I’ve migrated this post from mundane babble, because it’s not.
ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/vi … p?t=144881
It’s become about karma and deserves more attention.
I don’t think it’s so important where Buddhism came from. Buddhism is Buddhism. As far as I know it was Tao that was brought from China to India and then back to China in the form of Buddhism by Bodhidarma. My point is that the two religions have the same root so are the same. If we look at Christianity, we know that Jesus also spent time in India, persia etc. learning from the Masters and also teaching the Word. Tao and Word are one and the same thing.
I make reference to Jesus’ teachings because I don’t truly see a difference between what Jesus taught and what Buddha taught. I apologise if it was obscure.
There is this misconception that karma is bad. Karma is karma. Simply put it is cause and effect (you reap what you sow) There is no need to place a value judgment on the word. To get hung up on the consequence only is to miss the point. Yes there are people that have been trying to understand the so-called ‘Eastern’ concept in the West but that doesn’t mean they have had an acurate representation of it’s deeper meaning.
Karma IS NOT good or bad. Karma is karma. What appears to be good karma has every possiblity of becoming bad karma and what appears to be bad karma has every possiblity of becoming good karma. Good and bad only exists in our minds. It exists in the world of duality. In the absolute realm duality does not exist so therefore neither does good and bad. Sure, things are positive and negative but what is important is how we look at our life situations and use our karma to progress spritually.
There is a story of a farmer who had a beautiful horse. It was the most beautiful horse in the land. Everyone wanted this horse, even the king wanted this horse. One day the horse ran away and the entire villiage was devastated. They said to the farmer; " this is so bad, you should have sold the horse to the king, at least then you would have had the money". The farmer said, maybe it’s good maybe it’s bad, I don’t know.
A while later the horse returned bringing with him other beautiful wild horses. Everyone in the viliage said; “This is so good, you are lucky, your horse has come back and you have even more horses”. The farmer said, maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, I don’t know". The farmers son decided that he would tame the horses and so he did. One day while riding one of the wild horses, he fell off the horse and broke his back. Everyone in the villiage said; “This is very bad!”. The farmer said maybe it’s good maybe it’s bad, I don’t know.
At that time the king there was a war in the land and the king was recruiting all the young men in the villiage. Because the farmer’s son was injured he wasn’t able to become a soldier. Everyone in the villiage said; “You are so lucky, you have your son”.
The point of the story is that we don’t know what is good and bad. Things appear to our liking or our disliking that is all. There is still so much that is unseen about all of our lives. Maybe I was born wealthy, but if it is my karma to be poor I will be poor. We cannot escape the consequences of our own actions. It has nothing to do with judgment about other human beings’ lives. Spiritually speaking these things are of no consequence. Our karma ‘good or bad’ can help us if we have the acuity to use it.
There are so many layers that we will need to unfold but will only perpetuate karma (create more) if we remain asleep. There is a saying that all human beings are sleeping buddhas and all buddhas are awakened human beings.
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