Means, Ends, and Karma

February 1, 2009

First UU Church of Austin

4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button.

READING

This reading comes from an interview with the 14th Dalai Lama

“Recently I am emphasizing that due to the modern economy, and also due to information and education, the world is now heavily interdependent, interconnected. Under such circumstances, the concept of ‘we’ and ‘they’ is gone: harming your neighbor is actually harming yourself. If you do negative things towards your neighbor, that is actually creating your own suffering. And helping them, showing concern about others’ welfare – actually these are the major factors of your own happiness. If you want a community full of joy, full of friendship, you should create that possibility. If you remain negative, and meantime want more smiles and friendship from your neighbors, that’s illogical. If you want a more friendly neighbor, you must create the atmosphere. Then they will respond.”

PRAYER

Please join me in meditation.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

We join together in meditation and prayer this morning seeking to realize that the fabric of our lives is woven by our own hands, every thought, every word, every action is a thread in the social tapestry. So as we weave let us always be mindful that each and every thread is a contribution, our contribution, to the whole. Amen.

SERMON: Means, Ends, and Karma

In Aldous Huxley’s 1937 work Ends and Means, he says:

“…far from being irrelevant, our metaphysical beliefs are the finally determining factor in our actions.”

Far from being irrelevant, our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality are the foundation of our choices about how we live, about how we act, about what means and ends we choose.

Far from being irrelevant, our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality frame our perspective on how we can and do act to create, sustain, and change the physical, social, and spiritual world of which we are all a part.

Karma is the concept of “action” – understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.

Karma is not about the reincarnation or rebirth of the individual.

Karma is not a cosmic scorecard of good and evil deeds.

Karma is not a justification or a rationalization for the good or bad things that happen to people.

Karma is the concept of “action” – understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.

There is a story in the Avatamsaka Sutra that tells of a wonderful net which stretches to infinity in every direction and has, suspended in each eye, a single glittering jewel, and in each of these infinite jewels is reflected the light of every other jewel.

UU’s often tell this story as an exemplar of the seventh principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

But I think that the story’s central metaphor is commonly misunderstood with the glittering gems in the net representing individual people. People reflecting each other, relating to each other, connecting to each other. This could not be farther from the truest meaning of the metaphor, the self is an illusion, the self is not the gem. This is possibly the most difficult and most often ignored teaching of Buddhism, but it is also the most fundamental and important. The self is an illusion. Let me see if these words from the Dalai Lama can help elucidate this point:

“All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act. Many ordinary human activities, both positive and negative, cannot even be conceived of apart from the existence of other people. Even the committing of harmful actions depends on the existence of others. Because of others, we have the opportunity to earn money if that is what we desire in life. Similarly, in reliance upon the existence of others it becomes possible for the media to create fame or disrepute for someone. On your own you cannot create any fame or disrepute no matter how loud you might shout. The closest you can get is to create an echo of your own voice.”

The glittering gem in the net is action, the unit of karma is action, the basis of interdependence and the cause of the entire cycle of cause and effect is action. The chain of causality, or more accurately, the interconnected web of causality, is not made only of the actions of people, or only of the action of animate beings, it is made up of the actions of all existence. It does not stop for time, it does not stop at your comfort zone, or at the boundary of your skin, or at the edge of your thoughts. Each gem in the net is an action and in each and every action is reflected every other action that has happened, is happening and will happen.

To continue in the words of the Dalai Lama:

“Thus interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Not only higher forms of life but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without any religion, law, or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an innate recognition of their interconnectedness. The most subtle level of material phenomena is also governed by interdependence. All phenomena, from the planet we inhabit to the oceans, clouds, forests, and flowers that surround us, arise in dependence upon subtle patterns of energy. Without their proper interaction, they dissolve and decay.”

This is the religious root of karma, understanding the proper interaction of things, understanding the proper interactions of action, and more specifically, understanding the proper interactions of human action. There are the four laws of karma:

The first law is that results are similar to the cause. Karma and its results are certain and unfailing. Positive actions of body, speech, and mind will always bring the positive result of some form of happiness and benefit. Negative actions of body, speech, and mind will always bring the negative result of some form of suffering. Karma and its results are exactly like a seed and its fruit.

