When We Are Nailed To Our Cross
Buddhist practitioners are essentially very kind and forgiving people. And they tend to make excuses on your behalf for when things go awry in your life. Some make you feel better by calling the tragedies in your life as “purifications”. That almost gives it a ring of martyrdom. ..or similar. How nice. Others may attribute the cause to you, yourself but are kind enough to apportion the sin, the fault, and the wickedness to an abominable act you did in a “previous” life. And that infers, you are ok in this life.
The basic truth is this: often we are nailed nicely to a cross we have to bear simply because we have been nasty, greedy and self serving in THIS life…and the Effect just caught up. Karma very plain and simply caught up. You don’t have to be caught out for karma to catch up. Karma was ahead of you, the very moment you thought of the misdeed.
If I have been living my life in a non-virtuous fashion,
there are only 2 things I can do. One, be in denial of Karma and blame everything and everyone else for all that is going wrong and at each step, conjure up sly and devious tactics to escape. Or Two, face up to it, take it on the chin and thank the compassionate Buddha that you are working out your karmic salvation before it comes back in spades and with interest.
Dharma and a non virtuous life cannot co-exist and if we find that for all the effort we put into dharma we are producing meager fruits, then you can be sure that the tree is rotten inside. If dharma is really that precious to us, we need to be rid of our deceitful ways. That means to face up to every single mistake and wickedness in our lives. It may feel like death, and indeed we must be dead to the old self to come alive in the Dharma.
Either that, or it’s living a lie and death forever more. It’s
a nice thought to think that a Mahassidha or "God" may come again to absorb our sins. But mainly we will die purely because of our own sins. Death doesn’t kill us. Our misdeeds do.
When terrible things happen to good people, it may be karma or purification. When terrible things happen to BAD people…it is an OPPORTUNITY to redeem.
For all of us who dare call ourselves students of the Buddha's teachings, students of our Guru, there will come a time when we have to decide conclusively and without a doubt: either the Buddha is right or He is not. If He is, then we have to adjust our thoughts and live our lives accordingly no matter how painful the transition is.
If I should find myself being purged of my evil ways whilst having people who care for me, around and about me...that is true blessings.
If I should lose all of my dear friends and loved ones as I am purged and punished, then I shall move on and dedicate all my virtuous acts to them out of love, out of gratitude. I shall meet them again, maybe not in this lifetime, but for sure.
