Wrapping my head with Karma and Dharma

The Head of the Buddha

My mom told me something that I will never forget. One day, as I was getting ready to go to the monastery she told me "Son, I am happy that you are visiting all the monasteries and temples but only good Dharma won't get you there. Trust your good Karma to get you there always". I think about this quite often. What and where is  this 'there'  that she speaks about? Is it salvation what the Buddhist's call 'freedom from the cycle of birth or rebirth' or is it a mere journey of bettering ourselves?

I love this striking quote from Richard Bach- "Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”

The spiritual path, the path of awakening, is full of insights and meanings but they do not belong to one religion or sect. In fact they are universal. Meaning is what changes us and thus changes our lives. Meanings change as our life changes. Static and Dynamic Quality???

I never fully understood the static and dynamic quality that Robert Pirsig talked about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Anthony McWatt sort of explains it in his article: [As Herbert Günther says in his book Philosophy & Psychology in the Abidharma (1957), “The Ultimate, in Buddhism, is something knowable, though not known by theory or discursive method, but by direct experience”. In other words, the Buddha can’t tell you what Dynamic Quality is, but he can point a way so that you can experience it for yourself, and then you might understand.]

If you read this post then I would love to hear some thoughts in the comments below.