Monday, December 2, 2024

The lure of karma

 


This actually makes the Buddhist view of karma more logical, despite looking superficially "disturbing". The idea is that good karma makes people rich and powerful...but in most cases also turns them into assholes! Conversely, the poor and downtrodden have mostly bad karma. The idea, obviously, is that we have to break free from karma altogether, since all karma is really part of samsara and hence ultimately a trap, a lure of Mara (the "devil" in Buddhist mythology). And while good karma *might* take us closer to the ultimate goal of enlightenment, it´s much more likely that we will be mesmerized by our wealth or success, and become corrupted.

Buddhism has a strange "two tier" system, in which the monks pursue liberation, while the lay people attempt to accumulate as much good karma as possible, to get a better rebirth, perhaps even in a paradise world as a "god". So why on earth should a lay person become a monk?! Here, we have an explanation: even good actions contain the seeds of their opposite, since (surprise) everything is suffering...

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