OT-The law of "cause and effect"...

[hundredtoone]

Cause & Effect

The Theory / Law
From a Buddhist point of view, mathematics and science explain how things happen, but not why. Like science, Buddhism acknowledges the law of cause and effect in nature and physics, called niyamas (see footnote), but also includes the mental law of cause and effect.

This law works exactly like gravity or inertia. It is not run by observant gods punishing or rewarding people. If your friend jumped off a cliff and died, you wouldn't look up to the sky and cry out "Curse you gravity for killing my friend!" Similarly, if you constantly cause harm to other people and constantly have bad luck, there is no point blaming the gods or even the law of cause and effect itself.

You make your choices (likened to seeds in Buddhism). You bear the results (likened to fruit).

When Buddhism recommends precepts of behaviour (sila ), this is not in the style of a tyrant making arbitrary laws, but of a parent, with more experience than a child explain, for example, "Don't smoke". It's not that the parent is anti-tobacco, but that they fear the consequences of smoking on the child. Through bitter experience and insight they have a better understanding of the risk of pain, disease and death. They love the child and want them to avoid these consequences even if the child is unable to fully understand them at this point. Similarly the Buddha had advice for our conduct based on his greater understanding of the nature of realty. Like the child though, we can understand the basic ideas ourselves and use our imagination to perceive that, in reality, these rules are even more beneficial than they seem to us.

zen.thetao.info/read/cause.htm

Alma 9: 28.
28 Therefore, prepare ye the way of the Lord, for the time is at hand that all men shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been—if they have been righteous they shall reap the salvation of their souls, according to the power and deliverance of Jesus Christ; and if they have been evil they shall reap the d*mnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil.

scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/6/33c

Galatians 6:7-8: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting

www.prca.org/sermons/galatians6.7-8.html

5. Four phases of karma

"Plant a thought and you will reap a deed, plant a deed and you will reap a habit, plant a habit and you will reap a character, plant a character and you will reap a fate." (Indian proverb)

Vedic philosophy (Padma Purana) explains that karmic reaction are manifested in four different phases compared to the phases of a plants' growth:

1. bija (seed) Our wishes and intentions already exist in subtle form and only later they will manifest in activities. Thus to avoid unpleasant karmic reactions (suffering) we must pay attention to our unspoken material desires before the seeds of actions did not begin to sprout.

2. kuta-stha (sprouting) Reactions manifesting after a decision to perform a deed. They are material desires which already began to sprout.

3. phalonmukha (fructifying) Reactions already bearing fruits (phala). As soon as we perform a material actions - good or bad - it is only a question of time before they manifest reactions (fruit) in the form of happiness or distress.

4. prarabdha (harvest) Reactions already fulfilled at our birth: family (defining our socio-economic situation, nationality, race), physical and psychic dispositions etc.

Previous three phases are also in Sanskrit given a summary term aprarabdha or reactions not yet fully manifested, potential happiness and suffering. Fourth phase, prarabdha-karma, is what is generally called "karma".

Upanisads describe these categories of karma:

1. sancita (stored)
1.1. anarabdha (not yet manifested) = aprarabdha
1.2. prarabdha (already manifested)
2. kriyamana (newly created)

www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/dharma.htm

Term "dharma" comes from Sanskrit root "dhri" (maintain, sustain, preserve in work). Usually it is translated as ethical, moral and religious principles which, however, does not fully represent its meaning. Dharma is a law or order of the material world (that which maintains its harmonic function), virtue or righteous conduct. Still deeper explanation says that dharma is an inherent or inseparable quality or nature. There is an example of salt whose inseparable quality (dharma) is salty taste. The word dharma would be therefore possible to translate as "ultimate cause". This term from Western philosophy expresses the reason for existence of an object. Ultimate cause - dharma - of a house is to provide shelter to people. Uninhabitable house represents adharma (opposite of dharma). Dharma defines the function of the law of karma and itself is established by God. As "pillars of dharma" are called four qualities described in Bhagavata Purana (1.17.24):

- mercy (refusal of violence, meat-eating etc.)
- renunciation/sense control (refusal of intoxicants)
- truthfulness (refusal of gambling and speculations)
- purity (refusal of sex forbidden in scriptures)

It is therefore already established which human activities are good and bring positive reactions and which are bad and bring negative reactions in the form of suffering. This value system is universally valid and does not depend on opinions of individual living beings. I may think that what I do is good and also be able to justify it intellectually and thus impress others. If, however, my activity is not in accordance with universal definition of goodness, I will still reap a negative reaction.

