Karma in Jainism

The karma theory is the scorecard of life and your actions.Karma is the mechanism that determines the quality of life. The happiness of a being's present life is the result of the moral quality of the actions of the being in its previous life.
A soul can only achieve liberation by getting rid of all the karma attached to it.
Karma is a logical and understandable way of making sense of good and evil, the different qualities of different lives and the different moral status of different types of creature, without having to involve rules laid down by a god.
Karma works without the intervention of any other being - gods or angels have no part to play in dispensing rewards or punishments.
Karma is a concept found in religions which include reincarnation in their beliefs. Different religions have different ideas as to exactly how karma operates.
The Jain idea of karma is much more elaborate and mechanistic than that found in some other Eastern religions.
Karma is a physical substanceJains believe that karma is a physical substance that is everywhere in the universe. Karma particles are attracted to the jiva (soul) by the actions of that jiva.
It may be helpful to think of karma as floating dust which sticks to the soul, or as types of atomic particle which are attracted to the soul as a result of our actions, words and thoughts. On their own karma particles have no effect, but when they stick to a soul they affect the life of that soul.
We attract karma particles when we do or think or say things: we attract karma particles if we kill something, we attract karma particles when we tell a lie, we attract karma particles when we steal and so on.
The quantity and nature of the karma particles sticking to the soul cause the soul to be happy or unhappy and affect the events in the soul's present and future lives.
It's a compound process in that the accumulation of karma causes us to have bad thoughts, deeds, emotions and vices, and these bad actions (etc) cause our souls to attract more karma, which causes more bad thoughts, and so on.
Avoiding and removing karmaKarma can be avoided in two ways
By behaving well - so no karma is attractedBy having the right mental state - so that even if an action attracts karma, the correct mental attitude of the being means that karma either doesn't stick to that soul or is discharged immediatelySome karmas expire on their own after causing suffering. Others karmas remain. The karma that has built up on the soul can be removed by living life according to the Jain vows.
Outline of karmaKarma is a physical substanceThis substance is everywhere in the universeThere are 8 forms of karmaThe mental, verbal and physical actions of the jiva attract karma to it. The more intense the activity, the more karma is attractedThe karma sticks to the jiva because negative characteristics of the jiva, passions like anger, pride, greed, make the jiva sticky. Karma can be warded off by avoiding these negative characteristicsIf the being is without passions then the karma does not stick, thus a person can avoid karma sticking to them by leading a religiously correct lifeKarma must be burned off the jiva in order for it to make spiritual progress. Living according to the Jain vows is the way to get rid of karmaThe jiva takes its karma with it from one life to anotherThe 8 types of karmaThese types of karma can be split equally into destructive and non-destructive karma.
Destructive karmasmohaniya-karma (delusory): deludes the jivacauses attachment to false beliefsprevents the jiva living a correct lifejnana-avaraniya-karma (knowledge-obscuring): interferes with the jiva's intellect and sensesprevents the jiva understanding the truthblocks the jiva's natural omnisciencedars(h)an-avarniya-karma (perception-obscuring): interferes with perception through the sensesantaraya-karma (obstructing): obstructs the energy of the jivablocks the doing of good acts that the jiva wants to doNon-destructive karmasvedaniya-karma (feeling-producing): determines whether the jiva has pleasant or unpleasant experiencesnama-karma (physique-determining): determines the type of rebirthdetermines the physical characteristics of the new lifedetermines the spiritual potential of the new lifeayu-karma (life-span-determining): determines the duration of a being's life (within the limits of the species into which the jiva is reborn)gotra-karma (status-determining): determines the status of a being within its species

