Karma study, March 2006

Me:
Say, here's a karma story an old woman from Vietnam remembered from her childhood. Wonder what you have to say about it:

“A woman was being beaten by her husband. She went to the Buddhist abbot to get his blessing to leave him. The abbot told her that leaving him would not solve her problem, that in a previous life the husband had been the beaten wife and the wife had been the abuser. He told her that she must suffer her fate to pay her karmic debt, or she would just be reborn into again and again. He instructed her to place slim bundles of hollow reeds around the house, so that when her husband wanted to beat her he would grab one of them. In this way, he could enact his need, and she could receive it without harm. She did this and very quickly he stopped beating her ... her acceptance repayed the karmic dept.”

He:
I believe the Woman is at a place in her life where she is deciding, whether she knows it or not, when enough is going to be enough. I believe we, as Human Beings, have the ability to see in the mirror what our short-comings are and then be able to do something about it. I for one no longer enjoy hanging around people who remind me of what I once was at what I believe was my worst. I believe that each and every one of us has the choice to stand up and say "Enough".

So as far as the Abbots' advice...Shakespeare may have said it this way..."The Metaphors The Thing". Basically, the Abbott is saying, "When you are tired of the way things are, you will do something about it". At least that's what I think...and you did ask me what I thought. Thanks. ; )

Me:
I don't know much about karma. I took up very loose and casual dharma studies a few months ago, and started at the beginning: the four noble truths. Caroline Myss' notion of sacred contracts interest me, but then I'm also just getting into reading a little Ouspensky and Gurdjeff (heh), and have become most interested in framing the great psycho/emotional/mystical cosmic goo dance (aka existence) as a direct channel from sensing to knowing to believing to behaving to producing outcome, as often as possible ... without losing touch of wonderousness and awe. From that perspective, the tale seemed more useful as a koan than a morality play, and interestingly you are the first person I've shared it with who has done the same! The way you framed the significance of the behaviors resonates with me the most: awareness, leading to questioning, leading to behavior, leading to outcome.

I'm most interested in the experiences of regular and expanded consciousness that are grounded in my body in some way. Through yoga, sex, zen meditation, and alter-sensory experiences like Reiki, hallucinogenics, and shamanic meditation, I've been developing a sensitivity to different energies, or impulses in my self (and more limitedly in others), specifically manifested in bodily sensations. I think it's not much different from "gut feeling" or adrenaline rushes that make one's neck hair stand on end ... but are more varied than the usual menu of fear, sex, hunger, empathy, ... . I'm interested in chi, kundalini, etc. ... but am equally as happy with blood sugar levels, neurotransmitters, and hormones.

The thing I like about our karma story, is that outcome changes through action (doing/not doing) rather than language (negotiation). Rather than giving power to a law of judicious logic, she chooses vulnerability and self-responsibility. The question I don't have an answer to, is whether either of their awareness is necessary for resolution. Unless, of course, either of them wants to have that information available for future choices they might make. I prefer to think awareness is necessary, but then I know people who consistently come from a place of right action, with out much meta thought around it. My observer self witnesses my action self, and when I'm all in tune I function with the depth of primal matter, and a rightness of spirit. That's a resolved experience that's hard to beat for the good outcome and wonderousness I mentioned above. I wonder if without the observer self, life would be fluid, but without the gratitude that awareness produces.

Questions about self awareness and choice, as well as one's influence in the world fascinate, mesmerize and confound me. I've become more comfortable with states of confusion, recognizing they house the act of shedding a skin. Cognitive dissonance as weekend get away ... . My turn-around times are becoming shorter, too. But, I will fess up to being messy sometimes. I tend to feel too intense for most people, which I think is mostly projection, since there are so few people I actually share that stuff with, in a real way, beyond the conversationally interesting.

He:
You make a wonderful point regarding whether awareness is necessary from either the Husband or the Wife from our Karmic Tale to bring about resolution. The point in question being, ' would Life without the observer self, although fluid in it's anarchistic way, be as wondrous without the gratitude that awareness produces?'. I think not. Experience indicates, without fail, gratitude produces happiness. Without the observer self, life would be just that...life. I guess the miracle still exists, maybe just at a level that has become comfortable. As for myself, I have found that gratitude for what I have in my life, for taking responsibility for my actions, for the simple realization of my part in any future "now"...