The Karma of Everyday Life

Written by an oil engineer with an interest in Western and Eastern philosophy, this book explores karma through an exchange of letters with an Indian doctor, whom the author had met as a result of an accident while visiting the country. He begins by outlining a recognisable 'standard model' of karma and uses the rest of the book to explore aspects of this picture in more detail, bringing in the research of Ian Stevenson, Raymond Moody and Brian Weiss as a way of interfacing between science and spiritual philosophy. Dr Ramana came from a Brahmin family and is deeply versed in Indian philosophy, which means that he is able to give a standard response to the various questions raised by the author. The fact that Western philosophy has no contemplative tradition is seen as a fatal flaw since these thinkers look to the outside for all their solutions. His writing is wonderfully idiomatic and some of his sentences go on for a whole paragraph.

During the course of their exchange, the author takes up meditation and notices a gradual change in his state of mind. The Indian understanding tends to be more impersonal than the Western, and there are circumstances when karmic explanations can seem rather ad hoc, especially in the case of suffering children and the author's cousin Mark, who was killed in action in the Iraq war. This leads to more general reflections on human nature in relation to war. He comes round to the view that, in a general sense, we create our reality both individually and collectively, although the mystery still remains. The last chapter describes his visit to India, hoping to meet up again with Dr Ramana after their years of correspondence. Suddenly he encounters in him and receives the wonderful advice 'that everything is so simple: just be kind to people. That is all. That is everything. Be kind.' He then disappeared into the crowd and the author cannot find him. Later, he visits the hospital where he had worked, and finds that that doctor had died the week before. Nevertheless, he was there to greet his friend, albeit at the intersection with another dimension. This makes a fitting postscript to an engaging cross-cultural dialogue.