- Courtesy www.bbc.co.uk

Intent as Karma

Karma is conditioned by intent. When the medical staff receives a dangerously ill or injured person and they place him on life support as part of an immediate life-saving procedure, their intent is pure healing. If their attempts are unsuccessful, then the life-support devices are turned off, the person dies naturally and there is no karma involved and it does not constitute euthanasia. However, if the doctors, family or patient decide to continue life support indefinitely to prolong biological processes, (usually motivated by a Western belief of a single life) then the intent carries full karmic consequences. When a person is put on long-term life support, he must be left on it until some natural biological or environmental event brings death. If he is killed through euthanasia, this again further disturbs the timing of the death. As a result, the timing of future births would be drastically altered.
Euthanasia, the willful destruction of a physical body, is a very serious karma. This applies to all cases including someone experiencing long-term, intolerable pain. Even such difficult life experiences must be allowed to resolve themselves naturally. Dying may be painful, but death itself is not. All those involved (directly or indirectly) in euthanasia will proportionately take on the remaining prarabdha karma of the dying person. And the euthanasia participants will, to the degree contributed, face a similar karmic situation in this or a future life.
Finally, there is exercising wisdom-which is knowing and using divine law-in the overall context of any situation For example, a vegetative person in a coma is on long-term life support in a hospital when a patient is brought in for emergency treatment requiring that same life support equipment. Weighing the two karmas, a doctor could dharmically unplug the comatose patient in order to save the other's life. Moksha: Freedom From Rebirth
Life's real attainment is not money, not material luxury, not sexual or eating pleasure, not intellectual, business or political power, or any other of the instinctive or intellectual needs. These are natural pursuits, to be sure, but our divine purpose on this earth is to personally realize our identity in and with God. This is now called by many names: enlightenment, Self-Realization, God-Realization and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. After many lifetimes of wisely controlling the creation of karma and resolving past karmas when they return, the soul is fully matured in the knowledge of these divine laws and the highest use of them. Through the practice of yoga, the Hindu bursts into God's superconscious Mind, the experience of bliss, all-knowingness, perfect silence. His intellect is transmuted, and he soars into the Absolute Reality of God. He is a jnani, a knower of the Known. When the jnani is stable in repeating his realization of the Absolute, there is no longer a need for physical birth, for all lessons have been learned, all karmas fulfilled and Godness is his natural mind state. That individual soul is then naturally liberated, freed from the cycle of birth, death & rebirth on this planet. After Moksha, our soul continues its evolution in the inner worlds, eventually to merge back into its origin: God, the Primal Soul.
Every Hindu expects to seek for and attain moksha. But he or she does not expect that it will necessarily come in this present life. Hindus know this and do not delude themselves that this life is the last. Seeking and attaining profound spiritual relizations, they nevertheless know that there is much to be accomplished on earth and that only mature, God-Realized souls attain Moksha.
God may seem distant and remote as the experience of our self-created karmas cloud our mind. Yet, in reality, the Supreme Being is always closer to you than the beat of your heart. His Mind pervades the totality of your karmic experience and lifetimes. As karma is God's cosmic law of cause and effect, dharma is God's law of Being, including the pattern of Hindu religiousness. Through following dharma and controlling thought, word and deed, karma is harnessed and wisely created. You become the master, the knowing creator, not a helpless victim. Through being consistent in our religiousness, following the yamas and niyamas (Hindu restraints and observances), performing the pancha nitya karmas (five constant duties), seeing God everywhere and in everyone, our past karma will soften. We may experience the karma indirectly through seeing someone else going through a situation that we intuitively know was a karma we also were to face. But because of devout religiousness, we may experience it vicariously or in lesser intensity. For example, a physical karma may manifest as a mental experience or a realistic dream; an emotional karmic storm may just barely touch our mind before dying out.
The belief in karma and reincarnation brings to each Hindu inner peace and self-assurance. The Hindu knows that the maturing of the soul takes many lives, and that if the soul is immature in the present birth, then there is hope, for there will be many opportunities for learning and growing in future lives. Yes, these beliefs and the attitudes they produce eliminate anxiety, giving the serene perception that everything is all right as it is. And, there is also a keen insight into the human condition and appreciation for people in all stages of spiritual unfoldment.

