Book Title: Karma the Mechanism Author(s): Hermann Kuhn Publisher: Crosswind Publishing GermanyPage 33
________________ 32 KARMA - THE MECHANISM SUTRAS at all accumulate 'good' karma. It only attaches us to more boredom, rigidity and negative emotions (resentment) against the 'bad' guys who seem to have all the fun. We need to fundamentally understand why we are performing 'good' actions. We need to realize that exploring higher dimensions of consciousness is infinitely more exciting, vibrant and rewarding than any 'bad' - i.e. selfishly motivated - action governed by greed, anger, deception, pride, carelessness, obsession or laziness could ever be. Only with this inspiration deeply rooted in our emotions will our 'positive activities produce the freedom from karmic attachments we yearn for - i.e. the freedom from persistently recurring uncomfortable, dissatisfying and frustrating situations and emotions. We need to discard the misleading idea that 'good' actions necessarily have to be in harmony with commonly accepted views of society. Mahatma Gandhi's life is an excellent example that positive action can be highly creative, adventurous, exciting, powerful, daring and much more, yet he certainly upset all established opinions and disrupted much of the prevalent social consensus of his time. To seriously go for higher dimensions of our life takes far more courage, steadfastness and strength than the pursuit of the accepted, egoistic goals of a society which essentially are only geared towards preserving its current stagnant status-quo. Since every action inevitably attracts karma that may possibly bind us, the question comes to mind whether we might not be better off to refrain from any activity - no matter if positive or negative. From the perspective of the all-comprehensive underlying reality - nischaya-naya - this certainly is true. All activity attracts karma, may cause karmic bonds and thus obscure the radiant inner nature of our consciousness. Yet from the practical perspective of daily life - vyavahara naya - the classification of action in positive ('good') and negative ('bad') proves of great help for our inner growth. The classification offers an orien Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
1 ... 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244