Karma: Porn, cheating, and celebrity

Editors (Wisdom Quarterly)

Buddhist Tiger Woods: sexual misconduct (kamesu micchacara) gone all out of control

Tiger Woods' porn star mistress comes forward
Adult film actress Devon James stepped forward yesterday as another of Tiger Woods' secret lovers, bringing his porn star count up to three and his total mistress count to 15. This latest news comes shortly after another porn actress, Joslyn James (er, no relation) [to infamous Sandra Bullock husband Jesse James, who has been racking up his own infidelity count], published Tiger's racy texts on her website, which caused Tiger's long suffering wife, Elin Nordegren, to storm out of the couple's home.


Sex is fine. Sexual misconduct is not. Restraint would help nearly every situation. Look what happens when it rages all out of control. Social commentators and creators of "South Park" explain the phenomenon quite simply: If given the opportunity (through money, power, and fame) what person -- even priests and certainly pop stars -- wouldn't be interested in more sexual conquests?

Tiger says he lost control after he "quit being a Buddhist"
In his first interview since he crashed his SUV in November, unleashing news of his infidelities, Tiger Woods wore what looked like two strings next to his watch. "It's Buddhist. It's for protection and strength, and I certainly need that," he told the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman. He said he began wearing the Buddhist bracelet before he went into therapy treatment and said he will "absolutely" be wearing it at the Masters and forever. In fact, he attributes straying from Buddhism for losing control in his life: "I quit meditating, I quit being a Buddhist and my life changed upside down."
We abuse the term "sex addiction," which is a real and crushing phenomenon, to refer to unprofitable habits (e.g., Internet porn), compulsions, and ordinary sex drive. Not everyone who steals is a kleptomaniac, nor every obese-overeating-sugarholic a diabetic... But everyone would claim to be if it meant less approbation. It's an abuse of terms that does not diminish the seriousness of a real condition.


Lindsay Lohan tripping on cactus, clumsy or wasted outside a Hollywood nightclub? Drug habit, sex-abuse habit... "habit" is simply another name for our accumulation of karma. Karma isn't just what we do; it's what we keep doing (Photo: DailyMail.co.uk).

This brings us to the topic of karma. For along with acting out on strong sexual compulsions, there is frequently drug abuse. The Five Precepts one would wisely take upon oneself to uphold -- for benefit now and in the future -- go out the window. No one is killed, perhaps nothing is stolen, but sexual misconduct takes place, deception and lying ensues, and intoxicants are consumed. One instance of any of these would be harmful enough, but it gets worse as it spirals out of our control:

Watch what you think.
What we think becomes what we say.
Watch what you say.
What we say becomes what we do.
Watch what you do.
What we do becomes habit --
and it forms our character.
When we pass away,
it is rightly said that we do not take anything with us,
except our karma, our character
(our accumulation of habits and tendencies),
which is what we've thought, said, and done.

The results come not only in the future, as many people mistakenly think Buddhism teaches. The Buddha taught that there are two results to be expect, the immediate and those to come. Moreover, an action (karma) does not exhaust itself with one result. It has redounding effects that follow one for a long time. This is good news when it's wholesome and profitable karma. Even a small thing has inordinate effects. Many small things have greater effects.



Sandra Bullock, sad wife of adulterer Jesse James, in "Premonition"

Avoiding Harm
Virtue (sila) boils down to one thing -- nonharming (ahimsa). Can anyone say Tiger, politicians, Jesse James-Bullock, or Lindsay were only harming themselves? Even harming oneself is not ahimsa. One should leave other unbothered or help them WITHOUT harming oneself, knowing that "sacrificing" (forgoing some immediate pleasure) often benefits one in the future. It borders on mysticism to say so; nevertheless, helping (nonharming) others IS helping oneself. Harming anyone harms everyone involved. What does the media encourage?
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Blog Archive