I rarely go and look at my Yahoo.ca mail accounts however to-day I logged in and this promotion came shooting across the screen, Can you Beat Karma? Karma the Goat, trimmed out in purple, running through my screen certainly got my attention. As you will see if you follow the link there are a few weeks mapped out with good things to do, presumably so one can ‘beat karma’. It’s a promotion, it’s commercial and it’s a bit of fun too. And here is a bit more fun…

For anybody who has bumped into the TV series My Name is Earl you will know that Earl is on a mission to right wrongs after he discovered the concept of karma. A simplified version for sure however it does seem he understands that intention, in his case bad intention, leads to bad things happening.

Here’s how Earl started on the upward path:
Earl (Jason Lee, “Almost Famous,” “Chasing Amy”) has taken one too many wrong turns on the highway of life. However, a twist of fate turns his life into a tailspin of life-renewing events. Earl wins a small lottery, and, after an epiphany, he is determined to transform his good fortune into a life-changing event as he sets out to right all the wrongs from his past.
Before Earl can begin his journey, his inevitable attraction to misfortune surfaces once again. Seconds after winning the lottery, he is hit by a car and while unconscious; the winning lottery ticket blows away.

While in the hospital, Earl watches “Last Call with Carson Daly” where Carson says that his success is a direct result of doing good things for other people. It is at that moment Earl discovers karma- and in hope of a better life, he sets out to correct every bad thing he’s ever done starting with a grade school geek, Kenny (guest star, Gregg Binkley), who Earl used to pick on.

Earl’s wrote a long list of bad things he has done in his life and in each episode Earl, somewhat assisted by his friends, deals with one of the wrongs by trying to make amends.

So karma is very much in the popular culture. Karma means action by the way, and the reason I was looking at my Yahoo account is directly related to encouraging a good friend in the Sangha to take an action. Specifically, since she is splitting up with her partner, to get her own email address since they obviously will not be sharing the same address, email or otherwise. Yahoo seemed to be a good option.

I wonder if one of the items on Earl’s list is, ‘read Joy’s email’. Just a thought.

My problem this evening is not being able to come up with anything to write about…or perhaps it’s that there are so many things to write about it’s hard to decide where to start.

Anyway, here is an article with teachings from the Buddha, on having problems.

I’m living in England’s Last Wilderness. In the article you will see a photograph, not of the West Allen Valley where the monastery is however the country is similar and basically just over the hill from here. Our valley is slap in the middle of the area described. The author circled but did not traveled down ‘our valley’, few people from outside of the area travel down ‘our road’.

‘If not quite virgin country – man has left his mark here – this is as close as England comes to untrammeled territory.’ That’s until the BT men came this morning in their big trucks and started to pull up the telephone poles on the ‘bottom road’. Lots of loud shouting in an otherwise silent valley save for sounds of cows, sheep and birds. Oh, and the sounds of the monasteries bells and the wooden time block.

It’s good news though. I asked one of the men about the state of the phone cables, ‘All underground now’. ‘What’s our chances of getting Broadband’? ‘Good, no problems…except’ pointing to one of the remaining poles, ‘you’re on a party line, see that dext up there’? (I think he said ‘dext’, it was a technical term anyway.) ‘Can’t get Broadband, ‘cos it keeps dropping the line. But there are enough lines in that cable to give you your own line’. Invaluable words from the all knowing men on the ground.

The modern world of fast internet connections are inching their way into our wilderness. For a number of people living in isolated circumstances, I’d imagine this is a life line.