GET YOUR HAPPY ON! - a meliorist worldview

Lately, I’ve been getting questions such as “How did I get such bad karma?” or “Why is my karma so rotten?” This is the wrong way to look at karma, my friends. In Sanskrit, karma means “action.” We retain bad karma because of something that we have done or something we did not do. Only a handful of people in the world have no bad karma, but they do walk among us — not that I have met one, nor would I know if I had.

Karma is not the same as sin or luck. The more I think about it, I don’t think luck even exists, and I don’t subscribe to the concept of sin. I don’t believe in sin because sin has no utility as a rational descriptor in an objective test, and guilt is a fruitless emotion. (This is a good post to read if you are burdened by guilt.) Sin and bad karma are similar — just as good deeds and good karma are similar — but it really would be better if you completely discarded every previous misconception about karma.

One’s karma is the aggregate of all the past actions in which one has partaken, all the present actions in which one is partaking, and all future actions in which a person intends to partake. Karma is easily transferred too, so one could easily inherit good and bad karma from a loved one (just as easily as one could from a stranger on the street).

This is an extreme vulgarization, but I sometimes think of karma as a credit card that the Universe issued me when I was born. As soon as I started to exhibit free will, I began accumulating a debt of bad karma by acting selfishly toward others (as is the case with most young people). Eventually, as my conscience and sense of life purpose started evolving, I began behaving more selflessly toward others, and my karma started to improve.

Despite a supportive and loving family, I spent many years alone and unhappy because my debt to the Universe was substantial. Through the diligent employment of the Noble Eightfold Path, I became able to improve my life many times over. Today, I am a happily married man to a gorgeous, intelligent, and kind-hearted woman who reciprocates my devotion to her. I love the life that I am living today, and I have my good karma to thank for it.

Specifically, to improve your karma:

1) Replace all of your negative thoughts with good, non-violent thoughts, but don’t beat yourself up if a negative thought enters your mind (this takes practice, so go easy on yourself but keep at it);

2) Participate in more selfless activities and fewer selfish activities, and never partake in any kind of violence toward yourself or any other living being (this includes emotional and physical violence);

3) Speak well of others or don’t say anything, and always speak honestly but courteously; and

4) Make a living by benefiting other people — or at the very least, stop making a living by hurting others. (Note: this one is the hardest. It is so easy to make a good living by creating disharmony in the world, and often the jobs that help people don’t provide much fiscal revenue. I am sorry, but that is the price of a real happiness that will last you the rest of your life.)

The four steps mentioned above constitute the Ethical Conduct branch of the Noble Eightfold Path (i.e. Loving Thought, Loving Action, Loving Speech, and Loving Livelihood). Truly ethical conduct is the best and only way to improve one’s karma. The four other steps of the Noble Eightfold Path help Buddhists start and continue to maintain the Middle Way, or the path to true liberation.

Be good to yourselves, my friends. Life is too short. I hope you’re able to find happiness in whatever way works for you, as long as you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else in the process.

Dear readers, please learn from my mistakes.

For example, if you are not used to eating a particular item, don’t overindulge regardless of how delicious the exotic food item might be.

If you are new to Indian or Thai food, you might want to go easy on the vindaloo or the green curry respectively. If you are in certain foreign countries, you might be wary when imbibing the local tap water.

If, as it was in my case, you have been on a low-fat diet for months and have been offered delectable culinary treats straight out of the Paula Dean cookbook, go very slow. The tastiest, most sumptuous treats can often agitate a tender stomach, and deep fried catfish and hush puppies are high on the list of purgatives — a fact that I knew and ignored!

I thought, I used to eat this stuff all the time. No big deal. It’ll be just like olden times.

Wrong! I have looked into the face of the devil, and her dark sacraments are butter, corn oil, cream, lard, and sugar. She seems pudgy and friendly, but be warned, my friends, Paula Dean is a dangerous woman.

After gorging myself on the delicious buffet offerings a cousin had prepared, I have been suffering with three days of bad gas (to put it mildly). And for what? To share in a moment of conviviality that later made me look very foolish in the eyes of my family? That was a bad karma moment for me, folks. Lesson learned! (Maybe…)

Be kind to your bodies, my friends. It’s as important to be as good to yourselves, as you are to others. Moderation is the key.

The other day, on my parents’ driveway, I observed a dead baby bird on that seemed to have fallen from an overhead tree branch nest. A few ants were insepecting the unfeathered chick. What should one do and think when one sees something like that?

I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want anyone to step on the dead bird. I picked the little chick with a piece of bark and placed its body beneath some leafy undergrowth near the tree. I don’t know if I took the most appropriate action, but I did what I thought was best at the time.

