Ruling your world by Sakyong Mipham.
While undergoing a ravenous and completely sporadic appetite
for reading, I stumbled across a book more fascinating then I remembered. The
book is titled, as you have probably already interpreted; Ruling your World by
Sakyong Mipham. This book is both revering and interesting for the Indian Epics
readings for several reasons. The author is an enlightened Buddhist priest. As
we know, Buddhism sprang from North East India with the teachings of Siddhartha
Gautama (Buddha) himself in the 4th to 5th century.
Because this religion came from a region that was heavily influenced by Hinduism,
there are many similarities between the two religions including the four yoga’s,
Karma, chakra, and enlightenment.
The one aspect that draws my attention the most in Sakyong’s
book is that of Karma. This is not only because his explanation of Karma is so thorough
and insightful, but it also holds great validity when tied to the scholarly
readings, writings, and understandings of the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, and
the Ramayana.
Sakyong speaks of Karma in this way: “Like Gravity, karma is
so basic that we often don’t even notice it. But karma is happening everywhere.
Whatever we see is a meeting of interdependent causes and conditions…Karma
sometimes manifests very directly. We eat a meal and we feel full. We turn the
key and the car starts. A more subtle interconnectedness has to do with our
thoughts, actions, and words… We never know exactly what moment one action or
word is going to trigger another, but everything we do sets something else into
motion.” -Ruling Your World, Chapter 5: Understanding Karma.
The way he explains Karma is a gripping understanding of not
cause and action, but of the many cause and actions we have as a being, and how
it shapes our lives in an unknown way.
Book Reference and Citation:
Ruling You World: Ancient strategies for modern life by
Mipham J. Mukpo
Three Rivers Press, New York, New York. 2005. Print.
This is wonderful, Todd: thank you so much for sharing it here! Buddhism was taking shape at roughly the same time when the epics were composed, and there is so much overlap between the folktales you find in the epics and the stories that the Buddha told which are called the jatakas. Maybe you will want to read some of those Buddhist story collections for this class! More about the Buddhist jatakas. :-)
ReplyDeleteI had actually never heard of that book before so I’m glad that you mentioned it. It sounds like a truly fascinating novel, and I hope I have the opportunity to read it at some point. I think there is a lot to be said for the mindset that dictates that we acknowledge the consequences of our actions and the possibility that the actions we put into the world will somehow be paid back to us. Thank you for this post. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete