The heavy fog of karma

To sum up Buddhism we might say:  The Buddha invites us to behold our true nature which is clear light and space-like. More importantly, this nature is real and active.  It animates our mortal body but is, itself, not mortal—it is immortal (amrita). To realize this immortal nature is nirvana.

Sounds easy until we begin to look for this nature or Buddha-nature within the framework of our samsaric body (the Five Aggregates or pañcaskandha). So why so much difficulty?  It is because of the karma we have generated.  It runs counter to any effort we might undertake to behold our true nature.  According to the Mahaparinirvana Sutra:

“O good man! The case is the same with all beings. They do not come near to a good teacher of the Way. So, they cannot see the Buddha-Nature which is within, even though they possess it. And they are reigned over by greed, lust, anger, and ignorance. So they fall into the realms of hell, animals, hungry ghosts, asuras, candalas, and get born in such various houses as Kshatriya, Brahmin, Vaishya and Sudra. The karma generated by the mind leads a person, though born a human, into such lives as a cripple, lame, deaf, blind or dumb person, and to the 25 existences, where such as greed, lust, anger and ignorance reign over the mind, and the person is unable to know of the presence of the Buddha-Nature.”

It takes an extraordinary amount of effort to behold our true nature (Essence of Mind, pure Mind, Unborn Mind, One Mind, Buddha-nature, Suchness, etc.).  When in the coils of our karma “reigned over by greed, lust, and anger” (i.e., the Three Poisons) we have to strive to lay karma's powerful influence aside, or the same, penetrate through it like an airplane going through heavy fog flying on instruments until we come into the bright karmaless sun. 

 

Comments

[minx]

My master told me;

"One of the most treacherous delusions for a dharma student, are self-imposed opinions born out of ignorance . Being self-empty in nature, they offer nothing more than the self-empty. Feasting on the self-empty brings no spiritual nourishment, only starvation."

[Suki]

Not only is there much light, but much warmth behind your words too.