Do we really believe in karma and in rebirth?
Oct 30, 2008 | Categorized Under: Buddhism | | CommentsPretty often I find myself asking if we believe in karma (the law of cause and effect) and in rebirth?! Do we really believe in it or are we just saying so?
…if we really do believe in it, what makes us better than the stranger? Why do I have the impression that in our society it mostly is the “me” and not the “us”? Why does it seem to be easy to kill “my so called enemy” or a mosquito? Isn’t it right that we have lived so many lives before, and it is our personal and our shared karma that we are experiencing? So this “enemy” or mosquito could have been a dear person before, with whom we share a special karma?!
If we really do understand that there are no such things existing as country boarders, the attachment to something which we call “mine” or “me” and so on – won’t it be easier then to practice loving kindness without questioning it?!
November 2nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Excellent thought Melanie! You have put up a really thought provoking question in a brief paragraph. I somehow feel like I have asked this question myself while back and the only answer I could get, of course from myslef, is that it is not really possible to act on the belief of karma and rebirth.
You see, karma and rebirth concepts eventually motivates us to include compassion in our life. Now that’s a really hard task if anybody is to practice compassion during every single moment of his life, especially in this modern, competitive and selfish society. I actually think that kind of person wouldn’t even survive this world; but then I realized that I m actually wrong to say that. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa are truly the living examples eight in front of our eyes. Now for the people like us, who to a limited extentd understand do understand and follow upon the karma and rebirth are bit better off than those who don’t believe at all. Wouldn’t you agree we are more compassionate, although we are only sometimes and on selective occasions?