GUEST BLOG—ALIFA SAADYA

Alifa Saadya (Ven. Huatou) is an American-born Israeli and student of Buddhism with the Hongako Jodo Association of America. She has spent many years engaged in interfaith dialogue, especially between Christians and Jews, and works as an editor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Alifa lives in a small community in central Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Part III

The one thing that kept me sane in that first year after Kodesh was killed was that I believe firmly in the law of karma. The deed of murder has ramifications for so many people—the grief of family and friends, the rage and disgust, the additional impetus to turn away from any sort of peace process, and among the Palestinians, the fear of Israeli retaliation was set in motion, and so on. All these elements add into the karmic equation, and the karmic account of the murderer will inevitably include recognition of the ramified consequences of his act.

Did you know that revenge is specifically forbidden in the Bible (Lev.19.18) as part of the laws about holiness? The reason is simple: only God can look at the whole picture of a deed, the subtle and evident motivation of its doer along with its ramifications and then institute the correct and full punishment or reward. Acts of revenge only keep stirring the pot. I am not, at this stage of my life, a deist, but if you substitute the fully-developed and complex Buddhist idea of karma for the idea of God sitting in judgment, then there is some comfort in knowing that everything will surely balance out in the end. In the Jewish tradition, God is viewed as having the perfect balance of justice and mercy, and I firmly believe that you cannot have one without the other in this world. I can train myself to be more compassionate in my thinking and in my acts, but I absolutely must believe that there is justice in this world as well. Precisely because I believe in the law of karma (or divine justice), I do not have to waste my mental energy plotting revenge or letting myself sink into hatred or rage. I should add that were it in my power to arrest the murderer and bring him before a court, I would still consider that his conviction would only fulfill part of the full karmic consequences of his act.

The incredible thing to me about the human condition is that alongside the aggression and the tendency to act with hatred, greed, and ignorance, we find also a profound longing for interconnection, a built-in ability to develop wisdom, and the possibility of learning compassion. The great gift of a human incarnation is that we can choose which part of our makeup to develop. An act (karma, literally, means action ) is like planting a seed, and none of us knows at what time that seed will ripen to produce the plant, nor what the complete nature of that plant will be. Basic human wisdom from every age and place tries to assure us that when we plant seeds of compassion, just and honest dealings, attempts to bring about a better future, truthfulness and compassionate speech, avoiding as much as possible those other tendencies toward hatred, greed, and the perpetuation of ignorance, that the overall result will be fragrant, sturdy, life-giving plants that shelter us along the path to freedom.