u did something good and something good happen to u
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karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence. -
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i find it quite true
On the opposite end,
its irksome to see people cursing others they hate with 'bad karma'
They do not know they are equating 'hate' with 'deeds' -
most of the time, something bad happened insteadOriginally posted by shuiling:karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence. -
Actually i think it's true that goodness does not always befall the good...
And calamity does not always strike the bad too...
It's somewhat about Heng Suay... -
If u did a good deed just hoping something good happen to u, then can forget it lah. U are doing good deeds so that when u die and went to hell, u will suffer lesser and live better in yr next life ,not to get things back.
This only happens on those who are super lucky.
P/S: Doing GooD Deeds is to help people in need n not for yourself.
n dun expect or think that something will good happens to u. -
We have uncountable past lives. So what we experience now is often the result of ripening of karmic seeds from past lives. Similarly what we do now often have results in only in future lifetimes. Those who practice buddhism can not only see their past lives, they will start to learn about karma. So we have uncountable past lives and our current karma may be from any of them. So there is a buddhist saying, if you want to know your past lives, just look at your present situation. And if you want to know what your future lives are like, just look at what you are presently doing. There are people from our forum who have remembered their past lives, and a lot more buddhists outside this forum who can remember their past lives. So buddhism is not just a belief, it is more like an experiential account and you can see for yourself. Just like scientific experiment with the right scientific methods. Maybe neutral onliner can help me copy the 'see for yourself'/past live articles from ajahn bram as its not too convenient for me now. Furthermore, buddhists should not do good deeds just for the purpose of getting good karma. That is not true merits. Maybe sinweiy can fill me on that one.Originally posted by shuiling:karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence. -
I agree that most of the time bad things happened instead of good ones.
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The law of karma is a very sophisticated subject to discuss in detail, and many a times, the bad things that happend was because of the bad seeds you've planted many years ago without you knowing it, because of ignorance.Originally posted by shuiling:karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence.
Would like to ask you, do you expect good returns for every good things that you've done?
In a learning buddhist's perspective, you do good because you want to help the others to be liberated from suffering, not to gain something in return. If you are only concern on how much you are getting back, you are better off not doing it in the first place. -
So what did jesus teach you all in bible?
Did he said doing good will result in bad karma and doing bad result in good karma?
If so, no wonder all of a suddend you all come to buddhism forum and criticize buddhism teaching. Which church you come from? Are you evangelist? You think doing this bad deed will give you good karma, is it? -
diaoOriginally posted by justdoit77:So what did jesus teach you all in bible?
Did he said doing good will result in bad karma and doing bad result in good karma?
If so, no wonder all of a suddend you all come to buddhism forum and criticize buddhism teaching. Which church you come from? Are you evangelist? You think doing this bad deed will give you good karma, is it?
who is christian here sia?
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Originally posted by shuiling:
there's a bit misunderstanding what karma is. it's much deeper than mere revenge or good/bad things happening to a person. tell me if you don't feel happy when you help another person. and tell me if u don't feel terrible when u kill another person. it's the conscience aspect on an individual level that we are emphasising.
karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence.
/\ -
Good deeds got a very wide range
Some weight more, some weight less, some just do 1 and the merit will exceed the amount that a person do in his/her lifetime
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Relax my friendOriginally posted by justdoit77:So what did jesus teach you all in bible?
Did he said doing good will result in bad karma and doing bad result in good karma?
If so, no wonder all of a suddend you all come to buddhism forum and criticize buddhism teaching. Which church you come from? Are you evangelist? You think doing this bad deed will give you good karma, is it?
btw who r u refering to
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That's right my friendOriginally posted by redpicanto:If u did a good deed just hoping something good happen to u, then can forget it lah. U are doing good deeds so that when u die and went to hell, u will suffer lesser and live better in yr next life ,not to get things back.
This only happens on those who are super lucky.
P/S: Doing GooD Deeds is to help people in need n not for yourself.
n dun expect or think that something will good happens to u.
