An online Interview on Karma and Covid-19 relation
18 May 2020
Question: The word KARMA is a popular one, world wide use. Can you please explain the meaning of karma from a buddhist point of view?
Answer: It is a very complex subject! Practically Karma means simply Action, principally mental action, our intention and motivation. "Good and bad karma are functions of your intention; When your intention is good, everything becomes good; When your intention is bad, everything becomes bad; So everything depends on your intention." Those lines are practical advice of Je Tsongkhapa.
Q: What makes karma ripening?
A: An uncontrolled Ignorance, Attachment and Anger makes our negative karma to bring bad fruits and constant practice of Sila, Samadhi, Prajna makes our positive Karma to bring good fruits.
Q: What is collective karma?
A: Collective Karma is either positive, negative or neutral intention that is based on common interest, such as working in a war, praying or meditating in Sangha, volunteering in a hospital teamwork so on, anything that you do with a common intention of a community.
Q: This Corona Virus can we say that is the result of our previous karma? and the fact that some countries suffered a lot and some much less can we say that is due to collective karma?
A: Covid-19 is a karmic fruit, it is part of our samsara or life. But we cannot verify exactly which karma created it and how many and what kind of karmas involved in it's cause. Certainly so many karmas, negatives, positives and neutrals, collectives and individuals, pasts and presents, together created this pandemia. Of course very sadly this pandemic caused lots of suffering to so many humans. And at the same time it gave us lots of new knowledge for our future humanity. Suffering is not always necessarily judged as negative and a result of negative karma. Sometimes positive karma can bring temporary suffering for the interest of long run goodness in future. Sometimes negative karma can bring temporary happiness as well. So, it is impossible to know the mystery of the karma game! In a way we humans are the main actor of karma. So, each of us should investigate our intention and motivation for every single action and being aware of and witnessing yourself is the main practice of Dharma or Meditation.
