Morality and Clouding the Mind

All religions have codes of behavior. Christianity has the ten commandments; no stealing, no lying no murder,  no coveting, etc.   Buddhism has the noble eight fold path; right speech, right livlihood, right action, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right intention and right view.  In Christianity, the ten commandments is a code of behavior supposedly laid down from an all powerful, all knowing parental figure.  If we broke one of those rules, he would know it, and eventually we'd have to answer to him, and apologize, usually after we died.   Buddhism has a different take on why we should follow a code of behavior.  Since buddhism is a non-theistic philosophy the reason why it makes sense to try to abide by the noble eightfold path, has nothing to do with being punished, because there is no punisher.  Some people may say that the karmic results of our actions can be like a punishment, but if that's true, then we are punishing ourselves, because we are the ones who set the forces of karma in motion.   Karma is an ancient word which means that for every action there is an effect that will be experienced sometime in the future.

In Christianity the effect of doing one thing wrong is that you won't be allowed into gods home when you die, unless you ask for his forgiveness and accept him into your heart.  Since we are human beings with selfish tendencies, we often break at least some of the ten commandments, and so many Christians either have to pretend to be perfect or they have to ask for forgiveness many times throughout their lives.  There is a constant barrage of minor misdeeds that bring a sense of guilt to most Christians.

With karma theory, its a different approach.  Its like we are a work in progress. We accept that we aren't perfect (whatever 'perfect' means), and we work on ourselves wherever we see that work is needed.  The reason why we try to get out of the habit of lying, is not because we are displeasing our 'father who are in heaven', its because we know, or are at least are told, that we will have to suffer in some way in the future because of our actions today.  For example, if someone lies all the time, then their life gets very complicated. They have to remember what they said to whom, and constantly maintain their 'stories'. Eventually, no one believes what they say.  This is one of the many karmic effects of lying.  It may not happen right away, but it will happen eventually, maybe in a future life if reincarnation is true.

Padmasambhava, the great enlightened yogi who brought Buddhism to Tibet 1500 years ago, said  "if you want to know what you did in your past lives look at your present life, if you want to know what your future lives will be like, look at your present actions."   Since the karmic effects of our actions are cumulative then it is the things we do over and over that will really come back to bite us.

The positive side of this is that if you get into the habit of being helpful to others, if you get in the habit of telling the truth, if you get into the habit of caring about others, then in the future you will experience the benefits of those actions.  For example, if a person is very generous in one life they may become rich in the next.  Of course, if they then think that God has made them rich because they are somehow special, then they may become greedy, and develop an attitude of entitlement. This belief may cause them to get into the habit of hording and stealing. These actions will plunge them back into poverty in their next life.  This is the cycle of suffering.  Out of ignorance, we do things which cause us suffering. We also unwittingly do things which later cause us joy.  

Right actions are done for different reasons in Buddhism than in Christianity. In Christianity we strive to be good children of God. In Buddhism we strive to avoid future suffering and to clarify our view of reality.   In Christianity, we need to become perfect or else we are going to hell.  In Buddhism, we have all the time in the universe to suffer again and again until we figure it out. No one from up above is judging us, no one is keeping tabs, or writing it down in a ledger.  In essence, we can suffer as much as we want.   So, the whole idea in Buddhism is to work on yourself.  Not so that the Buddha will like you, but because that is the process of growth and evolution we are meant to go through in order to realize who we really are.   Guilt has nothing to do with it.  Does a painter feel guilty that they made a mistake on the canvas? Probably not. They simple see it, and correct it.  If the painter felt guilty all the time whenever they made a mistake, then they probably wouldn't paint for too long.  When the Dalai Lama was asked if he ever felt guilty, he didn't know what they meant. He didn't know the meaning of guilt. This is because Buddhism has been such an integral part of Tibetan culture for so long, that they don't have the concept of guilt.  

There is a big difference between living in fear of being imperfect, and living a life in which you are happy with every improvement.   Refraining from gossip because you want to be perfect, and fear the result of being imperfect, is very different from not gossiping because you know that in the long run you will be much happier if you don't.  Sure you may gossip sometimes, but if you are improving slowly, then there is a sense of joy in that.  Its a big relief to know that you don't have to be perfect.

