During a short talk I gave to some 800 students at Catholic Junior College to offer the Buddhist opinion on the Advanced Medical Directive and euthanasia, a student went a little off tangent and remarked that she can’t accept the idea that being born handicapped is a result of karma, as she believes we are all created fairly by an all-loving God. I guess she prefers to think that ‘we are all made special in our unique ways to make the world a better place’?
Not being the subject of focus for the occasion, my reply was that whether one believes one’s handicap is karmic or divine, we all agree that we should simply learn to make peace with our shortcomings and make the best of our situations. If the subject was theological, I would say it is actually more logical and easier to believe our current unfortunate situations result from our actions, because if not, a fair God, if he exists, would bless all equally with fit and able bodies.
A body is none other than a vessel that houses our consciousness which requires us to check in and out during unexpected circumstances known as death and rebirth.  Â
A imaginary potter makes many pots or vessels. No one can make pots other than him. Being a perfect potter, he may choose to do a great job, experiment or even scarred his creation in a psychological and physiologically unacceptable and sometimes violent manner. The pots can only praise but never blame and when in doubt, accept that it’s for their own good and is in line with a plan. All the good that ever happened is his work. All the flaws that even happened, blame nobody. But if the pots have to blame, blame evil or anythg but not the one who created it and evil. Whatever that seems wrong, take it as right and blame your limited understanding. In an age of meritocracy and democracy, its amazing to still see such nostalgia towards autocratic rule.   Â
Its little wonder why people of the book always want to be in the imaginary potter’s good book and of course they have to follow the book closely without doubt and love seems to override everything.Â
Many potters make many pots. Each outcome of the pot varies based on the endurance, ability, skill, concentration and desire of the potter making it. The above scenario vaguely paints the Buddhist view that we are all responsible for ourselves and while we survive on certain past remmants of our past karma, we are our own creators of our own future destinies.
Physical handicap is not something everyone wants if only they have a choice. While we do witness indomitable spirit of those who overcome it which sometime serves as a source of inspiration that theists conveniently attributed to the good work to an imaginary friend up there, if death is indeed the wages for sins which we already paid for why then does providence continue to take it out his creation’s fragile bodies in ways sometimes unimaginable, cruel and evil at times. Is this a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde syndrome. I really questioned if providence really ask for volunteers to be handicapped by him in ways he wishes, I wonder how many people of his faith would readily come forward and volunteer. Recently a baby was born with 2 heads on a body. The baby apparently died. Was it some divine touch or was it karma? The idea of an entity contorting an innocent helpless life with his creative instincts continues to leave me a distasteful impression which theists seemed to think is acceptable. If every man are technically sinners and are all fresh dough from the oven. Why then does providence go to such extent to perverse a particular creation when there are no grudge or feud against him for whatsoever reason other than the original sin. If indeed providence is fair, maybe everyone should have two heads. Even more perplexing is that a holy plan made out of the suffering, blood and pain of sentient beings is far from perfect than perfect. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
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The human form is a result of many lifetimes of evolution. Physical deformity is the result of genetic flaws. Human beings are known to carry with them genetic flaws that will manifest at the different times under the influence of different conditions. In Buddhism the idea of karma influencing the way we are born should not be dismissed. Take for example, a certain or similar crop when grow in two countries with different soil quality and environment may produce different grains of the same crop. One crop that finds itself on a better soil and better cultivation conditions and environment may grow better and stronger while the other produce from another condition may be smaller. In the same way, karma determines the door of rebirth we enter through and the affinity we have with our future parents. If one picks a parent who happen to carry a genetic flaw, the chances of being endowned with the flaw is higher. In the same way, a man who have a high fat diet wo exercise eventually wind up w heart problems. If ever we observe this world closely, alot of our problems are man made and really indeed the Buddhist view of we being our own creator of our destinies which is interdependent to the future of our world cannot be out of place.Â
It is my personal belief that consciousness can alter genes and even harmonize our bodies. Studies have shown how meditation and yoga can improve health. Science have expressed that stress, diet and lifestyle can trigger, activate or switch on cancer cells or even sometimes genetic mutations which may handicapped oneself in the later part of one’s life. If so, aren’t all these triggered by our minds embedded deep within the spectrum of our consciousness. Even in the realm if genetic engineering, we have scientists being able to engineer new genes. Is it not intelligence embedded in our consciousness that is tweaking those genes instead of those hands. Is it not knowledge passed on from books by people who have no hand in our future experiments that allows knowledge to be transferred to the minds of the people in the future who will succeed at new tasks and scientific breakthroughs. Knowledge continues to be migrated to new minds just as consciousness continues to migrate to new bodies. Â Â
The realm of neurogenetics seemed rather new but what I hope to see one day would be science proving that our minds can switch genes on and off. The mind is already able to move outside our body by moving computer mouse and even switching on devices. If that day arrives, the study of consciousness which forms an important part of Buddhist teachings may well explain why people are born handicapped. Â (O)
If indeed divine made man in his own image, how then would homosexuality be explained in the image of the divine? There is no creator god. In fact Buddhists are most blameless becos there is simply no god to be blamed but rather we blame ourselves and maybe certain entanglement of our past lives which is influencing our present lives. All sentient beings have travelled in the six realms before in our numerous rebirths. The cross pollination of consciousness from one realm to another and from one form to another is what brings about the vast diversity and variety of life and their multidimensional attitudes. On homosexuality, animals are known to exhibit such traits therefore if ever one is to explain the cause of this in theistic terms, one can only fall short of the expectations a perfect god is expected to deliver. Only rebirth can explain this cause where consciousness from a certain sexual entity migrates to the form man while still retaining some remnants of past habits. The only difference is as a human, it is a new vehicle endowned with new functions, organic devices and new ceilings of limitations which the body of an animal cannot have.
