noam wrote:seriously, to anyone that genuinely believes in 'karma' as an actual thing, and not just a threat that if you act like a tnuc you might get in shit at some point (the same as christianities 'do unto others...' meme) then fuck serial killers, how do you explain the suffering of innocents?
Because all suffering and karma is collectively inter-twined and not just an individual thing.It's a misconception to believe it's just our own and no body else. Or just some body else's and not our own. Everyone's suffering is equally our own and everyone's triumph is equally our own because we literally only exist collectively and not independently.
The suffering of 'innocents' is the result of the suffering of the sum-total of humanity that created the environment to suffer in the first place.
Humanity creates conflict amongst it's self, and that conflict leads to suffering. Who ever happens to be in the cross fire, also suffers. 'innocent' or not.
at this point, word's like innocent and guilty aren't really appropriate anyway when we look at everything as operating in a unified way despite the layers of subjectivity and individuality we identify with. When there's no 'other' to blame, we realize the conflict is routed internally but has been projected externally ,then back and so on.
Everything is as it is ,and there are innumerable ways to play the blame game but it all boils down to the individual and collective Ego or sense of self and other.
We seek to 'gain' but at the expense of others (and our own) loss, and we try and avoid loss, at the expense of others (and our own) gain.
Humanity has always been in a battle to find equanimity between it's creative and destructive capacity. When we see that our external world (society incl. suffering +liberation) is a projection of our inner world, then that's how we see karma applies it's self.
Society is just as much as a mental construct as our thoughts, as our thoughts continually reshape it.
When we see karma as a cycle of cause and effect hardwired into an evolving ethical system, then we can see what it's there for.
We know suffering exists and we're all effected by it. this very thread and the trail of responses is also karma in action. Our behavior inclinations and tendencies that we picked up from the 'previous' dictate how we respond and perceive the present.
When we see the inter-connected nature of all things then we don't take our own role for granted in the ever unfolding chain of events we experience. Every thought, every word, every action contributes to the collectively shared experience. Choose carefully what and how you contribute to yours and others lives.
Buddhism only really has legs to walk when it's rooted in compassion for others and self i think. and unlike a lot of other teachings, it is willing to evolve and reshape it's self as the world around us does the same. For the most part though, the template realized back then, still mostly applies to now, just with a lot of other factors contributing to the self-prescribed complexity of it.
Buddhism or not, karma or not, If Compassion's something not worth aiming for in a self-conflicted word then i don't know what is
