[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: National and Individual Karma

[Carolyn Gimian]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

June 3, 2009

NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL KARMA

Shared karmic situations fall into two subcategories: national and 
individual karma. An example of national karma is that you may be 
born in a particular country where you always have to relate with 
7-Elevens, take-out pizza, and badly made cars. You end up in certain 
environments or worlds, but you cannot totally blame that on 
yourself. The whole country is made up that way.
         The second subcategory is individual karma within national 
karma. For example, if the sewage system in your neighborhood is not 
good, that karma is particularly and personally yours, in a sense, 
because the pipes keep breaking and costing you a lot of money and 
effort. Another example is winding up with a bad teacher who gets 
grumpy because he is poorly paid by the school system. On one hand, 
that situation is not your fault; but on the other hand, you did end 
up in that particular school. You have a television network, but you 
have your own personal TV with which to tune in, and you also choose 
your own particular station. It's very simple. Environmental and 
individual karma complement each other; they feed each other.

 From Chapter Five, "Perpetually Re-creating Suffering," in THE TRUTH 
OF SUFFERING AND THE PATH OF LIBERATION, pages 56 to 57.

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Teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, taken from works published by 
Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the 
Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.

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