Ernesto Che Guevara and the law of karma!

I think I've just hit upon a great idea for a new reality TV show. Or maybe not.

Having spent considerable time in the past describing myself as a Marxist, and retaining strong sympathies in that political direction, the name 'Che' still stirs romantic feelings in my socialist soul. The doctor who was so inspired by the lives of the poor and oppressed of Latin America that he devoted, and ultimately gave up his life, to fighting for the freedom of all people. And yet he is also a man who oversaw executions of deserters and would also seem to be homophobic.

Steven Soderbergh does a great job of bringing these kinds of contradictions to a man who became more than just that. It seems to be common practice for journalist hacks to not write about Che without mentioning his poster adorning the walls of endless student halls of residence. And recently an alcohol company were denied use of what is one of the most famous and influential images of the 20th Century. Che became a hero across the world. As with all heroes, the boundaries between truth and fantasy become blurred and a man becomes legend.

I recently started keeping a notebook of sentences or ideas from things I've been reading to remind me. I made a note from a book by Pema Chodron:

For me to be healed, everyone has to be healed.

This statement is about conflict. Every conflict involves sides and inevitably we find ourselves picking and choosing which side to be on ourselves. For Chodron though, the causes of conflict lie in the very process of identifying with, and taking sides. And no resolution to conflict can come from any position which reinforces this process. In Zen terms taking sides is a matter of judgement and preference and as such a function of our monkey mind. (Ha my notebook proves useful after all!)

So watching Che Part One got me to wondering about how such Buddhist ethics fit with the Marxist idea of class struggle and revolution. In other words, will Che be reborn in the heavenly realms as liberator of the people, or is he doomed to the 7 hells as a brutal murderer?

I can't in any way claim to fully understand karma and I'd be slow to trust anyone who said they really did. How I understand it now is not so much as some kind of mystical abacus, weighing up your good and bad deeds, but rather as a matter of consequences. Every action has a consequence, and in a lifetime people are continually acting and producing consequences. Every moment of our lives reflects our actions as our current state of life reflects the consequences of these actions.

There is so much complexity to a situation or a life such as Guevara's. In simple terms the precepts discourage us from causing suffering an taking life. At this level there is no question that Guevara would have accumulated negative karma. I don't find this in any way a satisfactory conclusion.

For one thing Karma does not apply solely to an individual. Karma would seem to apply to groups of peoples and historical circumstances. Was it karma originally that led Guevara to be involved in revolution in the first place?

The regime Castro and Guevara overthrew was one of corruption, oppression and murder. The natural resources of Cuba were exploited for personal profit by Batista, who also made links with American mobsters. JFK himself spoke out against Batista and America's links with his regime, highlighting the fact that Batista was responsible for the murder of 20000 Cubans.

When we take into account the fact that this is what Guevara was fighting against, how does that affect his karma? He was never a mindless thug who knew nothing other than violence. He had an intense sens of justice and spoke of love as being the most important quality for revolutionaries to possess: love of their comrades, of the people, of justice and liberty. His life was spent with a gun in one hand, and a book in the other. His men were taught to read and write as well as to wage war. He protected the poor wherever he went.

I rather see his karma as being complex. It was his karma to accept the responsibility to lead a violent existence in order to fight against a violent regime. Remember that violence is not only the physical act of violence, but also the act of denying people the right to work and the ability to exist and support their families. Ultimately his death in Bolivia can be seen as a fulfilment of his karma to some extent. But to me his death and his life are about sacrifice. When he had a career as a doctor he could have led a comfortable life. After the Cuban revolution, again he could have hung up his boots and settled into a cushy government position. Instead he chose to continually fight for oppressed people wherever he found them wanting his help. To Guevara his own life was not as important as the lives of the poorest and most troubled people's of Latin America and beyond.

Perhaps this is a man who better understood the concept of no-self than any Bodhisattva wannabe.

Having said that the Cuban revolution still is a cause of hurt and conflict for those closest. There are still people who will not forgive what occurred during that time and such hatred and hurt can be passed down through families for generations. In the end the violence of the revolution may have brought about different times in the short term, but what about long term?

Maybe the revolution itself was the maturing of karma brought about by a corrupt dictatorship underpinned by American imperialism. Karma that is still revealing its course.