The Komplications of Karma

In the west, we seem to have a vague conception of karma, without really getting a full grasp of it. That conception - that you'll get what's coming to you (or, as a man once sang, "your karma has come to hunt you down") - is getting fresh press because of something unbelievably dumb that Sharon Stone just said:

And Sharon Stone, a convert to Buddhism, has claimed - to much criticism - that the earthquake that killed at least 68,000 people in China was bad karma for Beijing policy in Tibet. 'I thought, is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?' she mused at the Cannes Film Festival.

As one of the commenters points out, that's just another side to the Pat Roberston/John Hagee "9-11/Katrina was God's punishment" woo. But would you expect theological nuance from Sharon Stone?

Not on this level, at least:

Dhammadassin, a teacher at the London Buddhist Centre, says that Stone's take on karma is common - glossed over as an outcome that is the result of something done in the past - or even a past life.

'This reduces the enormously complex matter of causes and their effects to a question of retribution meted out for unspecified previous actions,' she says.

But the law of karma states that it's the motive behind one's actions that affects the outcome of that particular act.

* * *

In a complex world, it's too simplistic to expect that a positive intention will always have a positive outcome as many factors are involved, she says.

I dunno - that last bit sounds an awful like "whatever happens, it's God's will," which, of course, we mere mortals can't really grasp. In other words - same woo, different spin.