Dare to Dwell

"Chronic remorse... is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong-doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.... Art also has its morality, and many of the rules of this morality are the same as, or at least analogous to, the rules of ordinary ethics. Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behaviour. The badness should be hunted out, acknowledged and, if possible, avoided in the future. To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into the perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one's middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that different person who was oneself in youth-- all this is surely vain and futile. And that is why this new Brave New World is the same as the old one. Its defects as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to rewrite the book-- and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I should probably get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also of such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else." ~Huxley

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Misconception of Karma

Have you ever wished that someone else suffer? That he or she never come back, cease to exist? That person deserves what's coming, right? Karma.

Hatred taints the heart; you aren't who you used to be. Jealousy and hurt run through your purple veins. You're as shattered as broken glass, and because your life is a collage of shattered images, you want your enemy to fall with you before all has dissolved. But karma is, in its most general sense:

The cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation.

And your wish to have someone else suffer is a deed. If one had attempted to control these thoughts so that it would not influence the way one acted, then it would not have counted. But when you put yourself in a position to be influenced by negativity, not only does that person get what's coming, so do you. In fact, you might be punished before your counterpart ever experiences another ounce of pain.

In no place does karma mention time. If I were to cheat in a card game to win, does that mean I'll suffer punishment immediately after? No. It could happen at any time in this life, or if you believe in reincarnation, the next. What does this mean then? That karma is an ideology that we want to happen, but doesn't work properly? No, not really. But one does have to let nature take its course is what it implicitly states. Things will balance out; karma doesn't operate upon request.

Remember, back in the day, when people had the patience to sit through hours of church service? When people were able to converse for hours on end without anxiously waiting to move on to another place, another chapter? When people slowly, but systematically thought about things thoroughly? What is this excuse that because technology is faster, we must be faster? No, we must be wiser.

Bad things happen to good people because we're too quick to react and judge. Bad things happen to good people because we're human - although there is a gentle and noble side about us, we are contrasted by a more ignominious and brutish aspect within our souls that everyday, we struggle to conquer.
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