Posted by madison88 on August 19, 2002, at 22:41:54
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
I didn't think it is unavoidable that you personally will suffer more for your actions than everybody in general. If you believe that you are part of a greater something and will return to it when you die, then it is the greater whole that suffers. There is a popular, cliched Buddhist analogy. You are a wave in the ocean when you are alive. When you die, you lose your distinct properties and are just ocean. Reincarnation, which I am not sure about, holds that you become another wave at some point, so if you believe that, you, having messed with other waves by doing something nasty, will then suffer payback then. I tend to think that once you lose the distinct properties of a wave, you become ocean and never again the same wave that you once were, therefore the you that did something nasty doesn't get payback, because it isn't really you, as you exist now. You may suffer for your actions now since messing with other waves messes with the ocean, and you are ocean. The greater whole suffers, of which you are part. So my final answer is that you may suffer now and in the future, but not anymore than anybody else suffers.
poster:madison88
thread:822
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20020715/msgs/836.html