Karma is simply an extension of known laws of ethics: what goes around comes around, one good turn deserves another, a taste of one's own medicine, you reap what you sow, you get the idea, tit for tat, quid pro quo, a law encapulated in the word "reciprocity". — Agent Smith
Well, if only! The buddhist view is basically that children with bone cancer have bone cancer due to what they did in a previous life. Them having cancer is ‘karma’.
There is a much darker side to buddhist beliefs many prefer to ignore. — I like sushi
There is a much darker side to buddhist beliefs many prefer to ignore. — I like sushi
You say peaceful, I say apathetic, complacent, and fatalistic. Not all, but much of Buddhist tradition, like Christian tradition is concerned with maintaining power relations in society. One says you deserve your misery in this life because of your past life and the other that your misery in this life will be rewarded in the next.Buddhists are generally more peaceful than Christians, Moslems, etc. — Agent Smith
Karma in this sense doesn’t permit the ability to change for the better or for the worse. — Benj96
You say peaceful, I say apathetic, complacent, and fatalistic. Not all, but much of Buddhist tradition, like Christian tradition is concerned with maintaining power relations in society. One says you deserve your misery in this life because of your past life and the other that your misery in this life will be rewarded in the next. — unenlightened
Merely a matter of geography. Buddhist doctrines can just as easily be used to kill and maim. Extremists can exist in any institution.
The general message in every religion is one of peace and love. Some seem to need more reforming than others … not denying that. A bullet to the head is still a bullet to the head. The gun it comes from generally doesn’t matter too much. — I like sushi
Are you really that naive? That is like saying violence is not permitted in Christianity and ‘turn the other cheek’ is always employed.
Myanmar. Plenty of instances of violence there openly encouraged by buddhist monks.
Go back several decades and in the UK muslims would pretty much never get involved in violence. The doctrines don’t matter too much when corrupt leaders of institutions wish to flex for political gain. Religious institutions are political institutions. — I like sushi
Myanmar. Plenty of instances of violence there openly encouraged by buddhist monks. — I like sushi
I think viewing misfortune in this life as some kind of penance for misgiving in some imagined previous life is an abhorrent idea that essentially has some people categorised as ‘deserving their fate’ by simply being born with some form of disability or other. — I like sushi
I was interested in this topic because the philosophical position of ‘karma’ and ‘past lives’ is something that is often swept under the carpet. I think viewing misfortune in this life as some kind of penance for misgiving in some imagined previous life is an abhorrent idea that essentially has some people categorised as ‘deserving their fate’ by simply being born with some form of disability or other. — I like sushi
This - our misfortunes are our own doing - doesn't imply that those who're in a tight spot should be left to the mercy of bad karma. — Agent Smith
. I am not the expert, but my suspicion is that the doctrine does not come from Buddha himself, but is an accretion that probably predates him. — unenlightened
instead of promoting resigned powerlessness, the early Buddhist notion of karma focused on the liberating potential of what the mind is doing at every moment. Who you are—what you come from—is not anywhere near as important as the mind’s motives for what it’s doing right now. Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life, our measure as human beings is not the hand we’ve been dealt, for that hand can change at any moment. We take our own measure by how well we play the hand we’ve got. If you’re suffering, you try not to continue the unskillful mental habits that would keep that particular karmic feedback going. If you see that other people are suffering, and you’re in a position to help, you focus not on their karmic past but your karmic opportunity in the present: Someday you may find yourself in the same predicament they’re in now, so here’s your opportunity to act in the way you’d like them to act toward you when that day comes.
It fits right in with the caste system, and helps to sustain it along with rampant toxic sexism — unenlightened
Although many Asian concepts of karma are fatalistic, the early Buddhist concept was not fatalistic at all.
It justifies it, because it justifies everything, by making justice a property of nature. And that means that any amount of exploitation is justified.The dogma of karma comforts the fortunate and privileged and blames the afflicted and exploited for their misery. It is entirely natural and commonplace for the privileged to come to believe they deserve their privilege, and karma is simply the Indian version of godswill and the white-man's burden. It fits right in with the caste system, and helps to sustain it along with rampant toxic sexism. I am not the expert, but my suspicion is that the doctrine does not come from Buddha himself, but is an accretion that probably predates him. rather like Roman cultural accretions to Christianity unconnected with the reported words or deeds of Jesus. — unenlightened
How can I find ‘karma’ abhorrent’? I said those espousing ‘karma’ as a justification for people less fortunate as themselves as ‘abhorrent’.
It is especially silly when based on a steadfast belief in reincarnation from one body to another.
Where is having the cake and eating it? I don’t quite understand what you are getting at with that line? — I like sushi
This too is karmic in essence i.e. our wish to put an end to our pain occurs only when/after our karmic IOUs have been paid off. — Agent Smith
Your attachment to the karmic explanation stinks. What is this 'our pain' you speak of? I want my pain to end immediately. You speak of our pain by way of appropriating the pain of others and then use the notion of karma to justify your complacency about it. — unenlightened
Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these my children, ye do it unto me. — Jesus
The innocent suffer because to live is to be vulnerable. Life is a losing game - everyone dies. So rather than pretend it is not so, let us use our intelligence and social interdependence to mitigate suffering where we can, by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and sharing our common resources wherever there is need and suffering. You never know, your next life might be one of those whose suffering you did, or did not alleviate in this life. — unenlightened
Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these my children, ye do it unto me. — Jesus
This is the radical karma of Buddhism, that since the self is an illusion, you yourself are the Buddha and the tyrant and the innocent sufferer, and to alleviate the suffering of another is as commonsensical as for the right hand to bandage a cut on the left — unenlightened
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