The Karma of Disaster
Did karma cause Cyclone Nargis to strike Burma (Myanmar)? According to Professor Ingrid Jordt of the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, Buddhists of Burma blame Burma's oppressive military regime for Cyclone Nargis. They believe the cyclone was a karmic consequence of the juntas' brutal oppression of monks last fall.
Jordt, who was once a Buddhist nun in Burma, said, "The immediate explanation was: This is retribution for killing monks."
I admit that collective karma is not something I understand clearly, but I've been taught it is wrong to think of karma as a cosmic retribution system. According to the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, not everything that happens in the world is the result of karma. Further, the Ven. Sayadaw writes, the Buddha refuted the notion that all fortune and misfortune are caused by previous action. What's important is to respond to suffering without blame or judgment.
Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman said,
The main thing about karma, what we might want to call collective karma, when there's a disaster where people haven't done anything and a terrible thing happens from nature, is that the bodhisattva, or the outside person looking at the situation, never invokes the karma theory and says, "Well, I don't have to worry about them because that was their bad karma and they got wasted and too bad--as if it were some sort of fate or a way of writing off the disaster. It should never be used that way.See also two excellent essays on karma by Theravadin scholar Thanissaro Bhikkhu and Ch'an Master Sheng-yen
Photo Caption: Buddhist monks clean up at a Buddhist temple May 16, 2008, in a village on the outskirts of Yangon, Burma.
Photo Credit: Stringer/Getty Images
Comments
I agree with you that it’s wrong to think of karma as a retribution system. Karma is a type of balance and is neither good nor evil. Likewise, nature is a balance and events like cyclones, tornadoes, and earthquakes are ways that it becomes balanced. Nature is also neither good nor evil, it does not judge, only seeks balance. What happened in Burma was/is very sad, but I don’t feel there was any higher entity/power that caused it. I hope Burma will be freed from its rulers. They certainly have shown how pathetic and incompetent they truly are in the face of this cyclone.
It is my understanding that only the Buddhas are able to see clearly karmic causes & conditions. I’ve heard the teaching, on a number of occasions, that deluded thought patterns can be reflected as imbalances in the external elements (cyclone, earthquakes, etc.) There are also many stories ~ e.g. of Swami Lakshmanjoo ~ of the power of an enlightened mind to restore balance/harmony to the elements. Pretty cool.
I thought that karma was the consequrnce of action on the actor(s). This disaster happened to the blameless who were not responsible for the abuse of the monks.
This regime is clearly evil as it won’t even allow the outside world to help the victims.
I don’t think it is a karmic retribution of the oppression carried out the military junta.If that be so the generals and their lackeys should suffer. Here the innocent people are suffering.
It does not have any connection with karmic theory, even if it is a valid theory.
Natural disasters do occur from time to time and anything that comes in its way will have to bear it.
It is better we face it boldly without blame or judgment.