- Courtesy www.himalayanacademy.com

Karma is not fate

Karma is also misunderstand as fate, an unchangeable destiny decreed long ago by agencies or forces external to us such as the planet and stars, or Gods. Karma is neither fate nor predetermination. Each soul has absolute free will Its only boundary is karma. God and Gods do not dictate the experiential events of our lives, nor do they test us. And there is no cosmic force that molds our life. Indeed, when beseeched through deep prayer and worship, the Supreme Being and His great Gods may intercede within our karma, lightening its impact or shifting its location in time to a period when we are better prepared to resolve it. Hindu astrology, or Jyotisha, details a real relation between ourselves and the geography of the solar system and certain star clusters, but it is not a cause-effect relation. Planets and stars don't cause or dictate karma. Their orbital relationships establish proper conditions for karmas to activate and a particular type of personality nature to develop. Jyotisha describes a relation of revealment: it reveals prarabdha karmic patterns for a given birth and how we will generally react to them (kriyamana karma). This is like a pattern of different colored windows allowing sunlight in to reveal and color a house's arrangement of furniture. With astrological knowledge we are aware of our life's karmic pattern and can thereby anticipate it wisely. Reincarnation: A Soul's Path to Godness
The soul dwells as the inmost body of light and superconscious, universal mind of a series of nested bodies, each more refined than the next: physical, pranic, astral, mental. In our conscious mind we think and feel ourselves to be a physical body with some intangible spirit within it. Yet, right now our real identity is the soul that is sensing through its multiple bodies physical, emotional and mental experience. Recognizing this as reality, we powerfully know that life doesn't end with the death of the biological body. The soul continues to occupy the astral body, a subtle, luminous duplicate of the physical body. This subtle body is made of higher-energy astral matter and dwells in a dimension called the astral plane. If the soul body itself is highly evolved, it will occupy the astral/mental bodies on a very refined plane of the astral known as the Devaloka, "the world of light-shining beings." At death, the soul slowly becomes totally aware in its astral/mental bodies and it predominantly lives through those bodies in the astral dimension.
The soul functions with complete continuity in its astral/mental bodies. It is with these sensitive vehicles that we experience dream or "astral" worlds during sleep every night. The astral world is equally as solid and beautiful, as varied and comprehensive as the earth dimension-if not much more so. Spiritual growth, psychic development, guidance in matters of governance and commerce, artistic cultivation, inventions and discoveries of medicine, science and technology all continue by astral people who are "in-between" earthly lives. Many of the Veda hymns entreat the assistance of devas: advanced astral or mental people. Yet, also in the grey, lower regions of this vast, invisible dimension exist astral people whose present pursuits are base, selfish, even sadistic. Where the person goes in the astral plane at sleep or death is dependent upon his earthly pursuits and the quality of his mind.
Because certain seed karmas can only be resolved in earth consciousness and because the soul's initial realizations of Absolute Reality are only achieved in a physical body, our soul joyously enters another biological body. At the right time, it is reborn into a flesh body that will best fulfill its karmic pattern. In this process, the current astral body-which is a duplicate of the last physical form-is sluffed off as a lifeless shell that in due course disintegrates, and a new astral body develops as the new physical body grows. This entering into another body is called reincarnation: "re-occupying the flesh."
During our thousands of earth lives, a remarkable variety of life patterns are experienced. We exist as male and female, often switching back and forth from life to life as the nature becomes more harmonized into a person exhibiting both feminine nurturing and masculine intrepidness. We come to earth as princesses and presidents, as paupers and pirates, as tribals and scientists, as murderers and healers, as atheists and, ultimately, God-Realized sages. We take bodies of every race and live the many religions, faiths and philosophies as the soul gains more knowledge and evolutionary experience.
Therefore, the Hindu knows that the belief in a single life on earth, followed by eternal joy or pain is utterly wrong and causes great anxiety, confusion and fear. Hindus know that all souls reincarnate, take one body and then another, evolving through experience over long periods of time. Like the caterpillar's metamorphosis into the butterfly, death doesn't end our existence but frees us to pursue an even greater development.
Understanding the laws of the death process, the Hindu is vigilant of his thoughts and mental loyalties. He knows that the contents of his mind at the point of death in large part dictate where he will function in the astral plane and the quality of his next birth. Secret questionings and doubt of Hindu belief, and associations with other belief systems will automatically place him among like-minded people whose beliefs are alien to Hinduism. A nominal Hindu on earth could be a selfish materialist in the astral world. The Hindu also knows that death must come naturally, in its own course, and that suicide only accelerates the intensity of one's karma, bringing a series of immediate lesser births and requiring several lives for the soul to return to the exact evolutionary point that existed at the moment of suicide, at which time the still-existing karmic entanglements must again be faced and resolved.
Two other karmically sensitive processes are: 1.) artificially sustaining life in a wholly incapacitated physical body through mechanical devices, drugs or intravenous feeding; and 2.) euthanasia, "mercy killing." There is a critical timing in the death transition. The dying process can involve long suffering or be peaceful or painfully sudden: all dependent on the karma involved. To keep a person on life support with the sole intent of continuing the body's biological functions nullifies the natural timing of death. It also keeps the person's astral body earthbound, tethered to a lower astral region rather than being released into higher astral levels.

- Courtesy www.himalayanacademy.com

Hindu tenets of Karma

The twin beliefs of karma and reincarnation are among Hinduism's many jewels of knowledge. Others include dharma or our pattern of religious conduct, worshipful communion with God and Gods, the necessary guidance of the Sat Guru, and finally enlightenment through personal realization of our identity in and with God. So the strong-shouldered and keen-minded rishis knew and stated in the Vedas.
And these are not mere assumptions of probing, brilliant minds. They are laws of the cosmos. As God's force of gravity shapes cosmic order, karma shapes experiential order. Our long sequence of lives is a tapestry of creating and resolving karmas-positive, negative and an amalgam of the two. During the succession of a soul's lives-through the mysteries of our higher chakras and God's and Guru's Grace-no karmic situation will arise that exceeds an individual's ability to resolve it in love and understanding.
Many people are very curious about their past lives and expend great time, effort and money to explore them. Actually, this curious probing into past lives is unnecessary. Indeed it is a natural protection from reliving past trauma or becoming infatuated more with our past lives that our present life that the inner recesses of the muladhara memory chakra are not easily accessed. For, as we exist now is a sum total of all our past lives. In our present moment, our mind and body state is the cumulative result of the entire spectrum of our past lives. So, no matter how great the intellectual knowing of these two key principles, it is how we currently live that positively shapes karma and unfolds us spiritually. Knowing the laws, we are responsible to resolve blossoming karmas from past lives and create karma that, projected into the future, will advance, not hinder, us.
Karma literally means "deed or act," but more broadly describes the principle of cause and effect. Simply stated, karma is the law of action and reaction which governs consciousness. In physics-the study of energy and matter-Sir Isaac Newton postulated that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Push against a wall. Its material is molecularly pushing back with a force exactly equal to yours. In metaphysics, karma is the law that states that every mental, emotional and physical act, no matter how insignificant, is projected out into the psychic mind substance and eventually returns to the individual with equal impact.
The akashic memory in our higher chakras faithfully records the soul's impressions during its series of earthly lives, and in the astral/mental worlds in-between earth existences. Ancient yogis, in psychically studying the time line of cause/effect, assigned three categories to karma. The first is sanchita, the sum total of past karma yet to be resolved. The second category is prarabdha, that portion of sanchita karma being experienced in the present life. Kriyamana, the third type, is karma you are presently creating. However, it must be understood that your past negative karma can be altered into a smoother, easier state through the loving, heart-chakra nature, through dharma and sadhana. That is the key of karmic wisdom. Live religiously well and you will create positive karma for the future and soften negative karma of the past. Truths and Myths About Karma
Karma operates not only individually, but also in ever-enlarging circles of group karma where we participate in the sum karma of multiple souls. This includes family, community, nation, race and religion, even planetary group karma. So if we, individually or collectively, unconditionally love and give, we will be loved and given to. The individuals or groups who act soulfully or maliciously toward us are the vehicle of our own karmic creation. The people who manifest your karma are also living through past karma and simultaneously creating future karma. For example, if their karmic pattern did not include miserliness, they would not be involved in your karma of selfishness. Another person may express some generosity toward you, fulfilling the gifting karma of your past experience. Imagine how intricately interconnected all the cycles of karma are for our planet's life forms.
Many people believe in the principle of karma, but don't apply its laws to their daily life or even to life's peak experiences. There is a tendency to cry during times of personal crisis, "Why has God done this to me?" or "What did I do to deserve this?" While God is the creator and sustainer of the cosmic law of karma, He does not dispense individual karma. He does not produce cancer in one person's body and develop Olympic athletic prowess in another's. We create our own experiences. It is really an exercising of our soul's powers of creation. Karma, then, is our best spiritual teacher. We spiritually learn and grow as our actions return to us to be resolved and dissolved. In this highest sense, there is no good and bad karma; there is self-created experience that presents opportunities for spiritual advancement. If we can't draw lessons from the karma, then we resist and/or resent it, lashing out with mental, emotional or physical force. The original substance of that karmic event is spent and no longer exists, but the current reaction creates a new condition of harsh karma.
Responsibility resolving karma is among the most important reasons that a Sat Guru is necessary in a sincere seeker's life. The Guru helps the devotee to hold his mind in focus, to become pointedly conscious of thought, word and deed. Without the guidance and grace of the Guru, the devotee's mind will be splintered between instinctive and intellectual forces, making it very difficult to resolve karma. Only when karma is wisely harnessed can the mind become still enough to experience its own superconscious depths.

