In Life:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very happily back together with my girlfriend, Julie<\/a>. I still have no idea where I\u2019m going in life, let alone where we<\/span> are going, but it just works<\/span> in a way that I\u2019m going to hang on to as much as I can. So, as long as she continues to put up with my moody, busy, Buddhisty, introverted<\/a> shenanigans (to borrow a friend\u2019s term), we\u2019re in good shape. I still feel myself craving both certainty <\/span><\/span>and <\/span>independence <\/span>\u2013 haha \u2013 both, upon reflection, being totally <\/span>unBuddhist<\/span>!!<\/span><\/p>\n So: relationship = practice.<\/p>\n Also in life, I\u2019m running my first marathon tomorrow<\/span>. I\u2019ve run 2 half-marathons over the years and numerous long runs (20 miles being the longest) over the last month or so in training. But I\u2019m still uneasy.<\/span> Sunday (read my last post) I tweaked me left knee<\/a> a tiny bit and there is a real possibility of doing long-term damage if I\u2019m not careful tomorrow.<\/p>\n Some have even suggested that I simply bag it, recuperate fully, and wait for the next nearby marathon and run that. When I think of my knee, that sounds great. When I think of the work and determination put into this race, it sounds awful. Is this me being foolish? Clinging to a mental construct (the ideal race) forged long ago? Or is it determination and fortitude? We learn to \u201csit through the pain\u201d and \u201cjust watch it\u201d in long meditation sessions, only moving when it becomes too much.<\/p>\n But we all have had times when we pushed just a bit too far and hurt ourselves, especially in physical activity. <\/span><\/p>\n For now I simply breathe and watch the pain and other sensations. I am also setting the conditions<\/span> for healing. Ice, hot bath with Epsom salts, Camphor and Menthol (aka Tiger Balm<\/a>) and an herbal mix made for injured horses (yep, horses).<\/p>\n KARMA<\/span><\/p>\n A while back, Bodhipaksa wrote on the topic of karma<\/span><\/a>, which reinvigorated some of my thoughts on the topic. I wrote a bit on the topic<\/a> even further back. My view is that karma\/kamma (intentional actions<\/span> in Buddhism) does shape everything in our lives. And, if we were awakened, we could see just how karma shaped our past and the lives of those around us.<\/p>\n This, to me, is pretty standard Buddhism.<\/p>\n But Bodhipaksa (and the great scholars Peter Harvey and Damien Keown) have all found one sutta in which the Buddha seems<\/span> to say there are events in our life that are not due to karma.<\/p>\n Yet, just briefly (hoping to write more deeply about it soon), I think all have misinterpreted this short sutta. The Buddha\u2019s point, I will argue, <\/span>is epistemological and not ontological in nature. That is, he is rebuking people for talking about things that they don\u2019t know<\/span>, not necessarily speaking falsely about the nature of things.<\/p>\n When we have a stomach ache and know for ourselves<\/span> that this is caused by overeating, it is wise to note this. Too much food \u2013 a physical thing \u2013 has caused the pain, also on the physical side of Buddhist analysis. If we have the awareness to know<\/span> that our own intentional actions led to our overeating, only then<\/span> is it wise to note this. If we do not<\/span> know this and we still say, \u201coh, I\u2019m in pain, it must be my bad karma,\u201d then we are, \u201cgo[ing] beyond what [we] know by [our]selves and what is accepted as true by the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Note that he says \u201ctrue by the world\u201d at the end, not true by the wise, or the noble <\/span>(ariyans), or the worthy ones<\/span> (arahants\/awakened ones). When we speak of the condition of things, it is necessary to speak on the level of the world, those around us. It is <\/span>wrong <\/span>in this same way for a physicist to say that my stomach ache is due to Newtonian or quantum physics<\/span>. In an ontological sense \u2013 speaking of the nature of things \u2013 the physicist is right<\/span>! The pain is<\/span> caused by atoms and electrons and all that stuff doing what they do. In the same way, the ascetics and Brahmins in the cited sutta are right about karma.<\/p>\n Since Bodhipaksa emphasizes this as a Tibetan or modern Western teaching, I thought I\u2019d toss out a quote I found this week in Nina Van Gorkom<\/a>\u2018s book, \u201cAbhidhamma in Daily Life.\u201d It comes from analysis of Therav\u0101din teachings and scholarship through a Thai tradition.<\/p>\n If one is being hit by someone else, the pain one feels is not the vip\u0101ka (result) of the deed performed by the other person. The person who is being hit receives the result of a bad deed he performed himself; for him there is akusala vip\u0101ka through the body-sense.<\/span> The other person\u2019s action is only the proximate cause of his pain\u2026 When we have more understanding of kamma <\/span>and vip\u0101ka <\/span>we will see many events of our life more clearly. (p.27)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Akusala vip\u0101ka<\/span> is the result of unwholesomeness or unskillful action. This is the analysis based on the Buddha\u2019s own words at the very earliest stages of Buddhism. The pain in our stomach is also an akusala vip\u0101ka<\/span>, but it is only right of us to say so if we know for ourselves<\/span> that this is the case.<\/p>\n If we do not know<\/span> that a particular circumstance is the result of our past karma, good or bad, it is wrong for us to say so. This, I believe, is the point of the cited sutta; not the idea that karma is but one of several (mutually exclusive?) forms of causation.<\/p>\n LABELS<\/p>\n The question of labels and reality have come up on a few people\u2019s blogs lately. I\u2019m running out of time to write now, but I will say that labels are important in Buddhism<\/span>. PLEASE, for the love of your own progress on the path to enlightenment, read the Milindapanha. Or at least a carefully abridged version such as that found in Mark Siderits\u2019 book \u201cBuddhism as Philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n Labels in the realm of conventional truth are hugely important for getting things done<\/span>. In this realm there IS<\/span> truth and falsehood, correct and incorrect things we can say \u2013 conventionally. \u201cI am a peanut butter sandwich<\/a>\u201d is a good example (thanks, Kyle, for your humor and being a good sport) of conventional falsehood.<\/p>\n
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