Karma and Fate – Consequences for Life – The will to overcome Suffering
The karma of zen monk. There are no blankets in the zen meditation hall. When sleeping the zen monks cover their feet with the same cushion they meditate on. The pursuit of desire leads to unpleasant results. Although zen monks aren't totally free from desire, they try to keep distant from it. When you spend time around zen monks, you can not help but notice that zen monks become embarrassed and fearful just like ordinary people. In fact, they are completely ensnared by desire but their passion is one that worldly people rarely even dream about: They are enticed by the great desire to become free and transcend life and death.
They wander through steep mountains and deep valleys, committing themselves to austere ascetic practices like the empty gazing Holy and Wise Ones. To aspire to "no desire" is also a great desire!
Karma - Humans are Creatures of Suffering
Zen Monks recognize that human beings are creatures of suffering. They know that they are yoked to suffering: They are clothed in suffering, dine on suffering, and dwell in the home of suffering, surrounded by the wall of suffering. The only thing zen monks can rely on is the will to overcome suffering. They are aware that if they fail t maintain this focus, their lives will end in catastrophe. Accordingly, they have no choice but to hold on tightly to this goal.
A zen monk is not a product of fate but a creation of karma. Fate is what was determined for you before you were born, and there is no way you can change it; karma refers to what you choose with your own free will in the present.
Thus, fate is inexorable but karma is malleable; fate is fixed while karma can be changed by your intentional actions; fate implies limitation and karma confers possibility. Responsibility.
It was my fate to be born poor but it is my karma to become rich when I grow up. It is my fate to be born a human and not a mouse or a flea but it is my karma to choose Liberation as my spiritual refuge and aspire to Enlightenment.
"I" exists as the object of my fate and the subject of my karma. My fate was determined in the past when I was not there. But karma is something that I can control myself in the present. Accordingly, I can always create and reshape my karma until the last moment of my life.
The Inevitability of Fate
Once the inevitability of fate is understood, you also realize the rationality of karma. Fate is never something to bemoan but something to accept, just as karma is something to embrace and love. If a zen monk is able to love his ragged robes, the symbol of his own elected suffering, he is on the threshold of Enlightenment, holding the door knocker in his hand. As the zen monk becomes used to his disciplined life, he senses more strongly that karma is something he should uphold wholeheartedly.
