On UnkarmaConsider this: whilst most people subscribe to the ideology of Karma being a force of consequences, I have, upon considerable ponderance, augmented this viewpoint with the belief that Karma is an internalised force, rather than an external universal power subtly enmeshed with the fortunes of man.
To analogise first in the extreme: a man raped another man's wife. She was badly brutalised and her husband, in a fit of rage, killed the rapist. Subsequently, the husband was convicted of manslaughter (or whatever) and the beleaguered wife, in her sorrow and despair, took her own life. We could then say, that the rapist got his just dessert, and the husband - for killing the rapist - in turn, received his own. Universal justice prevailed, or rather, the system of Man did. If we were to turn this around, who is to say then, that it was not a debt of Karma the wife had paid? Whence then, flows the direction of morality? Is not morality, the fundamentals of our commonly-perceived form of Karma?
If an orphaned kid in Timbuktu (or insert wherever), hungry and desperate in a sun-baked city, is to steal a pie from a local vendor, and subsequently falls sick from the pie (because stealing, by all of society's normality, is an aberration of the "good" laws) would that be considered a divine retribution? Do not unto others, what you want not unto you. We've all heard that before, but is it possible to practice when there are people, children of the world, lost in a living purgatory? How then, do they redeem themselves when destiny chucks them away in a corner of a world where they are the targets of Providence and good will? If you exist on a level where the paradigms of morality blurs, who is to judge your actions? What is to justify your actions? How could you be faulted, for trying to survive?
The boy who steals an apple is a bad boy. So what about the boy who steals an apple for his dying mother?
And to the discerning, the compassionate, we might look at the little boy and say: "It's ok, here, take this money and bring a doctor to your mum" but where then, did the little boy's karma debt went? What about the vendor who lost his earnings, who might, in turn have a family to feed? Does subjectivity then trivialise morality? Is it okay to do things as long as it is justified? Is the univeral powers oft-lenient to the well-reasoned? How then do you claim universal justification? Who is to say that the rapist is not justified, due to this uncontrollable urge, augmented by the (in his mind) salacious tauntings of the wife? Surely, the husband is justified in killing the rapist! Is it okay then, to say that you are unredeemable just because of circumstances? That things happened, beyond your control?
Thus, when all external reckoning fails, we must look inwards. In the end, society's basis of morality must fail. Society does not equate to spirituality/morality, and yet the forces of status quo enroach every aspect of our judgements. The rapist must be the aggressor, the little kid is forgivable. From where do we draw these conclusions? Is there a common benchmark of morality that sleeps within our subconcious? Why is it that we frown upon someone hurting another, yet remain agreeable when we inflict the same pain onto the aggressor? A death sentence for the murderer, it's only logical, isn't it? Or is it?
To understand the root of karma, I'll ask you to look at a tree in the autumn breeze. A falling leaf sways to the undulations of the breeze, it does not falter. It will reach the place where it must, be it on a rock or a patch of water. It will decay, return to the earth, nourish the tree and be reborn as a new leaf. It will perpetuate this cycle of life, persisting in the wind, until one day, it returns as a seed: whence it'll fall to the earth, where it waits to become a new tree, or not.
So of Karma I'd say that it is not a force of judgement, but of choice. Karma is born not from your actions, but in the process of your decisions. Karma is the force of morality sleeping within your psyche, where instances of righteousness and avarice is fought on the battlefield of your soul. Karma never returns to haunt you, because you will go where the wind blows, and whether a new tree will grow, only you will know.
So next time, please stop and think before you say to somebody with a naughty tinkle in your eye,
"Yeah, you probably deserved it."
"Yeah, you probably deserved it."
"Let us all be unto the lotus."