According to Buddha, if we do a good thing only aiming at heaven or something good in return, we are selfish, because according to that motive we would not develop virtues such as compassion, honesty and understanding and would never reduce selfishness and altruistic behaviour. True happiness can only come about when a person completely loses his or her egoistic concept of a Self or “I”. -
Originally posted by FBI:most of the time, something bad happened insteadOriginally posted by VaNiLLa CReAm:Actually i think it's true that goodness does not always befall the good...
And calamity does not always strike the bad too...
It's somewhat about Heng Suay...
As coolbluewater had explained The law of karma is a very sophisticated subject to discuss in detailOriginally posted by caleb_chiang:I agree that most of the time bad things happened instead of good ones.
There are different kammas. Some give results in the next life; some in lives after that. The ones that gives results in future lives are a store of kamma, which everyone has. We have gone through this samsara (rounds of rebirth) for many aeons, and we have done good things and bad things. Some of the kammas may have given results, but some may have not yet given results. Both good and bad kammas are, in a way, waiting for a chance to give results. Bad kammas give results when they favourable opportunities, favourable circumstances to give results.
If you do bad kamma here, then bad kamma from the past is more likely to give results by your doing new bad kamma. But if you do good kamma here and now, you can block, but not eradicate totally the bad kamma from the past. That is why people are asked to do meritorious deeds.
Buddha once put this in the form of a simile. If you put a spoonful of salt in a cup of water that water becomes very salty. But if you put the same amount of salt in a lake, that water will not be very salty In this way, when you have a large amount of good kamma, you can counter-act or dilute the effects of bad kamma.
By doing good deeds, we make circumstances unfavourable for the bad kamma from the past to give results. -
I think the bible does mention "treat others the way you would want to be treated".
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Ah... i still remember during my bible study many years agoOriginally posted by shade343:I think the bible does mention "treat others the way you would want to be treated". -
I agree that most of the time bad things happened instead of good ones.
for Buddhist cultivator, its good to have 'huan zai xiang'(contemplate on repaying dept).
/\ -
If you are doing something which you think is a good deed, and that you expect to be repaid for that deed, then what you have done is not a good deed at all.Originally posted by shuiling:karma doesnt work.
if ure thinking u did something good and something good happen to u, its just coincidence.
You just got this feeling because your brain registers the impact of bad things better than your mind can appreciate the subtle good things that happen to you.Originally posted by FBI:most of the time, something bad happened instead -
well.. there's an occasion where an indian lady came up to me and asked for a donation for a charity organisation; and i handed out a small token to her.
then a day later, i lost my cellphone at a bus stop; which i wasn't even aware of until i reached home.
Then, a boy called my dad's hp and said he had a lost cellphone which he's currently holding and is looking for the owner (which is me).
obviously. he's a very honest lad who wants to return my cellphone.
i went over to meet him and he returned it to me. It turned out that his younger found it and told his older bro. Thus, his older bro called my dad's hp and stuff. I thanked him alot after returning my cellphone and handed him 50 bucks as a small reward.
undeniably, there're very few such honest people around.
now, is that karma on a positive note?
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Karma works, but good things happening to us may not mean that the good we have done has ripened its effect. That is a very naive view. Of course nothing is that simple.. and normal people usually will not know anything about how karmic effects ripen in its exact ways. That is why Buddha told us not to ponder intellectually over exact and precise workings of karma, the workings of cause and effects, simply because it is imponderable from the mind. But if one meditates deeply one will come to know that it is true.Originally posted by concerned_man:Come and See for Yourself
If you had just one person who had been confirmed as medically dead who could describe to the doctors, as soon as they were revived, what had been said, and done during that period of death, wouldn't that be pretty convincing? When I was doing elementary particle physics there was a theory that required for its proof the existence of what was called the 'W' particle. At the cyclotron in Geneva, CERN funded a huge research project, smashing atoms together with an enormous particle accelerator, to try and find one of these 'W' particles. They spent literally hundreds of millions of pounds on this project. They found one, just one 'W' particle. I don't think they have found another since. But once they found one 'W' particle, the researchers involved in that project were given Nobel prizes for physics. They had proved the theory by just finding the one 'W' particle. That's good science. Just one is enough to prove the theory.
