scale suffering.
The Buddha said that reflecting on individual Imponderables sent us mad. It is the madness of the whirlpool that drags us down into dukkha of our own making. And it is recursive: we can blame ourselves for rafting into the maelstrom, and then bloame our parents/teachers/enemies or friends. and so on, ad infinitum.
I heard Anne Widdecombe (a British ex-minister and outspoken person) say that, on the day she learned that she had been appointed to the Department of Health, she shocked a reporter who asked her what the Conservative position was on health reform by telling him that she had to read the brief first. Bing able to say "I don't know" was the first lesson that our Philo. teacher tried to instill - in 17-18 year olds? Some chance! But 'celebrities' like Ms Stone are expected, by some mysterious osmosis denied to the rest of us, to make sense, instantly, of events.
And, of course, we can then blame them! Round and round, and down and down we go.
References:
1 - "tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky": Heraclitus, poem by William Johnson Cory:
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of grey ashes, long long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
2 - Albert and the Lion
3 - "faced with disaster (or triumph - another poem: one your favourite, I think, @Federica), "
IF.....
Rudyard Kipling
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
4 - "the workings of karma, the origin of all things, what a Buddha is and where I am on my journey":
AN 4.77: The Unconjecturables http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html
There's little to beat a really good piece of poetry....
(talk about off-topic!!
(incidentally, 'Heraclitus' is as poem my mother finds extremely poignant, since my father died back in October....)
If the topic was covered on this forum beforehand, then fine, but I did not join this site until 2010 and did not know about the comments until a few days ago. Anyway I think its every ones right to start a thread on what they like even if it has been discussed beforehand, I mean how many threads on this site about rebirth, I imagine a lot, but I bet each and everyone of them have excellent posts, which contribute the discussion.
Metta to all sentient beings
How many Buddhists believe if you a standing on a footpath and are struck by a wayward motor vehicle that is due to some negative past karma?
I have read this on New Buddhist many times.
For example, generally followers of the following website hold such views: http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/index.html
The Buddha encouraged this investigative mind, as I'm sure he saw all those beliefs that people were clinging to as unsupported, but wouldn't have had an audience if he become the authority on "everything". So instead he became the authority on suffering and its cessation alone, everything he taught was geared toward that end.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halitosis
halitosis was a word grabbed and used by the manufaturers of Listerine mouthwash.
Halitosis, or bad breath, is not a medical condition in and of itself, but always a symptom or side-effect of another condition. Therefore, bad breath cannot be treated, until the cause is eliminated. Therefore, 'bad breath' as a treatable condition - doesn't exist.
'Listerine' was first commercially and publicly marketed as an industrial detergent, primarily for floors. (originally, it was a surgical sterilizing fluid, for use in operating theatres. When other better and improved products took its place, it went public....)
The formula, once it was subsequently marketed as a breath freshener, didn't change one bit.
Use 'listerine', and basically, you're rinsing your mouth with industrial-strength floor cleaner.
The karmic effects may work in ways in which none of us truly understand, but I believe that the effects are only evident for the person who actually created the karma. So for me, and I think for the overall majority of Buddhists there is no connection between the earthquake and the stance of the Chinese government.
Metta to all sentient beings
Bad breath is an important symptom in traditional chinese medicine. And yes it is treatable. I was cured of it.
Sorry, this is OT. My bad.....
Please respond in a PM. Thanks.