- Courtesy www.himalayanacademy.com

Karma: Escapism or action?

Neeraj Saxena

Just chanced upon how The Skeptic's Dictionary describes Karma. Now, almost two decades ago while undergoing my journalism training, I was taught to be a skeptic. Though I must admit I have never been a good skeptic, I do feel the days of skepticism in journalism itself are numbered. It is rare to come across journalists who ever doubt what they are being dished out. Many a times I have wished those of my tribe would poke serious holes in everything. But then, that has its own pros and cons. Just like almost everything in the world has a number of ways of looking at it!

But The Skeptic's Dictionary (See http://skepdic.com/karma.html) completely trashes the theory of Karma, without the writer even making any serious attempt of reading deep about it. I guess that’s why I feel skepticism can be a double-edged sword in absence of complete knowledge of the matter.

Karma has a component that is known as ‘Purusharth’, or the Karmic action that one must do as duty and one which can shape and alter the destiny completely. Nevertheless, this post on the Skeptic's Bible made for interesting read.

While I have nothing against disbelievers of the principles of Karma and Reincarnation, I sincerely wish they would do a more serious digging of the Hindu Purans and Upnishads, even Vedas, before jumping to conclusions. Of all the religions, Hinduism is among the most complex also because it has evolved what Hindus know as Sanatan Dharma and comprises practices, literatures and practices that do not flow from a single source and a single time. The spiritual power of Indian saints of yesteryears is legendary. Even the powers of many a modern-day Gurus need not be retold.

“Karma is a law for sheep. We should not wonder that the shepherds advocate it. It is a law for the passive, for those who will not disturb the status quo, who will accept whatever evil is done as "natural" and inevitable. Karma is a law for slaves, for the vanquished.”

The skeptic author of this comment has obviously seen Karmic principles from a very skewed viewpoint, perhaps out of ignorance. As I said, Hinduism is complex and it is not easy to understand the matters of Karma, birth and death with a straight-jacketed vision.

“On one level, karma serves to explain why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. The injustices of the world, the seeming random distribution of good and evil, are only apparent. In reality, everybody is getting what he or she deserves. Even the child brutalized by drugged adults deserves the horror. The mentally ill, the retarded, the homosexuals, and the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis deserved it for evil they must have done in the past. The slave beaten to within a breath of death deserved it, if not for what he did today, then for what he did in some previous lifetime. Likewise for the rape victim. She is just getting what she deserves. All suffering is deserved, according to the law of karma.”

Strange are the ways of death indeed. Those, of course, are not the only examples in horrific deaths and sufferings. There are many, many more which have happened over centuries and continue to take place. But no, all of that cannot be brushed as taking place due to collective or individual past Karma. The concept of free will within Karma is loud and clear. You only have to read deep, not go by some quickfix 200-word explanation of the theories of Karma, and call the wheat from the chaff.

“Despite the fact that there could be no evidence for a metaphysical belief in karma, the idea of karma is popular among many in western cultures where it has become detached from its Hindu roots. The theosophists, for example, believe in karma and reincarnation.”

Why then has it become so popular? Because people want to be passive and escapists? That can’t be farther from reality because man is not known by nature to be passive, or an escapist.

