[from The Magazine, www.bbc.co.uk]
Sharon Stone claims the earthquake in China is the result of bad karma for its treatment of Tibetans. Is her definition - "when you are not nice, bad things happen to you" - correct?
THE ANSWER:
Law of Karma holds that actions have consequences.
Ethical intention behind an action affects outcome.
Other factors also come into play.
And Sharon Stone, a convert to Buddhism, has claimed - to much criticism - that the earthquake that killed at least 68,000 people in China was bad karma for Beijing policy in Tibet. "I thought, is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?" she mused at the Cannes Film Festival.
Karma is an important concept for Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. Translated from the Sanskrit, it means simply "action". Because karma is used in a number of ways and contexts - even among different branches of Buddhism - this can be confusing.
Dhammadassin, a teacher at the London Buddhist Centre, says that Stone's take on karma is common - glossed over as an outcome that is the result of something done in the past - or even a past life. "This reduces the enormously complex matter of causes and their effects to a question of retribution meted out for unspecified previous actions," she says.
But the law of karma states that it's the motive behind one's actions that affects the outcome of that particular act.
"So an intentionally ethical action - for example to promote kindness, generosity, contentment - is more likely to have positive, beneficial consequences. An intentionally unethical one - to promote self-aggrandisement or greed - will be more likely to have unhelpful, even harmful consequences. Unhelpful, that is, for the positive well-being of either the doer or the recipient or both."
In a complex world, it's too simplistic to expect that a positive intention will always have a positive outcome as many factors are involved, she says.
Poetic justice
The idea of moral causation has long been held in India, but the doctrine of karma was formulated and explained by the Buddha, a spiritual teacher thought to have lived about 2,500 years ago. Some believe that he was a human who became enlightened; others that he was a god.
His teachings hold that whatever comes into existence does so in response to the conditions at the time, and in turn affects what comes after it.
Sangharakshita, the Briton who founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, explains this with the following example in his book Who Is The Buddha? "Rainfall, sunshine, and the nourishing earth are the conditions from which arises the oak tree, whose fallen leaves rot and form the rich humus from which the bluebell grows."
Dhammadassin says that despite its simplicity, this example reflects the inter-connectedness of our world, "in which our views, attitudes, opinions and intentions all have a part to play in creating our actions and their consequences". And what many call karma is actually closer to the idea of poetic justice, she says.
Nor do Buddhists believe karma is the only cause - others are:
- inorganic or environmental factors, such as the weather << China Earthquake !
- organic or biological factors, like bacteria or viruses
- psychological factors such as stress
- and transcendental or spiritual factors (such as the sometimes powerful galvanizing effect of spiritual practice)
Some comments on this story, using the form below.
Sharon Stone's comment is the idiotic New Age equivalent of fundamentalist Christians' ignorant statements that Aids is God's retribution for homosexuality and pre-marital sex.
Ben, Edinburgh
It's worth noting that the earthquake affected areas heavily populated by Tibetans as well as Chinese. As a supporter of the Tibetan cause I find it unconscionable that the deaths of innocent Chinese people could be attributed to negative karma. These people are not complicit in the actions of the Chinese government and do not deserve hardship and suffering any more than the Tibetan people. Whilst I commend Sharon Stone for her concern, her comments are ill-judged and insensitive. I'm afraid she has a poor grasp on the concept of karma as well as the demographics of the region affected by the earthquake. My thoughts go to all the Tibetan and Chinese families in the region affected by this tragedy.
Terry Bettger, London
People are always entitled to their opinion, but opinions, particularly religious ones that have no evidence to back them up, are often dangerous or offensive to people. It's no more provable than if I claimed it rained yesterday because the Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster was angry with me because I didn't finish all of my pasta-based dinner.
Ryan Hawthorne, Brighton
Sharon Stone is now an authority on Eastern philosophy? As Socrates said: "I am the wisest man in Athens not because I know anything but because I know that I know nothing." Success in one field automatically makes people assume that they should be an expert in another. I like Tiger Woods who, when asked the (yawn) question about representing his race, said "I am a golfer". I suspect that his dignity and intelligence is not copied often enough by other (bigger yawn) celebs.
Mark G, Brussels, Belgium
The remarks made by Sharon Stone apart from being very offensive demonstrate a complete lack of logical thought and reason plus a large amount of ignorance, predjudice and stupidity. It is sad that a person who is famous chiefly for flashing her genitalia in a second rate movie twenty years ago is paid the slightest bit of attention by the media when making moronic comments like these on a subject about which she clearly knows very very little and understands even less. It is a logical fallacy to assume that all Chinese people are responsible for the injustices and oppression perpetrated by the Chinese government in Tibet. Probably only a small proportion of those who died or lost their homes in the recent earthquake in China had any connection or involvement in Tibet, whilst many others in the Chinese government and military who are directly involved escaped harm. It is foolish in the extreme to consider over a Billion Chinese people as being a single entity with the entire population being responsible for the actions of a few post-Maoist hard liners in the government and the inevitable paid thugs who support them. Sharon Stone evidently does not understand the concept of Karma and seems to be confusing it with some infantile notion of divine retribution. This is not what Karma means in Buddhism or Hinduism and her conversion to Buddhism looks like a superficial and affected publicity stunt as was her meeting and photo opportunity with the Dalai Lama who I'm absolutely certain would totally disagree with her comments.
We should feel compassion for the poor unfortunate victims of the earthquake in China instead of saying they got what they deserved! What a abysmal lack of humanity and compassion!
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