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Seeing the suffering of others - an observation
Hello all
I'm an RN working in an intensive care unit (for about three years now). As I've experienced working with people in less than optimal health, and seeing the causes of much of that ill health, my Buddhist take on things has made it so utterly clear - we truly do create our own suffering. And I can't help but believe that much of the suffering we endure stems from karma and our previous lives.
I see people who are drug addicted, alcohol addicted, and 'sick addicted' (they enjoy being sick and the attention it gets them), and I marvel at the clarity of the Buddha's teachings about karma and about dukha. I see people with severe mental illness and wonder "what did he/she do to deserve this?" The only answer I can come up with that makes any sense at all is that it's karma. Something in the past of this consciousness did something so terrible that it manifests in this life as we see it. My co-workers often ask the "what did he do?" question, but they never seem to have an answer.
I don't really have any editorial to make here, just sharing an observation.
Peace to all
Butch
I'm an RN working in an intensive care unit (for about three years now). As I've experienced working with people in less than optimal health, and seeing the causes of much of that ill health, my Buddhist take on things has made it so utterly clear - we truly do create our own suffering. And I can't help but believe that much of the suffering we endure stems from karma and our previous lives.
I see people who are drug addicted, alcohol addicted, and 'sick addicted' (they enjoy being sick and the attention it gets them), and I marvel at the clarity of the Buddha's teachings about karma and about dukha. I see people with severe mental illness and wonder "what did he/she do to deserve this?" The only answer I can come up with that makes any sense at all is that it's karma. Something in the past of this consciousness did something so terrible that it manifests in this life as we see it. My co-workers often ask the "what did he do?" question, but they never seem to have an answer.
I don't really have any editorial to make here, just sharing an observation.
Peace to all
Butch
0
Comments
It is complex. Hard to understand.
When one attributes a cause beyond the known reality, how can a person be helped and how can such problems be addressed in society?
Personally, I am unsure what teachings of the Buddha you are actually "marvelling" at?
It certainly is not the Tittha Sutta.
:rolleyesc
Karma isn't a punishment system.
You might find these 3 short articles by Ken Mcleod interesting ... 'Karma', 'Karma and Growth'. and 'Karma Doesn't Explain Anything'
http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/karma.php
Kind regards,
Dazzle
Simple things like work pressure, delusions about public fame or mere indulgence lead to drug addiction.
In the 1960's, many musicians became drug addicted because drugs helped them write more creative music.
The high of drugs expands the brain cells and naturally leads to depression when the drug is not taken. Such is the cycle of addiction.
Very little to do with past lives.
Michael Jackson is an excellent example because he was such a gifted child.
Are we to say a certain past karma in a certain past life gave him a musical & spiritual gift and then another past karma in another past life gave him his drug addiction & untimely death?
Probably not.
Peace
B
"The Buddha-range of the Buddhas1 is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"The jhana-range of a person in jhana...2
"The [precise working out of the] results of kamma...
"Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.
"These are the four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them."
Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html
Heroin addict, schizophrenic and possibly the most talented surfer ever.
Yes, I believe so. Although the precise workings and mechanics of this is one of the four inconjecturables, as I understand.
Peace also.
I agree, I don't think it has anything to do with punishment.
Is there such a thing as good and bad karma? Maybe there's just karma, and it's neither good nor bad.
I personally see any experience, including illness, as an opertunity to learn something and gain a new perspective. So maybe we do create our own suffering as a result of our actions in previous existences (via karma), but it's not because we did something bad in a previous existence - maybe we just needed to learn something?
I'm not sure if I've explained my thoughts on this very well, but it's just my opinion so it might be totally wrong anyway.
Palzang
brian
compassion is doing good unto others and the greater good without judgement. Why does it matter if someone's bad life situation is due to their bad karma, you help them out anyway. Bad karma should never be used as a JUSTIFICATION to ignore injustice, like it is used often. Things may be the result of bad karma, but you are gaining bad karma yourself by blaming things on bad karma instead of doing something about it if you have the ability.
EDIT: to many questionable above posts, for Karma to work you need to first believe in the idea of reincarnation, without reincarnation, a lot of Buddhism falls apart, along with the law of karma. It is still applicable in gaining enlightenment in the NOW, but death in itself would be sort of a nirvana then if there is simply annihilation.
Yes, I did suffer as a child (don't we all?), and looking back at it, I can see how the causes for it were in my mind already, based on my habitual thought tendencies. I was very anxious as a boy, lots of tension headaches and so forth, and for no apparent reason, so it had to be habitual tendencies that were already part of my makeup when I came into this life. That seems very obvious to me looking back at it. Of course, at the time I had no understanding of where it was coming from. All the suffering that I have experienced as an adult can definitely be traced to my own actions.
Palzang
I thought that's what you were getting at. Is is really fair to question your thoughts or actions when you were a child, though? Aren't children supposed to be ignorant?
brian
Palzang
Butch, I have also worked with people who are ill....
I'm a little annoyed at your judgement of them....how does someone run over by a car (for example) choose their own suffering?!?!
you see them as suffering...maybe they are being enlightened and learning to live in the now.
Alot of "good" can come out of suffering. We can learn alot.
and no, I'm not a buddhist, but I still believe this ^
Isn't it more likely that sickness is a result of having an impermanent body subject to old age, sickness and death?
I don't see addiction or illness as punishment at all. Karma is cause and effect.
Some people aren't able to drink or take drugs without it becoming addicting. It's just what we come in with. Addiction tends to run in families. One could have the karma to be born into a family with addiction, or to have the karma to be unable to tolerate a substance without it causing harm.
We don't tend to blame people who have allergies and tell them it's their past life punishment.
Being in a human body is the result of extraordinary positive karma. We all come in with a mix of positive and negative karma.