KARMA

I would like to talk about something that has become an overused platitude, even a cliché.

That is, the word karma.

        There is a rock band called Karma. Celebrities and other less illustrious people baptize their newborn Karma. Household pets are named Karma. There is even a comic strip called Karma.

        Aside from the uses of pop culture, karma is an important term in Asian cultures.

        The literal meaning of the word is action, or effect, or fate. Karma is often spoken of as a law. But the word “law” sounds like a ruling or a decree.

        Some sources even break down karma into a dozen or more parts, such as responsibility, patience, focus, humility, and so on and on.

        But that kind of adjustment is so overblown that it can be ignored.

        In Hinduism and Buddhism karma is not a law but a concept that the sum of a person's actions affect their fate. In three words, it is cause and effect.

        Under karma, every action has consequences.

        The Upanishads are a collection of ancient Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central ideas of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. They are nothing new, dating back to the seventh century BC, and they talk about the idea of karma.

“Now a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according as he behaves.

“A person of good acts will become good, a person of bad acts, will become bad.

“A person consists of desires, and as is the desire, so is the will, and so is the deed, and whatever deed the person does, that is what the person realizes.”

        In fewer words, every action has a consequence, just as every thought has a result.

        Instead of behaving impetuously and without thought, humans are capable of using their own brains. An awakened person should think. An awakened person should consider what personal action may be, and how it may affect themselves or someone else.

        An awakened person should realize that all things in the universe are interconnected.

        Zen has no rules, no laws, no directives. There are no mediators to interpret what you should or should not do.

You are totally on your own to carry out your destiny, your karma.

        That is called free will, and free will is what worries many people who like to be told how to live their lives, and who feel the need to follow directions instead of thinking for themselves.

        End of sermon.

        A final thought.

        Meditation could be said to be the art of simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing, and simply being.