I just heard a really interesting Radio 4 programme about Karma - an episode of the "Beyond Belief" series, which will no doubt be available on BBC iplayer for a week.
One of the thousand myriads of things that annoy me about life is the sort of casual "buddhism" that people go in for - and repeated references to karma are part of this. I know it's just shorthand - but thinking about it a little more it appears that the doctrine of karma is quite an easy-going one: when something bad happens, you can say "it's just bad karma" and write it off. Superficially it sounds great, because if it's "karma" it isn't your fault - not your responsibility. Of course, karma is precisely that - if bad stuff happens to you, you must have been doing bad stuff to others. So think before you blame karma: you're actually saying "I am a bad person!" Cheap karma does not take this into account.
Unfashionable Christianity has a lot of emphasis on personal responsibility - we are (as in other religions) abjured to "do unto others as ye would be done unto" and when we don't, then it's our fault. Judaism was pretty realistic about the cause and effect of life... although the general idea is that if you walk along righteously with God he will reward you with prosperity - there are also plenty of laments about the wicked man flourishing "like a green bay tree" - and the generally unfairness that the ungodly often get off scot-free. The idea that our virtue will be rewarded has been carried over into Christianity - but it's a really ancient principle - do ut des (I give so that you will give) that has ruled religious practice since foreever... A more sophisticated, karma free response to what happens in one's life, is to understand that there are random elements, shit happens, and however virtuous you are maybe your life won't be totally fully of "good luck", prosperity and everything else.
So cheap karma, is rather like evolution - an idea for the non-religious, who want an easy belief that absolves them from blame... "can't help rape and war - that's just how humanity evolved". It is a form of moral laziness - and as I write these words I fear I may be repeating myself - I've written this before somewhere.
Wiping the karmic slate clean
One rather appealing idea was that when you suffer tremendously over a long period, this is to pay off various evil deeds you may have committed in the past. You are then enabled to start afresh. This can be adapted on a national level: when Mongolia finally became independent from the USSR there was a lot of moaning and grumbling about their years of servitude under Russia. The Minister of Enlightenment - in conjunction with the religious establishment - said that they had had to go through it all to expiate the bad karma of having slaughtered and overrun so much of the population of Central Asia - twice. Perhaps Britain's travails are the result of a karmic response to the Empire! (I jest).
So of course, I could take the view that my trials and tribulations of the last few years are a working out of some terrible karma (all the people I hurt when younger?) and that now I am able to start anew.... this view would no doubt be supported by Vedic astrology - yes, chums, Rahu and Ketu are out to destroy you!
However, there is one problem with all this. I don't actually, when I examine it, believe in karma... it would be nice to think that all wicked people get their comeuppances - and indeed the last few years have been a glorious time for comeuppances - but plenty of them go to their graves swathed in honour and hypocrisy, despite having done some fearfully wicked things, e.g. Mrs Thatcher (arguably dementia was her comeupance). There doesn't seem any real evidence for karma - rather the reverse really. The number of thoroughly decent good people who are still suffering from undeserved crises is legion, the number of wicked flourishing like green bay trees is countless too. You might argue that it actually offered more evidence that the devil was alive and well and favouring his own about the world. To believe in karma properly one also has to be convinced about reincarnation. This is obviously an attractive idea, at least the bit about future returns to life is but in all honestly, it's just another sort of wish fulfilment..
One of the thousand myriads of things that annoy me about life is the sort of casual "buddhism" that people go in for - and repeated references to karma are part of this. I know it's just shorthand - but thinking about it a little more it appears that the doctrine of karma is quite an easy-going one: when something bad happens, you can say "it's just bad karma" and write it off. Superficially it sounds great, because if it's "karma" it isn't your fault - not your responsibility. Of course, karma is precisely that - if bad stuff happens to you, you must have been doing bad stuff to others. So think before you blame karma: you're actually saying "I am a bad person!" Cheap karma does not take this into account.
 |
| Unsubtle - but sums up the argument nicely. |
Unfashionable Christianity has a lot of emphasis on personal responsibility - we are (as in other religions) abjured to "do unto others as ye would be done unto" and when we don't, then it's our fault. Judaism was pretty realistic about the cause and effect of life... although the general idea is that if you walk along righteously with God he will reward you with prosperity - there are also plenty of laments about the wicked man flourishing "like a green bay tree" - and the generally unfairness that the ungodly often get off scot-free. The idea that our virtue will be rewarded has been carried over into Christianity - but it's a really ancient principle - do ut des (I give so that you will give) that has ruled religious practice since foreever... A more sophisticated, karma free response to what happens in one's life, is to understand that there are random elements, shit happens, and however virtuous you are maybe your life won't be totally fully of "good luck", prosperity and everything else.
So cheap karma, is rather like evolution - an idea for the non-religious, who want an easy belief that absolves them from blame... "can't help rape and war - that's just how humanity evolved". It is a form of moral laziness - and as I write these words I fear I may be repeating myself - I've written this before somewhere.
Wiping the karmic slate clean
One rather appealing idea was that when you suffer tremendously over a long period, this is to pay off various evil deeds you may have committed in the past. You are then enabled to start afresh. This can be adapted on a national level: when Mongolia finally became independent from the USSR there was a lot of moaning and grumbling about their years of servitude under Russia. The Minister of Enlightenment - in conjunction with the religious establishment - said that they had had to go through it all to expiate the bad karma of having slaughtered and overrun so much of the population of Central Asia - twice. Perhaps Britain's travails are the result of a karmic response to the Empire! (I jest).
So of course, I could take the view that my trials and tribulations of the last few years are a working out of some terrible karma (all the people I hurt when younger?) and that now I am able to start anew.... this view would no doubt be supported by Vedic astrology - yes, chums, Rahu and Ketu are out to destroy you!
 |
| Rahu and Ketu - the nodes of the Moon - Cosmic snakes - which need not concern us unduly |
However, there is one problem with all this. I don't actually, when I examine it, believe in karma... it would be nice to think that all wicked people get their comeuppances - and indeed the last few years have been a glorious time for comeuppances - but plenty of them go to their graves swathed in honour and hypocrisy, despite having done some fearfully wicked things, e.g. Mrs Thatcher (arguably dementia was her comeupance). There doesn't seem any real evidence for karma - rather the reverse really. The number of thoroughly decent good people who are still suffering from undeserved crises is legion, the number of wicked flourishing like green bay trees is countless too. You might argue that it actually offered more evidence that the devil was alive and well and favouring his own about the world. To believe in karma properly one also has to be convinced about reincarnation. This is obviously an attractive idea, at least the bit about future returns to life is but in all honestly, it's just another sort of wish fulfilment..
No comments:
Post a Comment