Karma is like that. In a lifetime full of split-second decisions, it is difficult to KNOW what is the best action to take at any specific moment; we are all geniuses in hindsight. The Eightfold Path is useful in this instance, because it suggests that you probably won’t make the wrong decision if you act with a heart full of loving-kindness toward every living being.

Many years ago (before I even became a Buddhist), I witnessed one of our cats crushing an ant as she stepped outdoors. She did not notice that she had stepped on the ant; she simply began her morning patrol of the yard.

The event was remarkable in my mind. Why had I witnessed the event? The cat is so nimble, so preternaturally aware of all around her, yet she took no notice of the ant she had crushed with her foot. It wasn’t as though the cat knew and didn’t care, nor did the cat notice the ant and play with it as was her wont. I never forgot about that moment. Maybe it was an insignificant event in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason, it met something to me.

After I had been studying Buddhism for a few years, I asked my dharma teacher, the abbott of a Theravedan monestary, about the event. He said, “Well, of course, the Law of Karma applies differently to animals.” Duh, right? Well, it really helped me have a fuller understanding of the integrated relationship of all things.

Because they lack cognition, animals are unable to conform fully to the Noble Eightfold Path, so they are trapped in the cycle of suffering — ironic, considering that one of the objectives toward achieving Enlightenment is maintaining the mind in a concentrated state without cognition.

To become Enlightened, one must have the mind of a loving animal, and an animal must be reincarnated as a human to escape the cycle of suffering (by reacquiring the loving mind of non-thought).

Haw! Fie! Zounds, I say!

After two days of blogging about the inanity of gun violence, the Supreme Court has overturned a decades long ban on handguns in our nation’s capital , and it has me hot under the collar — so hot that I couldn’t concentrate.

I recognize the Bill of Rights seems to guarantee the right to bear arms, but hiding behind the Constitution when thousands of innocent people are getting killed by stolen guns seems foolish to me. More guns = more killings, it seems a common sense equation ignored by too many people in power. I hope and pray that this judicial decision does open the door to an even greater surge in gun violence.

I decided to get away from the news before I became even more frustrated.

I had some Netflix DVDs that I decided to take to the post office. I quickly checked CTA Bus Tracker to see when my bus (the 50 Damen) would arrive. The website informed me that it would arrive at my apartment building in 2 minutes.

Great! I thought. Just in time. I ran downstairs to catch my bus. The 50 was on time, but I wasn’t. I watched my bus sail southward right before my eyes.

No big deal. I’ll just walk to the post office, and catch a bus along the way. As I made the mile-long journey (with a jazzy glockenspiel soundtrack going in my head), two No.50 buses passed by me in the opposite direction. I am a brisk walker so I thought nothing of beating the bus to my destination.

After dropping my envelope off at the post the post office, there was no bus in sight so I immediately turned around and began walking the other way (north).

It is over 80° outside in Chicago right now; it is sunny and humid, so I was sweating a little bit. It takes a lot of energy to move around someone my size, so I was getting a little hungry too. I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses or sunscreen. As another southbound No.50 passed me going the opposite direction, I started getting a little worried about skin and eye cancer.

I walked two miles before seeing a bus heading my way, and by that time I had already arrived back at my apartment building.

I left the apartment building to get rid of my frustration with a power walk, and I just picked up more frustration along the way. Life is full of irony.

The only sure-fire method of eliminating frustration that I have found is a two part method: surrendering to the will of the Universe (or the will of God, if you prefer), and meditating with an empty mind. The method takes years of practice to master; however, meditation at the beginner level is surprisingly easy.

Be easy on yourselves and each other, my friends. The world is hard enough. There is no sense in making harder.

Continuing with yesterday’s theme, I feel obliged to write more about Chicago’s gun violence. Every day more people become victims of violent crime. Often gang members perpetrate territorial drive-by shootings that result in collateral damage, murdering innocent bystanders whose proximity to the intended targets put them in harm’s way.

Monday night, an assassination attempt hospitalized Josue Torres, an 8-year old boy who was in the same vehicle as his alleged gang member parents; the intended likely target (Josue’s step-father) was uninjured.

Tuesday, Chicago’s police superintendent Jody Weis told reporters that Josue’s near death was clearly “the parent’s fault.” Weis believes that the parents’ gang activities was directly responsible for their child’s injury.

As cold as it may seem, I have to agree with Weis, Chicago’s top cop. The parents’ fault is implicit if they are/were involved in gang activity. “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” Common sense, right?

Are you familiar with the concept of Karma, dear readers?

Many people equate Karma with luck, but that is a vulgar misinterpretation.

In Sanskrit, Karma translates as “action.” Every thing you do or don’t do is Karma. Positive deeds are good Karma, just as negative activities are bad Karma.

One’s Karma has an immediate effect in the world, and one’s Karma always returns. It is as certain as the first observation of gravity — “What comes up must come down.”

If one has good Karma, one will benefit from the kindness of others. When one has bad Karma, others will harm that person.

