(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)
To further demonstrate the 12 factors (links) that create and maintain our karmic stream, I’m going to use a true situation as described by author Ann Rule in her book Too Late to Say Goodbye .
All lives, no matter how prosaic, have their secrets, and we never know what is actually going on in even our closest friends’ worlds. Jennifer Corbin was no different. Her involvement with someone outside her marriage began quite innocently.
In the spring of 2004, Christopher and Jenn meet on Sony PlayStation’s game called Everquest. Jenn plays a Wizard called “wizwiz148.” Her online partner signs on as “sirtank1223.”
A few weeks before Jenn Corbin is murdered, she discovers that her virtual lover “Christopher” is in fact another woman whose real name is Anita Hearn. Anita is the last person to speak to Jenn Corbin in the early morning of December 04, 2004, the day she, Jenn, dies.
Her husband Dr. Bart Corbin, not realizing that Christopher is in fact a woman, has discovered steamy emails between his wife and “Christopher” and thinks his wife is involved in an affair. He murders her while their two young sons sleep in their beds.
To repeat what I said in the first paragraph, to demonstrate how the 12 links (factors that create and maintain our karma) work, I’m going to use this true situation as described by author Ann Rule in her bookToo Late to Say Goodbye.
| LINK # | TRADITIONAL NAME OF FACTOR\LINK
|
DESCRIPTION OF THE 12 LINKS
From Khenpo Thrangu Rinpoche’s 12 links doc |
EVERQUEST FANTASY GAME AS A DEMONSTRATION OF THE 12 LINKS
Quotations from book Too late to Say Goodbye by Ann Rule |
| 1 | Ignorance | Because of ignorance (not stupidity, more like being caught up in a misunderstanding), we are blind to the true nature of reality – a “self” has no inherent existence apart from cause and effect. Because of ignorance, (metaphorically) a seed is planted. We wander in confusion. | [To play the fantasy game EverQuest] require[d] an Internet hookup…….Jenn seemed interested…bought the software [for the game] so that [she] could play… [Jenn logged into the game as] “wizwiz148 |
| 2 | Formations-karmic action | Out of this ignorance, an action takes place. The karmic seed that is planted because of ignorance starts getting (metaphorically) watered, developed. In other words, an action — either positive, negative or netural — has taken place, but it has not yet become karmically full-blown. | …the graphics …virtually invite players to enter another world. …[Jenn] was a young woman who had expected love in her life, but she realized too late that Bart [her dentist husband] didn’t want her for anything more than to enhance his own image, and to pick on and belittle. |
| 3 | Consciousness | This action conditions the seed in our mind, so there is now the potential (tendency, conditioning) to act in a certain way | Writing under her game name “wizwiz148,” Jenn exchanged messages with basically nameless participants… |
| 4 | Name/Form | Because of that particular conditioning, we are born in a certain way, e.g. fortunate or unfortunate circumstances. (Form is literally the embryo.) | The game is completely interactive, and the graphics are very real………….While [the players] are [playing the game], they can choose to be anyone they want: knights, maidens, assassins, sorcerers, kings, queens, villains, and heroes, all anonymously. |
| 5 | Six Senses | Once we are born, we have sense faculties which make contact with the world. | EverQuest encompasses numerous games of fantasy using rich animation and 3-D effects…. |
| 6 | Contact | Because of sense faculties, we have feelings: pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. | Because the game is played over the Internet, there is always the opportunity to meet others involved. Jenn exchanged [e-mail] messages with….”sirtank1223″ |
| 7 | Feeling | Because we have feelings, we become involved with certain things. | [Christopher] seemed somewhat in awe of Jenn’s standard of living and education. She was, after all, married to a professional man who appeared to be quite wealthy…Jenn [felt] lucky to have Christopher, someone who seemed to understand her completely…a man who was both kind and responsible, as well as secure in his masculinity. |
| 8 | Craving | Because we get involved, we want something, avoid something, or ignore something (the “three poisons”) | When she met Christopher (“sirtank1223”) online, Jenn Corbin had come to a place where she had precious little joy in her life…Now there was a man out there who offered a shoulder, a listening ear, and who seemed to understand her. |
| 9 | Grasping | Because of the three poisons, we make a decision to get desired object or avoid something (intention) | Jenn’s Wizard character on EverQuest soon became entranced with his [“sirtank1223”] inventive postings. |
| 10 | Becoming | Because of our decision (intention), we take an action. | Soon they [“sirtank1223” and “wizwiz148”] decided to exchange emails outside the confines of the game….they were soon in the habit of writing to each other in the early mornings before Christopher went to work and Jenn left for her mile run, and then again late in the evening if Bar wasn’t home….. |
| 11 | Birth | Because we take an action, we create effects that will ripen later (either in this lifetime or in future lifetimes) | It was probably inevitable that the tone of the emails between Jenn and Christopher became a little more intimate each week until it was sometimes downright steamy… |
| 12 | Aging & Death | Because we have been born, all the suffering of existence based on karma is inevitable. The whole process start agains at #1, Ignorance etc. etc. etc. | On November 17 [2004] Chris virtually vanished from Jenn’s Internet mail….]…[Jenn tells Christopher that she feels] you have come to know me better than anyone in my life – that I can tell you all my thoughts and secrets and I’m safe with you….there was no answer. But sometime between 6 P.M. on Thursday, November 18 and 5 A.M. on Friday morning, Jenn Corbin learned why Chris had backed away from their correspondence and her insistence that they had to at least meet, or talk on the phone, or that he should send a photograph of himself . Jenn finally learned the truth about Christopher and she was shocked beyond belief….There was no Christopher….for months she had been writing to a woman. Not a man at all…..And “Chris’s” real first name was Anita. Anita Hearn….Losing “Chris” was a crushing blow for Jenn Corbin. |
June 4th, 2009 at 16:06
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June 12th, 2009 at 21:00
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June 13th, 2009 at 21:28
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July 6th, 2009 at 15:15
Some of us even don’t realize the importance of this information. What a pity.