If we suffer contempt on behalf of our beliefs, we will put an end to the bad karma we created in past lives, and be on the fast track to enlightenment. But we know that our past lives do not really exist. Even if they do, they are delusions. Our past lives can be thought of as our former selves, our former personalities, captured over each second of our life. The bad karma we created in our past, our delusional behavior, our bad deeds, should cause us to become miserable as we reap the consequences of our actions. By suffering contempt and emotional trauma, we deepen our spirituality, revise our outlook on the world, and recognize the bad karma for what it is, illusory, from the right perspective, that of detachment.
In the second part of the passage, Buddha talks about the vastness of our bodies of merit. Although he describes these as so large that they would make us mentally disturbed if we tried to fully conceive them, it doesn't matter, as we are not attached to their largeness. We wish to do as much good as we can, but we do not view it as a contest or as an achievement. The body of merit produced by us is inconceivable, completely transcending the merit we produce by actions which cause good on the surface, but which in the end serve our own selfish desires. It is like we make waves on the surface of the ocean which move out across the ocean, along vast distances, and touch millions of boats. Our effect on those boats can be imagined, but is certainly not fully known to us, since we can only see a few feet away, and even then we can't see clearly.
3 comments:
it's a very modern idea, really. Instead of doing the work yourself, you get a proxy.
Well, responding to ELijahh, there is some merit that will pay off the `debt,' which in the Christian tradition is the acceptance of Jesus. It is a spiritual transformation. From my perspective, one can cancel the `debt' by a similar spiritual transformation, achieved through practice and meditation. Then suffering can be converted to spiritual gain, by viewing it from the right perspective. Suffering is an oppurtunity to improve ourselves by practicing patience, tolerance, acceptance etc. Thus bad karma becomes good. The spiritual transformation that effects this is similar to the Christian concept of contact with the Holy Spirit, and in Buddhist terms may be called realizing one's inherent Buddha-nature. Similarly, the enlightened tranquil outlook that is the 'goal' of Zen practice can be compared with the Kingdom of God that according to Jesus lies within us all. Thich Nhat Hanh makes many such comparisons in his book "Living Buddha, Living Christ," a book I highly recommend.
By the way, v., I like your conception of past lives as past selves: The almost infinite trail of changing personality and self-identification that follows us or accumulates behind us.
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