DOES KARMA ARISE IN THE MIND?
The Buddha
Question
Sifu as you have mentioned in the teachings that Samsara is Nirvana and Nirvana is Samsara, does karma also arise in "the mind"? Does it only exist when "the mind" arises to the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion, and thus not existing when the mind is "empty" ?
-- Parveen
Answer
Much depends on what you mean by "mind". If we take mind here to mean your personal mind, yes, karma arises in the mind. Karma, or cause and effect, exists only in the phenomenal realm. In transcendental Cosmic Reality, there is no karma. In other words, karma does not arise in the Universal Mind.
Besides the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion, karma also arises when the personal mind thinks of good thoughts, like generosity, peace and understanding. Evil karma arises from evil thoughts, and good karma arises from good thoughts. Indeed it is because of the thought or feeling of great compassion that Bodhisattvas postpone attaining Buddhahood, and Buddhas return to the phenomenal realm as Bodhisattvas.
Karma does not exist if the personal mind is perfectly empty, in which case it merges with the Universal Mind as undifferentiated.
-- Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
The above is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions for Grandmaster: Legacy of Bodhdharma in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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