The previous post (here) touched upon one’s duties, responsibilities and moral accountability. Can the burden of Karma – of accountability for one’s actions – be transferred to another by the ties of marriage, family, clan, friendship, business, money, politics … or whatever else?
The answer is, ‘NO. Karma is strictly an individual matter’. But, as we know, a desperate person will try anything to avoid the inevitable payback for his wrong actions, including attempts to deflect the payback to others.
Karma operates at the deepest level of our being. Therefore its working cannot be grasped without rigorous introspection and true empathy with another person’s condition. Nonetheless, all of us do pick up hints now and then, from ancient stories and from the life around us.
A famous story in the Bible has Cain asking God, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’
Cain was denying any responsibility for the well-being of his younger bother Abel and – by implication – for the well-being of other human beings. In fact the jealous Cain had killed Abel prior to this exchange with God, and therefore that question was also Cain’s attempt to cover up his horrendous crime. The story goes that, thereafter, Cain lived the life of a restless wanderer.
Our earlier two posts (here and here) discussed the war economy, and the fact that nations must also face the consequences of their actions. Thus each of these posts was a specific instance of the inexorable laws of karma at work. That should not surprise anyone, given that the blog aims to seek out root causes of the multifarious phenomena we see around us!
At this stage, we thought that a brief discussion about the laws of karma was also needed – and so here it is!
Imagine that, for the first time in your life, you are passing through a thick forest. Foliage is so thick that daylight barely reaches ground level. Turning back is not an option, because you know your life’s goal lies ahead. As you move, you walk into branches and bushes, slip, stumble, hurt yourself, tire, be bitten by bugs, be fearful, be thirsty … and much more. You curse your fate. You curse the forest. But if you are wise, and if you persevere, you will make it through the forest and achieve your life’s goal.
[This post outlines a current trend which we feel should be watched. To keep it from becoming too long to hold the reader’s interest, we have not included the factual evidence which proves the trend. For the interested reader, we have provided brief allusions to evidence available on the internet. Readers are welcome to also request us for more specific explanations.]
The United States of America (US) rates itself as ‘an exceptional and indispensable nation’. Statements made by US presidents from Ronald Reagan onwards – easily searchable on the web – make this attitude clear to anyone who can put two and two together and get the right answer. During his time on the world stage, Barack Obama said: ‘I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being’. His method was to speak with so much panache that people would not notice the inherent absurdity.
Off and on, we come across ‘expert opinion’ stressing the goals of ‘saving the western civilization’ and ‘deterring Russia and China’. The language used implies clearly that ‘western civilization’ here has undisguised, in-your-face geopolitical motivation.
‘Civilization’ and ‘deterrence’ is in fact a very strange combination of notions, tempting us to dig deeper into the matter.
Over the last few weeks, a truth has dawned on this seeker.
Internet is flooded with opinions … answers … narratives … theories … viewpoints … self-promotions … whatever. Almost every person on our beloved planet is able to share something of that kind with almost every other person on the planet. This is in fact a mind-boggling gift of technology.
Thank you, Internet!
But there is clearly a HUGE down side to all this. What is an individual to make of this unprecedented, incredible information overload?
THE TRUTH LIES WITHIN, AS DOES THE TEST OF TRUTH.
In the absence of these two crucial elements, an individual is literally lost — drowned? — in the flood of information.
Therefore, instead of hawking yet another opinion … answer … narrative … theory … viewpoint … whatever … Why not try something else?
Why not prompt … provoke … nudge … prod … the search for answers in the recesses of the individual mind? That should be fun!
Questions will be posted — or, to be more precise, points to ponder. The hope is that these will generate answers. Not ‘perfect’ answers, of course, because there is no such thing. But honest and authentic attempts, offered to others in the spirit of sharing.
Our species today has a total headcount of some 7.6 billion, spread all over the unique and beautiful planet Earth. The species originated a few hundred thousand years ago in a region of the great continent of Africa. In this evolutionary ‘blink of an eye’, heroic individuals and groups of our species have migrated to the remotest parts of the planet − overcoming in the process innumerable and enormous challenges and adversities.
The English word ‘gut’ is rich in its range of meanings. In Biology, ‘gut’ means ‘intestine’ – as in ‘gut bacteria’ or ‘gutting a fish’; this meaning extends to the racquet strings used in sports such as tennis and badminton. In common usage, ‘guts’ refers to ‘courage’, as in ‘having the guts to take on the huge challenge of _______’ (fill in your favourite). Continue reading Gutless Wonders→
Full disclosure: While the author has at times felt being “on top of the world”, he cannot claim any personal experience of “life at the top”. However, being a keen witness and a dogged student, the common idea of “top” fascinates him. After all, a crazed race to “the top” inevitably leads to injustice, crime and war. But anyone obsessed with “reaching the top” can provide only a self-serving report of his or her life. Therefore an objective if light-hearted study is attempted here. Continue reading Life at the Top→
The human child needs protective nurture which stretches from birth to at least teenage. The earliest part of this nurture – that is, the first few years after birth – provides to the child the innermost core of ‘identity’, including core values. A child’s eager young mind takes in whatever is offered by parents, teachers and other trusted adults. This is the ‘ABC’ of healthy childhood nurture. Continue reading Identity & Peace→
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