When it comes to things we don't like to believe, they call just one experience, one clear factual undeniable experience, an anomaly. Anomaly is a word in science for disconcerting evidence that we can put in the back of a filing cabinet and not look at again, because it's threatens our worldview. It undermines what we want to believe. It is threatening to our dogma. However, an essential part of the scientific method is that theories have to be abandoned in favour of the evidence, in respect of the facts. The point is that the evidence for a mind independent of the brain is there. But once we admit that evidence, and follow the scientific method, then many cherished theories, what we call 'sacred cows' will have to be abandoned.
When we see something that challenges any theory, in science or in religion, we should not ignore the evidence. We have to change the theory to fit the facts. That is what we do in Buddhism. All the Dhamma of the Buddha, everything that he taught, if it does not fit the experience, then we should not accept it. We should not accept the Buddha's words in contradiction of experience. That is clearly stated in the Kālāma Sutta. (AN III, 65) The Buddha said do not believe because it is written in the books, or even if I say it. Don't just believe because it is tradition, or because it sounds right, or because it's comforting to you. Make sure it fits your experience. The existence of mind, independent of the brain, fits experience. The facts are there.
Sometimes, however, we cannot trust the experts. You cannot trust Ajahn Brahm. You cannot trust the scientific journals. Because people are often biased. Buddhism gives you a scientific method for your practice. Buddhism says, do the experiment and find out for your self if what the Buddha said is true or not. Check out your experience. For example, develop the method to test the truth of past lives, rebirth and reincarnation. Don't just believe it with faith, find out for yourself. The Buddha has given a scientific experiment that you can repeat.
Until you understand the law of kamma, which is part of Buddhism, kamma is just a theory. Do you believe that there is a God 'up there' who decides when you can be happy or unhappy? Or is everything that happens to you just chance? Your happiness and your suffering in life, your joy, your pain and disappointments, are they deserved? Are you responsible or is it someone else's fault? Is it mere chance that we are rich or poor? Is it bad luck when we are sick and die at a young age? Why? You can find the true answer for yourself. You can experience the law of kamma through deep meditation. When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, the two knowledge's he realized just before his Enlightenment were the knowledge from experience of the truth of rebirth, and the knowledge from experience of the Law of kamma. This was not theory, not just more thinking, not something worked out from discussions around the coffee table this was realization from deep experience of the nature of mind. You too can have that same experience.
All religions in the world except Buddhism maintain the existence of a soul. They affirm a real 'self', an 'essence of all being', a 'person', a 'me'. Buddhism says there is no self! Who is right? What is this 'ghost in the machine'? Is it a soul, is it a being, or is it a process? What is it? When the Buddha said that there is no one in here, he never meant that to be just believed, he meant that to be experienced. The Buddha said, as a scientific fact, that there is no 'self'. But like any scientific fact, it has to be experienced each one for themselves, paccattam veditabbo viññūhī. Many of you chant those Pāli words every day. It is basic scientific Buddhism. You have to keep an open mind. You don't believe there is 'no self', you don't believe there is a 'self' both beliefs are dogmatism. Keep an open mind until you complete the experiment. The experiment is the practice of sila, samādhi and pañña, (virtue, meditation and insight). The experiment is Buddhist practice. Do the same experimental procedures that the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree. Repeat it and see if you get the same results. The result is called Enlightenment.
