He is aware of the irony. He is having an affect; he can't sleep without having one. And yet he knows that for him, it is spiritual poison.

"I wish there were instant karma,like John Lennon said," he said pensively. Then, with a chuckle, "Or maybe I don't."

This is a quote that has been puzzling me for quite some time. I do not know David Duchovny's beliefs on Karma directly, but I thought this quote might help me to figure them out. I talked about it to a lot of people, and it inspired some very long chats on karma.

This sounds like it is agreement with Buddhist views of Karma.

Buddha taught that all karma, whether good or bad, simply binds us to cyclic existence, where all is impermanent, where pleasurable situations do not last and give rise to suffering. Therefore it is better to have neither good nor bad karma, to have no effect in this life, and leave the wheel of reincarnation.

I got to ask him a question on this in the E! Online chat.

From beccaelizabeth: You've said that you believe in karma and that the most noble thing in life is to live without having an effect on the world at all. What does that mean?

David replied: It means pretty much what I said. We believe in the Western world that you're supposed to balance out your bad works with good works. But there's a certain way of thinking that is to leave the world exactly as you found it. That's kind of foreign to our thinking, which is probably why she's confused by it.

This isn't a natural point of view for me. I tend to think we should try and keep on getting good karma. But I am very glad David thought it was a question worth answering.

I personally do not believe that we should try and stop being reincarnated. This life is all there is, it is what is important. To learn how to get it right is why we come back around, to learn how to be happy, and then once we have learned to teach others the trick. Buddha taught that all is impermanent and happiness here cannot last, therefore we should be not here. I do not agree. Just because nothing is forever doesnt mean it isnt right then. We live in the now, always now is the only moment we truly know. If now we are happy, that is good. That is real.

The idea of trying to have no effect on the world also made little sense to me. How can we not have an effect? David said to leave the world exactly as you found it.

In the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett witches practice a magical technique called 'Borrowing' where they reach out and share the mind of another creature. The borrower's motto is: