Robina’s Blog

9 March, 2023

When we hear about the law of karma we immediately assume it’s another variation of punishment and reward that we know about in our creator religions. It’s also the view deep in our bones even if we’re not religious: instinctively we feel guilty if we do something bad and try to hide it, to “get away with it”: we don’t want to be punished.

It’s like if your doctor suggests that we don’t smoke. She doesn’t say that she’ll punish us with cancer if we do; she’ll tell us that cancer could be one of the natural consequences of smoking. She advises us. How kind!

This law of karma, for the Buddha, is a natural law – he didn’t make it up, no one runs it – that plays out in the minds and lives of every living being. 

We know very well that whatever we do with our mind in relation to the study of musical theory, and the action of playing the piano driven by that knowledge, is the process that produces the musician. We create the musician – quite literally. 

For the Buddha, it’s just the same with our emotional states of mind: love, kindness, compassion, and the actions driven by them, just naturally program our mind in those habits and will ripen as happy results in the future. We create the happy person.

Of course, don’t just blindly believe it – or your doctor, for that matter. Do your own research.

The assumption here is that we’re the boss, we create ourselves. It’s simple but also quite shocking, because we think the exact opposite. “I didn’t ask to get born,” we say – as a joke but we literally mean it. 

We feel like we’ve been plonked on this planet by someone else and have no say in the matter. Life is just good luck and bad luck. 

No wonder we suffer!

But we can learn to be in control. If botany is the law that runs gardens we can learn it and get the garden we want. 

Same with the law of karma. So we’d better learn to know what causes happiness so that we can produce that result and what causes suffering and not produce that result.

We’re the boss!

(See the blogs of February 9 and February 16 for more about karma.)