So, if the universe has a law of karma, just as it has a law of gravity, then how does the law of karma work?  If there isn't someone recording all our actions and judging us for them, then how do our actions later cause us joy or suffering?   I guess only fully enlightened masters know for sure, but I believe its because our actions reinforce the inner beliefs we have. For instance being greedy, reinforces the inner belief that you don't have enough already. Always fighting to be superior leads one to the notion that you need to be superior, and who you are right now, is not enough.  Always being a "know it all", and working hard to impress others, reinforces the deep inner belief that you aren't good enough, and that others wouldn't listen to you or respect you if you weren't an "expert." Since actions seem to have a more powerful effect on what we believe than just thoughts, repeated actions seem to ingrain these inner beliefs more and more.

What all the different rules of behavior do is help us to avoid being selfish. Selfishness clouds our understanding of who we are.  Selfish actions reinforce the erroneous belief that we are separate from all other life.  If the right hand started believing that it was superior to the left hand, and its actions reinforced that belief, then eventually it would see itself as a completely different being than the left hand.  It would think that its life is somehow more important than the left hand's life. If you look, you can see this belief everywhere in human society. Its sad to see the end result (the karmic result) of that inner belief.  This is why killing other beings should be avoided as much as possible, because that type of action reinforces the erroneous belief that you are separate from the rest of life, and that "your" life is somehow more important than everyone else's.    

Clarifying our understanding of the nature of reality, and who we really are, is far more important than projecting an image of goodness to the universe.  Not that being a good person is something that should be avoided, but it won't save you from the cycle of suffering.  It wont help us find our way home.  All the selfish actions, subtle and gross, have kept us in this cycle for longer than we could even imagine. Many a smug crusader of whats "right" and "good" have done more harm than good.

Becoming liberated, becoming enlightened, is not about building ourselves up. Its about realizing that our self centered view, is what has kept us trapped all along; trapped in a narrow view of who we are, and why we're here. We're not here to "become" someone special, to prove anything to anyone, to make our everlasting mark on the world. We're here to realize that we don't need to be anyone, that there isn't anything to prove, and there is no sense in making our mark on the world if we are doing so to feel complete. There is no real way to make our mark on this world anyway because impermanence is the way of this world.  Nothing in this world, including our "selves", is permanent.  Ironically, this is not bad news.  When this is realized, we can relax.  Real peace comes when we realize that our own simple awareness of this very life, that our natural curiosity, and our basic aliveness, is what its really all about.  To realize this, is to fulfill our true purpose. This kind of wisdom can not be "known" by the mind.  Its what is often discovered when the mind made "things" of this life finally fall apart.   When this is seen thoroughly without the mind jumping in with some interpretation like: "woah is me, I am a failure." or "those bastards have really screwed me this time."  then you can know in your heart of hearts that what we really are goes beyond this material world.  Way beyond.  What has always been keeping us from this knowing, is our mind made stories and beliefs.

So, the real point of right action is not to become a saint, (although you may appear to be one to others.) The real point is to help clarify the mind.  To clear it out of the habitual reactions; to see through the stories, and judgements, to slow it all down so that the only thing left is our quiet knowing.  This knowing is there right now, and has always been there.  This knowing is realizing that we don't "have" a life, we ARE life.  This knowing is realizing that the reason why we should care about others is because we really aren't separate from them.  You can really get a glimpse of this sometimes when others are in pain. Sometimes when others are in pain, and we don't have an easy way of judging them as different, or separate from us, then we can feel their pain too. This is compassion. Compassion is not something you need to "do", its something you can uncover if you have the courage to feel their pain, right along with them.  If we truly were separate from them, then there wouldn't be compassion in this world.

So the selfish actions cloud our mind, and selfless actions bring us closer to the underlying truth.  The Buddha said that all suffering comes from selfish actions, and all joy comes from selfless actions.  I really feel this is true. I hope you do too.