I must admit I am not well versed with the Buddhism. Buddhism does have the concept of rebirth. How is rebirth related to karma?
Well, even rebirth is difficult to 'pin down' (this may be a bit long-winded, sorry if I get boring). The entire Universe is like a pendulum in a certain sense...everything is revolving or switching...on/off. We are alive, and we thus have a gamut of experiences and memories, and when we die, that slate is wiped clean and we get to start again. This seems very boring or montonous, but the beauty of the whole thing is that once we are 'reborn', we start with a clean slate again...and we don't know anything about what happened before or who we were or what the Universe is. We get to rediscover it all over again, not knowing that we are doing it all over again.
Now, karma in relation to rebirth.
First I should mention that in my most speculative of observations, we are being reborn every single moment. Why do I say this? Well, for instance, consider that you're manifestation...that is to say, the 'you' that is your body/mind organism...is a conglomerate of that which nourishes you. What you eat, for instance, later becomes the living flesh of your body (ex. 'you are what you eat'). That's the whole mysterious part of the food chain that doesn't often get taught in school. There, very literally, isn't a top to the food chain. From that perspective, I ponder...who am I? The 'me' that is the predator, or the me that is the resurrection of everything I ate that has found new life in 'me'. In other words, is my mind 'mine' or is it the reborn mind of the turkey sandwich I ate three weeks ago...the reincarnation of the turkey and the wheat? You can't really say, either way. So...does the Universe create you, or do you create the Universe? Strange to think about...
Now, if we are speaking in terms of ourselves as being individuals, and I think we are, then I look at it like this. We are all born to certain walks of life...certain countries, families, traditions, cultures, etc, etc. Karma for the purpose of such rebirth looks at the transcience of our involvements and their usefulness. Everything we do now generates, in infinitely detailed ways, the way that the World will take its course in the future. What we do now, believing that it is 'absolutely the right thing to do' or 'the least painful way to handle this problem', may set a very painful precedent for the future in which we may be reborn under a different set of circumstances in a different culture where things don't affect us as individuals the same as they do now. Karma is something we all share...because from the perspective of each individual that there is, it's impossible to say if so and so is 'good' or 'bad' with any concreteness. And when we are reborn, that which we insist is good now, may end up being our greatest scourge in the next life.
...therefore in that sense karma is not just individual?
Well, from that perspective, my question would be...which individual? I mean, let's say it
is individual...which individual gets preference? Its impossible to discern. The indivdual we are now is temporary...our bodies are smooth, but then wither...we live, then die...this is the course of things. To make concrete conclusions based on a perspective that is intrinsically transient is like the sky insisting, "Blue is the most favorable color...and I am it" just before it becomes overcast and turns grey, suddenly finding that it now has to try to negate what it said before to insist on grey. Just then, it will turn black with night. And the story goes on ad infinitum, until the sky settles...not getting 'hung-up' on how things look at any given point. Such things get us tied up with ourselves needlessly.
If we say that karma
is attached to, say, Johnny...then we must admit that, quite literally, we wouldn't be able to discern 'Johnny' without everything else that isn't 'Johnny'. And so, there isn't
really a
seperate 'Johnny'...he is an integrative expression of it all. Karma, the 'balance' that seems attached to him, is no more attached to 'Johnny' than it is to 'not-Johnny'...and we need both of these distinctions to draw the whole picture, in this case.
So, as you can see, it gets tricky to talk about these things.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how karma affects our experiences whether pleasurable or painful.
Karma
is our experiences, and our experiences
are our karma. There isn't any literal division, so far as the Buddhist can tell. Action and reaction are like approaching a snake from the tail or the head. If we trace the action from the head back, its the exact same organism at the tail...mutually dependent, and discernable
in passing as independent. Buddhism asks us to look at the World and see that it has no real beginnings and ends. That 'this' and 'that' are actually the same process...the same expression. That everytime we make a concrete frame of reference, the carpet is inevitably pulled out from under it. So how do we keep from 'standing on a carpet'?
Dr. D.T. Suzuki, when asked what it is like to be enlightened, said," It's just like everyday life, except about two inches off the ground." You can't pull the carpet out from under something that isn't wrenched to its surface.
These things are baffling to think about...thanks for getting me started ;-)
