I slipped and fell in the bathroom of the guestroom where we stayed in Dharamshala… and hit my back on the rim of the toilet bowl. Thankfully, the plastic toilet seat was on it, which kind of helped to buffer from the otherwise unforgiving hardness of the ceramic. There was a sharp pain and for a few moments, I thought it was the end of the trip… and the HHDL teachings havn’t even started yet. It turned out to be less severe as I imagined it might be. As I write this, there is some remnant soreness left.
A friend remarked that this could be a case of ‘Zhong4 Zui4 Qing1 Bao4’ (重罪轻报) which means ‘Heavy misgiving with a light result’. Heavy misgivings are at times lightened in terms of karmic results when we do substantial good to dilute the effects of evil. I replied that no matter what negative things happen, we should always see it as a case of ‘Zhong Zui Qing Bao’. This is a way to count our blessings and not grumble too much for getting our just deserts! Of course, it should not lead to complacency, such that we assume we have tons of blessings to count, and stop doing good… and worse still, start doing evil!
Next India Adventure: Coming up
Previous India Adventure: https://moonpointer.com/new/2010/09/india-adventure-18-flying-with-hhdl
Sorry to hear that you have slipped and injured yourself. Hope that you have now recovered. Maybe your fall has nothing to do with your negative karma. Maybe the floor was wet and you were not careful and mindful. Maybe it was just an accident. Likewise, a pedestrian walking carefully and mindfully got knocked down by a car. Maybe the driver was not careful and mindful or the car developed engine problem. Maybe it was just an accident. Maybe it got nothing to do with karma. I do believe in karma but maybe we should not push everything that happen to us as karma. Maybe certain things happen by chance, or it just happen. Your comments, please.
The pain is all gone now! Thanks!
Karma is not a mysterious law that cannot be exacted via physics like a wet floor coupled with unmindfulness. In fact, karma has to be expressed via other laws of nature. If not, it would be supernatural; unnatural. However, karma is indeed part of nature, like gravity and such.
When we use the word ‘accident’, we tend to think there are nasty human experiences that are free from karmic influences entirely. But is this possible? If ‘pure accidents’are possible, does it mean there is an element of ‘bad luck’ that roams the universe that cannot be controlled, that has nothing to do with karma? Can a Buddha or anyone else be struck by random bad luck?
Buddhism teaches that nothing happens by chance, but by cause and effect, both physical and spiritual (karma), and the two are intertwined – especially when it involves human experiences.
For example, I do see the fall as a result of instant karma from being unmindful in the moment, coupled with physics – though I cannot discount the possibility of additional past karma ripening through the given conditions too. Actually, I do believe there is past karma involved as the fall was quite a unique one! Amiutofo
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