Whether or not our karma is good or bad depends on how well we understand what the Buddha actually taught. If somebody’s karma is good they will find teachers who never fail to point to pure Mind (cittamatra); who tirelessly teach this Mind which is Buddha Mind. These same teachers will teach that true religious practice means to see this pure Mind which is the fundamental nature of phenomena in the same way that water is the fundamental nature of waves.
If someone has good karma it will not take them long to see through teachers who do not understand what the Buddha taught. These bad teachers will point to what is not pure Mind. They will teach worthless external practices that rely on rituals.
In my own case, I spent several years with a worthless Soto Zen roshi who never once taught pure Mind; more importantly, that we must turn to this Mind and not our conditioned, mortal body which is made up of the five Mara aggregates. But my good karma helped me to see the light. When I read the texts in our small library, I was struck by the beauty and profundity of the Lankavatara Sutra and the works of Dr. D.T. Suzuki.
Eventually my good karma led me, of all people, to a Nichiren Bishop! From him, I learned that I must seek this pure Mind in the jungle of my deluded and defiled mind. I felt somewhat like the little boy in The Oxherding Pictures of Zen master Kuo-an Shih-yuan searching for the ox. Not wasting any time with useless practices I had previously learned, I set about to find this ox/Mind. And then I got lucky. The most surprising thing of all was that this Mind is real—absolutely real. It is more real than the heavens and this solid earth. I subsequently found out that the more I turned to pure Mind the greater became my understanding of Buddhism. Every discourse of the Buddha pointed to it; every Mahayana Sutra was about its greatness (maha).
Unfortunately, those who have bad karma have no inclination to realize Buddha Mind. They tend to follow bad teachers who never manage to discourse on the real meaning of Zen, that it is the school of Buddha Mind. It is like demons going in search of great demon teachers. Nothing you can say to such people can dissuade them from their journey to the hells. If you told them that there in no phenomena apart from pure Mind which explains why the Buddha exhorted us to seek Mind, it would mean nothing to them.
When Bodhidharma said that people do not understand about the movement of their own hands and feet, he was referring to people with bad karma who will always fall into the river of endless rebirth. These people have never made contact with Mind’s animative power. It’s all nonsense to them. Their inclinations lie elsewhere in the world of materialism; of having a good time, and putting one's faith in demon wisdom that says, when you’re dead there is no more.
Making money is good karma!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bdeizHM9OU
Posted by: Jure | April 04, 2012 at 06:23 PM
"Karma is intention" ~ Buddha
Posted by: K Grey | April 03, 2012 at 07:05 PM