The Search For Enlightenment

I find it fascinating, that having searched for Buddhist study groups around Poole, and drawn a near blank, I make one cause and see such an immediate effect.

Finding the Salisbury study group, and attending the meeting last night, has directly resulted in me speaking with the husband of the SGI Poole district leader. Not only that, but there is a meeting tomorrow night, and I’m going.

So months after practically giving up trying to find like minded Nichiren Buddhists, even to the point of thinking I might need to try to start a local group, I am going to meet those very people tomorrow.

The law of cause and effect applies to everything in life and forms the basis of our Karma. The results of all the causes we create are the effects we see every day. The more good causes we create, the more good effects we see, and generally, the happier we are in our lives.

Dora, in The Buddha, Geoff and Me, explains that karma is a little like letters we write to ourselves. Many of those letters were written so long ago, that we have forgotten all about them. The nice letters are lovely surprises when they arrive. The nasty ones come as a bit of a shock, they may annoy us and we might even write another nasty one in response. Of course, in time, those responses get delivered too, so the cycle may repeat itself, time after time.

That is, of course, until you understand the way the process works. Once you realise that you create the causes, you can create causes for nice, or good effects, rather than going round and round forever.

Can there be a more important lesson to learn, to know that your karma, your future, is determined by you? It is the most empowering feeling, to take control of your life and to have your destiny in your own hands.

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in difficult or disappointing circumstances. The laws of Karma are universal, we get what we deserve, whether we recognise the causes or not, the effects speak for themselves.

We might feel sorry for ourselves, we may think it’s unfair, but we make the causes for the effects we experience day in, day out. Now you may be saying that it’s destiny, or coincidence, but that simply means you are delegating responsibility for your life to fate or a mystical figure whose existence can never be proven.

Why do we allow ourselves to be fooled? When we know the reason for events, we accept the situation and move on. When we don’t know (or remember) why something has happened, we waft it away with airy fairy excuses, like fate or God’s will.

I’ve been through the mill in the last year or so. Failed relationships, jobs losses, even death in the family. More than enough to make me feel, at times, enough is enough. But when I sit and think things through, at the bottom of every disaster, is a cause of my own making.

So I hold my hand up, I’m culpable, in part at the very least, and my chanting, prayer and meditation are the tools I am using to start to put things right.

You might be thinking this doesn’t apply in your case, but you are wrong. Accept your own responsibility and start making the causes to get the effects you would like to see.

Ok, let’s talk Collective Karma.

The BBC News is full of reports about a group of men being held for being suspected of terrorist activities.

Whilst it is easy to jump to conclusions, another bunch of Muslin terrorists, send them all home, them and us, all that rubbish, we need to remember that they are innocent until proven guilty. Even if they are guilty, don’t forget, they are a tiny minority of the UK Muslim community.

Personally, I feel it is wrong that the media have deemed it necessary to divulge the names and addresses of the accused. What purpose does that serve, other than to make their homes and families, who probably know nothing of their alleged acts, targets for attack by radical elements from our side?

Do you see what I mean? I remember, back in the seventies, when the IRA were blowing up pubs in Birmingham. I was working with an Irish guy, a really nice chap, who was picked on by some people, just because he had an Irish accent. He was totally innocent of any involvement with the bombings, but he spoke differently to us.

From a Buddhist perspective, terrorism is the result of collective Karma, built up over hundreds of years. Events such as The Crusades against The Saracens in the Middle Ages and a couple of little Middle East wars, not to mention Afghanistan. It’s important to remember that the result of Karma is not a punishment, it’s just the outcome of the causes we make. We’ve made those causes, currently and historically, and we are the seeing the effects.

If we ever want to see the end to acts of terrorism, of wars and to live in a world where people can live in harmony, we need to make causes for that. So think about how things really are, don’t jump to conclusions and smile at the owner when you pop into the local Asian owned shop for your last minute loaf or pint of milk.