[MD] Karma and bad karma

[david buchanan]

Ron said to dmb:
 I for one, have benefitted tremendously from this forum. The breaking and re-patterning of rigid static values has been a boon to me, the work is on going and ever in play. PTSD had governed my life for quite awhile and although the breaking of those patterns came at the cost of some ugly debate on my part, I still regard those who stuck to the conversation despite my desperate vicious clinging to old values as paramount to the living  understanding that is MoQ and this discuss. Thanks to all who care enough to disagree and the have the courage to see the discussion through.

dmb says:
PTSD is more like an injury or wound than an illness, no? In any case, your description reminded me of an important distinction. Static patterns (karma) provide a necessary stability but sometimes, as you put it, we cling desperately and these old values become too rigid (bad karma.) PTSD is a very stark example of how this works. The vermiform appendage (or Appendix) "is the shrunken remainder of a large and normal intestine of a remote ancestor. This interpretation would stand even if it were found to have a certain use in the human body." Vestigial organs are analogous to bad karma. They are adaptations that served a purpose once upon a time, but have become obsolete. Their original function no longer makes sense. And so it is with PTSD, eh? The victim was in an extreme situation that demanded certain adaptations. In war, it might be a really good idea to be paranoid and hostile and to put a mute button on certain moral sentiments. I war, that sort of hyper-vigilence will save lives and otherwise get you through. But those adaptations are going to be wildly inappropriate if you're out in the suburbs with your family and friends. At that point, one's adaptations to war are evolutionary garbage, are bad karma. 

This is something we all have to deal with, although usually the bad karma isn't so conspicuously bad. Clinging to patterns that no longer serve their purpose is something we all suffer from. I see it in personal relationships and in large scale political and religious attitudes as well. Did you hear about the right-wing Christian who gunned down more than 80 liberal kids at a summer camp the other day? Multiculturalism is rubbing up against a very ancient tribal instinct and some people not only cling to that instinct, they act on it. I'd bet some of the survivors will soon be seeking treatment for PTSD.