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June 9, 2006
Karma and the reason we do things
The other day I had a chance to get a cool bike frame and some other parts and it would have been totally cool for me to do this. The owner of the material was going to scrap it and later he said I could have anything of value off the bikes. I was doing the scrapping, which I wrote about the other day. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt in my heart that I couldn't keep any of it. The main reason I was doing the scrapping was to help out Lester when he was in a bind. It wasn't for bike parts. It was to save his butt when he was under pressure and to help him with his livelyhood. So instead I am bringing the few good parts I got down to the bike shop to donate. I felt guilty because keeping any of the parts was going against my original intent of giving to another person. Recently I've been looking at original intent, the heart of our actions. This relates to Karma. Too often though we lie to ourselves and justify our actions because we want something. Our desires cloud over our heart's intentions. I feel better now and it all worked out better than before. I helped Lester out, and he was thankful. Now I have restored my purpose in doing good for the sake of doing good, not for a reward at the end. The reward is in the process of doing not the end result or recognition.
Posted by carl1236 at June 9, 2006 10:46 PM | Attitude
Comments
John, you shouldn't feel bad if you keep things like that.
He brought that stuff in to have done to it just what you did. But, the organization you're with wasn't able to do that for him. You, as an individual, however could so you did. If you hadn't and he couldn't find anyone to do what you did ti would have been brought to the dump; or worse, dumped somewhere without approval (not saying anything bad about your man Les, just saying junk tends to find its way where it oughtn't be...)
Of course, donating good parts to a worthwhile organization should make you feel even better, though! :)
Posted by: nathan at June 15, 2006 2:36 PM
Hi Nathan!
Oh yeah, I could have kept anything I wanted out of the pile of junk. The whole pile was going to the metal melting machine. But that wasn't my original intention when I agreed to help Lester. I could have called it my 'fee' for helping him. But when I said I felt guilty for keeping the parts, I wasn't meaning that I felt 'bad' about keeping the parts. In this case 'guilt' was a red flag, or warning signal that my actions were not matching my intentions, or originating motive. What I created was an act of goodwill toward another person and changing the motive would have changed the act itself. Then what I created would not have been what I intended to create. It would have been an act of self-service.
Besides that, ;-) a person could end up experiencing the consequences of the new creation, and the consequences are not always what we think. A frame here, a spare wheel, a hub, a crank set, a spare derailer, etc., etc. makes my garage full and moves the bike shop to my garage, which I have goal to clean out this summer! And instead of me working on bikes at the shop, I'd be working on bikes at home. There are endless alternatives, depending on the choices I make along the way, which won't happen because I chose to keep my original motive. And I don't think I can feel bad about doing something good for someone. Unless my motives were not what I thought they were.
Posted by: John at June 16, 2006 1:31 AM