Constructing The Future

The Buddhist term “karma” means that all our

activities have repercussions. Newton said all

actions have equal and opposite reactions,

speaking about three dimensional  physics.

Karma is the fifth dimension, time is the fourth.

If we perform actions that are harmful for 

ourselves or others, an equal reaction of harm 

will occur for us, now, or in  the future. The 

same holds true for good, beneficial actions we

might preform…good begets good.

You may have heard the term “instant karma”,

as, for example, when someone does a selfie

on a cliff and falls off…or, someone robs a store

and is shot by a policeman. But karma is as 

vast as space, and as eternal as time. We can’t 

see to the end of the universe, nor can we 

understand the concept of eternity. In the same 

way, we can only observe the outward 

manifestation of a person’s karma.

We could say karma is somewhat connected to 

our genes…we have our mother’s blue eyes and 

our father’s kinky hair. If our parents are intelligent, 

we have intelligence and the attendant benefits of 

a life in a family of intelligent people. This is one 

area in which karma is somewhat visible.

But what would explain someone like Mozart, or, 

Buddha, or Christ, or the first shogun of Japan?

We can’t know, other than looking at the 

circumstances of their lives and try to guess.

It’s said that before he became Buddha, 

Siddhartha had spent countless lifetimes as a 

bodhisattva, dedicating his life for the benefit 

of others. This is the karma we can’t see or know, 

unless we’ve developed  our sense perceptions to 

the point where we can, like the Buddha and other 

great meditation masters were able to do.

Our perceptions are as limited as the time we’ve

spent training our minds, through meditation, 

contemplation, studying logic and other mental

exercises. The mind itself has to be trained in 

order to realize its full potential. It is not enough 

to train the intellect. Intellect is a subsidiary 

function of mind that enables us to make a 

shopping list or fly to the moon, but is bad at 

answering existential questions that arise from 

experience. Questions about our  experience 

arise because we are not completely in  touch 

with, at one with our experience. The karma of 

our experience is seen in the process of our 

discursive minds that churn out thought after 

thought, emotion after emotion in and endless, 

seemingly seamless  stream that we only really 

become aware of when we begin to meditate, 

begin to pay bare attention to our existence.

“Do unto others as you would have them do 

unto you”, shows one method of creating, 

(constructing) a future we might want. If we want 

a positive,  good future, one way for that to 

happen is by doing positive things in this life, 

helping, not harming others and not harming 

ourselves. This is changing the future by means 

of externalities. We can change the future more 

effectively by changing it internally. Through the 

practice of meditation, we can wear out the 

discursiveness of mind that is constantly planting 

seeds for future actions through thought and 

emotions. We have a thought, which is due to past 

karma. If we act on that thought, that is creating

further karma and future karma. Cutting and 

taming the stream of thoughts, wearing it out 

through the boredom  that comes with meditation, 

dissolves the karmic tendencies that go along with 

those thoughts, thus clarifying the present and 

freeing the future from those tendencies.

I once told my teacher I wanted to spend more 

time with  him. His response was: “We’ll make 
time.” I knew what he meant. That our work 
together, now, would create the time in the 
future when we would  be together.

The idea that we have but one life and it doesn't
matter what we do is the most horrible of beliefs.
We don't know where we came from; the place
we'll eventually go back to. It's more logical to
think that, because it happened once, it could
well happen again. And, since everyone else is
doing the same thing, it's absurd to feel certain
we know about nihilism, eternal life, or any other
excuse that makes us feel certainty. If we are
honest with ourselves, we'll admit our uncertainty.

As with any journey of discovery, the path begins
with ignorance. If we don't start there, if we insist
on beliefs that might make us feel a bit more
comfortable, if we don't admit we don't know,
to ourselves, and, because of that seek tools
that can get us out of our ignorance, all we are
doing is waiting for the shock of realizing we've
been wrong the whole time.