Accepting Karma

    The term "karma" has become quite popular recently. I have particularly heard expressions like "it's just your karma" or "bad karma", as though karma were meted out based on whether people have done good things or not. From what I have read in the teachings, the concept is complex, because karma (like nature itself) is not something that is personified as a god. In other words, it's not that karma 'rewards' or 'punishes' people based on what they do, or whether the gods are pleased with one's behavior. Rather, karma seems to be described in commentaries more as a natural force than as a personalized one. In other words, it's something like one's diet. We can say that eating foods high in sugar can make us sick, but there are mitigating circumstances, including genetics, level of physical activity, metabolism, and so on. In modern science, there isn't too much talk about one single cause for a phenomena. Rather, there are factors, and when these factors happen to come together at a given time, a result naturally arises.
   I think this concept is really important in helping me understand the concept of karma and incorporate it into my life practice. In Chan and Enlightenment, Master Sheng Yen elaborates on this point:
 
According to the Buddhist concept of karma, all our troubles and difficulties are the present results that come from past causes. With such a concept in mind, we would feel less afflicted, or we don't even need to feel afflicted at all. Nevertheless, karmic causality does not mean we should not change our environment or solve our problems. Rather, we should create positive causes and conditions to facilitate the change of environment and the solution of problems. (p.79-80)


When I first read this passage, I was inclined to think, "wow, everything I am challenged with is no accident." And I even begin to think that I am responsible for all the emotional afflictions I experience. What does this mean, though? I don't think it means that we should try to control everything that happens to us. For example, if I tried to prevent all negative or aversive situations from happening, I would only make myself anxious and paranoid. I would also end up attributing everything that happens to me to some wrong I had committed in the past. But is this a healthy view? I think a different perspective might be to accept that things happen due to past causes, and to see what we can do to contribute positive or constructive conditions to the present situation. There is no sense in thinking we are being punished by the present circumstances. Rather, we accept that the previous causes have already ripened into the present, and work on what we can do now to better the situation.
     In the paragraph from Master Sheng Yen, the term "facilitate the change of environment" is used. I like this term, because it seems to underline the sense that there is no direct way to control anything. Conditions need to be present, and even these conditions will change. But this doesn't mean that one should only 'do nothing', since there are still beings like ourselves who require help to be liberated.  I think that it means the opposite: that when I am not worried that one thing is causing something else, I have more space to look for other ways to make the situation better for everyone. It's a kind of constructive approach which is not aimed at necessarily perfecting conditions. But it's also about making the best of the present with a mind that looks for creating good conditions.