11/12 TRANSMISSION of the LIGHT: to Jayata

Following Master Keizan's offering last time (in the story of Master Kumarata) of a traditional view of Rebirth, this time we encounter a rather traditional view of the workings of Karma ...

... why often bad things happen to good people, and good to the bad ...

All through human history, people have asked this same question. Is it some punishment or test or game by God or by gods (as in the Book of Job)? Is it a simple roll of the dice and blind misfortune? Is it just something natural to the very free and organic world in which we live (much as a garden in springtime, in its growth, must produce some flowers which grow tall, some which fall early, some which never sprout at all, and thus the total garden beautifully thrives and grows)? Or is there a kind of debt to be repaid, a universal Justice whereby our intentional offences and kind acts reap ... sooner or later ... fitting punishments and appropriate rewards?

As a man of the 14th century, a traditional Buddhist, Master Keizan offered a very literal and traditional Buddhist interpretation. Perhaps.

I do not necessarily hold such a "do a bad thing, come back next life as a fox" view of cause and effect ... but I certainly believe in "cause and effect", and that our harmful acts have harmful effects to our self and others (not two) ...

I, personally, no longer believe that our having popped up alive in the middle of time and space ... given all the delicate movements and happenings of physics, chemistry, biology, history that were involved and required for that over the ages ... despite all the seemingly endless opportunities for events of the past to have drifted into any of countless other directions away from our births ... was just a matter of naked luck and pure happenstance. Somehow the dice were loaded, somehow conditions were not as free and random as they seem. We are here as naturally and inevitably as an apple (but not an orange or a stone) will be created from an apple seed ... we are the effects of some outcome defining cause or causes. Too much was required, too much prevented, in order for us to be here right now ... writing and reading these words. I think life, our lives ... more likely than not ... as much a natural and inevitable outgrowth of this world as the growth of hair on a baby's head and maturing of its eyes to see are (far from unpredictable or unexplainable hit-or-miss outcomes) the natural and inevitable outgrowths of its DNA and biology and like factors, causal mechanisms that bring about the ultimate product. There is a mechanism, and causes that bring effects. Perhaps, in the beauty of this garden that has turned out such a beneficial (though not always) way, there was the hand of some Gardener too ...

But whatever the case ... bad things seemingly continue to happen to many good people who do not seem to deserve it.

Whether you believe in some "cosmic system of Karmic Justice" or in a "Hand of God" or not ... Master Keizan offers that other perspective by which the whole question drops away ... For, in a moment of Shikantaza, dropping thoughts of good and bad, win or lose, right and wrong, 'should be' and 'if only it would be' ... we encounter a certain Good that sweeps in small human judgments of "good and bad", a "Just As It Is" which balances out all worldly injustice in its balance and calm. There is no separate self to do bad or to have bad done unto ... no place for dust to alight ... nothing lacking or which ever can lack thus nothing to take or be taken away ...

However (and this we can all agree on, whether we are believers in a literal view of the workings of Karma or not), that dropping of "good and bad, right vs. wrong" is NOT AN EXCUSE FOR IMMORALITY! Master Keizan cautions about this toward the end of his words. Our actions DO HAVE EFFECTS, and we do bring about benefits and harms to our self and others and this world (which are not two or three separate things). We can create heavens and hells right here in our lives and in the lives of those around us ... whether there are heavens and hells in the coming lives or not.

I am now reading a book about the Holocaust, many seemingly innocent men, women ... children ... who died. Why?

Master Dogen wrote ...

As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.

As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.

The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.

Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.

The garden of this world is beautiful, but there are weeds and thorns that are part of it.

There are weeds in this garden ... and whether by a Gardener's design, whether just nature's way ... the hands of these gardeners (you and me) should pull the weeds that we can, allow the weeds that we cannot.

Cook from p 116
Hixon from p 107

When we intend to to good thing, they might not become good, even when we intend to do harm, the outcome may be good. But in any case, who wants to say whats good or bad, whats good luck or not. All this is thinking and speculation. We have only one live, and whatever we do, whatever results from what we do, this is our live, the only one. I go with Keizan, "...this karma is born from delusion". And I go with Jundo, it matters what we do.

Edit: Reading Hixon again, I wonder how I could miss this wonderfull clarity: "The sage emphasizes neither the vivid blossoming of karma nor the radiant stillness of Pure Mind. They are not two".

