Bono: Grace Over Karma
In an interview featured on the Christianity Today website, U2's Bono talks about the difference between Karma and Grace. Here are a few excerpts. . .
It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.
I really believe we've moved out of the realm of Karma into one of Grace.
. . .You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.
. . .I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace.
Bono also talks about meeting with Pope John Paul II and giving the Pope his wrap-around sunglasses ("as a gift in return for the rosary he had just given me"). More of the interview, from the new book Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, is on the CT site: Bono: Grace over Karma.
Darrell
www.WildFaith.com
posted by Darrell Grizzle | 1:40 PM
10 Comments:
You are running some really fascinating posts. I like seeing someone as public as Bono expressing spirituality... thanks for that. And the gnostic stuff is g-r-e-a-t! I hope you don't mind, but I may set up some of your links in my sidebar somewhere. Great stuff.
Bono is an interesting fellow. I never thought of it like that before. He has a point!
I never thought about the relationship between Karma and Grace...
...pretty interesting stuff.
You don't hear much about grace these days, but it's really the heart of the authentic Christian message.
Anyway, you just can't beat a photo of these two in the same space. Nice.
duder, i noticed you'd been hitting my site a bit (despite my hibernation), so i wanted to drop a line back at you and say thanks for checking it out. i've dug yours for some time now.
this particular post grooves with me because the idea again gets thrown out of my head that celebrities have to be pathetic rich morons with no reason to think on rich levels. oh, how i wish my judgemental self would disappear!
hmmm . . . grace over karma and out of karma into grace? I'm not sure I can share these coneptualisations . . there is a duality or perhaps a hierarchy being set up here which I don't find helpful . . I do think we must explore grace for this is something that interests me as a convert away from theism . . how shall I find grace when grace is all around?
Great post- Bono has always been one of my heroes and I love what he has to say here.
The word karma tends to pull up all sorts of images that confuse and bewilder some people, especially the western mind and Christianity. Jesus taught us karma with the Golden Rule and his most powerful analogies and sermons. The Beatles expressed a powerful lesson in karma with the line… “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
In the end, we’re all going home from this great big movie theater, our bellies and minds stuffed full of popcorn and soda and all the visions we saw on the screen. Leave the theater now, or leave it after the double feature, it’s entirely up to the individual. The show will end one day and like it or not, the lights will come up and the feature will be over… no more theater for the mind. Only in the theater of mind will karma ever make sense.
Grace is the “Welcome Home” sign greeting us when we arrive, Grace is our higher self saying, “so, how was the show?” even though the ending to all the beautiful, horrifying, magical, movies are the same. Grace is knowing nothing is going to stop our arrival back home…grace is the way home….karma is all that happens in the theater and in our deciding to make our way back home.
I just got back from four days at Tybee Island -- it's wonderful to see such a lively response to my post here! I'm grateful to all of you who take the time to respond. (Except for the spammer who posted here; his lengthy post about mortgage rates has been deleted!)
Isaiah: You're right, Jesus did indeed teach us Karma, along with Grace. With him, it wasn't either/or, it was both/and. I love your image of the movie theatre; it fits with the Eastern ideas of this world as ultimately being an illusion (maya). "Grace is the way home" to the deeper Reality beyond this one.
Rainbow Pitta: You're right; there is indeed a duality here. Until we acheive nirvana [in Vedic language], or until we are reunited with The One [in Sufi and neo-Platonic language], we live in duality. We live in a flesh-and-blood reality in which duality not only exists, it's necessary, to relate to others as individuals, to do our daily work, etc. And I think in Bono's thinking, Grace is definitely "higher" (hierarchical) than Karma. As the Beat Generation and Deadhead icon Neal Cassady said, "Grace beats Karma." Like Bono, I'm grateful that it does.
Darrell
Darrell,
I am mere minutes from Tybee- Please let me know when you are back (near Hilton Head Island)and I would like to meet you.
It would be a blessing to me!
I'd love to meet you! Wish I had known you were so close. We had a great time on Tybee; I'll write a blog entry about it soon.
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