Theos-Talk Archives (June 1998 Message tt00430)

June 18th

Dallas offers:

ICQ -- does allocate enough space for discourse.  so answer here.

LIGHT OF ASIA  Book 8, (p. 149-51 my copy ) gives answer to
"right
employment" as Buddha saw it.

Karma is Law,  Dharma is agreement and living with the Law as a
basis for brotherhood.  Essentially it is universal benevolence
and unselfishness.  The strong support the weak.  The wise
instruct the ignorant without interfering in their free-will and
power of choice.

Man is the one free agent in Nature. His "intelligence" makes him
free.  Will is not directly free elsewhere in Nature;  the law of
Karma adjusts the encroachment of matter on the flow of the
will -- which is the power of Spirit in action.  Only in the
human kingdom with the birth of intelligence, Will becomes free.
And thus, at last, Karma finds the aid of an intelligence
independent of itself, instead of a passive instrument for its
compensating operations.  Thus, even that Law of LAWS, KARMA,
offers itself to become the Servant of Man.

All Nature, except human nature, is non-conscious though animate,
sensitive and vital.  For, the rest of Nature is the assemblage
of the resultant factors of the diverse properties of the
universal qualities (called Gunas in the Bhagavad Gita:  Sattva,
Rajas, and Tamas or Illumination, activity and inertia).
Therefore, outside of the human kingdom Nature is neither moral
nor immoral, and is destitute of malice or cruelty, or their
reverse:  affection.  Karma is only just.  Good and evil are, in
truth, absent in Nature, and only make their appearance in the
Kingdom of Man.  [ Man in his independence has the power to go
against the Laws of justice and fairness that rule Nature.
Accordingly, Karma being invoked, will respond. ]

In the many transformations of the Universe;  in its vast
progress there is a particular stage when the two opposing
energies ( Spirit and Matter ) are so balanced that the resulting
friction produces a third energy with the properties of both, and
yet it is different from either of them.  This Plane of Balance
is the Human Kingdom.

A habitat for this energy and for its many levels of development
is needed.  In the harmony of Nature it is this Earth -- as an
example of this type of balance -- and this will also include all
sidereal bodies where this type of balance exists.

In the space between the atom and the Galaxy it manifests as the
majestic progress of vast hopes of human intelligences of various
levels and degrees of perception and understanding (knowledge,
learning, wisdom) and this is expressed in terms of the
moral/ethical Law, which governs the heart of man -- compassion.
Man thus needs a different kind of definition.  This is what the
Buddha seems (to me) to be saying.

If you wish to direct this theory of man's intelligence, growth
and work to the business and corporate world around us, and in
which we all share to some extent, the answers are (tome)
obvious.  It is a very rare business that is run on strictly
ethical grounds and employs only ethical methods of work and
service.  Yes Service !  For if you inquire into the cause for
trade you will find that it exists to provide service from one
group or person to others.

It is clear that  all businesses international or not, and all
countries and nations touch the world in many ways -- and leave
an impress, an impact on the lives of their employees.

In terms of individual Karma it is up to the employee to agree to
serve a business, or to resign in protest, if the methods he is
expected to employ are such as, impartially, he knows cannot
stand up honestly and clearly in a court of law.  If this were
seen and adhered to 9 / 10ths of the evils of corporations and
nations would cease.

This is PRACTICAL IDEALISM.  The sooner that we all get down to
applying it, the sooner will the world become a better place.  I
have been fortunate that in the businesses I was associated with,
or which I managed, such an ideal could be implemented and
adhered to, and not so strangely, those businesses prospered.

Dallas  ICQ 13,760,916

> Date: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 7:24 PM
> From: "Darren Porter" <dport@ozemail.com.au>
> Subject: ICQ Group Discussion Topic #1

>ICQ participants are invited to submit their responses to the
first weekly
>discussion question:
>
>Karmically, what does the buddhist philosophy of 'right
employment', mean
>to westerners? Do internatioanal corporations have a collective
karma like
>countries and does this effect an employee?
>        SNIP  ====

Note:  ICQ gives inadequate space for an answer such as this.