Zen beyond Mindfulness by Jules Shuzen Harris & Pat Enkyo O'Hara

Author:Jules Shuzen Harris & Pat Enkyo O'Hara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2019-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

SUMMARY OF THE REALMS

God realm—indolence, pleasure, comfort, lack of compassion, addiction.

Demigod realm—jealousy, anger, arrogance, aggression, desire for power.

Human realm—doubt, passion, change.

Animal realm—sensual craving, fear, ignorance (reacting instinctively).

Hungry ghost realm—intense craving, greed, dissatisfaction, depression.

Hell realm—hatred and intense aggression.

Some definitions of karma suggest that it is fixed and predetermined. But from a Buddhist perspective, karma is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us into particular behavior patterns that themselves result in further accumulations of those tendencies. Thus, when we speak of a person’s karma, it means the sum total of the person’s direction in life and the flow of things that occur around that person, all caused by antecedent conditions, actions, thoughts, feelings, and desires.

So, as you can see, it is easy to become imprisoned by our karma and to think that the cause of our life not working (or not working as well as we would like) lies elsewhere—with conditions beyond our control.

The good news is that we don’t have to be trapped by our karma. When we sit, we are not allowing our impulses to translate into action—we are just watching them. Looking at impulses, we see that they arise and pass away and that they are not us, and we do not have to be ruled by them.

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