Josue’s gang member parents have unfortunately incurred Karma’s swift retribution. I feel very sorry for them. They must not have known about how Karma works. Josue and his family need our thoughts and our prayers, so that his parents may turn a new leaf and rescue their child from future danger.

Be good to each other, my friends.

Chicago suffers from gun violence. This is not news — Chicago’s violent crime has earned it notoriety all over the world — and many cities experience more violent deaths per person/per year. Yet, I feel that my first sentence bears repeating.

Chicago suffers from gun violence, and the people of Chicago are suffering from these senseless murders.

Any violence is too much, my friends. I’d like to know when the violence will end. When will the powers that be say, “Enough is enough!”? Or will that be too late? Will we be living in a police state by that time? Out of love and concern for one another, I would like all people to come together and end gun violence — that means social activism to prevent gun violence while lobbying our politicians for gun control at the local and national levels.

Monday night, an 8-year old boy was shot several times in Humboldt Park. His doctors have promised his parents that he will survive. Thank God! But this shooting followed a resurgence in gang-related gun violence this month. Dozens of teenagers have been killed this year; many were innocent bystanders who had absorbed stray bullets. Any kind of violence is unnecessary, but gun violence is completely insane.

I went on the Internet to research gun control lobbyists to see if there was any activist group that I could join who would help me contact my Congressman, because I want him to increase his effort to stop this insanity.

I didn’t find a lot of information on gun control groups, but I did find a glut of crazy pro-gun lobbyists. These dudes are seriously out of their minds. You need to read what some of these crazy people are saying. Just Google the keywords “gun control lobby” or “gun control activism.” You are sure to read a slew of certifiably insane codswallop, written by reactionary psychopaths who treat the Second Amendment like a religion.

Don’t these people understand that kids are dying on the streets of the inner cities. Do they care? I worry that the soul of this nation is becoming more corrupt with the unwarranted death of each victim.

This is the perfect time to end gun violence. Today. You have to start today. You have to say, “Enough is enough.” I love you very much, America, and I know that you are capable of doing better.

The big story TODAY is the Crosstown Classic here in Chicago. That’s the weekend when the Cubs and the White Sox compete in one of the world’s greatest sports rivalries.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of rivalry and competition. When you set out to make someone else look bad, the person you will hurt most is yourself, but most sports enthusiasts don’t understand that. Every year the local media likes to play up this rivalry that upsets so many Chicagoans.

Even if you’re not a local, you might be aware of the decades old tension between Sox and Cubs fans. It’s all about geography. Chicago is a long city, about 40 miles from north to south. The distinction is so great that Chicago has three main populations — Northsiders, Southsiders and Westsiders — and among them, a 19th Century socio-economic cold war exists to this day.

The wealthiest neighborhoods are on the North side; the South side has the most ethnically homogenous neighborhoods; and the West Side has some of the country’s poorest ethnic neighborhoods (though poverty and violent crime exists all over the city). For many years, there was only a North and a South side, engendering a strong rivalry between the two prior to baseball’s arrival.

The Cubs’ Wrigley Field was nestled firmly in the heart of the wealthy Northside, and the Southsiders did not feel welcome on “the other side of the river.” Early on, Cubs’ fans garnered their reputation as snobs, and there may have been some truth to that if the Northsiders sense of entitlement overshadowed their better nature.

For many years of Chicago’s early baseball history, the Cubs was the only team. The White Sox is known as “the Second City’s Second Team.”

When the American League finally came to Chicago in 1901, the Southsiders swelled with pride that they finally had a team that they could call their own — over a hundred years ago!!! — and that was before the American League joined the Majors, so Cubs’ fans were still condescending to Sox fans.

In defense of Cubs’ fans, American League baseball isn’t big boy baseball. They use a designated hitter. (Painfully, I must confess that I was born a Cubs’ fan — and I’ll probably die one — but that doesn’t mean that I condone snobbery or the ill will between the fans.)

Chicago needs to leave all this nasty unnecessary bickering behind in the 20th Century. This is the Dawning of the Age of Acquarius!

I used to have a friend who is a White Sox fan. We drove across the state together to attend a friend’s wedding, and he would go out of his way to pick fights with Cubs fans. He believes that anger and hatred are good emotions, that they kick-start social evolution.

I told him that engendering anger in another human being is bad karma, but purposefully doing so is in the very worst category of bad karma. He said that I was a pussy, and I told him that his psychopathic gangland mentality would get him shot someday; we haven’t spoken since, which is unfortunate because our rift parallels the odii that North side and South side Chicagoans might hold for one another for many generations to come. Healing has to start with the self, but I don’t think his mind and soul are open to healing.

Love one another as you yourself would choose to be loved. To quote another prophet, “Be excellent to each other, and… party on, Dudes!!!”