Butterflies and Karma

A friend of mine is a Theravadan nun. Several years ago she did a retreat with an elderly monk in Sri Lanka. The monk had a bad limp and explained to my friend that his leg was messed up because of his karma – he had kicked a dog in a previous life.

Karma is “action + intention,” not simply “cause and effect” as it is often understood and translated. One of the Buddha’s great discoveries was that we are not merely pawns in the cycle of rebirth, born into and living out our lives in whatever (caste) circumstances that happen to arise. Intention is the tiller in our hands, giving us considerable power to gradually and suddenly recreate our lives through bright and even awakened action.

The traditional, popular version of karma, one cause (+, I assume, some unwholesome feelings toward the dog) = one effect (bum leg), apparently has had considerable power in the cultures of Asia for the past couple thousand years. There are numerous supportive examples in the Sutta Pitaka where the Buddha tells similar karma stories. However, I don’t think that this simple version of karmic retribution has much efficacy in the modern world.

More to the point, I believe, is Yun Men’s “The world is vast and wide, why do you put on your robe at the sound of the bell?”

This rings true to me – a wide open question inviting inquiry and response. Together.

Along these lines, E recently sent me this about the butterfly effect: “The Meaning of the Butterfly: Why Pop Culture Loves the ‘Butterfly Effect,’ and Gets it Totally Wrong.”

The butterfly effect has come to mean that something simple (like a butterfly flapping its wings in Chile or a person kicking a poor dog in a past life) ripples through the world and creates something huge (like a hurricane or limping through a whole lifetime). Edward Lorenz coined the phrase “butterfly effect” to express that the world is so vast and complex that it borders on the impossible to know the impacts of any single action.

A scientist, for example, does research into complex systems in 1961, publishes his results in an scientific journal in 1972, and years later is credited with something that has little to do, or is even the opposite of his thesis.

The article is an interesting read and supports a modern appreciation of karma, the ripening of our past actions and intentions and (most importantly) our present actions and intentions with big, open, don’t-know mind.

Wansong in the Book of Serenity says, “Just do good. Don’t worry about the road ahead.”

Comments always welcome.