Picture 8


The Person (Mind)

Karma (Mind)
This is one of those words important enough to become part of our vocabulary.
Literally: The ethical, moral and physical consequences of thought and action.
When I use the word karma, it usually represents negative influences. This karma must be analyzed, understood, stopped and discarded as one goes forward on the wisdom path.
The Map shows 5 major areas of karma:
1) Inherited at conception: totality of parent’s wisdom and ignorance.
2) Influence of parents after birth.
3) Influence of society, relatives, culture, education, and tutors.
4) Misperceptions.
5) These 4 karmas inform our adult decisions (creating more karma).

Discussion:
The repercussions of karma are that we reap what we sow. Of course we don’t always see this happen directly on the outside. But, whether we acknowledge this or not, it affects us internally, because we all have a conscience; even those who have almost buried it completely.
The word karma is often blamed for many of the less preferable things that happen to us. Someone asked Bawa about karma once and in this vain he answered, “Karma is like the word uncle, no one really knows whose uncle. But like everyone is an uncle to us, in the way we say uncle all the time, we also say the word karma. Actually, it is what you gather within yourself both from ignorance and wisdom. Evil becomes a great burden, making it hard to walk on the (spiritual) path. Ignorance will try to carry an entire house on its back, while wisdom will just take a photograph of it and carry that. There is no karma in the soul, but some comes with you at birth from your mother and father. There is also what you collect yourself.” (There is a video of this question and answer session sold by the Fellowship Press at the following link. Order # VTC8310-06)
Of course there is a lot more to be said about this and Guidebook Vo. 1 & 2 explains that.

17 Epics (Mind)
Arrogance, Karma, Maya, Tarahan, Singham, Suran, Lust, Anger, Miserliness, Attachment, Fanaticism, Envy, Intoxicants, Desire, Theft, Murder, Falsehood.
These are behind the plots of TV shows, novels and theater; and will also run riot in our life dramas if we don’t live the examined life and apply wisdom.
Some of them are related in ways that create a domino effect. They are the source of much conflict and strife. Any one of them can motivate an entire life, even among what we might call, successful people!

Discussion:
I studied playwriting for a while. There was a dictum people used: good people make bad drama. How do you write a play, film or novel with a good person as the protagonist? It is rare and difficult. So what do we see on the ubiquitous screens? People being bad - all the time. We grow up seeing tens of thousands of murders and every other kind of inhuman behavior, day after day after day. What is the news dictum? If it bleeds it leads. Imagine the onslaught of wrong doing and evil we are subjected to our whole lives if we access various forms of media, which most of us do. (I turned the TV off in 2002.) Now we even have live talk radio shows where the commentators tell half truths and seek to divide the people. Ask yourself, whose work is it to divide the people one against the other, especially in a country called the United States?
It amazes me that there is as much goodness in the world with this negative onslaught. It just shows us how powerful a little light can be. However, in my life, I have seen an erosion of ‘looking out for the other guy’ and an increase in selfishness. Of course there are also a lot of people isolated from each other in Western society, which leads to suspicion, disconnectedness and mental illness. But like Shakespeare reminds us, "The fault, dear Horatio, lies not in our stars but in ourselves."
These 17 epics alone are enough to deal with, let alone all the other things we have presented in the mind section. But it is on us to become aware of the negatives and positives and decide where we stand. Being aware, then, makes us Samurais for true humanity. So, for me, it is not enough to shout religious slogans all day, it would be better to save our energy and become conscious of, and deal with these 17.