Zen

Q. If birth is the result of karma, then how did my first birth take place before there was any karma?

A. When we say that birth is the result of karma, what is karma? Karma is cause and effect, which are the products of discrimination, that is, illusions, the result of dividing Oneness into many with labels which are imaginary lines. There cannot be karma when there is no discrimination. It also follows that there is no birth when there is no discrimination.

The Buddha said that there is no past, no present, and no future and that everything comes into being due to our discrimination. This means that, in essence, there is no birth from the beginning and that your birth is just an illusion resulting from your discrimination.

Once you stop discriminating, when you can see things as they are, or when you are not deluded by illusions, you can see that there is no birth and no death and that your death will not happen because you have never been born. This is why ceasing to discriminate is referred to as escaping from birth and death.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #photography

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