BIKERS CLUB FEBRUARY 2020 ISSUE | Page 55

ISSUE 02 | FEBRUARY 2020 questions without falling into the trap of illusion. No one knows the answers to the deep questions about life and death. Does this mean that Zen closes the door to metaphysical phenomena? Absolutely not! Zen cannot confirm nor deny them, therefore, it is better to remain silent and to live simply in the moment. What does Zen think of religious beliefs? As a great Zen Master once said, "Faith is like painting the walls of your room with mud, then trying to convince yourself that it is beautiful, and it smells good."  BIKERS CLUB ® MAGAZINE | PAGE 39 Faith is an illusion, a dream that we strongly consider real, but that in reality only impoverishes the true spirituality of man. The strength of our faith and conviction has nothing to do with the fact that a belief is true or not. The veracity of our faith is in us only, nowhere else. Religions feel compelled to give answers to everything as a sign of their "great wisdom," but for Zen, not giving any answers at all is actually the great wisdom. A true religion shows man how to think and not what to think, therefore, we must learn to ask great questions rather than looking for great answers. B I K E R S C L U B ® | www.bikersclub.in What is Karma? In Buddhism, the sanskrit word Karma means "action," and is defined as the intention manifested in the action of thought, body, and speech - it is the intention that produces Karma, and not the act itself. Everyone in this world is subject to the great chain of causes and consequences, successions of rebirth and death, called karmic law or karma. The cause is generally compared to the seed and the consequences to the fruit. The fruits of karma are harvested in the form of happiness or misery depending on the nature of the acts committed. Every thought, every action, every word leaves "vibratory" imprints, karmic seeds and these imprints ripen, drawing to us corresponding consequences or consequences of