After last week's brief discussion about karma it is clear that not everyone agrees with the Buddhists' understanding of karma. This is okay. There is no need to react strongly, rather listen and notice what arises within you.Sharon Salzberg talks about karma in her book, Loving Kindness, not to convert people to believing in karma the way she and others understand it, rather to get a more important point across.
The important point is that our happiness and unhappiness depend on our actions. This isn't to say that bad things don't happen to good people, because they do, and have, to all of us. It's to say that "When we see suffering, conflict, danger, pain, or a problem arise in our life, we do not merely try to eliminate it. Rather, we courageously try to change the conditions that provide the ground for its arising and that support or maintain its existence."
Therefore, if we change the conditions we change the problem; if we alter the cause, we alter the effect. This means, for many of us, we no longer move in the world as victims of circumstance.
The brahma-viharas (lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity), which we have looked at closely through the writing of Salzberg, advocate non-harming conduct, conduct that helps us face the problems that arise in our lives, and often change the outcomes, which, according to the Buddhist philosophy, changes our karma.
