why do the kind die young?

zuiverGEO

why is that the nicest people seem to get cancers and die young.. both my nans died young of cancers, in buddhism is this explained from bad karma in your last life, or to do with conditioning?
thanks

Dandelion

It's interesting that you pose this question, as it was infact my father's death at a fairly young age (54) of cancer that after a lot of inward searching drew me to conclude that everything in life is a result of Karma, hence my interest in Buddhism. And, he was a very nice person, very kind and generous and peaceful. Somehow, seeing everything as related to Karma has made the bad things that have happened in life far easier to accept. I view it as part of my own Karma (as well as his) to lose my father (whom I adored) when I was 26. That's not to say I find things initially easy to accept, but for me Karma is the fundamental reason why everything happens the way it does and what I go back to whenever something bad happens. Of course, it is very difficult to say to someone else whenever something goes wrong in their life 'it's Karma', as it can sound too harsh I think unless of course they happen to believe in the same, and most people don't see Karma the reason for why things happen the way they do..... maybe when someone dies young it is a positive Karma. Their suffering (being human) didn't have to go on till a great age, maybe there was just a small amount of learning to be done in their life, or just a few tests to go through till they could get released and go to somewhere without suffering, hence the need for a shorter life.

Dandelion

Mountains

What about all the lovely people who live to be 95? I've met lots of those.

Jeffrey

The point of karma is that all actions matter. If you do good things it is good. If you do bad things it is bad.

The point is not to say that someone deserved to die.

Sorry about your nans. Another thing about karma is that you have connections to them and you probably see them again next life.

Mr_Serenity

I believe in karma, but I don't think its the main cause of good people dying young. Maybe that person became kind due to all the hardship in their life that accumulated making them humble. But while they did die young, I don't think it was due to the wrong they did, in this life or the previous. It was just their circumstances which they had to deal with. Millions of good people were murdered due to the holocaust, many of them young, and good people, this can't be blamed on their karma.

Another question to ask that in my mind actually shows how irrelevant or nonsensical karma can be, is;
"Why do mean people live long lives?"
I actually have seen this very often. Where a cold, seemingly bitter, and well off old lady lives into her 90s or even older. I don't think it's about karma. I think it's just about someones circumstances. What they had to deal with, how they handled it early on, etc.

By talking about karma in a way where its this supernatural thing that has control of everything, it's sort of a lame excuse. We should look at our lives in a light where we believe we can control it. Where we take responsibility for what happens to us, instead of blaming it on karma. Especially blaming it on karma from a previous life.

I once did a meditation that had to do with channeling and vibrating my third eye/pineal gland. That very same day I did that meditation I got the worst headache of my life. I thought I was going to die, and I never get headaches that bad. All I could do was lay down, yet the pain was too terrible to sleep. In this pain, I had visions of my previous lives. I could see them very clearly, without me even trying to imagine, visions just came to my mind.

It was interesting stuff, but I don't like to talk about it. They could of just been visions and nothing more. I believe karma can be real and happens sometimes. But I do my best to own this life and never make karma an excuse. I don't worry about my next life either. I just think about me, and those close to me. I work on making my own life in the present moment better.

DaltheJigsaw

Great thread.

Cloud

The entirety of the world is the way it is from the countless actions and interactions of every ephemeral being/thing that has ever been. Do you think that your troubles in this life are only related to things "you" did in a past life? Do you really think that if a bank robber shoots you that it was your fault? Or might it rather be the bank robber's own karma at work?

Our lives, for the most part, are subject to the greater conditions of the world. We can avoid creating suffering for ourselves by purifying our karma, and can turn what otherwise would be suffering into simply experience by awakening to our reality (realizing Nirvana).

We must accept that we are "small" in this world, and must look to ourselves and only ourselves to extricate ourselves from suffering which is not always our fault.