Freedom of thinking and acting so propagated nowadays is sometimes misunderstood as a chance to do whatever we like. Yes, we have a free will, but at the same time we are responsible for our activity. Nothing can be further from reality that an idea that violation of dharma is unpunished. Contemporary state of the world should warn us not to put an economic benefit (artha) before dharma. It is this desire for sense enjoyment (symbolized by money) which is the most frequent cause of dharma violation.

www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/dharma.htm


Here are a collection of articles and links on "COSMIC JUSTICE"...it is known by many names and explained in different ways but it works the same way...our country and our world are SUFFERING from collective INJUSTICE and CORRUPTION ... the solution begins with each individual... if nothing else the CMKX saga has taught me many lessons...the biggest is the importance of INTEGRITY...some day we will find out which PLAYERS had it and which PLAYERS didn't...Flying Moose(cmkxunofficial)

[soonerlew]

Here are a collection of articles and links on "COSMIC JUSTICE"...it is known by many names and explained in different ways but it works the same way...our country and our world are SUFFERING from collective INJUSTICE and CORRUPTION ... the solution begins with each individual... if nothing else the CMKX saga has taught me many lessons...the biggest is the importance of INTEGRITY...some day we will find out which PLAYERS had it and which PLAYERS didn't...Flying Moose(cmkxunofficial)
« Last Edit: Today at 2:52pm by hundredtoone »


Very true, 100-1......

[hundredtoone]

Why Bush Watergated Elliot Spitzer

3-19-8 The spectacular and highly bizarre release of secret FBI wiretap data to the New York Times exposing the tryst of New York state Governor, Eliot Spitzer, "No.9" with a luxury call-girl, had less to do with the Bush Administration's high moral standards for public servants. Spitzer was the target of a White House and Wall Street dirty tricks operation to silence one of its most dangerous critics in handling the current financial market Tsunami crisis.

A useful rule of thumb in evaluating spectacular scandals around prominent public figures is to ask what and who might want to eliminate that person. In the case of Governor Spitzer, a Democrat, it is clear that the spectacular "leak" of government FBI wiretap records showing that Spitzer paid a high-cost prostitute $4,300 for what amounted to an hour's personal entertainment, was politically motivated. Why?, is the interesting question.

Spitzer became Governor of the State following a record as a relentless State Attorney General going after financial crimes such as the Enron fraud and corruption by Wall Street investment banks during the 2002 dot.com bubble era. He was bitterly hated on Wall Street for that. He had made his political career on being ruthless against financial corruption. Most recently, from his position as Governor of the nation's second largest state, and home to its financial industry, Spitzer had begun making high profile attacks on the complicity of the Bush Administration in covertly arranging bailout if its Wall Street financial friends at the expense of ordinary homeowners and citizens, paid all with taxpayer funds.

Curiously, Spitzer, who had been elected governor in 2006 defeating a Republican winning nearly 70 percent of the vote, has been not charged in any crime. However, New York Assembly Republicans immediately announced plans to impeach Spitzer or put him on public trial were he to refuse resignation. Spitzer could be asked to testify in any trial involving the Emperors Club prostitution ring. But so far he hasn't been charged with a crime. Prostitution is illegal in most US states, but clients of prostitutes are almost never charged. The Spitzer case is in the hands of Washington and not state authorities, underscoring the clear political nature of the Spitzer "Watergate."

The New York Times said Spitzer was an individual identified as Client 9 in court papers filed last week. Client 9 arranged to meet with "Kristen," a prostitute who charged $1,000 an hour, on February 13 in a Washington hotel and paid her $4,300, according to the court documents. The case is clearly political when compared with more egregious recent cases involving Republicans. Republican Mark Foley was exposed propositioning male interns in Congress and Rudolph Giuliani was discovered cheating on his wife but no Republican calls for resignations.

Why The Attack Now?

Spitzer had become increasingly public in his blaming the Bush Administration for the nation's current financial and economic disaster. He testified in Washington in mid-February before the US House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee on the problems in New York-based specialized insurance companies, known as "monoline" insurers (monoline Versicherung). In a national TV interview the same day, he laid blame for the crisis and its broader economic fallout on the Bush Administration.

Spitzer recalled that several years ago the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency went to court and blocked New York State efforts to investigate the mortgage activities of national banks. Spitzer argued the OCC did not put a stop to questionable loan marketing practices or uphold higher underwriting standards.

"This could have been avoided if the OCC had done its job," Spitzer said in the interview. "The OCC did nothing. The Bush Administration let the housing bubble inflate and now that it's deflating we're dealing with the consequences. The real failure, the genesis, the germ that has spread was the subprime scandal," Spitzer said. Fraudulent marketing and very low "teaser" mortgage rates that later ballooned higher, were practices that should have been stopped, he argued. "When mortgages are being marketed, there is a marketplace obligation to ensure the borrower can afford to pay back the debt," he said.

That TV interview was only one instance of Spitzer laying blame on the Bush Republicans. On February 14, Spitzer published a signed article in the influential Washington Post titled, "Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers."

That article appeared the day after his ill-fated tryst with the prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel. Coincidence? Spitzer wrote, ""In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act pre-empting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks."

In his article Spitzer charged, "Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which he federal government was turning a blind eye." Bush, said Spitzer right in the headline, was the "Predator Lenders' Partner in Crime." The President, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet. Spitzer wrote, "When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably."

With that article, some Washington insiders believe, Spitzer signed his own political death warrant.

www.rense.com/general81/why.htm

To fight against CORRUPTION one needs to have a great deal of integrity and walk the STRAIGHT AND NARROW path... even then you may get into TROUBLE... I never believed the prostitute issue was the REAL reason he stepped down...Flying Moose(cmkxunofficial)