“Under karma we are rewarded for our good deeds and punished for our bad ones, in this life and our next lives as humans or grasshoppers or carpet mold.” p. 256I think the basic idea is that your current life in the cycle of life is a result of how you lived your previous life. In a nutshell, you get what you deserve. That is as objective as I can be about the doctrine.
My mind goes on tangents whether it is engaged by a sermon, an advertisement or Buddhist doctrine. So I ask myself, “How would you evaluate the life of a grasshopper to determine if it would move up or down the order of life in its next incarnation?” What is right and wrong to a grasshopper? Do Buddhists debate such things?
My life is not going to be transformed by the answer. I don’t wait on pins and needles. In fact I will probably move on as soon as I exhale, but for now it is a genuine question that I have no idea what the answer could be. I expect that a Buddhist would feel the same way about the trinity.
Goldberg, Jonah. The Tyranny of Cliches. New York: Sentinel, 2012.
homo unius libri
I'm trying to remember if their religion is the one where you try to become good enough that you're allowed to die and cease to exist in all forms.
ReplyDeleteYes. That is the concept of Nirvana. Life is misery and your goal it to stop being aware of suffering. You become lost as an individual and are absorbed by the cosmic whole.
DeleteGrace and peace