Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
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| Hey, it's my karma that got me these riches -- so I'll squander it whatever way I want. |
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| The Buddha was known as a Karmavadin. |
That wealth may come to fruition here in this short-lived life or in the deva realm of lesser celestial planes, where life is much longer and much more pleasurable.
The Buddha saw rich youth and turned to his attendant Ananda to comment what a pity it was that those born rich more often than not squander their opportunity to make good karma (merit) for the future or apply themselves to gain liberation from all suffering here and now.
They would have an easier time gaining enlightenment because their good karma, by coming to fruition now, could do so in terms of mental resultants (vipaka) and fruit (phala) for the benefit of an individual seeking enlightenment and nirvana. The devas -- on earth, in the sky, and in space -- have this advantage as well.
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| The Buddha, his pony Kanthaka, and Mary(?) (Ginger Mayerson/avenue50studio.org) |
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The problem for both is that they suffer from the ghostly-disease of addiction, attachment, greed, possessiveness, and the oppressive need for diversion to such a degree that they, oftentimes, can hardly think of renunciation (internally letting go) or asceticism (actually letting go).
The working out of KARMA is very complex, so much so that it is one of the Four Imponderables. To try to work out how an action will play out, or repeatedly pondering the question, would sooner make one come unhinged than lead to a full understanding.
But by meditation -- entering absorption then practicing for insight -- one can gain the power to directly see the working out of karma and its fruits particularly as it leads to various kinds of rebirths, welcome and unwelcome.
So important is the subject of karma (the idea that we are unwittingly the cause of our happiness and suffering and, more importantly, can learn to stop it) that the Buddha, in his day, was called a Karmavadin,* "a teacher of the efficacy of personal action."
Was the Buddha a therapist or psychologist?
*“Psychotherapist” and “psychologist” did not exist as [jobs] or as titles in the Buddha’s time. During his life the Buddha was known as a karmavadin. This was aa teacher of karma (action), one who uncovers karma’s unwholesome root causes (hetu): greed, hatred, and delusion [and wholesome ones, too: nongreed, nonhatred, nondelusion]. The “Awakened One” revealed the conditional relations, causes/functions or reasons/motives, of experiential events in interpersonal contexts. He was a teacher of effective action devoted to summoning up in others the strength (viriya) needed for action resulting in increasing wholesomeness (Swaris, 1997).
So important is the subject of karma (the idea that we are unwittingly the cause of our happiness and suffering and, more importantly, can learn to stop it) that the Buddha, in his day, was called a Karmavadin,* "a teacher of the efficacy of personal action."
Was the Buddha a therapist or psychologist?
*“Psychotherapist” and “psychologist” did not exist as [jobs] or as titles in the Buddha’s time. During his life the Buddha was known as a karmavadin. This was aa teacher of karma (action), one who uncovers karma’s unwholesome root causes (hetu): greed, hatred, and delusion [and wholesome ones, too: nongreed, nonhatred, nondelusion]. The “Awakened One” revealed the conditional relations, causes/functions or reasons/motives, of experiential events in interpersonal contexts. He was a teacher of effective action devoted to summoning up in others the strength (viriya) needed for action resulting in increasing wholesomeness (Swaris, 1997).
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