Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Karma question.
How do you break the cycle of bad karma if you aren't a Buddhist in any future lives? I've heard that things like rape and murder can leave a permanent stain on your future lives. But isn't that going to cause some kind of chain reaction?
A crap life is the ultimate set up for crap behavior. Ya see, I don't understand how karma teaches a lesson. When I've had to yell or ground my younger sister its to create a reason for her to not do whatever bad thing she did again. So, why does karma exist, when all its going to do is make your situations crappier and make us do crappier things? And that's not to mention people who don't even know that their crappy situation is caused by karma and don't realize what they need to do to redeem themselves?
So, lets use me as an example. I'm on the waiting list to join the Navy. I'm going to be a frogman. I don't kill people. My job is actually quite the opposite. In about two years from now I'll be a highly skilled diver specializing in disarming underwater mines and disarming IEDs on dry land. I'm also responsible for underwater demolition (UDT) but the chances of me killing anybody like that are incredibly slim. However. I'll be going to Afghanistan to disarm IEDs , and for this we're trained for combat situations to defend ourselves. If I kill somebody, then that's a stain on my eternal karma. I'll die one day, then I'll be born into a crappier life. Then my crappier life will cause me to do crappier things and so on.
If I'm born again and as a punishment I'm born in Brixton in something like 2053 into a massively over populated world, my environment will teach me its okay to go out and kill people and beat people up so I can take their water rations and their sparse food supplies. Then I'll die and go to a crappier place. I'll be in south east Asia or Africa and I'll join the army and butcher villages of civilians. Then I'll die then I'll be in a crappier life and then I'll do whatever. The cycle continues. The examples aren't 100% accurate, but you get the point.
You could argue that by practicing Buddhism and becoming a better person will improve your karma. But, Buddhism isn't a very widely practiced religion or philosophy. Sure there are a few hundred million Buddhists in the world, but compared to seven billion it isn't. The more aggressive and bad you are, the less likely you're going to adopt a philosophy like Buddhism. Some evil bastards might, but not often. So redeeming yourself becomes highly unlikely.
So. A bad person is bad, is he going to be bad forever and getting worse?
A crap life is the ultimate set up for crap behavior. Ya see, I don't understand how karma teaches a lesson. When I've had to yell or ground my younger sister its to create a reason for her to not do whatever bad thing she did again. So, why does karma exist, when all its going to do is make your situations crappier and make us do crappier things? And that's not to mention people who don't even know that their crappy situation is caused by karma and don't realize what they need to do to redeem themselves?
So, lets use me as an example. I'm on the waiting list to join the Navy. I'm going to be a frogman. I don't kill people. My job is actually quite the opposite. In about two years from now I'll be a highly skilled diver specializing in disarming underwater mines and disarming IEDs on dry land. I'm also responsible for underwater demolition (UDT) but the chances of me killing anybody like that are incredibly slim. However. I'll be going to Afghanistan to disarm IEDs , and for this we're trained for combat situations to defend ourselves. If I kill somebody, then that's a stain on my eternal karma. I'll die one day, then I'll be born into a crappier life. Then my crappier life will cause me to do crappier things and so on.
If I'm born again and as a punishment I'm born in Brixton in something like 2053 into a massively over populated world, my environment will teach me its okay to go out and kill people and beat people up so I can take their water rations and their sparse food supplies. Then I'll die and go to a crappier place. I'll be in south east Asia or Africa and I'll join the army and butcher villages of civilians. Then I'll die then I'll be in a crappier life and then I'll do whatever. The cycle continues. The examples aren't 100% accurate, but you get the point.
You could argue that by practicing Buddhism and becoming a better person will improve your karma. But, Buddhism isn't a very widely practiced religion or philosophy. Sure there are a few hundred million Buddhists in the world, but compared to seven billion it isn't. The more aggressive and bad you are, the less likely you're going to adopt a philosophy like Buddhism. Some evil bastards might, but not often. So redeeming yourself becomes highly unlikely.
So. A bad person is bad, is he going to be bad forever and getting worse?
0
Comments
There are a remarkable number of people in the world who don't know they're scum and that they need to redeem themselves. Some even appear to get away with it and prosper. This is probably one reason belief in rebirth was invented; so we could look at those people and feel reassured that they'll get theirs next time around. It's an attempt by humans to make sense of the world and introduce a sense of fairness into an unfair world.
I think even though life is unfair and is a struggle, that's all the more reason for us to reach out to each other and do what we can to help. We can create little oases of compassion around us. That's the best we can do. It won't stop corporate greed-heads from trashing the economy, but if we can be aware of our mutual suffering, we can do what we can to make it easier for each other. We're all we have.
Spend a day being selfish, self centred and nasty to everyone, and see what happens.
Then spend a day being unselfish, other-centred and kind to everyone, and see what happens?
Test it for yourself!
People only get well rutted, not imprisoned!
Many people have lead 'bad lives', ended up suffering because of them, and then did a major u-turn. I'm in A.A. and I can cite many examples of people who've raped, beat their wives, spent time in prison for all sorts of heinous crimes, but who managed - motivated by the pain they've experienced because of the way they lived - to change into really kind, compassionate, and caring people.
I've got an ex-gangster friend who runs an orphanage in West Africa that looks after mainly HIV orphans.
Now that you have human intelligence and know about the dharma you can create good karma for yourself and work your way up.
In fact for all you know this life is a large improvement over the last one. You may have been a war orphan in Africa or something.
And they say that Enlightenment can be reached in this lifetime. That should provide an incentive for following Buddhist guidelines, not for giving up. And if there is rebirth (not all Buddhists agree, including S. Batchelor), all the more incentive for getting it right in this lifetime.
One key to understanding karma is that the motive behind your action makes a big difference. If you lie or steal in order to save lives, there is good karma in that. The Dalai Lama has said that if he ever had encountered Hitler, he would have killed him if he could, because it would have saved tens of thousands of lives.
You may feel that your environment is pushing you in a certain direction, but you can always choose to swim against the tide. Many of us here feel like salmon swimming upstream. Welcome to the stream.
Are you really going to Afghanistan? The work you'll be doing, if what you've described is true, will be very positive work. Is that why you're going on a road trip? One last fling before being shipped off into the unknown? Please send us reports from the front. From anywhere, for that matter. Best whishes, Sagat.:om:
The lower realms: hell, hungry ghost, and animal have more beings in them (compared to human/god/demi-god) for exactly the reasons you mentioned. This is part of the traditional 'four motivations' to work hard in dharma practice. The four are: prescious human life, suffering, ever more entangling karma (as yo mention), and the inevitability of death.
Its never too late. You can overcome bad karma. By regret, creating positive karma to balance, ?, and taking refuge in the triple gem (to steady against fear).
I don't know about the Brit armed services, but the US has Buddhist army chaplains.