There havent been any new posts or replys on this whole forum for like 2 days! Well, give some replys and maybe we can get a good ol' buddhist conversation going.
I like the Buddhist philosophy. However, I have problems with karma and reincarnation. Both of these concepts placate to the desire for humans to feel justification in their suffering and hope that if they act morally good things will happen.
Personally I believed in reincarnation before I became a Buddhist, but I can understand your reasoning. I think one could interpret reincarnation in a more scientific sense. After you die, the matter you are made of does not disappear, it continues in the cycle of life, and becomes new forms of life. Even if you are buried in the ground, bugs and other organisms will use you to create their own offspring, and part of you will be in all of those new organisms...in one sense you will be reincarnated Of course, this is much different from Buddhism, where the idea is that you are reincarnated as one, other individual being, rather than part of many. However, I do not think it is designed to "placate to the desire for humans to feel justification in their suffering." Escaping ones own suffering by examining the root of one's desire is a much greater reward than any "good things that will happen" because of it. Buddhism is not about morals, I would say it's rather about logical reasoning. As for karma, I neither understand much about it, nor hold any belief in it. In love, Diana
Wow you're right! Jeez not a single response to my post or anything...This makes me said I know I should not be attached to the Buddhism forum, but I admit that I am. It is disheartening to find that it has become quite lifeless recently. In love, Diana
Stop clinging to expectations, Diana ... Sustained expectations lead to disappointments. Sustained disappointments lead to impatience. Sustained impatience leads to anger. Sustained anger leads to hate. Sustained hate leads to malice, strife, murder. Darrell
You make good points, however, our disagreement is not the interpretation of these terms, it is the epistemological grounding. Your points seem rational, but within an unlikely scenario. As far as the scientific explaination of reincarnation, it is all well and good if your desire to live on as some form of unconscious, disassociated energy or matter, however, the general conception is Consciousness transcendence. If you believe you have a soul, we are back to epistemology. Beyond that I can't argue with something that is not clearly defined. I intend no hostility. Darrell, it should stop at anger if one truly examined themselves. Anger in and of itself is undesirable to the sensitive individual. Suppression of ego is the path to happiness. Whether you can withstand it or not is reliant on the Subject.
Ahh yes, the cage of expectations... Thanks Darrell for the reminder. I realized that I was attached to the forums but I forgot to examine my own expectations as well. And I have so many expectations... The question is, how does one rid oneself of such expectations? how does one rid oneself of such attachment? For example, I am going to Barnes and Noble this weekend with my friends and I have a list of books I wish to buy. Already I have a sort of attachment to these books that I have not even seen or bought yet. Second, I have an expectation that these books will greatly help me in my spiritual journey. In fact I don't even know if I will be able to buy them at all! Barnes and Noble can be quite expensive... So how does one escape the confines of attachment and expectation? In love, Diana
I agree ... somewhat ... If a lesser of evils is desirable, then it should stop at anger ... If a lesser of evils is desirable, then it should stop at impatience ... If a lesser of evils is desirable, then it should stop at disappointments ... If a lesser of evils is desirable, then it should stop at expectations ... In the context of human interaction, the sensitive individual would not let it get past disappointments because they would see that by being impatience, they are in fact attempting to impose or imprint their own thoughts and views onto others. They should probably even see that it is their own expectations that are causing them so much grief to begin. Someone once asked me, do you know when you have developed expectations? When you feel disappointment, sadness, sorrow, pain and despair. Darrell
