Question: How do I convince someone that there is the cause and effect of karma?
Answer: This is a question you can ask… If he/she does not believe in cause and effect, why does he/she not rob in broad daylight? Obviously, this is because such causes can lead to the effects of being caught and punished. This too is the law of karma at play. And the fact that these misdeeds are not done means there is belief in the workings of karma.
Cause and effect beyond such obvious examples might be harder to believe as they are not seen, but the law of cause and effect still operates. For example, a thief who believed he got away can still suffer the effect of being caught later, because he did create the cause to be caught. This principle of karma is pervasive to all other matters in this life and from life to life.
Dear sir,
While i am not officially a buddhist, i really enjoy very much the Buddah words.
I also tend to meditate on myself, life, etc…
From this disposition of character i have managed to develop a few elements of understanding of life.
I do very much believe that everthing is a continuum and linked, therefore i have a pretty strong intuition in reincarnation, or at least the continuity of life and of the spirit.
However, i have never been convinced in karma, not in the way that people believe it. I believe everything is always the results of previous causes, and that is the way the universe is built, in an infinte set of cause and effects. Therefore karma is only to me the unending dance of cause and effect, and who we are is the cause of our karma. However, this is the point i am coming to, i don’t believe karma is a fair thing and i don’t believe everything that happen to people is deserved.
For exemple, something very bad can happen to someone who did not necessary deserved it, but they just put the effects of it in motion. Some people can have a hard time in life because they are negatively conditioned.
If you die in a plane crash, i don’t believe it is necessary a payback for bad karma.
but maybe i am wrong?
I would love to believe everything is predestined by our karma, but i honestly think it would be putting too much power on ourselves. If you go out in the forest and get eat by a tiger, did you deserve it or is it just the potential consequences of walking in the jungle?
Here are the differences between rebirth and reincarnation: https://thedailyenlightenment.com/2014/03/are-you-reborn-or-reincarnated/
For rebirth to make sense, there has to be some natural ‘mechanics’ – which is karma. However, not everything is predestined by karma: https://thedailyenlightenment.com/2014/12/why-no-one-truly-believes-in-predestination/
Why Does The Bad Happen To The Good?
Question: Why do good things happens to bad people, and bad things happen to good people?
Answer: The question has two wrong premises – that only good things happen to bad people, and that only bad things happen to good people. Of course, this cannot be the case, as we do also see bad things happening to some bad people, and good things happening to some good people.
That said, why do some good things happen to bad people, and some bad things happen to good people? This is due to the natural law of karma at work. Of course, it cannot be the case that being bad is the cause for the effect of having good things happen, or that being good is the cause for the effect of having bad things happen. This would be the opposite of how karma works.
However, it truly still is karma at work as people are mixed bags of having created some good and bad karma in the past, even if they are more focused on creating more of good or bad karma in the present. The kind of karmic seed sown, with the availability of supportive conditions determine when it bears fruit. Thus, there are instant and delayed karmic effects, which can be mitigated or aggravated with current action.
This is why some good happen to the bad – because they did do some good in the past, be it in this or a previous life, to deserve so. However, current doing of the bad will lead to bad results later. Vice versa, some bad happen to the good – because they did do some bad in the past, be it in this or a previous life, to deserve so. However, current doing of the good will lead to good results later.
Related Article:
How Past Lives’ Karma Can Ripen In Future Lives
https://thedailyenlightenment.com/2016/06/how-past-lives-karma-can-ripen-in-future-lives