(The views expressed here are author's only. This article is protected by copyright laws. No part of the text should be lifted without attribution. Violation will invite appropriate action under copyright laws.)

Karma as answer to terror - Part II

Neeraj Saxena

Is it in the religion then? Does Allah really advocate killing people to turn them, or those who are left behind, into faithful? If I am dead, how can I be faithful? I will be dead right! And if those around me embrace out of fear what the killers think is the best religion, they will still remain infidels as the basic foundation of such conversion is not faith, but fear. Same goes for those chanting blood for blood spilled!

Easy to say for I have not lost my loved ones to such horror! But I have lost my loved ones to `Prarabdh’, or the Karma that we have collected, are collecting and will keep collecting. And it is this which will give us our life’s major good and bad events, the happiness and sorrow, and will even determine our end, and the next beginning, and the next end! And what determines the `Prarabdh’ for future is what I am doing today by way of words, by deeds, by thoughts!

In saying so, am I not dishing out coloured opinion from just another religion?

May be, but then some things are beyond trappings of any organized religion. The power of good and the evil (deeds too) are universal truths. Read any religion and the preachers would have described in good detail about the distinction between the good and the evil and the consequences of each.

Now ask any terrorist, those who call themselves as Hindu, Muslim or Christian protectors: Did God really came to you in a moment of self-revelation and ordain a certain course of life that is deviant from what the whole world collectively believes is evil?

So is there a need to reform certain religions? May be, may be not? All religions are fine – they are akin to the various highways to reach the same goal as the `nirakar’ (shapeless) creator takes the shape of whatever its believers believe in. The problem lies with the disciples of those religions, the mortal human beings, who get a short life during which they stumble and discover the real truths of life and being! Many don’t! And it is too late by the time self-realisation comes.

But coming back to religion, there is a clear need to distinguish between one of the highways, and a crooked narrow street that meanders past, bypassing the best sites life has to offer.

The trick is to not get trapped under the labyrinths of any overtly organized religion and its motivated versions that border on the misuse of power in, and bind yourself in a maze. None of the religions is a silly maze. But sometimes, those sitting and manning the highways could often direct you towards one or the other maze, instead of showing you the simple, true path to your evolutionary destination.

When any religion mixes with politics, it starts leading to its decadal journey. And if some of those manning your highway are ignorant as they are selfish, be sure to be handed a recipe for your personal disaster. Almost always, horror is bound to be inflicted upon a large number of people that walk on that path away from their intended highway.

Let me be specific. I am a Hindu. I too should get moved by the horrors inflicted on what would seem a predominantly Hindu populace by what has come to be known as Islamic terrorism. So do I blame Islam, its followers, or a handful among them who are caught in the maze? They are misguided, may be they are aggrieved… but they are most definitely astray from their life’s real goals.

Like any other religion, new or old, Islam too was devised by great people who were spiritually far advanced and heads and shoulders above the slaves of spiritual symbolism like us. They all taught how to revel in universal love, peace, progress (the real one) and brotherhood.

If killing another being is evil, why would any religion preach it? It is its interpreters over centuries who were probably less than evolved, and who, willingly or unintentionally distorted things, either out of sheer ignorance, or for vested interests. And that is also how, globally so many people have come to hate religions in general. Even spirituality at times is looked down upon as an appendage to religion, often even mistaken as a synonym. Isn’t that incredible? Being evolved is not a sign of weakness, but one of human strength.

The ripples of my actions are bound to affect each one of us not just because we live in a highly integrated and interdependent global village, but because we are one as conceptualized and conceived by the Allah, the Ishwar, or the God.

Go back to the teachings of the most universally respected teachers and prophets in each religion and you will find that they believed in one earth and one humanity! It is the colour, caste, creed that we, the undertakers of organized religion, have thrust upon ourselves that has been causing us so much pain over thousands of years.

Ever seen a baby mouthing some mumbo jumbo about religion, or killing, or upholding a certain faith, or revenge. The God erases our memories - though not the evolutionary learning that we gather – so we do not take our own revenges in the next birth!

And, from whom? In the long run, we are all dead bodies. So what do we take forward that lasts several lifetimes, or in the afterlife, as believed to exist by many religions? Is it our material pursuits that the hedonist preachers ask us to accumulate, or the sensory perceptions that we so desperately seek all our lives?

If the senses can desert us anytime, how can pleasures related to them be lasting in nature? So then, what is it that lasts?

The thoughts=memory=chitta=prarabdha... The Karma remains!

Animals kill the weaker ones and reign supreme in their own sphere. But since we have been given the best form among all living animals by the creator (whoever he/she may be), mustn’t we fully utilize it to the hilt? Utilise it to push ourselves towards the real progress: the development of the self as the lowest common denominator that will add up to the sum of a really progressed, evolved mankind?

The choice almost always lies with us. Remember Richard Bach’s famour lines: “You are never given dreams without the power to fulfil them”. But for that to happen, the dreams have to be pure, the way superconsciousness, or the creator, ordained for you.

And for that to happen, you may have to become a child again. No, not travel in time and go back in past, but be like the innocent, pure child that you once were! The same child that God works hard upon each time so that he/she turns out in the world innocent and pure!

