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| But isn't it all chance and random chaos? |
We plant seeds all the time. We should consider what might happen as a result. Sometimes a past karma (the track laid down by a previous deed, a mental impression made by an intention) ripens to frustrate other things coming to fruition. We are spared. It is so complicated that it cannot be known.
What is karma? It is "action" or, more exactly, the "intention" (cetana) behind and motivating a mental, verbal, or physical act, a deed, therefore an "intentional action." We have volitions and impulses to do, and how we conduct ourselves is very important because that choice has the power to produce results now and in the future. Immediately, it may produce a feeling (such as remorse or elation) and later a "fruit" (phala). When have we done deeds? Only in the past. When can we DO deeds? Only now, only in the present moment. We are always choosing to wait or to act or what act. The Buddha pointed out that the underlying motivations guided by nongreed, nonaversion, and nondelusion produce beautiful results, "lucky" (fortunate) results, pleasant and welcome results. We do we want? Luck! When do we want it? All the time! What should we do?
Liquid Luck: Good Fortune - Blah, blah, blah, that's all spiritual, but we don't believe in the spiritual. We want the tangible. If only there were a "science" of luck. Enter Dr. Joseph Gallenberger: How much proof is enough proof? If it were science -- demonstrable, repeatable, tangible results -- we wanted, here we have it. "Luck" not good enough? How about magic? Enter Dean Radin.
- Yeah, okay, but what about easy magic for the rest of us non-scientists? Enter Jose Silva, now presented by Vishen Lakhiani (mindvalley.com). If Abraham-Hicks (the council of spirit being calling itself "Abraham" being channeled by Esther Hicks) and when Seth spoke we weren't listening, here's a chance at mind control, control of our own minds that is.
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| We can make good luck - Dr. J. Gallenberger |
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| The Conscious Universe |
It's not clear if there's freewill -- science says no -- but some measure of will influences our lives. If it didn't, we would be fatalists simply experiencing results all the time and never forming new volitions.
However, even in this case, what are we experiencing the results of? Those things in the past are what give rise to subsequent experiences (allowing for some retrocausation as well). The present moment therefore becomes very important.
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| Supernormal Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities |
What we do now has a tremendous influence even if the results are not seen soon enough for our liking. People in casual speech keep saying the slogan, "Karma's a b*tch" as a handy explanation when they like what's happening to someone else as they get their comeuppance.
"They caught the guy. They're throwing him in prison, a life sentence, throwing away the key. Ha ha ha, karma's a b*tch."
Do such people ever consider what else karma is? Often, it is a blessing, particularly for humans.
Behold the animals. They've got it good, huh? Laying around the living room, eating Smart 'n Fancy snacks and meals, getting pampered, combed, allowed on the bed, given a private door (cut into the door) to come and go as they please. That's happening due to their past and sometimes present karma, as are their looks and pretty marks that make them lovable or unpopular.
And when they get abused by humans, go outside to kill or get killed, attack or get attacked, contract insect infestations or diseases, get threatened by tougher street animals, feral and wild ones, what is all that? That's the life of an animal. It is a miserable thing, yet we praise it saying, "They have it easy" when we at best are talking about a very small subset of creatures, not paying attention to the vast majority of species and individuals. Of all the dogs in the world today, most canines are miserable and short-lived, as with felines and fish and birds and reptiles.
Of all the humans, how are they doing? They have it the best so far as we can see. And if we pay unbiased attention (mindful, not avoiding the unpleasant or being drawn by the pleasant or confused by the neutral), we'll soon see most are not having a good experience.
Buddhism says the human plane is the worst fortunate plane. At the bottom of the human barrel begins the first plane considered the "downfall," the dreaded subhuman worlds. In these worlds, which includes animals, hungry ghosts, spirits, unseen beings of various sorts, and that's not even arriving at the planes that can properly be labeled "hells," where beings, having fallen in, experience the results of their unsavory deeds. It's not the end of the world, far from it. The world keeps going on and on, life after life, year after year, experience after experience.
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| The act of enslaving living beings is heavy. |
- Dope Hub (Video 1); Binge Central (Video 2); Explaining Karma: Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly
