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Worms
A human being can consciously perform good deeds and thereby gain good karma, and subsequently get good future births etc.. But a worm, for instance, cannot perform good karma at least consciously, so what happens to its fate? Does that mean once you start taking birth as anything other than human, you're finished (since it's only going to be a downward spiral from there)?
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That's why it's hypocritical to shun Burakumin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
youtube.com/watch?v=hy3X0A8kYxY
From "what on earth evolved" by Christopher Lloyd. GREAT BOOK!
p.s. This is my view, rather than the orthodox view, which as far as I can tell doesn't equate actual harm/good with karma. I take the teaching of the Buddha on karma/volition as a teaching rather than an ontological truth.
If not, why is this question important to you?
carry on.
But if all you're "programmed" to do is your "job" and it is beneficial how can you go wrong?
In my understanding, Karma needs to ripen for it to be "played out".
A precious human birth is our only chance to learn, practice and share the Dharma.
In doing so we have a greater chance at another precious human rebirth, and to learn, practice and share instead of other realms where we are not able to do the above mentioned.
The good karma of building a house out of love for our family lets us enjoy that shelter.
The worm is, by being part of the self-sustaining natural cycle, building a better existence for itself, that it can one day learn the latter way of karma, as we are doing.
However there are many things you can learn, just by observing the worm and how it goes about it's life.
There is only one Karma... it's neither good or not good... it just is...
When Buddhists say there is no god and no divine plan, I understand this to mean no separate god or plan.
Best to practice now while you at least know for sure you're able.
I only suspect that I accept rebirth ... I'm not 100% convinced.
With regard to time, there's kamma ripening during the present (dittha-dhamma-vedaniya kamma), kamma ripening in the future (upapajja-vedaniya-kamma), and kamma ripening later than that (aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma). With regard to function, there's productive kamma (janaka-kamma), supportive kamma (upatthambhaka-kamma), suppressive kamma (upapilaka-kamma), and destructive kamma (upaghataka- or upacchedaka-kamma). And with regard to priority, there's weighty kamma (garuka-kamma), habitual karma (acinnaka- or bahula-kamma), death-proximate kamma (maranasanna-kamma), and stored kamma (katatta-kamma).
As for the rest, it may be that such habits will possibly disappear on their own after the underlying kamma has 'worked itself out'; however, I wouldn't count on that myself since indulging in them can also serve to strengthen them and perpetuate them farther into the future. Things may be beyond our control, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to put up resistance whenever we can, which itself can have positive and cumulative effects even if they're not immediately perceivable.
I think that attempting to force any literal conceptual structure in this area is harmful and not practical. I think when it comes to karma and rebirth, one should accept the that the universe is supremely intelligent and there is a higher meaning in the cycle of karma and rebirth. IMO actualizing psychic capability goes a long way to aid in the understanding that the universe is common sense and brilliance at once.. this usually helps to address the nuts and bolts of why and how [physical being]. Also, my intuition says our own higher essence of has a great deal of influence on the direction of our experience.
Yes, habits work themselves out, but your striving is karma too. You can't assume things will work themselves out, you have to keep trying, even though your trying is karma. You can't sit outside life watching and never get involved; that's a misinterpretation of Buddhism.
As I said before on another thread, it's like water finding its level. You know when people have a ambition and say 'I just have to do this'? And people say 'let him go, he just has to get it out of his system.'
The worm or even bacterium is part of this trend to increasing entropy too. Fuel only burns for so long. But these are just metaphors for how we are living.
Excerpt:
"It is a common devotional act for Buddhists, Hindus and the members of other belief systems, to perform circumambulation or kora (the Tibetan word.) That is, to walk round and round a stupa (Tib. chörten,) a temple or other shrine, usually in a clockwise direction.
Ribur Rinpoche relates:
Before the old house-holder Pelgye took ordination from Buddha Shakyamuni, Buddha checked if he had the merit to take ordination and saw that once, when this old man was born as a pig, a dog chased him around a stupa. The pig went around the stupa to save his dearly cherished life, not having any faith, but with this merit he was able to take ordination.
