A common but short sighted interpretation of karma (also common psychology btw) is as follows:
They’re hurting because it’s their karma (aka their fault). I’m hurting because it’s their fault. I’m happy because of my good karma (aka I did well). They’re happy because things went well for them.
This is easy because it only makes the good things that happen to us OUR business, while it makes the bad things that happen to us the result of circumstance. This would be fine if we thought the same for other people, but generally we don’t. Generally we blame others more easily than ourselves, both for the bad that happens to them and the bad that happens to us.
If you look at the situation from a Chittamatrin (*) perspective things get a bit trickier. Those of you who’ve studied ‘The Law of Attraction’ may see some similarities, though there are also differences.
In Chittamatrin philosophy everything we experience is the result of our own karma. If you’re happy, that’s your karma. If you’re sad, that too is your karma. However, it gets a bit murkier when it comes to how you see other people.
If you see others as unhappy, that is your projection and therefore that too is your karma. That is: you co-produced their unhappiness. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean (and this is where The Secret is wrong) that simply ignoring it means it’s off your back. When you actively ignore other people’s suffering, it’s like ignoring your own pain and that merely hides it. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do – just be aware you’re doing it.
This means that – if it’s within your power to help that other person, by all means do so. You can’t use the law of karma to get out of compassion.
Of course other people have their projections and their experiences. Often how we see someone and how they experience themselves don’t add up at all. This means that ‘helping others’ is usually not as simple as it sounds, unless it’s things like food and shelter, of course.
The first lesson of karma is to take responsibility for all you experience. The second… to realize we’re all in the same boat. We might as well make it easier on all of us and replace indifference with kindness.
*) Chittamatrin = Yogachara = one of the schools of Buddhist philosophy. My teacher Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen has been teaching us about the Chittamatrin, though the above is purely my interpretation.
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Guest post by Michael Wiese who is a publisher and filmmaker.