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Question about Karma
So if someone has done something bad in his or her life before becoming Buddhists, are they ever "forgiven" for the bad thing they did, or is it too late? As Christians, you are forgiven for your sins if you ask for forgiveness. So what happens if you are Buddhist?
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Comments
That is how i practice, and this is merely my opinion.
Oh jeez, I better get to work then. I have done some really bad stuff! Just teasing.....that makes sense. Thanks, Brian.
“According to the seed that’s sown,
So is the fruit ye reap therefrom,
Doers of good will gather good,
Doers of evil, evilreaps.
Sown is the seed and planted well.
Thou shall enjoy the fruit thereof”
For a detailed explaination of kamma and its various causes, kinds, and endings please read this talk by Venerable Samanera Siri Dhamma
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sidneys/kamma1.htm
"According to Law of Kamma, the potential energy of the reproductive kamma can be totally annulled by a more powerful opposing past kamma. Also continuation of practicing good, will over power the bad kamma one had committed before.
Such as a spoonful of salt (bad kamma) added to a glass of water (good kamma), the water would taste salty. However if one continues to practice good deeds, it is like pouring fresh water into the glass. Hence the water becomes less salty."
(which is basically the same thing Brian said....just in different words)
Perfect! Thank you!
Whilst there may be nothing and no one "out there" to forgive (and such is my opinion), neither is ther reward or punishment. We do, however, carry judgmental mind, a dualistic mind.
In the practice of Metta and bodhicitta we practise arousing the mind of loving kindness. The first practice is to regard ourselves with the love of a parent for their only child. And this is a forgiving love.
Thus forgiveness is central to our practice: forgiveness for ourselves and towards those who wish or do us harm. In this there is much that is skillful, as the "Pairs" verses of the Dhammapada say.
We can hope for forgiveness from others that we have harmed, but what matters most is that we forgive ourselves. Forgiveness does not wipe the karmic slate clean, but it definitely can help produce more positive outcomes. Remember, karma is about consequences not punishment.
You WERE helpful...what are you talking about? You are always helpful - everyone on here always is!
^gassho^
So, if you have done something "not-positive" in this life - you may be reincarnated additional times to to allow you to work past the bad karma that previous lives have created.
Again, it's the Eastern view that we're being recarnated into a life of "suffering" they they wish to end. Westerners hold the "hope" that even as bad as life can or could be (which it is nothing like it used to be 200 or 2000 years ago) that "this" isn't it. We don't just get one chance and that's it. Westerners hold the hope that we will come back ... somehow.
Michael
Michael,
The Third Noble Truth is a piece of 'gospel', i.e. good news: there is a way out of suffering. In this it is possible (and, in my experience, useful) to understand close parallels between the First Turning of the Wheel when the Shakyamuni Buddha set out the Truths and the basic Jesus message of Repent, Believe and Change.
Although much Buddhist writing envisages the notion of 'merit' that can be acquired, it is not through merit that we escape samsara. We really need to "change our mind", which Christian theology calls metanoia. It is through this change that we 'wake up'.
When we wake up each morning, we become aware of what was there all along. Similarly, the Jesus message says that the basileia ('kingdom') is here but we have to become aware of it. We shake off the dreamer and the dreams.
In modern Western religious thought, we are faced with an 'awkening' at death. At that moment, or at some later 'Judgment', our actions and thoughts are 'weighed' (an interesting throw-back to Egyptian death beliefs). We are then (or have already been) allocated a reward or punishment.
All round the world, we find varieties of rebirth/reincarnation/metempsychosis beliefs. One survey suggested that a majority of people in the USA, even where they allege membership of a Christian denomination, believe in previous lives. And there is a wide variety of beliefs about the mechanism involved. The Tibetan philosophy of the bardos is one of the most elaborate theories and has generated libraries full of studies (many of which have been destroyed by the Chinese).
The Buddha, and many both before and since, commented on the fact that death, as the universal reality for all that is born, is the ineradicable aspect of what we term dukkha. The promise of the Third Noble Truth, that there is an end to suffering, is echoed across all belief systems, even the atheistic. After all, if there is no 'survival' after death, there truly is an end to suffering!