The human mind has amazing capabilities. One of these capabilities is the ability to find order in, well, almost anything. One such example is the advent of time. First, existence was broken down into to distinctive moments, those of ‘day’ and ‘night’, day being when the sun was shining and night when the moon was in its place, even though it be hidden at times, or to make it less poetic and simplify it, ‘day’ was when the sun was in the sky and ‘night’ when the sun was not in the sky. These two distinct moments were then broken down into smaller subsections, hours, minutes, seconds, all functioning in an arbitrary model. These were then cumulated to form days, and then weeks and then months, resulting in years, based, not on such arbitrary notions as the creation of ‘hours’ but, rather, on the ‘time’ it takes for the earth to orbit the sun, or the sun to orbit the earth, depending upon which scientific facts you believe in (note: days/weeks/years likely came before the advent of hours but for the purposes of this, strict following of history is not necessary; also note: in cultures such as Ancient Egypt other natural phenomena such as the flooding of the Nile helped to create the local calendar).
Whilst one might argue that the advent of time, along with other human inventions such as language (including mathematics), shows a reasoned and logical mind, the same mind can also create patterns where patterns may not be. Whilst the advent of time followed an arbitrary yet logical pattern which is universal other notions do not do so, indeed may fall down without their concept.
The notion of Karma, deriving from the Sanskrit word Karmen (act), originally had no ethical implications and in this piece, I will first look at the structure of Karma and then the wider ethical implications. Karma follows a pattern similar to Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion in supposing a cosmic balance (note: Newton’s third law cannot be universal, case-in-point, the amount of energy expelled by a black hole is negligible to the amount of energy which it consumes) in that every action has an opposite and equal reaction (creating a causality). In the original context of Karma, it was thought that sacrificing to gods would reap a reward something which, as we can suppose, was not forthcoming as we know the universe to be largely indifferent to our plight. The later ethical notions of Karma would dictate that if something bad was done to you, something good would happen to you, and vice versa, likewise, if you sinned then you would be punished. I use the word ‘sin’ advisedly for, although Karma is seen as an Eastern philosophy, Judeo-Christianity follows the same notion- if you are good you will get to heaven and those who are the meek and the downtrodden, those who are last, will be elevated and become first. Similar to the notion in Ancient Egypt that a good life (a heart that weighed less than a feather) had more value than all of the kings and their gold (note: it didn’t stop great wealth being amassed by kings, slavery etc. suggesting that a lot of the concern of the afterlife was superficial based on aesthetics).
In certain contexts we may say that Karma exists, as with the likes of astrology, by examining it either in hindsight (this happened for this reason) or on a predictive future (ah, if I do this then it will happen due to Uranus being Saturn by Jupiter) but once we remove it from the confines of our carefully ordered, privileged, lives we see a very different picture. The former England footballer and manager, Glen Hoddle stated, in accordance with his Christian faith, that disabled people suffered as they had sinned in a previous life and this is exactly that attitude that is used to think about those born without our good fortune. If suffering is repaid with glory, then what shape and/or form will this glory take? If a mother in some country which we cannot pick out on a map is carrying a child who had died due to want of clean water and yet cannot put the child down as they simply do not know how to, then what glory shall come upon the child and mother? Are they being punished for crimes in a previous life? Is the genetic lottery of their birth their fault? Are we born into the countries that we deserve? The answer to all of these is, simply, no. If we look at this more closely then we can say, there is more than enough in the world for all, so if people are forced to suffer unnecessarily then this can only be down to one reason- the acts of humans.
To look to the stars and ancient philosophies to find reason and justification are all well and good, but in reality, what they are is turning one’s head away from the truth and seeking answers which remove any personal responsibility we may have. Karma is a very beautiful concept on the surface, but with most judgements made based on aesthetics, the surface is a lie and the truth within is much uglier than the surface and the truth of Karma is this: we, as humans, have failed in our humanity.
‘till next time
thegreaterfool2016 