Karma dissolution and our true nature

[Guillaume]

Following this thread.
https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/s....php?p=2051408

So basically to realize enlightenment, one need to go though karma dissolution. This is something quite hard to understand as karma is a vague notion, has many definition and interpretations.
But to me this is related to letting go of our identity.

This is just a technical discussion, once you are in Samadhi, I think it just happens by itself ;)

Please, sky, the floor is yours

[sky]

Originally Posted by Guillaume

So basically to realize enlightenment, one need to go though karma dissolution.

Not according to Buddhism.
Attaining enlightenment does not instantly cancel all Karma. In the Buddha's life there were a number of Karmic issues that He had to deal with after His Enlightenment. He would not have generated more new Karma but would still need to deal with the old..

[Guillaume]

Ah okay, interesting.

What would be your definition (in your own words) of karma?

[sky]

Originally Posted by Guillaume

Ah okay, interesting.

What would be your definition (in your own words) of karma?

Cause and effect... The Universal Law.

Originally Posted by Guillaume

So basically to realize enlightenment, one need to go though karma dissolution. But to me this is related to letting go of our identity.

I understand this now as I had an insight into it recently. Explaining it in words is difficult as so many elements are present in it. I'm not even sure where I would begin.

Everything you said there is true though.

Originally Posted by Guillaume

What would be your definition (in your own words) of karma?

It is as sky said "Cause and effect..." a universal law and it is also related to "our identity" or personality or ego or habits. (whatever word one is comfortable with)

So the two go together. Who we are, how we interpret and perceive, how we relate to externals and internals, what we do (the cause) and (the karmic effect) what happens to us.

Our way of being, who and what we are is what draws our circumstances and experiences. That is karma. The two, identity and environment/experience, cannot be separated. Though one can, though free will, inhabit environments one is not karmically producing.

Originally Posted by Guillaume

this is related to letting go of our identity

We let go of habits, conditioning, identifications, so that our identity becomes less burdened, like sweeping dust off of a mirror so that it reflects light better.

We never get rid of ourselves, we get rid of things that were contaminations, imperfections, falsely thought of or identified with as self.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Guillaume

So basically to realize enlightenment, one need to go though karma dissolution. This is something quite hard to understand
But to me this is related to letting go of our identity.

The theory is, you stop generating new kamma, and the outcomes of old kamma continue to arise in conscious experience and pass away. Buddha was pretty specific about Kamma being volition, so the meditation is basically a cessation of volition. Volition is what perpetuates ego in time, so what you say pretty much fits the Buddhist narrative.

Originally Posted by Gem

Buddha was pretty specific about Kamma being volition, so the meditation is basically a cessation of volition.

Volition gets to the root of it.

[Guillaume]

Thanks for your answers, it's helping!

I now have the intuition that the mental plane is like a mathematical group, and the causal plane the logical operators we define on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics)

Speaking in more common language, there are intuitions (mental plane) and the analogies we do with other intuitions, or how they chain with each other (cause and effect).

I need to go now, but I'll come back!