Karma

[ken knight]

Hi Ben,
Our names must be part of some rhyme somewhere.
> I have one minor question in your view of this.
> Why do you feel that placing no judgment presents
> imbalance?
> From what little I have learned and read of advaita
> we are
> each
> seen as perfect in such fashion that the whole
> accepts both
> light and dark. I can't grasp the use of judgment to
> say
> there
> is imbalance in this.
Your follow up to my proposal
introduces...understandably...the word 'judgment' but
this is a word I would not use because of its
connotations with right/wrong analysis.  I would
prefer to use discrimination but even that has
problems in its contemporary usage.  I had put 'weigh
up' in inverted commas because I was quoting this
expression from an earlier posting in this thread on
karma.
You are right in your observation but it is based on a
misunderstanding of what I was saying so I will
rephrase what I wanted to express in two ways:
Firstly I will re-quote a statement from a young ten
year old pupil of mine when we were discussing law
some time ago. He had observed that 'Truth is like a
feather'. He meant by this that when he lied the words
were heavy but when speaking the truth they were as
light as a feather...ie weightless. They flowed
naturally.  From this we can talk of actions in accord
with dharma being weightless as they do not need any
intermediary analysis to fit in with 'my' desire.
Secondly I will use the Sankhya structure of
Spirit/Nature,...Purusha/Prakriti....but from an
advaitin perspective of a unified whole rather than
the sankhyan dualism.  The organ of
discrimination...buddhi...needs a preponderence of the
guna tamas in order to function correctly.  When there
is a preponderence of the guna rajas in the buddhi
then this creates an activity in the buddhi which
inevitably leads to the ahankara being attached to
ideas such as right and wrong and the subjectivity
that flows from that. This results in 'my will'
clouding the will of Absolute or the identification of
the substratum of consciousness with the maayaa.
When the correct guna is in place in each of the
organs of mind then the prakriti/maayaa exists only
as a veil that reveals the rather than deludes.
In the verses from John that I had quoted I understand
Jesus to be directing us to look beyond the right and
wrong distinctions implied in the question on the
karmic influences or causes on the man's blindness to
the need for the revelation of divine will...the works
of he who sent me...........through discriminated
action, or action without attachment to the fruits of
the action.
For example: If we try to see the Self in others so
that we act righteously then we may improve our
behaviour but discrimination will not function
properly because of the preponderence of rajas in the
buddhi.  If the action is allowed to take place
lawfully then the Self realises Itself in the
participants and the action itself because it is the
substratum of each.
So many words for such a simple idea but the One does
keep on appearing as the many so I hope that you can
discern the One through these many words,
Peace and Happiness
Ken




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