Foundations of Dharma
Karma Demystified
From psychological point of view, karma or cause-and-effect is closely related to the concept of schema or mental representations, which are known to be inseparable from biology. " ...[N]ot only because biological factors can influence psychological processes but also because social and psychological experiences exert actions on the brain by feeding back on it to modify gene expression and brain structure, function, and organization" (Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994; Eisenberg, 1995; Kandel, 1998; Nelson & Bloom, 1997 as cited in Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002, p. 9). In neural terms, new interaction is simply computed according to the existing representations (Nelson, Thomas, & DeHaan, 2006). In other words, what you do or construct from experience always feeds into your consciousness; i.e. any meanings assigned after an input depends on its computations. This mechanism explains why a person exposed to constant violence throughout the lifetime will most likely act violently because of the influence of the environment. Unless the person can experience kindness, the lack of access to kindness schema, so to speak, renders him-/her- self unable to act kindly to others.
The mechanism of karma is empirically explicable through the concept of "complex causality" (Grotzer, 2003, 2004; Perkins & Grotzer, 2000) in science. Although people understand karma basically as the law of cause and effect, most people still have trouble understanding how a cause or causes lead to an effect or even multiple effects without necessarily being immediately observable. In prevention science, diverse developmental outcomes of any individuals can arise from both similar and dissimilar starting points as captured in the general systems theory concepts of multifinality and equifinality (von Bertalanffy, 1968 as cited in Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002). Multifinality refers to a condition where people having the same experiences arrive at different developmental outcomes. Equifinality in contrast refers to a condition where people having dissimilar experiences arrive at the same developmental outcomes. For instance, although parental abuse may contribute to an adolescent developing violent dispositions, not all such offspring develops it. Likewise, some people develop depression because of biological predispositions, others because of parental or environmental pressure. Consequently, an outcome can be influenced by both proximal and distal factors (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). The relationship between a cause and an effect does not have to be linear or even unidirectional; it can also be simultaneous, instead of sequential, and probabilitistic, rather than deterministic (Grotzer, 2003, 2004; Perkins & Grotzer, 2000).
Combining the concept of schema in psychology and of complex causality in science, what can we gain from understanding karma? The bottom line is twofold: the shifting perspective on adversities and deliberate exercise of the will. Adversities do not necessarily amount to misfortune. In fact, to consider the optimal points for intervening, prevention scientists have to allow for people's developmental variations, such as periods of dysfunction, of competence, and fluctuating symptoms during the course of people's lives (Coie et al, 1993). Even biologically, muscle fibers which tear and break during initial exercises over time grow into stronger tissues (Selye, 1975), illustrating the requisite of stress prior to growth. It is likely that growth occurs only when a new state of "homeostasis" (Cannon, 1932) emerges out of the disruption of an existing one. Indeed, positive change has been documented in an emperical study following trauma or adversity (Linley & Joseph, 2004).
With regards to the will, although your current dispositions are influenced by what you have done (including that in previous lifetimes), your current deeds can buffer and even influence your dispositions and conditions. According to the science of developmental psychopathology, "... developmental plasticity can be brought about by both biological and psychological self-organization" (Cicchetti, in press; Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994 as cited in Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002, p. 9). Consequently, we have the choice to become mindful of our actions (speech, body, mind) and thus minimize the risks associated with acting reactively to the environment. Rather than viewing events as fatefully determined by an external force, one responsibly activates personal agency. As Viktor Frankl (1959 as cited in Perkins, 2009, p. 5) puts it: "The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance." This enhanced understanding is akin to activating your own inner Buddha nature. For example, personal agency may entail the shifting perspective of stress from being socially causated to being personally generated. To be specific, in social causation model (Towbes, Cohen, & Glyshaw, 1989), stress is thought to bring forth depression, but in stress-generation model (e.g. Hammen, 1991), individuals also play a role in engendering stressful conditions. Because depressed people are more likely to engender stressful circumstances, they often induce the vicious cycles of stress and depression.
That said, what efforts could be worthier of your life time than to analyze your own mind and better take charge of your life?
Implications of Karma in the Buddhist Practice
H.E. Trizin Tsering Rimpoche (personal communication, May 4, 2009) tells a story:
"The practice of Vajrayana meditation is all about making choices. It provides one with the option to be free from the sufferings of samsara (or birth cycles) and attain the Buddha Pureland in this lifetime. One can either make the choice now or postpone it until later unforeseeable lifetimes. But what will the future be like?
The Buddha is once asked, "How many lifetimes have I gone through to date?" In reply, the Buddha explains that the number of continual rebirths of any one being is so innumerable that one's tear drops (of sufferings and sadness, but not of happiness) shed throughout the samsara, if accumulated, are equivalent to the waters in the ocean. Not even one Buddha can tell how many times one has been born in the samsara; only by diligently practicing meditation can one thoroughly learn everything about oneself."
Ten Virtues
These ten virtues are meant to serve as benchmark for purifying one's body, mind, and speech. (Three aspects of body, four aspects of speech, and three aspects of mind.) Thus, they are by no means an imposition, but rather, a recommendation for practitioners to transcend cyclic existence; the sooner you can embrace the ten virtues, the faster you bring out your inner Buddha nature and achieve Enlightenment.
You are free to create your own pace and scope according to your own level of commitment.
BODY- Not taking the lives of self and living beings (including hunting and inflicting pain on animals, etc.)
- Not taking what is not given (including one-night-stand with other people's wives/husbands/spouses, etc.)
- Not engaging in incest, oral sex, sodomy, masturbation, improper sexual relationships and practices
- Not speaking dirty/profane words
- Not uttering harsh/rude words
- Not cheating others
- Not gossiping/engaging in idle talk
- Not envying of others' success/happiness
- Not engaging in plans to stymie others' success/happiness
- Not clinging to incorrect views (or in opposition to the Buddhadharma)
Reflections
To consolidate your meditation practice into daily functioning, it is best to maintain mindfulness over one's body, mind, and speech by embracing the ten virtues. The basic ideas are to be mindful of what, why, who, when, where, and how. (e.g. what we say, why, to whom, when, where, and how we say it.)
Let's mull over the merits of ten virtues...
- What are the possible negative consequences of violating any or all of the ten virtues? Perhaps you can relate them to previous experiences?
- Could there be any positive ones? Under what circumstances? To whom?
- Do the negatives outweigh the positives or vice versa?
- Given your calculated deliberation, is it worth your efforts to maintain any or all of the ten virtues throughout your lifetime?
- What are the biggest obstacles that hold you back from embracing any or all of the ten virtues? Could these be overcome? How? Under what circumstances?