This first rule is often compared with Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8:

“Don’t be fooled. You can’t outsmart God. A man gathers a crop from what he plants. Some people plant to please their sinful nature. From that nature they will harvest death. Others plant to please the Holy Spirit. From the Spirit they will harvest eternal life. (New International Reader’s Version)

There is a famous photograph from the 60’s with a woman holding a protest sign that says, “Bombing for Peace is like Fornicating for Virginity.” OK, the sign doesn’t say fornicating – But the idea is the same, the same as the first law of karma, the same as that expressed in Galatians, the same as core ideas found in every major religion – you will reap what you sow. You will reap only what you sow. You will reap exactly what you sow.

The second law of karma is that there are no results without a cause. Actions not carried out, will not bring results. Things do not just appear out of nothing. If the cause has not been created, the effect will not be experienced. Nothing is self-manifesting, nothing is exempt from the web of cause and effect.

The third law of karma is: once an action is done, the result is never lost. Once the stone has been dropped in the lake, once it sinks to the bottom, once the ripples spread, the lake can never be the same again. Once we have weaved a thread into the tapestry, it cannot be removed. Once the gem is reflected in the net, it’s image shall never be erased.

The fourth law of karma is this: Karma expands. Karma is organic, it is related to the nature of life. As in our prayer today, one way in which Karma expands is that actions lead to the formation of habits. So within one’s own life, each action sets a precedent for future action:

An old Cherokee was teaching his young grandson one of life’s most important lessons. He told the young boy the following parable:

“There is a fight going on inside each of us. It is a terrible fight between two wolves,” he said.

“One wolf is evil. He is anger, rage, envy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

“The second wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about this for a moment. Then he asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win this fight?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This is the fourth law of karma, each action in your life feeds one of the wolves, your ignorance about which wolf is getting fed does not change it, your illusions about which wolf is getting fed does not change it. Like muscle memory, the act of feeding one wolf more often then the other becomes habit. Do you think that your life is kept more interesting by tossing the bad wolf the occasional bone? Do you think that every bone has to be intentional? As we grow older, we throw more and more bones out of habit. Yet the results of these actions stand.

There are good reasons that we form habits, there is a cognitive need for us to simplify the routines of our lives into repeated and comfortable habits. And I don’t think that habits are bad things to have, but we must recognize that the bulk of our contributions to the world, the bulk of the threads that we each contribute to the social tapestry are woven out of habit. One of the common religious prescriptions for this problem is to cultivate mindfulness.

I don’t think that mindfulness means not developing habits, it doesn’t mean that we develop some sort of hyper-vigilance. What it means is that we reflect upon, own, and take responsibility for all of our actions and especially all of our habits. It means that we apply ourselves to the difficult religious task of continuing to tear down the veils of ignorance and illusion that separate us from the true nature of reality. It means that we recognize that while part of karma relates to our intentions, our intention to do good or our intention to do evil, the fact of karma, the fact of causality is not altered. We can do evil and believe that we are doing good if we are not in right and honest relationship with the universe and with each other. We can feed the evil wolf over and over again, shoveling food into his mouth at an ever more fevered pitch because we believe that we are acting rightly and we cannot comprehend why our righteous action continues to bear evil fruit.

You can choose to be right, or you can choose to be peaceful, you cannot choose both simultaneously, you cannot feed the evil wolf and the good wolf the same morsel. You cannot weave the dark thread and the light thread with the same motion of the loom.

We have spoken a lot about karma this morning, but it is time for us to consider what it means to us when we are making decisions, making plans, and choosing courses of action in our lives.

When we talk about means and ends. Our means are simply our actions. They are the strategically selected thoughts, words, actions, and habits that we carry out in our pursuit of some ends. The means that we choose will create the ends which are their natural, logical, and karmic conclusion.

What about ends? You may choose any ends. But you must realize that ends only become realized by walking the path that leads to them, and that path is made up of the stepping stones of each and every means that is employed in their achievement.

Far from being irrelevant, laws of cause and effect are in operation.

Far from being irrelevant, these laws apply standards of good and evil to the actions of humanity.

Far from being irrelevant, these laws of karma govern our capacity to use means to realize ends.

No, you cannot bomb your way to peace, or fornicate your way to virginity.

You cannot reap that which you did not sow.

You cannot make a reality out of wishful thinking.

But you can create heaven on earth by learning and acting on the truth.

You can change the world with your love.

You can create the life that you want, one action at a time.