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What you give is what you get
Bunks
Australia Veteran
If you believe in karma
then propagate the dharma.
Then you know it will be returned in the future.
9
Comments
Wait ... it must be more complicated than that?
Nope. Well said! Simples.
I think even if you're of that flavour of secular Buddhist which doesn't believe in karma, you should recall all the good things the dharma has done for you and pass it on to other people, out of the goodness of your heart and compassion for their suffering.
However as @Kerome has mentioned....
(Even) If you don't believe in Karma
(You should) Still propagate the Dharma...(then one's life will be a whole lot calmer)
What you ask for is what you get, I choose to offer compassion to the angry man I seek no reward.
@Bunks
I'm reminded of Alan Watts’s little spin on karma and its consequences
When one commits an unwholesome (mental or physical) act, with or without skill
If the secular police don’t get you…The Celestial police will !
I was just thinking along similar lines @IronRabbit - it's amazing how many times in a normal day somebody does something nice for us and we hardly notice.
But if someone is rude to us or does the wrong thing, we kick up a fuss and stew on it (sometimes for hours and days).
We're strange creatures......
I'm not. ?
Oh wait ... I am.
http://www.taleofgenji.org/buddhism_for_beginners.html
If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.
http://dudeism.com/takeiteasymanifesto/
@IronRabbit
Give into the flow and receive whatever comes your way. The Dude Abides!
Heard this story from one of dharma lectures
A father went to work in the morning.
When he was in the company, his boss was in a bad mood and scolded him.
He was very angry because of being scolded by no reason.
His wife happened to phone him, and he scolded his wife.
The wife was scolded by her husband for no reason and also in a bad mood.
In the afternoon, when her son was back from school, she scolded him too.
Her son was very angry due to being scolded without reason.
It just happened that their puppy came in, he kicked the puppy.
After being kicked, the puppy was irritable and went out.
The father happened to be off from the office, so it bit the father.
Why was the father bitten?
It's caused by his anger in the morning, then influenced his wife, his son and his dog.
As if a rock was tossed in a lake, the waves will transfer very far and vibrate continually...
A MI TUO FO
:-)
I killed a fly in the office this week with a ruler and felt terrible. It had been buzzing around peoples heads all day and they were trying to swat it, I hit it for 6!
On the other hand, I saved a spider and a flying ant thing in my house this week and sent them on their merry way to the garden.
I feel that the single bad deed outweighs the two good deeds a hundred times over :-/
Even the math doesn't add up for you to feel worse for killing one fly and setting the spider and a flying ant thing free. Plus, you saved your co-workers from adding negative karma to their own heaping piles (more than likely) by killing it yourself - it surely would've eventually died at their hands.
The last statement is a doozie - Why oh why would a single bad deed outweigh two good deeds - and a 100 X over?!
Please explain. (I think it's because you're overly emotional about it.)
You are a sinner @Lee82, you bought a one way ticket to hell!
Simply because it's something I never do, I've captured and released many small things from my house, knowing that if my wife finds them first they'll get splatted! It would have died anyway.
You performed a service to Humanity.
"God in His Wisdom, created the Fly,
But promptly forgot to tell us why".
I related this ditty to a Catholic Nun, once. She replied that God created the fly so that we would be able to study, research and use our God-given wonderful knowledge to create cures and remedies for all manner of disgusting afflictions and diseases spread by said insect.
I asked her why God would give us such an insect, able to spread such awful, life-threatening, unsanitary sickness, and she replied that Humanity deserved punishment for their Original Sin.
She was very lucky I didn't swat her cranium with a rolled-up tabloid, too....
What a stupid response....
Flies are an abomination. They spread filth, disease and are very unhygienic. They settle on food, liquefy it, vomit it back up and swallow it again. Really? You feel guilty?
Nope.
Mosquitoes (equally noxious) and flies are fair game.
Have you any idea just how many eggs those revolting critters can lay at once? Trust me: Get a score of egg-laying flies together and you'll outnumber the global population in under a day.
Well done.
That's a good example of the babble that I often find with Christians in trying to justify -- with crazy thinking -- everything being centered around God. Pray and your prayers will be answered...and when they're not, well, God works in mysterious ways. Or God has a different plan. Then why pray?
I have also heard it said."Its a mystery of the church". Which church and which mystery?
I'm glad that one of Lobster's posts led me to see the difference between theism and deism.
Some members of the insect Order Diptera (which flies and mozzies belong) can serve a very beneficial purpose, for example the maggots of some common blow fly species are now used to clean out infectious wounds ....
This is a case of where the fly [larvae] "is" the ointment..(well kind of, so to speak )
"Basic entomology can be interesting and fun
However finding out how creepy crawlies live is not for everyone
Some people have a phobia about things that creep and crawl
But if they took time out to study them, they would have no fear at all !"