Men and women have repeated that experiment many times over the centuries. It is in the laboratory of Buddhist practice that the Enlightened Ones, the Arahants, arise. The Arahants are the ones who have done the experiment and found the result. That's why Buddhism always has been the scientific way. It is the way of finding out for your self the truth of Enlightenment. -
More: Buddhism and Science articleOriginally posted by concerned_man:Remembering Past Lives
Buddhism is founded on meditation, and meditation can reveal many, many things, especially deep memories from the past. Monks, nuns, and ordinary meditators can reach such deep meditations that they can not only levitate, but they can remember previous lives! Many people can actually do this. When you come out of a deep meditation you have incredible energy. Afterwards you won't be able to go to sleep, nor will you be able to go and watch TV, because the mind will be too full of its own joy and happiness. Moreover, the mind is so empowered that you can make suggestions to it, suggestions that you would not normally be able to fulfil. But empowered by deep meditation, you can follow the suggestions. I've actually taught this special meditation to people on meditation retreats, because on meditation retreats some get deep results. People sometimes get memories of when they were babies, and then of being in their mother's womb. If they are lucky they get memories of when they were a very old person, i.e. memories from a past life! One of the important things with those past life memories is that they are very real to the person experiencing them. It's as if you are back there experiencing it. Anyone who has had a memory like that has no doubt in their mind about past lives. It's not a theory any more. Such memories are like remembering where you were this morning when you had breakfast. You have no doubts that that was you this morning, having that breakfast. You didn't imagine it. With the same clarity, or even greater clarity, you remember that that very old person was you, only it wasn't a few hours ago, it was many decades ago. It was a different time, a different body and a different life. Now if people can do that on nine day meditation retreats, imagine what you would do if you were a monk or a nun, who meditates not just for a weekend, or for nine days, but nine years, twenty-nine, thirty-nine, or fifty-nine years. Imagine how much power you could generate in that meditation. Now imagine how much more power you could generate if you were a Buddha with an Enlightened mind.
Now you know what to do to discover for yourself if you've lived before. Meditate. I don't mean just meditating to get rid of stress and make your self calm. I mean really meditate, deeply. Meditate to get your mind into what we call the Jhānas. Those are deep states of absorption, where the body disappears. You don't feel. You can't see. You can't hear. You're absolutely inside the mind. You have no thoughts but you are perfectly aware. You are blissed out. The method, the instructions for the experiment, are very clearly laid down. Even in my little book "The Basic Method of Meditation" all the steps are there. Follow them, and invest the resources necessary for doing that experiment not just one weekend retreat, but many weekend retreats, and sometimes many years of meditating. If you want to follow that 'scientific method', you have to enter into a Jhāna. And then, after you emerge from that state, you ask yourself, "What is my earliest memory?" You can keep going back in your mind, and eventually you will remember. You will see for yourself the experience of past lives. Then you know. Yes, it is true! You have had the experience for yourself.
The Buddha said he did remember past lives, many past lives, many aeons of past lives. He said specifically that he remembered ninety-one aeons. That's ninety big bangs, the time before and the time afterwards, huge spaces of time. That's why the Buddha said there was not just one universe, but many universes. We are not talking about parallel universes as some scientists say. We are talking about sequential universes, with what the Buddha called sanvattati vivattati. This is Pāli, meaning the unfolding of the universe and the infolding of it, beginnings and endings.
The suttas even give a measure for the lifetime of a universe. When I was a theoretical physicist, my areas of expertise were the very small and the very large; fundamental particle physics and astrophysics. They were the two aspects that I liked the most, the big and the small. So I knew what was meant by the age of a universe and what a 'big bang' was all about. The age of a universe, the last time I looked in the journals, was somewhere about seventeen thousand million years. In the Buddhist suttas they say that about thirty seven thousand million years is a complete age. When I told that to the state astronomer he said yes, that estimate was in the ball park, it was acceptable. The person who was the convener of the Our Place in Space seminar made a joke about the fact that a hundred or two hundred years ago, Christianity said the universe was about seven thousand years old. That estimate certainly isn't acceptable, the Buddhist one is!
It is remarkable that there was a cosmology in Buddhism twenty-five centuries ago that doesn't conflict with modern physics. Even what astronomers say are galaxies, the Buddha called wheel systems. If any of you have ever seen a galaxy, you will know there are two types of galaxy. First, there is the spiral galaxy. The Milky Way is one of those. Have you seen a spiral galaxy? It is like a wheel! The other type is the globular cluster, which looks like a wheel with a big hub in the middle. 'Wheels' is a very accurate way of describing galaxies. This was explained by someone twenty five centuries ago, when they did not have telescopes! They didn't need them, they could go there themselves!
There is a lot of interesting stuff in the old suttas, even for those of you who like weird stuff. Some times people ask this question, "Do Buddhists believe in extra terrestrial beings, in aliens?" Would an alien landing here upset the very foundation of Buddhism? When I was reading through these old suttas I actually found a reference to aliens! It's only a very small sutta, which said that there are other world systems with other suns, other planets, and other beings on them. That's directly from the Anguttara Nikāya. (AN X, 29)