If you manage to be the same child sans most trappings along life’s journey, life for you and those around you would be blissful. And you, as the LCD, would have set in motion a chain reaction to change the world forever. It is not impossible. Nothing for a human mind is. But we do not apply as we seek easier life, the unmindful life.

Let us all then launch a jehad and collide with our own thoughts and set up conditions to recreate that `White Hole’ or the White Light that only gobbles up all our evil and turns us out crispy clean! Amen!

(The views expressed here are author's only. This article is protected by copyright laws. No part of the text should be lifted without attribution. Violation will invite appropriate action under copyright laws.)

Karma as answer to terror - Part 1

Neeraj Saxena

Spirituality means many things to many people. Its origin is in metaphysics - whose unseen particles have the single biggest collider located not in universe, but the microcosm of your mind (`chitta’ to me as against brain) where thoughts keep colliding against each other all the time. It, therefore, means so much and so many tings to different people.

But spirituality alone is what carries you through to your ultimate journey, the ultimate destiny… it carries through births and deaths and like the indestructible soul, it is your spirituality reflected in your `sanchit’ (collected or earned) karma that gives you what is deservedly yours- the salvation.

Hinduism, Christianity and Islam have a concept of `Swarg’, heavens and `dojakh’. So do many other major religions. This indicates a shared belief in after-life as a concept and also retribution for your bad actions and reward for all deeds good. Isn’t that also in harmony with the universal principle of societal behaviour as established by the human race over past thousands of years: Punish bad deeds and reward the good!

Now, if that were to be so, how can some most horrible deeds done in the name of Allah or Ishwar go unpunished? If those who undertake such actions in the name of a god, a religion, or a faith were to introspect and ask their unindoctrinated soul if what they are doing was really right, or even necessary, the answers would be simple and quick to flow.

No guru, no madarsa, no sermons needed! Listen to the voice of the `atman’ (the one within you!), the microcosm of the universe, or the nirakar ishwar itself who is sitting inside your self… this universal consciousness that has shaped you, guided you over countless cycles of birth and the eternal being.

It alone will give you a good sense of the right and the wrong. The only pre-requisite is that you do not let your external environment, any written or spoken words, and any type of religious symbolism (as different from the spiritual!) colour your thought process. It HAS to be pure.

And the real, pure answers will come tumbling out. Unclotheed, and in your face! Prejudices, hatred and `sanskars’ (thoughts form our sanskar, sanskar forms chitta, chitta forms smriti or memory that gets carried over from one birth to another) that we keep collecting and carrying over like a coolie from one form and birth to another can at times act like our biggest enemies.

Okay, let me ask those who kill for any reason whatsoever! Can they sit in one moment of being with their real self and answer to themselves honestly: Can I create life, the nature, myself, or the things that I hold so dear? If the answer to this question is negative, then the answer to the earlier one too becomes obvious.

Similarly, those among us that seek retribution in equal measure akin to `an eye for an eye’ tend to forget in the negativity spread by frayed tempers, passion or our perceived loss or insecurities that they too are in the Maya Matrix. Just like the Arjun, they are forgetting why they are here. Either due to “maya, moh, kaam, krodh and lobh”, these being some of the universal elements that lead to our spiritual downfall and decay, if not tempered and commanded.

Maya itself can only be tempered, but is very difficult to tame. Remember, even Buddha figured this out after a long struggle to attain nirvana, and then advocated the middle path, or a balanced life!

As Krishna lectures Arjun in Chapter 7 of Gita, it is our bounden duty to fend for our self. But self here should mean the real self, the `sookshm aatma’, because the body – yours, mine, everybody’s – has to go. What remains then? The single unit of the superconsciousness, the God Particle?

Afterlife has no religions, non distinctions. It is just you and your deeds that keep earning you Karma every single moment that you are awake! Just like the brownie points all of us keep hankering for all our material lives!

You may wonder how could anybody say for sure, unless he has come back to the body to narrate the eternal truths that we (being in the matrix) are not able to see? Well, the answer is yes and no! But if Karma does not guide your destinies, nothing else does because there cannot be a destiny without Karma. Hence, even for argument’s sake, Karma is the best foot forward that I and you (as the lowest common denominators), can take, and rely upon. And form one theory that may be universally acceptable to all.

The problem is all of us are more reactive than we are action-oriented. Is it in our DNA? No, it is in our colouring, our sense of good and bad that we get in heritance from our parents, books, teachers, friends, colleagues, media, AND religion.

(The views expressed here are author's only. This article is protected by copyright laws. No part of the text should be lifted without attribution. Violation will invite appropriate action under copyright laws.)

`Terrorists are victims who create more victims'

Midway through the news meeting on Wednesday, the grim news came in: Agartala had been rocked by serial blasts. All eyes immediately turned to Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, the Guest Editor for our special Peace Edition. As journalists, what should we do on a day like this? 

The Zen master, who has rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centres, resettled homeless families and for a lifetime advocated tirelessly the principles of non-violence and compassionate action, pondered for a while. 

