Mind in Martial Arts and Eastern Philosophy: Part six: Death, Karma, Reincarnation and Rebirth-Part B

These days many people talk about Karma, but here again there is much misunderstanding. Many consider Karma to be some sort of fate or predestination. Karma is considered by the authentic enlighten traditions to be “the infallible law of cause and effect that drives the Universe” The word Karma means action the power latent within actions and the results that our actions bring. When things go well we call it good luck, and when they go badly we call it chance or bad luck. Only something as vast, all pervading, and subtle as Karma can explain the extraordinary differences that are found between all of us. All though we may be born in the same country or family we are all totally different, with different characters, inclinations, talents, and preferences. As Buddha said, (regarding Karma) “What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now” We are all totally responsible for our actions. There will be many who argue that this is some fancy oriental mumbo jumbo. But please take some time out to simply observe. At the moment as I am writing this, the U.K. is going through yet another crisis regarding farm animals. We have had salmonella, B.S.E., foot and mouth, diseases with fish from fish farms, rivers poisoned by so called modern farming methods (something I have hated since a child, to me farms are places of complete and utter horror) and outbreaks of god knows what. Is this chance? Is this fate? Is this bad luck? Or with a little common sense can we see the law of cause and effect at work? FARMER KARMA! As the great “Tantric” practitioner Padmasambhva said “If you want to know your passed life look into your present condition, if you want to know your future life look into you present actions” Because the law of karma is infallible when ever we harm others we also harm ourselves, and if we bring others happiness, we are brining ourselves future happiness. We can add also that whenever we harm the environment we also harm ourselves. Karma then is not fatalistic or predetermined. Karma means our ability to be able to create and to change. Creative because we can determine how and why we act. We can change! Whatever is happening to us now is mirrors our passed karma, and if we truly know this then whenever problems difficulties, and suffering arise, we won’t view them as a failure or catastrophe particularly, or see suffering as a punishment. Nor do we indulge in blame or self-hatred. We see the pain we are going through as the completion or fruition of our pass actions. It is interesting to note that when the Dali Lama first came to the west it had to be explained to him what “self hatred” meant. He had no concept. “Western guilt” was also another concept that Tibetan Lamas knew nothing of.

So the driving force from rebirth to rebirth is our current action. When I first started to take an interest in the Chinese, Indian and Tibetan cultures I found, like I’m sure many others did, that some of the ideas seemed to be either too simplistic, or just plain daft. Take for example the idea that a human being could be reborn as an animal. Crazy? A few years ago I would have agreed, but when you really begin to understand the nature of mind your whole view of life will change. Completely! To recap the nature of mind is both empty and cognizant. These sound like two different qualities, but (this is important) they are inseparable in the way that you cannot separate wet from water. Empty because nothing exists from it’s own side everything is interdependent. Just observe is there anything in the Cosmos that is totally independent? Cognizant is the natural awareness of the mind. Back to our animals. All my life (O.K. I’m getting old, 60 next year) I have kept animals, no two (of the same
species of course) have ever been remotely the same. They (like us) have different personalities, habits, and characteristics etc. and that like us, are dependent on cause and effect. When you look into the face of an animal, surely you can see a consciousness looking back out at you. All animals are conscious beings. Right? They are not unconscious. If then the nature of mind is both empty and cognizant. When we die and the animal also dies and the form (body) is gone. What is the difference between our respective states? Both the human being form, and the animal form, has returned to the natural state. When the winds of karma begin once again to blow. Only our subtlest minds will take rebirth. The ground of our being is EMPTY/AWARE that’s all. Any new form can arise. It depends on our mind. The nature of mind is not just our natural state, but also the natural state of all things. It is not said that we have a soul that reincarnates from rebirth to rebirth like a string of pearls. Rather, that it is like a pile of dice that are stacked one upon the other, different from each other, yet supported and dependant on the one beneath. In the Ancient Traditions it is said that we experience four states (or Bardo) we can divide the whole of our existence between four bardos or realities: Life-Dying and death-After death-Rebirth. Which are the four bardos. The natural bardo of this life. The painful bardo of dying. The luminous bardo of the natural state, and the karmic bardo of becoming. These teachings have been developed by enlightened beings in the vast Himalayas and the boundless and
inaccessible wilderness of China. Through deep states of meditative practice including dream yoga the very mind its’ self has been studied and understood. These teaching are now becoming possible for those who really want to wake up from this world of illusion. At the risk of offending anyone locked into the conceptual religious world. We have to understand that we are both the creator and the created. All ideas formed by the conditioned mind will only chain us to delusion.

Anthony Court

(Article reprinted from Combat and Healing magazine with kind permission from Master Erle Montaigue)