Khenpo Chokey Gyaltsen of Pullahari, Nepal adds that the animal even went around the wrong way, in a counter-clockwise direction. The point is that Buddhists consider that there is merit whether it is the result of conscious intent or not. Such an act by an animal can lay the foundation for a future link with the Dharma.
He added that the 12 or so dogs living at the Jamgon Kongtrul Monastery daily perform koras. And he added incidently, that there was no need to feel distress at the fact that my own dog had eaten a copy of Milarepa: Yogi of Tibet. Perhaps the animal was somehow moved to try and internalize the lessons that were in it. In other words, in his view some animals can have the inclination to connect with dharma."
http://www.khandro.net/animal_about.htm
Once I got a stray, mildly-feral cat to follow me 95% of the way around the Deer Park stupa. Just before completion he lay down to sun himself and refused to budge further. I always wondered if the almost-kora counted
But I think--I have to check--the answer is that intent does matter, a lot, but karma doesn't come from intent alone. I think we're confusing karma and merit here, also. One can collect good merit, even while in unwitting animal form, due to past good karma ripening. Hence the worm who is taken around the stupa may not have woken up thinking, "I want to be taken around the stupa," however he/she may have the ripening karma of encountering a kind human who takes him/her around the stupa and thereby collects merit:
"...with each circumambulation you are giving the insects that many causes of enlightenment, liberation from samsara, and happiness in future lives. You are creating the cause for their purification and for them to collect merit. Along the way, you also create these things for yourself..." (Lama Zopa Rinpoche, http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=333)
I may believe what I wish. But I have no evidence.
And although I wish I could think of a more sophisticated way of saying this...I think this is pure fantasy.
Not really trying to be difficult - just saying what the Buddhist perspective teaches on this. One is free to reject these perspectives, but that's what the perspectives are, nonetheless.
Personally, I see the earth as for all practical purposes a giant organism, so the idea that it has evolved to support its own existence (i.e. that existence tends to perpetuate itself, whether through the existence of worms aerating the soil or the sun continuing to shine) logical. But regardless of my personal fantasies, the OP's question was whether from a Buddhist perspective lifeforms reincarnate in a downward spiral, and the answer (from a Buddhist perspective) is no.
I have no problem with differing opinions, but I do have to ask what the point is, on a Buddhist forum, of denigrating people who are discussing Buddhist concepts? At the least you could be a bit more polite in voicing your alternate opinion, and then explain what the basis of your opinion is. At the moment, you haven't offered anything other than that it is merely your opinion that the Buddhist opinion is wrong.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/10/57
So I'll go back to my other statement from above: Can you show me some evidence that "past good intent on the part of the farmers is what drew helpful worms to their fields"?
And just so you'll no that I am not attempting to denigrate your viewpoint -- I believe in God. I can't prove that, any more than someone else can prove God does not exist. So, I am using the same standard for my belief that I am using for your belief.
Can you show me some evidence that the number of worms in a farmer's field is dependent on whether a farmer developed negative or positive karma?
But one could say, "Based on the genealogical evidence, you are likely the genuine descendent of Mr. Jones," and then one could say, "Well, at the least, I know he's probably genetically responsible for me existing." There's at least some connection--not completely provable (unless you have genetic evidence from your ggg-grandfather), but evidence exists in favor of it.
Similarly, Buddhist philosophers feel evidence exists for karma, and treatises exist on the subject of karma and how it works. The treatises present evidence for the existence of cause and effect, and for the second concept that the kind of cause is related to the kind of effect. I.e. when one puts ones' finger in a flame, ones' finger gets hot--the moon doesn't turn to blue cheese. As a very crude and basic logical point, then, we can propose that if cause is related to effect, then a positive effect is most likely to have come from a positive cause. Health wormy field = previous positive cause.
One can definitely reject any theory; but one would in this case be in the difficult position of trying to show that cause is not related to effect, which takes more effort in my experience than showing that cause is related to effect. Occam's Razor would be in favor of a relationship between cause and effect, I believe.