In Buddhism, even a blade of grass has consciousness. A plant knows where to bend when there is sunlight. Some time back, someone proved that when a plant is exposed to certain music, it actually grows better. If karma affects the mind and our consciousness which eventually affects how we expresses ourselves when taking form in a womb. Karma is a better explanation for the various states we take form as instead of a sadistic imaginary friend unleashing his fury on innocent lives. One thing never fails to amaze me in theism. If divinity is going to do everything right in the end. He’s going to make every soul perfect and good again. He is going to burn the devil. Since that’s the right thing to do, why not do it at the beginning instead of all the excuses and reasons which eventually still lead to the right that went wrong in the first place. I can only think of one reason typical of heavenly beings. Pride really make one ashamed of admitting a mistake. When one is so high hard, it’s very hard to get on one’s knees.
Physical handicap is falling short of normal expectations. Buddhists believe that whatever we are endowned with whether it is a complete body endowned with normal functions, our body is a vehicle to help and not hurt. When we hurt others with our bodies, our merit take a discount. We call it 折ç¦. When we help others with our bodies, we increase in merit or 增ç¦. A hand can be used to pull a falling man up so can it choose to push a man down into a pit. An endowned tongue can help man speak the truth and speak up for what is right which benefit people and nation or to lie, insult and cheat. We use our bodies in
various ways doing various things. That’s why to be a complete human being, upholding the five precepts is important without which we may fall short of our expectations in our next rebirth. Killing shortens your life. In a personal analogy, i personally believe that everything about us has a minimum requirement to grow properly. Plants need so much water and sunlight to grow normally. I believe to be a normally endowned human being, like the plant we need some minimum standards to fulfill. Spiritually for Buddhists, the Buddha set these five precepts for lay people so that if we want to be humans again, we can still be born as normal endowned humans. So if someone is constantly lying in one’s lifetime, while we cannot be sure if this indiv will be human again but even if they do, they maybe born with shorter tongue and be unable to speak coherently. Not enough good karma to command a complete growth. Like this personal analogy. 2 man earn some money doing the same job and one has more becos one works harder. They both go to a seamtress to make some clothing. The one who earns more managed to make a suit. The one who has less only managed to make an underwear.
The law of karma has many faces and can be intricate to explain but i believe that karma is actually a standard of balance. If u upset the balance in any ways, it has to make up in some ways to regain it’s balance. Like a physical scale that rests in a neutral position of balance. Have you ever wondered if u tilt the balance of the balance on one side, the balance swings and seeks to regain it’s neutral position again by swinging to the other until it reaches a stage of zero. When u throw a pebble into a water, ripples appear and radiates outwards till it reaches a stage of stillness by cancelling itself out. When u do something wrong to others. Naturally you invite the aggrieved to come after you to seek justice in order to seek closure and redress their grievances in order to play fair. Physical handicap has many causes. Some spiritually driven. Some triggered by oneself like getting in a accident for drink driving. Some debtors in past lives seeking payment. Some which I believed is triggered by karma that influence our consciousness during the stages we take form. Some by affinity to our future parents.
Rather than spend time merry making. Spend time merit making.
The human body is also known to be a parasitic warmbed to a vast variety of fungus and bacteria living off us internally and externally. The physical body in Buddhist term is also known as the retribution body. So to say, whatever good we do with it generates merit but whatever wrong and abuse we do with it and onto others, we pay with our bodies in future lives or our body will take the hit. Those that have been aggrieved becos of our past deeds become our spiritual debtors and in the forms of illness, pain and other forms of suffering, they embed themselves in us in certain forms. When karma ripens, they will show their true form waiting to right the wrong we have done to them by becoming a form of suffering to us as we waste our lives bound to a incomplete or damaged physical form. If even living beings who are aggrieved would delight in watching those who did them injustice suffer, how much more anger would spiritual debtors not take delight in and be difficult to pacify. It is little wonder when a body is good health, one indulge in enjoyment. When one is in suffering, one cannot but hope to cut the part that suffers away from us. That’s why the Buddha mentioned that he teaches nothing but suffering and the end of suffering. Freedom is indeed the most precious.
Our entire body is filled with consciousness. But the we are the lucky one to be the master consciousness managing a heart and mind. While we seem to think that we have complete control over everything but even a small virus can bring us to our knees. As anyone who studied biology or virology. They will tell you that micro organism including virus and bacteria seem to have some sort of intelligence on their own. They can evolve, strategise, defend, attack or even disguise and hide themselves. Given this fact, are these not consciousness at another level? Some time back I picked up a pureland vcd and in one of the case studies was a beautiful gal who ended up with a huge tumour on her face. She died eventually but being a pureland practitioner, her ashes revealed relics and now she is in amitabha’s pureland. The victim shared how a past life debtor actually caught up with her and manifest as a tumour on her face. While one may find it unbelievable but anyone who watched journey to the west would know how the monkey god, a fictional character actually made himself so small that he can get into the ox faced demon body and tortured him inside. If that is not too far fetched. Think about how past life debtors can aspire themselves to become micro consciousness and embed themselves in us in order to seek payment.
Every man is born with some cancer cells. Before we know it, our debtors already embedded themselves within us when we took form in the womb. If kids can get cancer these days, it’s not far fetched.
In this time and age, it is still disturbing to see how people can be satisfied with assurances of knowing the answer to sufferings (eg. being born handicapped) when one dies and meets the creator. They call it faith — blind faith! :dizzy:
Makes one shudders to think how ignorance/delusions can really blind one to the truth and waste a lifetime of opportunity to train and be enlightened.
Genetic tendencies is an expression of karma too. In Buddhism, plants are not sentient lifeforms though they are definitely lifeforms – but are not complex enough to be sentient. Amituofo