_()_
Peter

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From Hixon: ... if we open the Eye of Nonduality and perceive Pure Mind clearly manifest as the intricate display of karmic conditions that demand compassionate action, we will be taking true refuge in the diamond teaching and will be no different than any living Buddha. [emphasis mine]

The sage emphasizes neither the vivid blossoming of karma nor the radiant stillness of Pure Mind. They are not two.

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Oh, that rings ring rings for me, especially that compassionate action part! This is the One Body that Glassman writes about that, I'm gonna say it again, really really really rings for me.

I like this view of karma, this view that "karma is produced from delusion," from separation, from dividing the One Body into two. I also like Keizan's closing poem (I think for the first time, with a little help from Hixon) where he describes karma as a rootless tree that, to my small mind, bears its fruit in the future.

I like what I read in this chapter(x2), but I can't say that I fully get it. To me, it doesn't present as much of a mechanistic view of karma, some unidirectional machine*, as much as an omnidirectional flowering of compassionate action rooted in present non-separation. Lots to think about, lots to sit with......

* I'm dropping all that Keizan stuff about three periods, three realms, six destinies, four kinds or birth, and nine existences. Whew, that stuff is exhausting.

Hiyas
Jayata, was dismayed with the karmic outcomes he witnessed around him. Sighting good receiving bad, and vise-versa.
When the old Buddha opened Jayata's eyes to reality that the karmic action he was experiencing along with others, though it seemed so varied, so out of balance, was just as it SHOULD be. It could not be any other way! Separation, dualistic views, create Karma.

Kumarata also pointed out is that a cause now, does not always yield and immediate effect. An outcome today could be from actions before or to come.
Jayata is awakened to the reality that the Enlightened mind accepts this seemingly out of balance states, does not become concerned judging right vs wrong, good and bad, just knows how it is, right now and understand that it will always be in flux. A radical acceptance, allowing this reality "just as it is" while practicing vibrantly, embracing, being and creating change.

"Though our practicing this way of transparency , a destined sword wound becomes a pin prick and a destined pin prick disappears entirely."

Gassho
Shohei

The view that karma is passed from one life time to the next seems rather dubious and, of course, one must buy into the whole rebirth notion. I do ponder at times the notion that being born into a family one must overcome some of the negative karma that is a result of one’s situation in life. Born into a family with a high prevalence of alcoholism, a person might really have to struggle to overcome the temptation to drink, for example. This could also work for positive behaviors as well. Thus, karma may bridge from one generation the next. In addition, as Jundo stated above, our actions do have effects and I think in this way karma has some validity.

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Originally Posted by Jundo

Whether you believe in some "cosmic system of Karmic Justice" or in a "Hand of God" or not ... Master Keizan offers that other perspective by which the whole question drops away ... For, in a moment of Shikantaza, dropping thoughts of good and bad, win or lose, right and wrong, 'should be' and 'if only it would be' ... we encounter a certain Good that sweeps in small human judgments of "good and bad", a "Just As It Is" which balances out all worldly injustice in its balance and calm. There is no separate self to do bad or to have bad done unto ... no place for dust to alight ... nothing lacking or which ever can lack thus nothing to take or be taken away ...

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Ah the power of sitting….so wonderful. We experience reality beyond concepts…not sure if it really resolves the question of karma, yet perhaps that does not really matter anyway.

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If you try to grasp it, your hands are empty

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The above passage from Keizan reminded me of the following passage from Dogen.

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When you release it, if fills your hand—how could it be limed to the one or many?

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Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

Hi folks,
I came back to this one as I didn't get it first time round. And guess what? it's not much clearer now. Maybe the root of it is that I can't detect anything that looks like karma in my life, so it's just not a topic I can easily relate to. I'm not saying it's not there, but I either have no perception of it or am misattributing it to other things.

Keizan says (along with Jundo, I think), "Without thinking of good or evil, just lower your gaze to the tip of your nose and look at the original Mind. When you become singlemindedly still, all characteristics [of things] are exhausted", which appears to be offering some sort of karmic respite, but Hixon seems to be a bit more rigorous and points more emphatically to Keizan's 'exhausted': it's still there, but just ceases to be an active force. We don't get escape karma, or destroy the circuit as he put it, it just becomes like dreams or smoke - experienced but no longer the thing that has us running scared doing x,y, and z in order to personally benefit from situations or avert problems.

Anyway, that's how I'm reading the passages at the moment; reading but not really experiencing. :(

gassho, Monkton.