Gateway to Eastern Philosophy: Karma and the Chi

Karma and the Chi

India is entirely immersed in this thought of Karma, which is not exactly as we see it. Your Karma is based on the habit energies you have built, these vashanas mentioned earlier. What is it that helps build these vashanas, what is the means for building these vashanas? It is the Chi.

Those who have taken T’ai Chi Chih know what I’m talking about. The intrinsic energy, the vital force, is, if you want to put it into popularized terms, the means by which the absolute comes into the everyday world, comes into being. There has to be a force by which this comes into being and it is the Chi [that] does it. We are a product of the Chi. But it is the Chi, the force, which causes these vrittis, these mental disturbances, which become habit energies.

The tie between the Chi and the habit energies is a very close one and this is the basis for Karma. Most of the holy people in India feel that what you see, whether it’s the world or people, is Karma, frozen Karma. You are seeing Karma. As I’ve said, I’ve been with many teachers who can read Karma from your face. Sai Baba said to those who came to him, “Now there’s no sense in asking for my sympathy and pleading. I know what you’ve done in the past and I know what you’re going to be doing in the future.”

Grace vs. Karma

This observation opens the philosophical question of Grace versus Karma. Grace says, “Ok, I’ve been bad but through God’s Grace, I’m going to be absolved of any punishment.” And there’s good reason to feel that Grace. Of course, you could also say, “The guy that works hard and is bright, gets ahead and is honest. It is God’s Grace that he’s successful because of these qualities.” However, there’s always been a dichotomy between Grace and Karma. Karma says, “Everything that happens must have a preceding cause and that cause is final.” The Buddha said, “Set Karma cannot be overturned, cannot be changed.” What is the answer to the role of Grace versus Karma? Does anybody have any comment on that at all? Do you understand what I mean by the disagreement between Grace, which says, “Well, you don’t deserve it but we’ll see that you get it,” and Karma, which says, “If you have the preceding cause, then you will reap the effects. If you earned enough money, you can go out and buy a Mercedes.” This is cause and effect. Karma almost implies, since there must be a preceding cause, that time is circular, cyclical. It should be obvious from everything in the universe, down to the smallest cells, that the universe is cyclical and circular. No beginning and no ending.

Ferrying Others

… This last statement I’m going to talk about concerns Zen Master Hakuin and is very important for T’ai Chi Chih students and teachers. Hakuin says, “The essential of the molding of the outer forms consists mainly in allowing the inward spirit and vital force (that is, Chi) to penetrate into the space below the naval. When the inward spirit is concentrated, that is when the elixir of life is made; when this elixir is thus made, the outer form becomes firm, when the outer form becomes firm, the inner spirit becomes perfected. When the inner spirit becomes perfected, long life ensues. This is the secret. It is entirely a matter of the heart fire descending into the space below the naval.” This understanding is completely lost in Japan. None of the Zen people in Japan know it. Yet, Hakuin wrote a book, Yassenkana, about the practice to power the heart fire into the space below the navel, which of course is the practice of T’ai Chi Chih. This is pure Taoism. Yet it’s Zen!

Your True Home

…. The Taoists say that things are continually moving, restless, yet each is moving back to its origin. Kui Chui, time to return home. Ramana Maharshi said to go back from where you came. All of you have heard the word Seijaku, stillness in the midst of activity. The description the Taoists give of Seijaku is like a top rotating at high speed, appearing perfectly at rest. Have you ever spun a top? When it gets to top speed, it appears motionless. It isn’t, it’s going at a very fast pace. One of the deepest expressions I’ve heard is from Professor Huang when talking about the circulation and balancing of the Chi in T’ai Chi Chih and T’ai Chi Ch’uan. “In this way, the favorable chance, which is time, and the suitable position, which is space, can be grasped.” That’s one of the deepest passages I’ve ever heard. He also said, “That which is unfathomable in the movement of the yin/yang operations is the presence of spiritual power.” Now you know why I’m sorry he is gone. Professor Huang is the one who responded, when someone asked, “What does a sage want?” “A sage wants spring to follow winter.”

From the book Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, excerpted and reprinted with permission from Good Karma Publishing, and available on www.gkpub.com.