I have a site that explains a lot about Buddhism. Let me dig it up real quick. Ahh, here we are. I haven't finished reading it myself, yet. My personal concept of Karma works kind of like this: Being good to someone will increase the chances that that person will be good to another person (which starts an endless wave of chances of the person treated nicely treating the next person nicely.) There is a chance that the wave of 'good' you just initiated will circle around and catch you in the tide. I wouldn't say it's guaranteed, though. Because we are only in control of ourselves, not others. If someone treats another person horribly, that starts a similar wave which you may get caught up in even though you haven't done anything to deserve it. (Which really enables one to question why they should continue to be good.) So, I personally believe that acting good is more beneficial to the next person than it is to yourself (depending on how one looks at it--is one really acting good for benefits at all?)
I think that's the gist of it. Well, except this was all so horribly long and if LJ craps out and I can't post this, I will be infuriated and start the most enormous wave of negative Karma to ever exist.
And One Life to Live had a very, very sad ending (for a family of characters.) :( This very kind woman, very happily married and with two kids, was shot by some gang member who was trying to kill a cop (the shells he used were explosive, too.) She died in the hospital right in her husband's arms (damage to her intestine caused all kinds of bacteria to circulate her body.) It was horrible.
But she had some disgusting accent and I was about 8 years old and waiting for mom to finish using the TV so I could play nintendo, so I thought the bitch deserved it. And I didn't shed a tear.
Re: Part 2aviolentrageSeptember 13 2004, 10:47:55 UTC
You took my question in a way that I very consciously tried to avoid, so allow me to clarify a bit. I'm not stating that we need karma in order to motivate ourselves to do good things: in fact, I explicitly stated that there's often intrinsic value in the act itself of doing a good deed. (I do think there's an unsubtle difference between consciously doing 'good deeds' as though they're an exception and living a virtuous life, but that's not the point.)
What I'm saying is that it seems religion and philosophies often introduce concepts of justice and morality because it's so hard for us to accept that benevolence in general could go unrewarded, whether in reference to ourselves, those we love, or just a character on a television show. We need the inner peace that comes with recognizing some kind of order to the universe.
I took a course (correction: started to take a course, then dropped it) on Buddhism, and found that the Buddha did not necessarily believe in reincarnation, though I don't know what impact that has on Buddhism and karma... anyways, what was my point?
Yes people need to live more righteous lives. Lest we blow up the outside world.
I have a site that explains a lot about Buddhism. Let me dig it up real quick. Ahh, here we are. I haven't finished reading it myself, yet. My personal concept of Karma works kind of like this: Being good to someone will increase the chances that that person will be good to another person (which starts an endless wave of chances of the person treated nicely treating the next person nicely.) There is a chance that the wave of 'good' you just initiated will circle around and catch you in the tide. I wouldn't say it's guaranteed, though. Because we are only in control of ourselves, not others. If someone treats another person horribly, that starts a similar wave which you may get caught up in even though you haven't done anything to deserve it. (Which really enables one to question why they should continue to be good.) So, I personally believe that acting good is more beneficial to the next person than it is to yourself (depending on how one looks at it--is one really acting good for benefits at all?)
I think that's the gist of it. Well, except this was all so horribly long and if LJ craps out and I can't post this, I will be infuriated and start the most enormous wave of negative Karma to ever exist.
And One Life to Live had a very, very sad ending (for a family of characters.) :( This very kind woman, very happily married and with two kids, was shot by some gang member who was trying to kill a cop (the shells he used were explosive, too.) She died in the hospital right in her husband's arms (damage to her intestine caused all kinds of bacteria to circulate her body.) It was horrible.
But she had some disgusting accent and I was about 8 years old and waiting for mom to finish using the TV so I could play nintendo, so I thought the bitch deserved it. And I didn't shed a tear.
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What I'm saying is that it seems religion and philosophies often introduce concepts of justice and morality because it's so hard for us to accept that benevolence in general could go unrewarded, whether in reference to ourselves, those we love, or just a character on a television show. We need the inner peace that comes with recognizing some kind of order to the universe.
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Yes people need to live more righteous lives. Lest we blow up the outside world.
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