Negative action, according to karma

Image: Richard Bradley (Spiders in Ohio)

Spiders became my regular roommates, much more welcome than the occasional scorpions who came to visit. The big spiders would appear as if by magic, beamed in one day to a spot on the wall where they would remain for days or weeks, looking as if they’d always been there and would always remain. While there, they seemed never to move or else would creep very slowly for just a few inches only to settle into stillness again. 

Then one day, they’d be gone just as suddenly and inexplicably as they’d appeared. Some people were bothered by the spiders on principle, but I wasn’t. We had an understanding, I suppose, and lived easily together, each with our own territory and rhythm. Our unspoken boundaries held well. Never even a spat. For me, these big spiders were like trees—and seemed almost as rooted until they disappeared without trace.

The smaller, quicker spiders were more startling. Sometimes they appeared in my concrete sink as I washed dishes. I tried to lift them out of the sink to save them from drowning but, invariably, I regretted the attempt. I can’t tell you how many spiders I’ve apologized to for inadvertently amputating their legs in my attempt to rescue them. I’ll be making amends for several lifetimes.

I always had a soft heart for creatures. I remember my parents handing me a can of insecticide and directing me to kill the flies in our backyard before guests arrived for a barbecue. I must have been ten or twelve years old. Tears streamed down my face as I obeyed my parents’ instructions and sprayed, muttering through gritted teeth, “But why can’t we all live in peace?!”

Fortunately, motivation counts when it comes to karma. For a negative action to be complete in a karmic sense, four characteristics must be present. The action must be directed toward a particular object. (I’d have to have a particular bug in mind.) The actor must have an intention-carrying thought. (I’d need a desire to do harm.) The actor has to take action in line with that thought. (I’ll get you, damn spider!) And the goal must be achieved. (Intended target hit.) Luckily for me, I had no such intention toward the spiders in my sink. Unluckily for the spiders, they still lost their legs.

~ Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo
from Threads of Awakening

Quote on different perspectives on illness

Image: Phaitoon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Christian—The fundamentalist message: Illness is basically a punishment from God for some sort of sin. The worse the illness, the more unspeakable the sin.

2. New Age—Illness is a lesson. You are giving yourself this disease because there is something important you have to learn from it in order to continue your spiritual growth and evolution. Mind alone causes illness and mind alone can cure it. A yuppified post-modern version of Christian Science.

3. Medical—Illness is fundamentally a biophysical disorder, caused by biophysical factors (from viruses to trauma to genetic predisposition to triggering agent). You needn't worry about psychological or spiritual treatment for most illnesses because such alternative treatments are usually ineffectual and may actually prevent you from getting the proper medical attention.

4. Karma—Illness is the result of negative karma; that is, some non-virtuous past actions are now coming to fruition in the form of a disease. The disease is "bad" in the sense that it represents past nonvirtue; but "good" in the sense that the disease process itself represents the burning up and the purifying of the past misdeed; it's a purgation, a cleansing.

5. Psychological—As Woody Allen put it, "I don't get angry, I grow tumors instead." The idea is that, at least in pop psychology, repressed emotions cause illness. The extreme form: illness is a death wish.

6. Gnostic—Illness is an illusion. The entire manifest universe is a dream, a shadow, and one is free of illness only when one is free from illusory manifestation altogether, only when one awakens from the dream and discovers instead the one reality beyond the manifest universe. Spirit is the only reality, and in Spirit there is no illness. An extreme and somewhat off-centered version of mysticism.

7. Existential—Illness itself is without meaning. Accordingly, it can take any meaning I choose to give it, and I am solely responsible for these choices. Men and women are finite and mortal, and the authentic response is to accept illness as part of one's finitude even while imbuing it with personal meaning.

8. Holistic—Illness is a product of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual factors, none of which can be isolated from the others, none of which can be ignored. Treatment must involve all of these dimensions (although in practice this often translates into an eschewal of orthodox treatments, even when they might help).

9. Magical—Illness is retribution. "I deserve this because I wished So-and-so would die" Or, "I better not excel too much, something bad will happen to me." And so on.

10. Buddhist—Illness is an inescapable part of the manifest world; asking why there illness is like asking why there is air. Birth, old age, sickness, and death-- these are the marks of this world, all of whose phenomena are characterized by impermanence, suffering, and selflessness. Only enlightenment, in the pure awareness of nirvana, is illness finally transcended, because then the entire phenomenal world is transcended as well.

11. Scientific—Whatever the illness is, it has a specific cause or cluster of causes. Some of these causes are determined, others are simply random or due to pure chance. Either way, there is no "meaning " to illness, there is only chance or necessity.

~ Ken Wilber

Quote on different perspectives on illness

Image: Phaitoon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Christian—The fundamentalist message: Illness is basically a punishment from God for some sort of sin. The worse the illness, the more unspeakable the sin.

2. New Age—Illness is a lesson. You are giving yourself this disease because there is something important you have to learn from it in order to continue your spiritual growth and evolution. Mind alone causes illness and mind alone can cure it. A yuppified post-modern version of Christian Science.

3. Medical—Illness is fundamentally a biophysical disorder, caused by biophysical factors (from viruses to trauma to genetic predisposition to triggering agent). You needn't worry about psychological or spiritual treatment for most illnesses because such alternative treatments are usually ineffectual and may actually prevent you from getting the proper medical attention.

4. Karma—Illness is the result of negative karma; that is, some non-virtuous past actions are now coming to fruition in the form of a disease. The disease is "bad" in the sense that it represents past nonvirtue; but "good" in the sense that the disease process itself represents the burning up and the purifying of the past misdeed; it's a purgation, a cleansing.

5. Psychological—As Woody Allen put it, "I don't get angry, I grow tumors instead." The idea is that, at least in pop psychology, repressed emotions cause illness. The extreme form: illness is a death wish.

6. Gnostic—Illness is an illusion. The entire manifest universe is a dream, a shadow, and one is free of illness only when one is free from illusory manifestation altogether, only when one awakens from the dream and discovers instead the one reality beyond the manifest universe. Spirit is the only reality, and in Spirit there is no illness. An extreme and somewhat off-centered version of mysticism.

7. Existential—Illness itself is without meaning. Accordingly, it can take any meaning I choose to give it, and I am solely responsible for these choices. Men and women are finite and mortal, and the authentic response is to accept illness as part of one's finitude even while imbuing it with personal meaning.

8. Holistic—Illness is a product of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual factors, none of which can be isolated from the others, none of which can be ignored. Treatment must involve all of these dimensions (although in practice this often translates into an eschewal of orthodox treatments, even when they might help).

9. Magical—Illness is retribution. "I deserve this because I wished So-and-so would die" Or, "I better not excel too much, something bad will happen to me." And so on.

10. Buddhist—Illness is an inescapable part of the manifest world; asking why there illness is like asking why there is air. Birth, old age, sickness, and death-- these are the marks of this world, all of whose phenomena are characterized by impermanence, suffering, and selflessness. Only enlightenment, in the pure awareness of nirvana, is illness finally transcended, because then the entire phenomenal world is transcended as well.

11. Scientific—Whatever the illness is, it has a specific cause or cluster of causes. Some of these causes are determined, others are simply random or due to pure chance. Either way, there is no "meaning " to illness, there is only chance or necessity.

~ Ken Wilber