When he spoke, it was with great clarity, ''Report in a way that invites readers to take a look at why such things continue to happen and that they have their roots in anger, fear, hate and wrong perceptions. Prevent anger from becoming a collective energy. The only antidote for anger and violence is compassion. Terrorists are also victims, who create other victims of misunderstanding.'' 

This, remember, is the monk — now 82 years old — credited with a big role in turning American public opinion against the war in Vietnam — for which Martin Luther King Jr had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. And so, his words are not to be dismissed lightly. 

''Every reader has seeds of fear, anger, violence and despair, and also seeds of hope, compassion, love and forgiveness,'' said Thich Nhat Hahn, affectionately called Thay. 

''As journalists, you must not water the wrong seeds. The stories should touch the seeds of hope. As journalists, you have the job of selectively watering the right seeds. You must attempt to tell the truth and yet not water the seeds of hate. It's not what's in the story, but how you tell it that's important.'' 

But how should the State deal with terror? Thay's answer: ''We should invite those who believe they are victims of discrimination and injustice to speak about it. We should initiate sessions of deep listening and invite deeply spiritual people, who don't have to be famous, to attend these. We must televise these sessions nationally. I am sure you will see a dramatic drop in the level of violence. A war on terror cannot succeed, because you cannot bomb perceptions. The only solution is dialogue.'' 

He cited the example of an experiment by his own group of monks at Plum village, south of France, in 2006. ''We asked people to write letters to terrorists and more than 40 letters came in. Some claimed, 'I am the terrorist because I am also violent and there is suffering in me as well'. We need to get together. When we address suspicion and anger as a collective, when we talk informally about suffering, then we can find answers. If we reduce the violence in us, and change, then we change others around us because then we are connected to them.'' 

Talking about world peace, the monk said, ''Political leaders meet at peace summits but no lasting solutions to the world's problems are found. Therefore, political leaders, before they get down to talking at summits, should practice sitting, walking, talking informally with each other and practice techniques to calm themselves. Only then can talks lead to positive results.'' 

The history of Vietnam in the last century was fraught with violence. Thay has himself seen war from close quarters. Naturally, the question came up: Does he believe non-violence can help find solutions in today's complex world? 

Thay's reply was surprisingly pragmatic. ''Non-violence can never be absolute. However, you can make aggressive action less violent. In war, the generals must try and avoid the death of innocents. Even soldiers can show compassion. The first step towards nonviolence is to be calm and compassionate yourself.'' 

Questions on wars and conflicts led to the next logical query. How can humanity relate with each other when it is divided within confines of national or ethnic or racial identities? 

That brought the Buddhist teacher into his element, propounding on one of Buddhism's basic tenets of 'non-self'. The problem, he said, arises when one's self is set against another's self. Once we realize that self is made of non-self, then the issue of identity gets settled. 

''Man is made of non-me elements. I am made of so many non-me elements — my parents, the food I eat, the education I received, animals, vegetables. Take away all the 'non-me', and there is no 'me' left. Buddhism is made of non-Buddhist elements. A Christian is made of non-Christian elements and a Muslim is made of non-Muslim elements,'' said Thay. Once we realise that we are all interconnected, we will begin caring for all other things. 

That's why, Thay says, we need to learn from suffering. Because only after we have understood the nature of suffering can we understand true happiness. ''Happiness and safety can't be individual matters. If you have peace on your side, only then can you promote peace in the world. Individual happiness is impossible, as is individual suffering. Because we are not one but a collective.'' 

And what about the financial crisis that is causing many to suffer? The answer, says Thay, is related to greed and fear. ''As journalists, you must help people so that they don't become victims of greed and fear. If the aim is happiness, then you must be prepared to give up riches and fame and power, all of which are transitory.'' 

Can the modern economy — fuelled by conspicuous consumption — co-exist with a monk's lifestyle? After all, if everyone stopped consumption, industries would shut down and unemployment would rise. So should individuals, in their pursuit of 'selfish' happiness, create unhappiness for others? 

''Many of us have started believing in happiness from consumption. But happiness is largely a problem of the mind. You don't have to run into the future, you have enough conditions to be happy right here and now. But in our search for more conditions to be happy, we sacrifice the present. The remedy for us is to go home to the present moment. Don't get stuck with the past or get sucked into the future. So many wonders of life are with you. Development is like a wild horse that we are riding, over which we have lost control,'' responded Thay. 

But then, isn't it much simpler for a monk to talk about not consuming than for people who have to deal with the world on the world's terms? Can regular people with regular lives follow his teachings? 

According to Thay, ''The meditative practice is for everyone, monks and non-monks, the young and the less young. The conditions for reaching out for Buddha-hood are there for everyone. We are just caught up in our worries and projects. The kingdom of God is available for you. But are you available for the kingdom?'' 

We couldn't resist asking: what were his feelings when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas? His reply: ''There was no anger. We have a tendency to punish whoever has dared to make us suffer. We seek relief by making the other person suffer. If we see whoever is hurt as a victim, then a neuro pathway will open in our brain and we will forgive the person and reduce his suffering, which in turn will help us to suffer less. All this is not based on speculation but on the basis what we have done, in our group sessions.  

The article appears courtesy www.timesofindia.com

A letter to a terrorist

Following are excerpts of Dharma talks on "Letters to a suicide bomber" given by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and letters written by practitioners and published in his book Mindfulness Bell. 

