GLOBAL KARMA

Part one: Ripple Effect

In Buddhism and Hinduism karma is the individual process of seeking spiritual liberation. Global Karma is the collective process of all humans on Earth. If we work together to improve our Global Karma, we will flourish. We will never be able to purchase contentment or freedom. By seeking one momentary satisfaction after another we remain distracted from the reality of our self-created destiny. We must create an existence based on cooperation and connection if we want lasting happiness (not just for ourselves individually but as a species). Quite simply: we act as if the planet and the life on it are important to us and we flourish… we act as if the planet, and the life on it, are mere commodities and the planet (and life on it) will suffer dysfunction and death.

Our evolution is being stagnated by backward thinking and arrogant ignorance. By clinging to unexamined assumptions about the nature of reality, members of our species are stifling our ability to make an evolutionary leap. It is only by elevating our consciousness and questioning our biases that we overcome the hurdle of ignorance. Holding us back are an authoritarian gallery of buffoons.

In our global neighborhood, our actions don’t just affect the individual. Karma, according to the Oxford dictionary, is “the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existences, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences”. When we see that we are part of a whole, it easier to recognize how our actions decide the fate of others. We are a collective of the Universe, and when we contribute to this Collective, there are benefits for all. If we do damage to the Collective, there are benefits for All. If we do damage to the Collective, there are repercussions for All.

Ripple Effect

All actions are the result of and the manifestation of a ripple effect. Just as a stone thrown into the water creates ripples, our actions create ripples. A stones ripples may only stretch the distance of the waves created, but the stone may frighten a frog, which frightens a fish, which is then caught by a fisherman, which the fisherman takes home to feed his family. The continuum of Life is infinite. All actions have thus sort of effect on the world, and on our Global Karma.

Imagine how an action of yours causes a ripple effect for as far as you can imagine. Now imagine trillions of those occurring simultaneously; the ripple effects of every human occurring at the same time.

Now imagine doing something harmful at the same time that trillions of other harmful acts occur: How much damage does that add up to? Just as someone who litters says that it is only a single piece of paper, oblivious or uncaring about the fact that millions of people tossing out a single piece of paper means millions of pieces of paper on the side of the road.

All of our actions (positive or negative) have the same accumulative effect. Each action contributes to our Global Karma.