This is why my Buddhist ass isn’t a very good Buddhist lol. I appreciate the parts that help get through life, but the whole thing falls apart at the random cruelty of the universe and the non-random cruelty of humanity.
Ascribing any purpose to all of the suffering/stress of living is, frankly, bullshit in any religion. I don’t blame people for clinging to karma as an idea to explain such things, any more than I blame the whole “God’s plan” principle when things are theistic more directly. People sometimes need a pretty lie to get through the next horrible thing.
But I don’t, and can’t buy into it. To believe that any structure or entity would do the things that happen just as natural phenomena would drive me insane trying to find a way to destroy it. That’s not covering the fact that humans do even worse things, regularly, and that’s an even bigger sign of any intelligence of the universe being a cruel and hopeless monster.
Arguably Siddharth’s concept of karma was more of a physics thing than a moral thing. He made friends with the low of society and talked smack about the priestly caste. Believing in rebirth and at the same time not accepting that punishment here is for sins of the last lifetime.
Karma is deed done. If I break your farm you don’t have food. That’s karma. That doesn’t mean I get punished for what I did that doesn’t mean you get a reward to make up for it.
This is why my Buddhist ass isn’t a very good Buddhist lol. I appreciate the parts that help get through life, but the whole thing falls apart at the random cruelty of the universe and the non-random cruelty of humanity.
Ascribing any purpose to all of the suffering/stress of living is, frankly, bullshit in any religion. I don’t blame people for clinging to karma as an idea to explain such things, any more than I blame the whole “God’s plan” principle when things are theistic more directly. People sometimes need a pretty lie to get through the next horrible thing.
But I don’t, and can’t buy into it. To believe that any structure or entity would do the things that happen just as natural phenomena would drive me insane trying to find a way to destroy it. That’s not covering the fact that humans do even worse things, regularly, and that’s an even bigger sign of any intelligence of the universe being a cruel and hopeless monster.
Arguably Siddharth’s concept of karma was more of a physics thing than a moral thing. He made friends with the low of society and talked smack about the priestly caste. Believing in rebirth and at the same time not accepting that punishment here is for sins of the last lifetime.
Karma is deed done. If I break your farm you don’t have food. That’s karma. That doesn’t mean I get punished for what I did that doesn’t mean you get a reward to make up for it.