How can we apply these teachings on compassion?

You may like to write a letter to a young man who is about to commit suicide in your country, or in Iraq. In France, many young men and women commit suicide everyday. In the United Kingdom and in America, also. In every country.

As a practitioner, as a dharma teacher, as a poet, you can write that young man a letter, the way Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a letter to a young poet. We can write a letter to the young terrorist, because he entertains ideas that make him suffer and make others suffer.

I learned that the young terrorists, they don't like to be called terrorists. They prefer the term 'suicide bombers'. You can, as a British citizen, as an American citizen, write him a letter - from your own practice, your own liberation. People in your countries still entertain ideas concerning peace, safety, and terrorism. Because we continue to entertain these ideas, we support violence and terror.

The practice is to recognize the notions that have led to fear, to terror -- to remove all these notions in order for us to be understanding, to be compassionate, and to help other people to be understanding, to be compassionate at the same time.

You may begin like this:

"Dear Friend, I know you don't want to be called a terrorist, although many people are calling you a terrorist. You prefer to be called a suicide bomber. You may think that you are acting in the name of justice, in the name of God, of Allah. You think that you are doing the right thing.

"You believe that there are people who want to destroy your religion, your nation, your way of life. That is why you believe that your act is an act in the good direction. You punish the evil people, the enemies of Allah, of God. And you are certain that as a reward you'll be welcomed right away to the Kingdom of God, into paradise.

"In my country there are people who believe that way, too. They believe they have to go to your country and find young people like you to kill -- to kill like that for the sake of safety and peace, to kill like that in service to God.

"We all are caught in our wrong views. In the past I have entertained wrong views like that. But I have practiced, and that is why I've been able to transform these wrong views. I'm able to understand myself better. I feel that I understand you and the people in my country, including the ones who commit suicide every day."

Maybe there are a few dozens of us who would like to write a letter from our own insight, from our own liberation. We may combine all these letters into a collective letter that could be read not only by the young people who are going to die and to make people die tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in the Middle East, but also in our own country. Many young people entertain ideas and notions that are at the foundation of their despair, their anger, their craving. They suffer and they continue to make other people suffer, including their parents and their society.

No matter where we live, in England, in America, in Egypt, in Asia, we all have our wrong perceptions. We have wrong perceptions of ourselves, and we have wrong perceptions of other people, our friends, our enemies. Suffering is the outcome of wrong perceptions. So the letter is first of all an attempt to remove wrong perceptions -- not only in the young person who is going to kill himself but in those who are going to read the letter.

The letter is a form of dialogue; the aim is to help each other remove wrong perceptions that have been there a long time. So this is a very deep practice.

 

Dear Friend,

I heard about you from a friend. She said you lost your husband and your son. Your grief and despair were so great you no longer wanted to live. You wanted to die and you wanted the people who hurt you so deeply and destroyed your family to suffer in the same way that they made you suffer. So you made the only decision you could - that your last action would be as a suicide bomber. And now you are gone - taking others with you. And all the grief, despair, hopelessness, and powerlessness you felt when you made your decision continue to spread out into more and more people's lives.

Oh, how I wish I knew you - had been there with you when your husband and little boy died. How I wish I had been there to hold you, to comfort you, to help you to hold all your pain that was too much for one person to hold alone. How I wish I was there talking to you, letting you know you are not alone, and that even though this pain and grief are so intense and consuming, life can go on. The pain can be transformed - it will change. And the anger and hatred can be released in a different way. In a way that can put an end to suffering, instead of creating more suffering for others and for ourselves.

I also have known such pain and despair. My family - grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, altogether maybe twenty-five people - were killed in a war before I was even born. My father somehow survived, and somehow continued his life. And I was born. How grateful I am to him, that he didn't kill himself! All my life I missed my roots, my family so much, without even knowing them. And there was deep despair in my heart - without even being able to name it.

How I wish I were there to tell you - let us do this together, let us hold this pain and despair together, and find a way to continue living. Find a way to live that can really heal this suffering which is not just ours, but all humans. Together learn to see what the true source of this suffering is.

I know if I grew up as you did and had the same experiences, I also could do the same as you did. And if you had some of my childhood and experiences you could be alive now. And you could say this to me - Dear Friend, people are not the enemy. It is the hatred, anger, and pain that we do not know how to handle that is the enemy, that tortures us and hurts us the most. You are not alone in this. For generation upon generation we humans have continued to try to heal our pain by inflicting more pain on others. And so it continues until now.

But what if someone in your family had been able to find another way to heal their pain, to find a way of understanding and being with the pain that could transform it to compassion and love? Then you would have a different chance in your life. And what if you were that person in your family? And instead of being a suicide bomber, you and I together explored, learned, practiced, and found another way? Then you would still be alive now, and you would perhaps have more children and teach them how to handle their pain so that compassion and love could be born. Together we could spread this understanding, compassion, and love out into more and more people's lives. And maybe one day, there would be peace on this earth, peace in our hearts, and we could be truly happy.

Oh, how I wish I were there with you, dear friend.

Anne Speiser

This post appears courtesy www.timesofindia.com