Theory of Karma

Buddhist theory of Karma describes a 'great chain of being," postulating a kinship between all observed species of beings, and a pattern of development of one life form into another. ...Individuals mutate through different life forms from life to life.  A subtle, mental level of life carries patterns developed in one life into the succeeding ones.  Species develop and mutate in relation to their environments, and individuals also develop and mutate from species to species.  This karmic evolution can be random, and beings can evolve into lower forms as well as higher ones.  Once beings become conscious of the process, however, they can purposively affect their evolution through choices of actions and thoughts.  Although there are undeniable differences (between Darwinian idea of evolution and the theory of karma), the karma theory  gives an evolutionary explanation of how beings are the way they are.
Karma means action that causes development and change, and so is close to what we mean by evolution.  ...in Buddhist science, [karma] has nothing to do with fate --it is an impersonal, natural process of cause and effect.  Our karma at a given moment of life or death or the between is the overall pattern of causal impulses resulting from former actions connected with our life-continuum.  These form a complex that impresses its effects on our bodies, actions, and thoughts.  In turn, our ongoing actions of body, speech, and mind form new causal impulses, which determine the nature and quality of our life in the future.  This complex can be called our evolutionary momentum  There is an old Tibetan saying, "Don't wonder about your former lives; just look carefully at your present body!  Don't wonder about your future lives, just look at your mind in the present!"  .. This expresses the sense that our present body has evolved from a long evolution driven by former actions, and our future embodiments will be shaped by how we think and what we decide to do in our present actions.
The time of the between, the transition from a death to a new rebirth, is the best time to attempt consciously to affect the causal process of evolution for the better.  Our evolutionary momentum is temporarily fluid during the between, so we can gain or lose a lot of ground during its crises.       


Source:
The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between (The Tibetan Book of the Dead).  Composed by Padma Sambhava.  Discovered by Karma Lingpa.  Translated into English by Robert A.F. Thurman.  (New York, NY: Quality Paperback Book Club, Bantam Books, 1998), pp.27-29.

Allergo

After a black day, I play Haydn,
and feel a little warmth in my hands.

The keys are ready. Kind hammers fall.
The sound is spirited, green, and full of silence.

The sound says that freedom exists
and someone pays no taxes to Caesar.

I shove my hands in my haydnpockets
and act like a man who is calm about it all.

I raise my haydenflag. The signal is:
"We do not surrender. But want peace."

The music is a house of glass standing on a slope;
rocks are flying, rocks are rolling.

The rocks roll straight through the house
but every pane of glass is still whole.

Tomas Tranströmer

On the Concepts of Nations and Science

"La science n'a pas de patrie, parce que le savoir est le patrimoine de l'humanité"

Louis Pasteur

"La science doit être la plus haute personnification de la patrie parce que de tous les peuples, celui-là sera toujours le premier qui marchera le premier par les travaux de la pensée et de l'intelligence. Luttons donc dans le champ pacifique de la science pour la prééminence de nos patries respectives.”

Louis Pasteur

Some Training-the-Mind Verses

With a wish to free all beings
I shall always go for refuge
to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
until I reach full enlightenment.

Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
today in the Buddha’s presence
I generate the Mind for Full Awakening
for the benefit of all sentient beings.

As long as space endures,
as long as sentient being remain,
until then, may I too remain
and dispel the miseries of the world.

In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise-
As they endanger myself and others-
May I strongly confront them and avert them.

                                               May all this remain undefiled

By the stains of the eight mundane concerns;
And may I, recognizing all things as illusion,
Devoid of clinging, be released from bondage.

Source:
http://www.dalailama.com/teachings/training-the-mind/generating-the-mind-for-enlightenment

Blood, Flowers, and Candles

How many more times

before there is no more bloodshed?

No more candles and flowers
laid in street corners and over the dead!

How long will it take

before couples can stroll hand in hand

leisurely along the Seine?

How long will it take

before tourists may climb up the Eiffel
and have a glimpse of the sparkling marble
of blues revolving beneath?

How long will it take

before children can feed white doves
near fountains in public squares
without fear?

I cover my ears.
Day and night
are the deafening echoes
of screams and sirens
of bombs and grenades.

"I thought they were firecrackers
for New Year celebration!"

I cover my eyes.
Everywhere I look,
I see blood-red fireworks
in the shapes of “Equality, Liberty, Fraternity”

“Marxism”, “Communism”, “Nazism” ,

"Islam”, “Christianity”, “Buddhism”
“Allah”, “God”, “Christ", “Buddha"
falling apart!

Let me arrange flowers beautifully
and light up candles
for the temple shrine in my heart
to worship Peace.

Let me pray for the giant marble
dying but still revolving
day and night.

Let me pray for the vanishing Amazon rain forests,
the drying-up corn fields in Sub-Sahara,
the dying coral reefs in Australia,
and billions, billions of fish
with their white bellies up,
floating along the shores.

Let me pray
day and night
before
it is too late.

November 13, 2015

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Heartbreaking Video Of Father Explaining Paris Attack To Young Son

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9bk76nB6Bk

"For he today that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother" (Shakespeare).

The beings who inhabit the physical universes are not just caretakers of their environment.  They also help create their worlds, and their moral status may determine the fate of their world system. (Buddhist thinking on ecology)

Chinese and Compassion

Because China is the second largest country by land area, and the most populous country in the world (over1.35 billion), if its leaders and people could learn to follow rules, to develop compassion, and not to be greedy, not to destroy environment and exploit other peoples, the whole world would certainly enjoy peace and happiness.

Source:

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=dalai+lama+world+ethics+you+tube&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001