If we accidentally kill a bug by stepping on it, it’s not as bad as purposely squashing a spider while maniacally cursing, “Die, evil arachnid!”Ī story is told in Buddhist teaching of a monk who called three young students to sit before him. The intent behind our actions and thoughts is also vitally important in determining whether we’re gathering good karma or bad. If we engage in “unwise” or “harmful” actions and thoughts, we are accumulating “bad karma” that must be dealt with if we are to escape the endless cycle of death and rebirth that Buddhists and Hindus believe prevents us from reaching a state of nirvana (Come as you are/ as you were…) or moksha. It refers to how our actions, thoughts and intentions in this life will affect us in the next. Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning “action, effect or fate,” but many Buddhist scholars refer to it as “unfinished business,” which is exactly how it was portrayed in My Name Is Earl. Neither Webster’s nor Wikipedia can provide a definition that truly conveys the concept of the way I view karma.ĭespite what Nas or some cheesy-ass country-chick song or brainless pop-culture meme says, it’s not as simple as “you get what you give” or “you reap what you sow.” Some of us mistakenly think that if we do something nice today, we’ll be rewarded tomorrow (maybe even tonight - helped the little old lady with her groceries today? Buy that lotto ticket!), or maybe that drunk guy who spilled beer on our wife’s new shoes then called her a bitch will be run over by a Coors truck. One thing I’ve learned by studying Eastern philosophy is that, when it comes to deep thinking, everyone comes to their own understanding in their own time. In a past column I promised that I’d write about karma - which I believe is widely misunderstood - so here goes: Remember the TV sitcom My Name Is Earl? In it, a scroungy, down-and-out, low-rent petty criminal believes that his past bad deeds were the reason for him losing his winning lottery ticket, and so he decides to go about making up for all the horrible things he’s done, hopefully erasing his “bad karma.” (The actors in that show, including Jason Lee as Earl, were brilliant - including short-order cook Eddie Steeples as Darnell “Crabman” Turner and Jaime Pressly, who inspired me to have some definite “bad karmic” thoughts of my own, as Earl’s trailer trash ex.)
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